Songs for the Birds

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Jan 20 - 08:39 AM

Wild Birds, by Jan Harmon. I couldn't find a video.

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Vic Smith
Date: 20 Jan 20 - 06:35 AM

Could I bring to your attention: -

"ALL THE BIRDS OF THE AIR"
Lewes musicians & singers Vic & Tina Smith (www,users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic) of the Sussex Pistols & Folk at the Royal Oak bring a multi-media show celebrating our feathered friends in song, tune, verse & folklore, with many illustrations. The live performance will be interspersed with a few recordings of relevant songs from some of Britain's finest traditional singers and many slides of the birds featured in the songs.. Tina plays English concertina & Vic plays guitar & mandola. They premiered this show at Tenterden Folk Festival in October to a capacity crowd. This attention has already gained the show a number of bookings at folk clubs in South-East England.

The rest of the evening will be filled by members of the audience performing a song or tune if they wish.

Everyone is welcome, especially if you'd like to sing or play. We mostly sing and play traditional music from the British Isles, but we enjoy other styles as well. We always start off with some English dance tunes for anyone with an instrument to join in.
Lewes Saturday Folk Club
Elephant and Castle
White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ.
8:00 to 11:00 every Saturday evening
For further details and advance tickets, phone [phone] or email

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Karen Impola
Date: 19 Jan 20 - 11:03 PM

Speaking of Gillian Welch, there's "Winter's Come and Gone" too.

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: GUEST,Crowlibrarian
Date: 19 Jan 20 - 10:55 PM

A couple to add - The Cuckoo (many versions) and Gillian Welch's Acony Bell.

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Karen Impola
Date: 19 Jan 20 - 10:39 PM

When I saw "The Mallard", I was expecting this song, which is also in the Mudcat archives. (Why can I not make a blue clicky to the lyrics?)

Fiddle/mandolin/guitar player Joe Weed has an album called "Waltz of the Whippoorwill", with 11 tunes he wrote that incorporate motifs from actual birdsongs. It's cool.

Repülj madár, repülj (Fly Bird, fly) is by the Hungarian band Muzsikás. Lyrics and translation at the link.

Did anyone mention "Leather-wing bat" yet? No, a bat is not a bird, but there are lots of birds in the lyrics.

Bert Jansch's Bird Song is a nice one. Lyrics here.

Johnsmith, who lives in Wisconsin and smushes his first and last name together, has a song called Jaybird.

John Smith, who is from England and keeps his names separated, sings Hummingbird, but now that I listen to it all the way through, I realize that the bird in question is a metaphor. Or is it a simile?

There's always Joni Mitchell's "Song to a Seagull".

My clicky-making muscles are getting tired.

Subject: Lyr Add: BIRD SONG (John Broomhall)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Jan 20 - 07:48 PM

BIRD SONG, Words and Music John Broomhall

Adelaide Hills, it's early mornin', through the window see them yawnin',
Lonesome travellers wind their way back home;
Misty valleys, lofty ranges, signposts mock our weary strangers:
Pack a road map mate next time you roam!

There's a Kookaburra, Cuckoo, Bronzewing, Budgerigar,
Lorikeet, Cat Bird, Currawong, an old Galah;
Frog Mouth, Magpie, Miner, and a White-Winged Chough,
A Babbler, a Warbler, and even a bird called Rough.

Somewhere up in Northern Queensland, sunshine bright, golden sea sand,
We're lyin' on the beach the way that dreamers do.
Paradise Lost, ah poor John Milton, he didn't get to stay at the Douglas Hilton,
I guess he missed Mossman, Kuranda, and Cooktown too.

Seagull, Plover, Petrel, and Ocean Tern,
Albatross, Grebe, Shearwater and Frigate Bird;
Cormorant, Pelican, Gannet and Cockatoo,
Cassowary, Egret, Heron and Jabiru.

Life's a breeze in the centre of Australia, corroboree's the only regalia,
Wide brown land, and a sky that's big and blue;
Camel Drivers wearin' turbans, nothin' here you'd call suburban,
They're all dinkum Aussies through and through.

Curlew, Drongo, Falcon, Emu, Wren,
Brolga, Spoonbill, Duck and Native Hen;
Spinebill, Thrush and Lark up in the sky,
Swallow, Butcher, Robin, Silver-eye.

Soldier, Shoe Maker, Coot and Sooty Owl,
Buzzard, Booby, Bell and Mallee Fowl;
Rainbow, Sparrow, Crow and Whistling Kite,
A Wedge-tailed Eagle and a Boobook late at night.

(c) Copyright J. Broomhall 1991

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Jan 20 - 08:49 PM

I don't think this fine song from Harvey Andrews has been mentioned.

The Mallard [lyrics]

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Songs for the Birds
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jan 20 - 04:57 PM

In A La Claire Fontaine there are lovely lines about a nightingale...

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 06:25 PM

Australia's Fay White has a song about the (almost extinct) night parrot

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: John C. Bunnell
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 12:02 PM

Certainly "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins" should qualify here.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 19 - 08:52 PM

Australia -

Carol of the Birds by Wheeler & James - pics of the birds mentioned & lyrics here on this blurry video

John Broomhall (Australian folkie, not UK composer, music artist, jazz keyboardist, sound designer)

Bird Song - description from "My Spirit Country" (1991) Australia is blessed with over 700 species of bird (around 650 native to the country.) I've tried to give a fair representation of our birds in this song but have to admit that I've only just skimmed the surface.

sandra

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 27 Dec 19 - 07:23 PM

Yellow Bird (mentioned upthread and covered as Silver Bird (Dutch) - Little Oriole (Mandarin) - ad nauseum.
Choucoune
Little Bird (Ti Zoizeau)

Into the Air (Junior Birdmen)

Subject: Lyr Add: OF ALL THE BRAVE BIRDS THAT EVER I SEE...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Dec 19 - 06:06 PM

From The Essex Harmony: Being an Entire New Choice Collection of the Most Celebrated Songs, Catches, Canzonets, Canons and Glees ..., Volume 2 (London: J Buckland and S. Crowder, 1777), page 41:

Of all the brave birds that ever I see,
The owl is the fairest in her degree,
For all the day long she sits in a tree,
And when the night comes, away flies she.

Te whit! Te whoo! To whom drinks thou?
Sir knave, to thou.*
This song is well sung; I make you a vow,
And he is a knave that drinketh now.

Nose, nose, nose, nose,
And who gave thee that jolly red nose?
Cinnamon and ginger, nutmeg and cloves,
And that gave me this jolly red nose.

- - - -
* Some sources say "to thee" which is grammatical, but "to thou" rhymes better.

The above "glee" is ascribed to "Mr. Freeman" but I suppose that only applies to the arrangement for 3 voices. I have also seen it ascribed to Ravenscroft

Another copy appears in Amusement for the Ladies: Being a Selection of the Favorite Catches, Canons, Glees, and Madrigals…, Vol. 4 (London: Broderip & Wilkinson, [ca. 1800]), page 40.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Kent Davis
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 12:43 AM

There are the traditional Appalachian fiddle tunes "Turkey in the Straw" and "Cluck, Old Hen".
Also, West Virginia country singer Little Jimmy Dickens sang, "May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose"
Kent

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 06:25 PM

The Cuckoo
She Is like a Swallow
The Wren Song [this one?]

Subject: Lyr Add: SPADGE (Duncan McFarlane)
From: HipflaskAndy
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 06:19 PM

I used to get House Sparrows in my garden. Used to, but no longer!
A few years back I read an article in my quarterly RSPB magazine
which discussed reasons for the decline of House Sparrows in the UK...
and a poem, some of which stuck in my head...
The inevitable resultant song made it onto m' band's latest CD 'All Rogues & Villains'
- and then we heard their numbers were on the up again!

Spadge (D.McFarlane)

There were those I knew never had a song
From clad-ivy walls & eave they would raise their young
Puddle-fluttering fun, after dust bath play
They'd fall on grain we'd spill in our working day.

(Chorus)
Old friends, once so familiar, so close to everyone
Where have they gone? Where have they gone?
The widespread, once abundant - it seems their time has flown
What have we done? What have we done?

Not so long ago - In the ripening corn
They'd rise up ahead in flocks as you walked along
From the town-crowd pave or the midden high
In a swirling, chattering throng they'd pass you by (Ch)

'Tween the new sew-stacks and the old mill door
Where once new-threshed we'd drag the sheaves of straw
From the paddock *fank to the urban sprawl
From wood to city street can you hear them call? (Ch)


*fank - sheep pen/enclosure
Some of the old names for 'sparrow'.....
(England) spadge, spadger, spug, spuggy, sprog, spadgick
(Orkney) sprog, speug, sparrag, sporrow;
(Shetland) spuggie, sparky, spjugg, sporra, sporrow; (Middle English) sprewe;
(Old English) sparwa, spearwa

More details.....
on the songs page here
- will try and put a sample of the song on that website, mebbe tomorrow if time allows.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: quantock
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 02:44 AM

Sing a Song of Sixpence (Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie)
Babes in the Wood
Bird in the Bush
Sweet Nightingale (My sweetheart come along, etc.)
The Nightingale (They both sat down together love to hear the nightingale sing)
The Owl (Of all the birds that ever I see, the owl is the fairest in her degree, etc.)
Hares on the Mountain (has several verses about birds)
The Ugly Duckling
Six Little Ducks
Little White Duck
Lucy Wan
Crazy Man Michael
Magpie (One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy)
Love Lift Us Up (Where We Belong) (from movie An Officer and a Gentleman)
She Was a Sweet Little Dicky Bird
Kookaburra (Sits in the Old Gum Tree)
1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes (by Small Potatoes)
Carrion Crow
Kangaroo
Tufted Titmouse (An American old-time tune played by Missouri fiddler Billy Matthews; the tune imitates the call of the bird)
The Happy Wanderer
The Tweet Song
The Outlandish Knight
If I Had Wings Like Noah's Dove [Dink's Song?]
Oh! For the Wings of a Dove [this one?]
She Moved through the Fair

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 12:17 AM

The Great Speckle Bird (Ray Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans)
Sparrow (Simon & Garfunkel)
Song To A Seagull (Joni Mitchell)
Night Bird (Lisa Moscatiello)

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Effsee
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 09:49 PM

The Cuckoo's Nest, Jeannie Robertson.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 08:48 PM

Jay tripper

Wren will I see you again?

Puffin the mule

(oh dear...sorry...I blame Jim, he started it...) :0

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 08:34 PM

I've lost my spotted crow.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 07:14 PM

http://www.nostalgia.org.il/amuta/freemp3/To_The_Bird.html
Israel's national poet, Bialik, wrote a poem entitled "To the Bird".
It's about a man talking to a migrating bird which has just returned from Israel, which the man longs for.
The melody this was set to is an old folk tune.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAID AND THE MAGPIE (Cyril Poacher)
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 03:57 AM

FSO Cyril Poacher

Once there was a maid kept an old magpie,
The parson who prayed livèd very close by,
And when she met the parson, they both stopped to talk
And often on the quiet they would go for a cosy walk.
For her lover was a sailor; he crossed the raging main,
He promised she would be his bride when he returned again,
But still she let the parson see her home from church,
Kissing and never thinking of the magpie on the perch.

Chorus:
So the maid and the magpie would talk all the day,
The maid would not believe all the magpie did say.
She said, "I love the parson. Don't you tell the tar."
And the old magpie only said, "Qua, qua."

Now when stationed at Gib-a-raltar, the sailor, so it seems,
Whilst he was sleeping in his bunk, he had a funny dream.
He dreamt the girl he'd left behind on dear old England's shore,
Whilst he was away she was flirting with a half-a-dozen more.
So he made his passage homeward as quickly as could be.
He landed safely at her house, but no maiden could he see.
When talking to the magpie who was dancing on the perch,
And the magpie told him all about the parson at the church.

Chorus:

For he then went for the parson, and unfor him did search.
He found which way the wind blew, so he hooked him from the church.
They brought the magpie into court, who told a truthful tale.
And to get what he required, of course, this maiden she did fail.

Chorus:

Now when the sailor met this maid, he passed her with disdain.
She sued a breach of promise for five thousand to obtain.
The lawyer could not find it out, so the case went on the shelf,
And the tricky little maiden had to live all by herself.


Chorus:

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds - Poor Little Robin
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:50 PM

Not sure this is 'really' about a bird, but here goes:

(Poor Little Robin) Walking To Missouri

G

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:44 PM

Alouette (The Lark)

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Flash Company
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 10:11 AM

The marvellous Johnny Mercer had ' Bob White, whatcha gonna swing tonight?'
And Nat Cole had one called 'Brazilian Lovebird'
My favorite would have to be an instrumental though, Los Paraguayos, 'Bellbird'

FC

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:21 AM

The Wild Goose

The Fox (has verses about ducks and geese)

The Ugly Duckling (from the movie "Hans Christian Andersen")

Go Tell Aunt Rhody (The Old Gray Goose Is Dead)

Chickens [The Rooster Song] (We had some chickens, No eggs would they lay ... )

Gallo Del Cielo (song about a fighting cock)

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:17 AM

Or, if we're talking metaphorical birds, there's "The Eagle And The Dove."

Cu-cu-ru-cu-cu Paloma

La Paloma

La Golondrina - (The Swallow)

Una Paloma Blanca

La Colombe (The Dove)

(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

And let's not forget Tom Lehrer's classic:
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:12 AM

Listen To The Mocking Bird

Sparrow In The Treetop

The Gift (Stephanie Davis) - Christmas song about an orphan girl who finds and nurses a bird with a broken wing and gives it to the Christ child as the only thing she has to give, and the bird ends up giving her (and everyone) "the very first nightingale's song."

Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing

Hares on the Mountain (Scots-Irish ballad) contains the verse:
If all the young girls were like blackbirds and thrushes,
Young men would take sticks and go beat in the bushes."

(I'm not sure that verse is really about our avian friends, though.) ; )

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:04 AM

El Condor Pasa (English version sung by Simon & Garfunkel - not sure if it's an Andean folk song that they modified) - "I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail ... "

Rockin' Robin

Bye Bye, Blackbird

Blackbird (Beatles)

Nu Bello Cardillo (Italian song about a little bird, sung by Joan Baez)

Yellow Bird

The Nancy Griffith/James Hooker song "Gulf Coast Highway" mentioned above has this line in the chorus (slightly modified for each chorus):
"And when we die we say we'll catch some blackbird's wing,
And we will fly away to heaven, come some sweet bluebonnet spring.:

Three Craws (Sa' upon a wa') -- (Scots children's song)

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 03:19 PM

Blowing our own trumpet (hem-hem) :

Bird 2004

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 03:12 PM

Here's a pass-time for a rainy day; reckon up the bird references on Bright Phoebus - sparrows, jenny wrens, ravens and all. Wonderful stuff indeed - though my favourite BP track remains the twisted rockabilly of Danny Rose!

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:58 PM

The late Lal Waterson always had an affinity with our feathered friends and reflected it in some of the best of her beautiful songs.

'Flight of the Pelican', 'Migrating Bird', 'The Bird' spring to mind with my own favourite reference being from 'Child Among the Weeds' off the lost album 'Bright Phoebus.

"Fly bird fly on your raven wing. Take to the sky and sing for the love of wheeling and turning"

Wonderful stuff!

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:16 PM

Robin Redbriest's Testament

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:02 AM

[Free Little Bird] I'm as free a little bird as I can be,
I will build my nest in a white oak tree
so those bad boys cannot bother me..

does anyone know where this is from?
trad I think...Appalachian?

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: mark gregory
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 11:42 PM

my favorites would be in no particular order

Roscoe Holcomb - Little Birdie
see
youTube


Clarence Ashley - The Coo Coo Bird
see
youTube

McPeake Family of Ireland - My Singing Bird

visit

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BIRDS AND THE BEES (Reggie Miles)
From: reggie miles
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 10:58 PM

I just posted a rough of this one on my ezfolk site The Birds And The Bees. I just wish I had a better whistler. I may have to over dub that part.

The Birds and The Bees Reggie Miles 2008

Way up high on his perch in the trees.
A lonely little bird was a whistlin' in the breeze
Callin' every girly bird for miles around
Why don't we build a little love nest on the outskirts of town?

It happens each and every spring
In the same old fashioned way
Listen and you can hear him sing
His lonesome blues away

Busily buzzin' from flower to flower
A lonely little bee collectin' nectar by the hour
Carries it back to his she bee's hive
Hopes to get some honey there when he arrives

It happens each and every spring
In the same old fashioned way
Listen and you can hear him buzz
His lonesome blues away

Wonderin' just what I got to do
To find myself somebody who is sweet and true
Sing the same old song wherever I go
Don't want to sing these lonesome blues no more

It happens each and every spring
In this same old fashioned way
Listen and you can hear me sing
And play these lonesome blues away

Listen to me people hear what I say
Learn a little lesson from Mother Nature today
The birds and the bees they know what to do
Don't you waste another minute feelin' lonesome and blue

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: open mike
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:44 PM

oh yes, Dolly Parton has a title song Little Sparrow,
and Kathy Kallick has a song "Center of the World" that says "if the sparrow falls then the Lord will see"

and what about I'd rather be a sparrow than a tree,
(I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail.....)
I believe this is taken from a South American song...[El Condor Pasa]
who did it? Simon and Garfunkel? or was it a swallow?

in Across the Great Divide by Kate Wolf, there is a line
"Now I hear the owl a-callin' softly as the night was fallin'"

Kate had lots of Nature images in her music..
"The Redtail Hawk writes songs across the sky"...

When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along...

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: open mike
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:36 PM

Laurie Lewis
has an album of bird songs dedicated to the Audubon Canyon Ranch..a fundraiser for it, which I think has netted $10,000 or more
https://www.laurielewis.com/s_m/store/bird.html
She also sings a song When the Night Bird Sings...beautiful

Sally Van Meter (dobro player)sings a song called
(You Were) The Bird That I Held in My Hand ('Til I learned to Fly on My Own)
I think it is by T. Bone Burnett, of Oh, Brother fame.

I have done my radio show featuring songs about birds
and had no trouble coming up with 2 full hours.

Judy Fjell has a song Birds Return... I think it is the title song.

and here is a site with actual bird's songs---slowed down

http://www.hawkowlsnest.com/2007/11/slowed-down-bird-songs.html

Nanci Griffith has a beautiful love song -- Gulf Coast Highway

"And when she dies, she says, she'll catch some blackbird's wing. Then she will fly away to Heaven"

I am sure there are more...I could post the entire setlist from my radio show if you want....

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: topical tom
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 06:01 PM

GUEST leeneia: Yes, Mockin' Bird Hill was one of my father's (and mine) favourite songs. I didn't realize that it was a post-war song, though. Thanks for that info.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 01:02 PM

False kite on the toad
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Gene
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 11:24 AM

"The BIRD"

by Jerry Reed...a real hoot!!!

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 09:55 AM

Mockin' Bird Hill. Written about 1946, it's not just a hillbilly song. It's a song about peace and being home after a terrible war.

I can't bring myself to sing tra-la-la twiddle-e-dee-dee, so I just stick with tra-la-la.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Genie
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 06:26 AM

Los Bilbilicos is a Ladino folk song that's basically a (human) love song that starts with singing about nightingales singing. I think it's interesting that Richard Fariña's Swallow Song is set to the same tune.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 06:35 PM

posted years ago

The Broom Squire's Bird Song

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: amber
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 06:14 PM

What about 'Twa Corbies', or the Magpie song? (the one with the chorus that goes, 'Devil, devil I defy thee!') ?

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 06:12 PM

There is a haunting Russin song, "Zhuravli" (the cranes). I posted it here a while ago. Another Russian one is "Chyorny Voron", where a dying Cossack sings to a black raven circling overhead.

"Twa Corbies".

"The Cuckoo" (She's a pretty bird).

"The Lark in the Morning".

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Peace
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 06:06 PM

YOUTUBE: Love this version of BoaW by the Neville Brothers.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Peace
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 06:03 PM

"Bird on a Wire" YOUTUBE--Cohen singing it.

Subject: RE: Songs For The Birds
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 05:59 PM

If I Were a Blackbird ??

And Hovering Bob's Song - The Kestrel !