Lyr Add: Vulture Culture

Subject: Lyr Add: Vuture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 04:22 PM

Thanksgiving may have helped inspire this little song, as I helped dispose of the leftovers:

By Charlie Ipcar © 11/29/14
Tune: traditional after "The Topman and the Afterguard"

Vulture Culture

C-----------------------G------G7
The Cuckoo, she's a pretty bird,
------C--------F----C--G
And so's the Tur-tle Dove,
----------C--------------G-------------G7
But the fairest bird a-mongst them all
-----C---------G---C
No one will ever love!
-----------------------F-------------G7
She's the Vulture, oh so grace-ful,
C-------------F---C---G----G7
Watch her glid-ing in her flight;
--------C-----------------G--------G7
While other birds just flap their wings,
-----C--------G--------C
She soars a-bove so light!

I call her fair for she never steals,
Or lays eggs in other nests;
She's never vain or ever rude;
The Vulture's the perfect guest!
See her feathers, glossy black,
Gray her shy and balding head;
She never strikes to kill her prey;
She dines only on the dead!

The Osprey dives to strike her prey,
But the Vulture sits and waits;
When all have finished with their dish,
She sidles up to the plate;
She never fusses 'bout the tidbits,
Or how long they have been left;
She digs right in with her sharp beak,
Then slugs it down quite deft.

If there's reward for toil and strife,
When comes the final test,
For cleaning up what others leave,
The Vulture is the best;
Hear her sing, though not so soothing
As the cooing Turtle Dove,
The Vulture is the fairest bird
And she deserves our love!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vuture Culture
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 06:58 PM

Had you just read this?

http://newsdaily.com/2014/11/gut-check-how-vultures-dine-on-rotting-flesh-and-like-it/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141125111814.htm

You left out where the vulture prefers to start eating its prey from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vuture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 09:03 PM

Your links are highly educational. Thanks!

It's really amazing what the vultures do to clean up after all of us. It's not a pleasant job but someone has to do it, and vultures have the stomach for it.

Charlie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vuture Culture
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 10:41 AM

Hi, Charley. I like your song.

I too have noticed how beautiful is the flight of group of circling vultures.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 12:10 PM

Thanks, leeneia.

My attitude toward vultures shifted when I was introduced to one at a wildlife rescue center in York, UK. She was so friendly to guests, and she liked nothing better than to fly off to fetch things for her trainer. And of course she was spotlessly clean!

Then I got to thinking about their service role in the animal kingdom, how they clean up after everyone else and get no thanks for just doing an unpleasant job. I thought they deserved a song in tribute, though I hardly know where I might sing it!

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: bubblyrat
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 12:17 PM

AKA "Aasvogel" in Afrikaans !!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 12:40 PM

Hmmmm, what rhymes with "Aasvogel"?

Charlie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 09:48 AM

I just sent the lyrics to a friend who rehabs vultures and other critters. If I get a response, I shall so inform you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 10:53 AM

Response:

Vultchies are MY personal favorite.....I simply adore Vod..nothing more gorgeous than 50-60 of them flying over in the sky!!!   

Good song....Vod would approve!!!

SKY HARBOR WILDLIFE REHABILITATION

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 12:43 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 09:26 PM

Nice to hear that SKY HARBOR WILDLIFE REHABILITATION likes the song. Where are they located?

Charlie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 09:32 PM

Oh, this is fun. Here's Vod the Vulture's story: for a good time click here!

Charlie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 09:54 PM

I love to watch turkey buzzards in flight, and we have lots of them in our area. But they're even more interesting when they congregate on the ground. They're very social, and very intelligent. Watching them on the ground is always entertaining, even when they're feasting on a carcass. I came across about 25 vultures feasting on a dead alligator in Florida. It was my most interesting birdwatching experience ever.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Dec 14 - 08:02 AM

The turkey vultures have red heads and we saw a flock of them as well on Avery Island in Louisiana; they were on patrol in a meadow and later perched in adjacent trees. My new song is dedicated to their cousins, the black headed vultures.

Here's an inspirational verse about vultures from one of my mother's children's books: By Dahlov Ipcar, from I Love My Anteater with an A, © 1964

I Love My Vulture

I love my Vulture with a V because he is virtuous.
I hate him with a V because he is vain.
His name is Velasquez. He comes from Venezuela.
He lives on vanilla and vitamins,
And he is a ventriloquist.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Dec 14 - 08:14 PM

Here's the version we plan to record when we gets the chance:

By Charlie Ipcar 11/26/14
Tune: traditional after "The Topman and the Afterguard"
Key: F(5/C)
Vulture Culture

C-----------------------G------G7
The Cuckoo, she's a pretty bird,
------C--------F----C--G
And so's the Tur-tle Dove,
----------C--------------G------------G7
But the fairest bird a-mong them all
----C---------------G--C
Is one you'd nev-er love!
-----------------------F-------------G7
She's the Vulture, oh so grace-ful,
C-------------F---C---G-----G7
Watch her glid-ing high a-bove;
--------C-----------------G---G7
The vulture is the fair-est bird,
------C--------G----------C
And she de-serves our love!

Chorus:

-----------------------F-------------G7
She's the Vulture, oh so grace-ful,
C-------------F---C---G-----G7
Watch her glid-ing high a-bove;
--------C-----------------G---G7
The Vulture is the fair-est bird,
------C--------G----------C
And she de-serves our love!

I call her fair for she never steals,
Or lays eggs in other nests;
She's never vain or ever rude;
The Vulture's the perfect guest!
See her feathers, glossy black,
Gray her shy and balding head;
She never strikes to kill her prey,
Dines only on the dead! (CHO)

The Osprey dives to strike her prey;
The Vulture sits and waits;
When other birds have et their fill,
She sidles up to the plate;
She never fusses 'bout their leavings,
Not one chirp of sad protest;
She digs right in with her sharp beak,
Then slugs it down with zest. (CHO)

If there's reward for toil and strife
When comes the final test:
For cleaning up what others leave,
The Vulture is the best;
Hear her sing, though not so soothing
As the cooing Turtle Dove;
The Vulture is the fairest bird
And she deserves our love! CHO)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 03:34 AM

Ah yes... the much-maligned Vulture.

Quite graceful in flight, particularly when circling.

And, curiously enough, they seem to be exceedingly willing to circle whenever I take out my guitar.

Perhaps they're trying to tell me something...


Jay

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Jack Campin
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 04:53 AM

(tune: I Love a Lassie)

I love a vulture, a bald-headed vulture,
She munches people's innards through their bums;
You won't need sepulture in your funeral customs culture
With a vulture to lunch on your plums.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Dec 14 - 11:54 AM

Jack-

Brilliant! You should expand upon this verse.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Vulture Culture
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Dec 14 - 01:21 PM

Have you heard of the Tibetan practice of sky burial?

And the Zoroastrian Dakhmas--also known as Towers of Silence?