songs about birds

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Arnie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 10:31 AM

The Yetties with 'I know where there's a blackbird's nest, I know where he be......'

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 10:28 AM

banks of the reedy lagoon.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 09:23 AM

'Sing John Bull' - no idea who has a recording of it, I only have Cllr in a field recording (and I bet he doesn't know I have it), but it mentions crow likes a cock and carol likes a lark or something....

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Jacob B
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 09:19 AM

The Crow On The Cradle. Pete Seeger has recorded a version.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 08:38 AM

they are clever ,they are even imitating Percy Edwards.

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 08:16 AM

"the cuckoo with clarinet and concertina" - that's one clever cuckoo!!

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:58 AM

Mollymauk

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:55 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGoYfU2-A54 the cuckoo with clarinet and concertina

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:52 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfNZwCAhGJE the furze field

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:50 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGoYfU2-A54.the furze field mentions pheasants

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:49 AM

the cuckoo ,version with concertina and clarinet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfNZwCAhGJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGoYfU2-A54.
the furze field features pheasants
little birdie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xssNhhNCvNk

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,synbyn no cookie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:25 AM

yup, Giff's your man- he can recognise a wren from miles off! and he talks as engagingly as he sings.... look for Derek Gifford....
no I'm not him!

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Young Buchan
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:08 AM

Get the Kleenex out and do Song of the Thrush. I can't find it in DT so here are the words. If you don't know the tune there are recordings by Bob Hart and Fred Jordan. If you want dots there are scans of the sheet music at www.catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/45601

Years ago in the wilds of Australia
Out in the goldfields there once stood a camp.
The miners were made up of all sorts of classes
With many a scapegoat and many a scamp.
Then into their midst came a young man from England
And with him he brought a small thrush in a cage.
To hear the bird sing they would flock round in dozens
That sweet little songster became all the rage
CHO There fell a deep hush
As the song of the thrush
Was heard by that motley throng.
Many a rough fellow's eyes grew dim
As the bird sang out clear and strong.
Eyes lighted up with a bright yearning look
As the bird sang it's beautiful lay
It brought to their minds.
Dear old England at home
Thousands of miles away.

Rough were those miners all fierce-looking fellows,
Yet they were human and worshipped that bird.
When quarrels arose they would break off and listen
If only the voice of their favourite they heard.
All round for miles he at last got quite famous,
On Sunday the miners Would come from afar,
And many declared they preferred the bird's singing
To the cards and the dice in the rough liquor bars.

Ofttimes they'd think of the cornfields and meadows,
And many's the quiet little country lane;
And hearts ached and yearned as they thought of some village,
And she they had dearly loved, but all in vain.
When the bird sang all those hard fellows listened.
Perhaps they got tired of the bird? No such thing!
As one rough expressed it 'It came like an angel;
And it makes you feel good, like, to hear the bird sing."

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Susan of DT
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:05 AM

There are 101 songs in the DT with a keyword of bird

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: s&r
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:00 AM

Baltimore Oriole (Billy Ed Wheeler) as performed by the late great Isaac Guillory

Stu

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:49 AM

Of course, you could throw in Tom Lehrer's 'Poisoning Pigeons', for the pigeon haters amongst us....

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:45 AM

'Turkey in the straw' or 'Cuckoo waltz' for the musos?

Artisan's recording of 'What's the use of wings' is good, 'Galway Shawl' mentions linnets, 'Twa Corbies' by Steeleye Span is another good one.... Coope, Boyes and Simpson's recordings of 'She's like a swallow', 'Wild Goose Shanty' and 'Pleasant and delightful' are worth a spin, what with those larks being melodious all over the place...

'Hear the nightingale sing' is the chorus to a song I can't quite place at the moment... where the soldier sits down beside her and gets out a one string fiddle...

Jim Causleys' 'The carnal and the crane' - although it could have your listeners wondering if their radios have broken - it's very low and slow. Steeleye and Vaughan-Williams have both recorded/composed music about larks in the morning/clear air/ascending... Steeleye went one further with 'Fly up my cock'....

Rod Shearman's 'Song of the Sea' mentions gulls and is a beautiful piece...

That should keep you going for a while!

LTS

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:31 AM

Go to Folk Police Recordings Myspace page for our recording of Robin Sick & Weary:

http://www.myspace.com/folkpolicerecordings

If this floats your boat I'll send you the file; there is a shorter one recorded for the forthcoming album which could do with some air-play - though the one on the Folk Police page will feature on John Barleycorn Reborn Volume 2...

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:23 AM

There is a rather good Scottish fiddle tune called ' The Hens March Ower The Midden '

Dave H

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:19 AM

Then there are various 'Cuckoo's nest' songs... although they might also get you thrown off air...

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:16 AM

Posted in the birdwatching thread before I saw this one...

Open Mike - UK singer Derek Gifford has done a similar thing - he was at Chippenham Festival in 2008 with a whole concert of birdwatching songs - songs that mention birds in them.

'The snow it melts the soonest' Eliza Carthy - mentions woodcock in one of the verses.

There are many tunes and songs about the hunting of the wren, which is right for this time of year (just... Boxing Day and Twelfth Night in certain years)- the Chieftains 'The Bells of Dublin' CD and the Boys of the Lough 'MidWinter Nights Dream' (aka 'Da Day Dawns') has some great ones.

'She moved through the fair' mentions swans....

Then there's Jake Thackery's 'Bantam Cock' which may get you thrown off air...

(Marc Bolan & T-Rex's 'Ride a white swan'?)

At a stretch you could put in 'I'll fly away' from 'Brother, where art thou'?

LTS

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 05:14 AM

From my repertoire , I can only think of one, so far - "Country Life" (E. trad.):

"...And I like to hear those small birds singing
Merrily upon their layland..."

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: GUEST,Meggly
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:51 AM

There's 'Blackbird' by the Unthanks (on their Bairns album).

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:50 AM

I have refreshed the thread "Upon a tree a cuckoo" — on which you can even hear me sing the song if you have a mind. Good luck in your quest, open mike -

Michael [another Mike!]

Subject: RE: songs about birds
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:47 AM

No idea if there IS a recording , but 'The Rooster Song' springs to mind - The 'We had some chickens' on ,that is .

Subject: bird songs...songs about birds
From: open mike
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:40 AM

I plan to have my radio show this sat. on the theme of birds...
so I am searching for bird songs...I mean human songs about birds...

several I have found so far..
Bird in a Cage, KYTRAD
Cuckoo,
mockingbird (one morning in May.) Peggy seeger
night bird, Laurie Lewis (she has a whole album of songs about birds-
    a benefit for an Audubon bird sanctuary)
You were the bird that I held in my hand, Sally Van Meter
Redtail Hawk, Kate Wolf
Red Winged Blackbird, James Keelahan
Bird on a Wire, Leonard Cohen


any others?

Zippity doo dah, Zippedy ay, ....Mr. Blue bird on my shoulder...