songs about birds

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: NightWing
Date: 18 May 25 - 08:25 PM

There's a Bluebird Singing in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,GW
Date: 15 May 25 - 12:35 PM

As a related aside, the Sligo fluter Marcus Hernon released the album 'The Grouse in the Heather' a couple of decades ago which is entirely devoted to his own compositions of tunes 'about' birds.

See https://thesession.org/recordings/1285.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Rex
Date: 15 May 25 - 12:26 PM

There are all the bird verses in Leatherwing Bat. It's in the DT database.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,John from "Elsie`s" Band
Date: 15 May 25 - 10:41 AM

Providing fowl count then I propose "The Mallard"

" I `ave eaten, what `ave I ate?
I `ave eaten the wing of a mallard.
Wing wingy, back backy,leg leggy, thigh thighy, shin shinny, toe toey, two nippers and all.
And good meat was the mallard. And now I am in debility `ouse
And good meat was the mallard"

Etc., etc., until all its parts are consumed.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 25 - 09:44 AM

If you're open to one in Italian

L'Inverno È Passato

L'inverno è passato
L'aprile non c'è più
È ritornato il maggio
Al canto del cucù.

Cucù, cucù.
L'aprile non c'è più
È ritornato il maggio
Al canto del cucù.

Lassù per le montagne
La neve non c'è più
Comincia a fare il nido
Il povero cucù.

Cucù, cucù.
La neve non c'è più
Comincia a fare il nido
Il povero cucù.

La bella alla finestra
La guarda in su e in giù
Aspetta il fidanzato
Al canto del cucù.

Cucù, cucù.
La guarda in su e in giù
Aspetta il fidanzato
Al canto del cucù.

Te l'ho pur sempre detto
Che maggio ha la virtù
Di far sentir l'amore
Al canto del cucù.

Cucù, cucù.
Che maggio ha la virtù
Di far sentir l'amore
Al canto del cucù.

Subject: RE: lyrcics - Songs of Australia by Stan Wakefield
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 May 25 - 07:21 AM

oops, I found the dots & extra verse - in an article I published on the Bush Music Club blog
From the Archives - Extracts from Mulga Wire no. 212, August 2012 - Songs of Stan Wakefield (1906 - 1962)

The new verse was added in 2015 for use by our younger members

comment by a musician - Well, Stan Wakefield gives us experience of an interesting alternative rhyme structure:
A - A - A - B, A - A - A - B, - C - C - C - D, - C - C - C - D.

1. When summer days are long
Then comes a rowdy song
Down by the Burrawong
Fern-like and shady
High in the Kurrajong
Far up the billabong
I hear a currawong
Answer his lady.
Wattles of golden hue
Lowries of red and blue
Gleam in the morning dew
Bushlands regalia
Hark to the merry crew
King Parrot, cockatoo,
Lyrebird, that sing the true
Songs of Australia   (© Stan Wakefield)

2. Sweet tunes from violin
Banjo and mandolin
Voices now joining in
They'll never fail ya'
All 'round this wide country
People from land and sea
Singing in harmony
Songs of Australia.
Outback and city streets
Wherever strangers meet
This land beneath out feet
Forever changing
Bush Music still alive
People will always strive
For history will survive in
Songs of Australia   Verse 2 © Peter Cahill 2015

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 May 25 - 03:45 AM

posted here by Bob Bolton, 2013 Amergin posted a link with cords, 29 Jul 13 - 07:44 PM but alas it no longer exists. I'll see if I can chase it up

SONGS OF AUSTRALIA
(Stan Wakefield)

When summer days are long
Then comes a rowdy song
Down by the burrawong,
Fern-like and shady.

High in the kurrajong,
Far up the billabong,
I hear a currawong
Answer his lady.

Wattles of golden hue,
'Lowries of red and blue
Gleam in the morning dew,
Bushland's regalia —

Hark to the merry crew,
King parrot, cockatoo,
Lyre bird, that sing the true
Songs of Australia.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 May 25 - 04:38 PM

I don't think anyone above has mentioned "Little Birdie" which Peggy Seeger used to sing as well as Pete Seeger:

After the singing of Peggy Seeger
And the Coon Creek Girls

Little Birdie


C--------------------G
Little birdie, little birdie
-----------------------G7-------C
Won't you sing to me your song;
----------------------------G
I've a short time for to be here
---------------------G7---C
And a long time to be gone.


Little birdie, little birdie,
What makes you fly so high?
It's because I've been a true little bird
And I'm not afraid to die.

Little birdie, little birdie
What makes your wings so blue?
I've been grieving, I've been grieving
A long time after you.

Little birdie, little birdie,
What makes your head so red?
It's a wonder, after all I've been through,
It's a wonder I ain't dead. (First Verse Again)

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 May 25 - 01:41 PM

Someone asked about a thread about songs about birds,
and here we are.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 01:54 PM

Songs for the Birds

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 08:56 AM

I'm surprised that no English/Irish Folkie has mentioned 'The Lark in the Morning'. There ae three different songs about 'The Lark in the Morning but there is one I really love and used to sing in the 70s. Here is the Dubliners version. https://youtu.be/zzmZljzYMnw

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Dick Miles
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 01:58 PM

Flying high but never landing
Flighted shaft of love entrancing
Through the clouds so lightly dancing
Chorus do si do and then farewell
repeat twice
2
I watched you circling higher
calling follow me for ever
Touching souls we soared together
Chorus
3 Flying for the sun were seeking
cross the waves so swiftly fleeting
never grounding loves fond feelings
Chorus
4 From the cliff face now the leaving
chasing sunbeams all the evening
joined in love our fusion weaving
Chorus
Flying high you stared soaring
to the ground i kept on falling
helpless till she heard the calling
chorus
High unto the cliff face leaving
Quivering heart so sadly weeping
gentle hands that kindly freed me
chorus
copyright Dick Miles

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 03:34 PM

As mentioned earlier, Derek Gifford is a star on birds in song - his presentations (which include recordings of the birdsong of the birds mentioned in the songs) are brilliant!

LTS - the song is John Ball, not John Bull, it was written by Sydney Carter.

There are a few birds in the Twelve Days of Christmas....

Kitty

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 03:22 PM

from an old thread: The Broomsquire's Bird Song with ABC notation.

The whole history of the song is debatable, but it is a delight. (somewhere, I have a tape of a friend doing an excellent job of singing it....I am not aware of any commercial recordings.)

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 02:56 PM

The twa corbies, an old song a collected by Burns.

Black hawk and a white winged dove (sung by Emmylou on Wrecking Ball)

"Now Westering winds" a beautiful song by Burns which tells of all the birds in the Scottish countryside, one of Dick Gaughan's finest.


Lil red rooster, Willie Dixon, though perhaps most famously by The Stones.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 02:30 PM

john denver also has a song called
eagles and horses and on the wings of an eagle.

he is very folk-y.

and very eagle-y too.
one you tube video
shows footage of him flying
in a plane--probably the one
he went down in..the Long E Z

the radio show is in 3 hours
and i have a few songs that
were suggested by mudcats
including this one..i am
trying to learn to download
and burn songs using the Applian
Replay A V program.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: bubblyrat
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 01:30 PM

There were three Crows up in a tree,
They were as black as black could be;
Said one black Crow unto another,
"You are a black enamel bugger !"


Up came a farmer with his gun,
He shot those Crows except for one,
Who flew into a lofty tree,
And said " You Bastard! Now shoot me !"

The farmer loaded with shot and shell;
    He shot that crow to fucking hell,
And as he fluttered to the ground,
His final resting place he found.

As I was walking through a wood,
I shit myself,I knew I would;
I cried for help ,but no help came,
And ,so, I shit myself again !

Ahh, Ahh Men.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 01:08 PM

John Denver's The Eagle and the Hawk is a must too

I know many do not consider John Denver to be folk but I think he sits with his legs on the folk side of the fence more than on the country and western side. Makes no difference of course. It's a great song

mp

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Dmitri Sofronov
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 03:22 AM

El cant dels ocells,

inofficial anthem of Catalonia (the most complete lyrics with translation is found in German Wikipedia, but bits and scraps translated into English are all over the place). It's a Christmas song.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 06:29 PM

Mockingbird Hill

This was written by George (Vaughn) Horton. George and his brother Roy Horton along with others, including the Beaver Valley Sweethearts ( Colleen and Donna Wilson) recorded this in 1951.It was a big hit for them.It was then covered by various artist including Patti Page and Les Paul & mary Ford to name a few. Roy Horton died in 2003 and George (Vaughn) Horton in 1988.

When the sun in the morning peeps over the hill
And kisses the roses 'round my window sill
Then my heart fills with gladness when I hear the trill
Of the birds in the treetops on Mockingbird Hill

Tra la la, tweedle dee dee dee
It gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning
To the mockingbird's trill
Tra la la tweedle dee dee dee
There's peace and good will
You're welcome as the flowers
On Mockingbird Hill

Got a three-cornered plow and an acre to till
And a mule that I bought for a ten-dollar bill
There's a tumble-down shack and a rusty old mill
But it's my Home Sweet Home up on Mockingbird Hill

Tra la la, tweedle dee dee dee
It gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning
To the mockingbird's trill
Tra la la tweedle dee dee dee
There's peace and good will
You're welcome as the flowers
On Mockingbird Hill

When it's late in the evening I climb up the hill
And survey all my kingdom while everything's still
Only me and the sky and an old whippoorwill
Singin' songs in the twilight on Mockingbird Hill

Tra la la, tweedle dee dee dee
It gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning
To the mockingbird's trill
Tra la la tweedle dee dee dee
There's peace and good will
You're welcome as the flowers
On Mockingbird Hill

i do not see this on D.T. perhaps i should say "lyric add"

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Boho
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 07:34 AM

Jackdaw, by Audience

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Barnacle (at work)
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 07:31 AM

Howsabout - The Magpie... one for sorrow etc

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 07:23 AM

Seem to remember from somewhere Eliza Carthy talking about Lal Waterson's affinity with birds which is reflected in some of her songs. 'Flight of the Pelican' springs to mind as does those wonderful lines from Child among the Weeds'

'Fly bird fly on you raven wing
Take to the sky and sing for the love of wheeling and turning'

Birds are also mentioned in four other songs from the 'Bright Phoebus'album

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 03:59 AM

maybe if it was a FRIGATE bird...but not so in that "churchy" song

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,guest, open mike
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 01:13 AM

Nanci Griffith beautiful song blackbirds wings--fly away to heaven-- gulf coast hiway...

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 05:59 PM

I dare you to sing Churchy Ballad on the radio!

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:35 PM

If I Had the Wings of a Dove

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:09 PM

hardly, in theversion of the song [polly vaughan],that I sing he is heart broken, her ghost appears at the trial and asks that he should be allowed to go free,because he is heart broken and it was an accident.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arkie
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:05 PM

Another song that comes to mind though not particularly about birds is Polly Von, Polly Vaughan, or whatever which which has the line, "She had her apron wrapped about her, and he took her for a swan". The song raises the issue of swan hunting and carelessness or did the young man just want to be rid of the lady and claim he thought she was a swan.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: deadfrett
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 02:09 PM

Utah Phillip's Rock Salt & Nails... Who Killed Cock Robin?..White Cliffs of Dover...

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Young Buchan
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 12:04 PM

I'm convinced I've seen this in the DT but I can't find it, so having nothing better to do:

I was doing no-one no harm
When to Grogan's Store I set my course,
And there I saw Ned Flanagan's gander
Was treading Nancy Hogan's goose.

Oh and Nancy herself was there,
And she had the Devil's tongue.
She swore by all the courts above
That she would have that gander hung.

"Oh, you cannot hang my gander.
It's the goose that is to blame.
For she comes round here every morning
And wiggles her arse just to show she's game."

But the policeman he came around
And took the gander off to jail;
Held him there till the next assizes;
Would not give him any bail.

When the trial id came around
He looked the judge right in the face.
He said, "Is it just for doing my duty
That I must now leave my native place?"

And then the judge he looked at the gander.
He said, "Young man, I'll set you loose.
But if you go back to Grogan's Store
Stay away from Nancy Hogan's goose."

He has gone back to Grogan's Store;
He's fillede himself full of oats and grass;
And he's jumped Nancy Hogan's goose
Crying, "All you judges can kiss my arse!"


Also there's the song explaining why ducks get piles when sparrows don't. It's not in the actual DT, but type in Unlucky Duck and you'll find threads with it on.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: BobKnight
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 11:07 AM

"The Gull From Yesterday," by the Eagles. ;)

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 10:16 AM

Do chickens count?
Jim Carroll

Delaney's Chicken.
Air Garden Where The Praties Grow (near enough)
Recorded from Mikey Kelleher,
August 1977.

Now Delaney, from the market bought a fowl a month ago,
If he find the man that sold it he'll kill him with a blow;
Delaney bought this chicken, being of a tender breed
And of a more deceitful bird you never heard agreed.

So when they sought to pluck it, their efforts was in vain,
Their hands were torn and blistered and their muscles they were strained,
And resting of this chicken, they put him down to stew,
If you want to see Delaney crack, cry cock-a-doodle-doo.

So Delaney bought this chicken for to give us all a spread
And after they arriving home they tried to pull off his head,
They ordered picks and shovels, they got twisted up like tin,
They tried to carve the chicken but they couldn't break the skin.

So this bird must have been crowing since they built the Tower of Babel,
He was fed by Cain and Abel and he lived in Noah's stable,
All the shots and shells was fired in the field of Waterloo,
Could not penetrate or dislocate the tilugated armour-plated,
Double-breasted, iron-chested, cock-a-doodle-doo.

So they borrowed Daley's rammer, by which he rammed the stones,
Thinking that when tapped, would break the tender chicken's bones,
But the first one has rebounded like an India rubber ball
And knocked twelve yards of coping out of Mulligan's garden wall.

So this bird must have been crowing since they built the Tower of Babel,
He was fed by Cain and Abel and he lived in Noah's stable,
All the shots and shells was fired in the field of Waterloo, C
Could not penetrate or dislocate the tilugated armour-plated,
Double-breasted, iron-chested, cock-a-doodle-doo.

Oh the Dundee Extra Gunners came to excavate the thing,
And the sortie called the Russia with, while light three yards of string.
Oh Tim brought the Davey Miner, through him they swore he lied,
While blowing up himself and the chicken with a pound of dynamite.

So to scrape the wall for chicken, it wasn't easy work,
It wasn't easy to know which was chicken and which was Burke,
But they found a leg of chicken on a friendly blacksmith's head,
And a pair of everlasting heels upon my boots it made.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 10:07 AM

When It's Time For The Whippoorwill To Sing. Done here by the Louvin Brothers, they got it from the Delmore Brothers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwbkwXoc_j8

Other Whippoorwill songs (with representative artists) to look for: The Whippoorwill - Keely Smith, Where The Whippoorwill Is Whispering Goodnight - Charlie Poole, The Last Whippoorwill - Bill Monroe, The First Whippoorwill Song - The DeZurik Sisters, So Says The Whippoorwill - Richard Shindell. That last one I didn't know about,I just ran across it while looking for confirmation on the others.

I am sure there are more, but that's a start. Oh, and Charlie mentions the "mocklingbird" in his song! Dale

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Boho
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 09:33 AM

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Louis Jourdan
Two Little Birds, Bob Marley

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 08:48 AM

"mockingbird Hill" as done by "The Singing Rage", Miss Patti Page

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Joseph de Culver City
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 06:05 PM

"White Bird"--It's A Beautiful Day

"Bluebird"--Stephen Stills

"Surfin' Bird"--The Trashmen

"I See Hawks In LA"--I See Hawks In LA

"On Eagle's Wings"--Christian hymn

"El Condor Pasa"--S. American song

"Blackbird"--Beatles

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 04:03 PM

here is a beautiful poem i heard at the cowboy festival..

Rosie's Eagle

    Rosie was a widow
    Who lived up north of town.
    If you cross Wolf Creek about a mile
    And circle back around,
    You'd find a big ol' ranch house
    Made from sandstone, rock and sweat
    And Rosie raised her family there.
    Her grandson lives there yet.

    Now, I became acquainted
    With this grand ol' pioneer
    When I was just a youngster,
    Nearly in my fourteenth year.
    I'd go out and feed her cattle
    While Rosie went to stay and
    Visit with her children
    Who had grown and moved away.

    And once, while I was feedin'
    I saw a wondrous sight,
    A big ol' Golden Eagle
    Just soarin' like a kite.
    So high above the wagon
    He would circle all around
    Like he was on a search for
    Something down there on the ground.

    I watched him for a minute,
    Hangin' silent in the sky
    But the silence soon was broken
    By the echo of his cry,
    As he screamed his disapproval
    Of the place I chose to rest,
    Then I spotted the remainder
    Of what once had been a nest.

    The nest was old and brittle,
    The aftermath of age,
    And it laid beside a marker
    Nearly covered by the sage.
    My youthful curiosity
    Had grabbed me by the shirt,
    I knew that I had work to do
    But five minutes wouldn't hurt.
    So I got down off the wagon,
    Kicked the tumbleweeds away
    Revealing an inscription
    In a stone of granite gray.

    "Return to me in Springtime with love
       forever new
    And dance with me upon the wind, the way
       the eagles do."
    I stood there kind a puzzled
    Tryin' hard to figure out
    Just what these words engraved in stone
    Were really all about.
    So, when Rose returned from visitin',
    I told her what I'd seen
    And how when I got near the stone
    That bird would start to scream.

    With eyes reflecting memories
    Through the traces of a tear,
    She took me by the hand and said,
    "There's something you should hear.
    I'll share with you a secret
    That up till now's been known
    By only me and God above
    Of the eagle and the stone.

    "The Caliche hills that weave their way
    Through what once was Box-T range
    Was once the home of eagles
    That nested on the plains.
    And the Indians had a legend
    That they believe is true,
    That for every man who lived out here,
    An eagle lived here too.

    "And if the eagles nested
    When a man would take a wife
    Then the spirits of the lovers
    Claimed the nesting ground for life.
    And when their life was over,
    Their spirit would ascend
    And gather with the eagles,
    To dance upon the wind.

    "And that was how it happened,
    As if decreed by fate,
    For the day that I became a wife
    The eagle took a mate.
    And as he made for her a nest of
    Willow branch and silt,
    I was borne across the threshold
    Of a ranch house not yet built.

    "And so we spent our wedding night
    Beneath the prairie moon,
    In a Studebaker wagon
    In the early part of June.
    As he held me in his arms
    And pledged to me his love,
    He said, "If we should ever part,
    I swear by God above,
    That in Springtime I'll return to you, as
       when our love began,
    And with the eagles we will go, and dance
       upon the wind.

    "The year my husband passed away,
    The lady-bird was killed.
    They're buried side by side,
    Beneath the stone upon the hill.
    And every year in early June,
    I watch the morning sky
    And listen for the sound of wings,
    Like angels passin' by.

    "And when I see that old eagle,
    My heart begins to glow
    And I think about a promise
    Made so many years ago.
    The words are carved in granite, our love
       will never end
    And my heart goes up to meet him, and we
       dance upon the wind."

    © 1991, J. W. Beeson
   
       J. W. Beeson writes : "Rosie's Eagle" is based on a true story. The story itself is fiction, but when I was a kid I fed cattle for a little lady named Rosie Baysinger. In her house was a female Golden Eagle that was mounted in the 1930s. She told me how a pair of Goldens nested on her place, and that in 1937 the female was accidentally killed in a coyote trap. Eagles mate for life, and for 40 some years, the male returned every year, looking for his mate. I have seen him, back in the 60s, when my Dad and I would work for Rosie, while she visited her children in California. It always stuck in my mind, that love between those two eagles, was the way it should be between two people. True and Everlasting. That's how "Rosie's Eagle" got written.

       Beeson also told us that he has had the great privilege to perform "Rosie's Eagle" for Rosie Baysinger's children, in the presence of the mounted eagle.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: peregrina
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 03:33 PM

Winter's Come and Gone--Gillian Welch- (begins 'Oh little red bird')-- Hell Among the Yearlings

Blackbirds and Thrushes--Archie Fisher--Will ye gang, Love

Little Birdie (aka short time here long time gone)--trad. recorded by the Stanley Brothers, Dillard Chandler et al; reworked as Visitor by Donna the Buffalo

Free Little Bird/ I'm as Free a Little Bird as I can be--trad?--recorded by Clarence Ashley and others

El pajaro negro--Tony Gatlif, Latcho Drom

L'epervier il faut le dire--recorded by Hughes Aufray, others

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 02:08 PM

Want songs in other languages? Three Hungarian ones:

Elment a madarka

From Branch to Branch

Vetettem violat

There's a version of "Elment a madarka" from Moldavia with a tune I much prefer but it isn't on the web as far as I can see. I've got it on CD.

There are literally thousands of Turkish songs featuring nightingales. An anthemic one with lots of versions on the web:

Don't Sing, Nightingale (Selda Bagcan version)

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Janie
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:43 PM

a bunch of people have recorded "Who Broke the Lock (on the henhouse door."

"Bluejay/The Girl I Left Behind Me" (medley) recorded by the Red Clay Ramblers on Twisted Laurel

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arkie
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:33 PM

While we are putting information straight we might mention that Kerry Mills actually borrowed the tune from Robert A. Schumann's "The Happy Farmer". I guess that makes Mills some sort of middleman. But the Happy Farmer is not about a bird either.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 12:59 PM

To complete above info re Red Wing: the music is as stated by K Mills; when sung, words are by Thurland Chattaway. Much parodied, of course, as 'The moon shines bright on Mrs Porter {whose daughter for some reason washed her feet in soda [or dirty] water}', a scurrilous WW1 soldiers' version quoted by Eliot in 'The Waste Land', & also by Ernest Raymond in his once-popular WW1 novel 'Tell England'; and also as 'The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin, his boots are cracking for want of blacking' &c - also from WW1 period, as it sends Charlie in the last line to "The Dardanelles", which crops up IIRC in Joan Littlewood's "O What a Lovely War".

But I agree it is originally about a girl, {"There once was an Indian maid"}, who loses her lover in battle; and not a [feathered] bird.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arkie
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 12:24 PM

Kerry Mills song Red Wing is actually about an Indian maid and is sometimes performed as an instrumental and sometimes as a song. There are several fiddle tunes going by the name of Red Bird. Here is a link to a nice one on youtube;

Red Bird

Clark Kessinger's version of Red Bird is one of my favorites.

There is also a tune called Oklahoma Red Bird.

Getting into modern songs; The Beatles' Blackbird is a good one.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 07:38 AM

BIRD! (track ten HERE) - an ancient piece of earthy storytelling with a litany of bird names angelically sung in Latin...

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 08:38 PM

Woody Knows Nothing - traditional (recorded by Eric Darling)
Chicken - Mississippi John Hurt
Bye Bye Blackbird - Henderson & Dixon (jazz age song performed by a number of notable artists)
Sparrow - Simon & Garfunkel
Song To A Seagull - Joni Mitchell
Nightbird - Lisa Moscatiello
Song of the Brook- Anne Hills (actual bird sounds in the background on the recording)

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:55 PM

there is a fiddle tune called red wing...too.
(perhaps that's what you meant?)

and the favorite old tune called Mockingbird Hill comes to mind,..i wonder if i can find a recording of that one...

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arkie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:46 PM

And how could I forget, "Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Hot Canary".

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arkie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:43 PM

There was a thread about "The Gift" a short time back. Also about a Nightingale. Written and recorded by Stephanie Davis, but also recorded by Garth Brooks, Joni Harms, and Aselin Debison.

The Wren Song is a Christmas song and inspired by legend and tradition regarding the wren.

Bird on a Wire by Leonard Cohen and recorded by him and others.

Quite a few songs about bluebirds including "There's a Bluebird Singing" a relatively old song in old time, country, and bluegrass tradition; "Bluebird Blues", and "I Heard the Bluebird Sing".

Good old fiddle tune called "Red Bird".

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: KathWestra
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 02:55 PM

Michigan singer and songwriter Joel Mabus has written a delightful "Birds Alphabet"--in the genre of "Sailor's Alphabet" and "Lumberman's Alphabet" songs. You can find it on his website.

I plan to sing Joel's song in Suzanne Mrozak's "Bird Songs" workshop at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) in Massachusetts in April. That's a workshop originally dreamed up by the late Mary LaMarca, abetted by her husband George Stephens, me, and Suzanne. We'll be doing it again this year in Mary's honor. LOTS and LOTS of songs to choose from, and never enough time...