Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)

Subject: Lyr Add: HIGH FLYIN' BIRD^^
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 01:03 AM

I note there are a number of Billy Edd Wheeler songs in the DT, including the excellent 'Coal Tattoo' and 'Coming of the Road', but not this fine song:


HIGH FLYIN' BIRD
(Billy Edd Wheeler)

There's a high flyin' bird up in the sky
And I wonder if that bird looks down as he flies by
Riding on the air so easy in the sky

Sun comes along …. lights up the sky
And when he gets tired he slides on over the way
East to the west he gets gone every day

Chorus:
But lord look at me here
Rooted like a tree here
I got the sit down, can't cry
Oh, lord I'm gonna die blues

I used to have an old man …. he worked in the mines
He never saw the sunlight by oh lord he kept on a-tryin'
Then one day my daddy he up and died

My old man up and died
My daddy up and died
He had to fly away
And the only way to fly was to die

There's a high flyin' bird up in the sky
And I wonder if that bird looks down as he flies by
Riding on the air so easy in the sky

Chorus repeated

Author: Billy Edd Wheeler Copyright Quartet-Bexhill Music ASCAP

Source: Billy Edd Wheeler 'Wild Mountain Flowere' Flying Fish LP FF-085

Subject: High Flyin' Bird
From: woodsie
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 09:26 AM

I have versions of this song by Judy Henske, Jefferson Airplane and Gram Parsons - they all seem to have different arrangements.

Does anybody know who wrote it?

Also has anybody got the chords?

Cheers

Subject: RE: High Flyin' Bird
From: David C. Carter
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 09:54 AM

I think it was-Billy Ed Wheeler.Can't tell you anymore than that though.
Good luck

David

Subject: RE: High Flyin' Bird
From: pdq
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 01:27 PM

Billy Edd Wheeler - "Jackson", "High Flying Bird, "The Coming of the Roads, "The Rev. Mr. Black, "It 's Midnight", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Coal Tattoo", "Blistered", "Desert Pete", "Anne" and "Coward of the County"...
selling over 57 million...

                                           Billy Edd Wheeler home page

Subject: RE: High Flyin' Bird
From: woodsie
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 02:48 PM

Thanks for that guys - I found some chord progressions on the net - but they don'yt seem right. The Gram Parsons version definitely has a different middle bit.

I've also got a version by H.P. Lovecraft - remember them!

Subject: RE: High Flyin' Bird
From: oombanjo
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 02:57 PM

and Josh White.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 10:02 PM

How does a song get from the Forum to the DT?

This song was posted to the Forum in 1999, but (so far as I can tell)
still isn't in the database.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 04:52 AM

I see that the song has been marked with harvesting birdies ^^ - but I checked the latest compilation of the Digital Tradition database (2005, but not ready for public release), and it isn't there. The DT has a bias in favor of traditional music, and favoring songs for which tunes have been submitted.
And sometimes, Dick Greenhaus just chooses not to include a song in the DT at this time.
Whatever the case, if it has been posted here in the Forum, it is available to the public.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: woodsie
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 12:10 AM

I still need the chords.

I tend to do it

Am - D
Am - D
Am - D
Am - D
Am - G - C - Am
G - C - E7
Am - G - F - E7

Loosly based on Jefferson Airplane version. But all the other verions seem to be different.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 06:17 AM

best version ever was by Isaac Guillory.... one of the world greatest player.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird
From: GUEST,woodsie again
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 06:30 AM

Any update on chord variations?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 01:35 AM

Funny no one has mentioned the recording I first heard - by Richie Havens.

Subject: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: 2581
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 02:45 AM

I love Richie Havens, but, unfortunately, he changed the lyrics of Billy Edd Wheeler's brilliant coal mining song, which completely altered the meaning of the song... Billy Edd's version tells the story of a coal miner who dreams of escaping the danger and the drudgery of the mines by thinking about the freedom of a flying bird, but the only way he can ultimately escape the mines is by dying... It is, in my view, the greatest "unknown" coal mining song ever written...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:24 AM

Reading over this old thread, it is clear that I gave the author and copyright info. The very next post we have Woodsie asking who wrote it and the following poster saying he 'thinks' it is Billy Edd. The mind boggles!

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: 2581
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:37 AM

Stewie --
Have you heard Isaac Guillory's version, which a guest commented on on 9/28/08? If so, is it worth purchasing his live album which includes "High Flyin' Bird"?
                      Best wishes,
                        Tony

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 09:51 PM

Stewie, "the very next post" came 6 years after yours, and was probably not in the same thread (the Subject header is different) until someone moved it. And as I noted at the time the song had not made it into the DT, so it might have been hard for people to find your 1999 post in 2006.

But I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for posting the lyrics.

2581, the lyrics Stewie posted in 1999 are the lyrics I remember from the Richie Havens recording from the 1960s, so I'm not sure what you mean.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 10:45 PM

Gerry, thanks for pointing that out. I failed to notice the dates. My sincere apologies to Woodsie and Dave Carter.

2581, I have not heard Isaac Guillory's version nor his live album so am unable to comment.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 10:56 PM

I also failed to notice my swallowed cookie juat now. I'm not doing too well!

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: 2581
Date: 22 May 11 - 02:07 PM

Guest Gerry ---
   All you have to do is listen to the original version by Billy Edd and the cover version by Richie Havens and you could figure out what I meant...
   Billy Edd wrote a coal mining song: "I used to have an old man and he worked in the mine/He never saw the sunlight but oh Lord he kept on tryin'/Then one day my daddy he up and died, my old man up and died, my daddy up and died/Oh, he had to fly away and the only way to fly was to die"...
    Richie sang it this way: "Now I had a woman, lord she lived down by the mine/She never seen the sun, oh lord never stopped trying/Then one day day my woman up and died/Lord she up and died now, oh Lord she up and died now/She wanted to fly and the only way to fly is die, die, die"
    Cover versions by other artists strayed even farther from the original lyrics - e.g., I knew a man who lived inside his mind; I had a woman who was blind, etc etc.
    I understand that's part of music and covering another songwriter's song, but in some cover versions, the altered lyrics really didn't make much sense...
                           Tony

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 22 May 11 - 07:31 PM

Tony/2581, yes, I see your point. I hadn't listened to the Richie Havens recording in many years and forgot the changes he made. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: GUEST,Pat
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 10:30 PM

There's an absolutely different and astounding version of this song on "The Wizards From Kansas" self-titled 1970 album. Have a listen here: http://therisingstorm.net/wizards-from-kansas-self-titled/

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Flyin' Bird (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: 2581
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 06:01 PM

By the way, I purchsed Isaac Guillory's CD "Isaac Guillory Live", which contains his classic version of "High Flyin' Bird". I agree with Guest's 9/26/08 comment that Isaac's version is the best recorded performance ever. In fact, Billy Edd agrees with that assessment too!

If you haven't heard Isaac Guillory perform, check out this brilliant performance of "Wayfaring Stranger".

Wayfaring Stranger (Live) - Isaac Guillory