Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Birds in songs

"Sketch for Summer" by The Durutti Column starts (and continues) with looped cheeping. Does cheeping count as singing?

Yep, that would definitely count as birds being used in a song - recorded bird calls have been used in songs for many years but I'm too lazy to list all the ones I can think of. I use them all the time in my music. I just stood on our back doorstep and shot a video clip of a Burchell's Coucal sitting on a branch calling - hopefully that will find its way into a piece if I ever get round to writing again.

Speaking of good old Vini, there's a song on LC (I think) where he attempts to sing and uses the lyric "A lark spirals upwards in perfect pitch" but as I no longer have the album, I can't remember the title.

And on the subject of larks, here's another song title:

Lark Ascending - Half Man Half Biscuit

I wonder if Nigel's a closet twitcher, given the number of HMHB songs I've used as examples here!

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P.S. By the miracle of Google I have discovered the Durutti Column track in question is Sketch For Dawn.

Icicle Works - "Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)"

That's a romantic image of a bird I have never even heard of!

Sketch for Dawn (in its two incarnations on LC) is one of my favourite Durutti tracks. "A plane takes forever, crossing the sky". A perfect image of an early summer morning.

Here you go, Mr. Puddle, the video of Burchell's Coucal, named after 19th century British naturalist William John Burchell. The call has been likened to water being poured from a bottle or someone blowing bubbles under water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5zR8dOEYIA

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Well

This is all very fine , and groovy, and funny,and clever, and all [i]that[/b] but...

I was kind of hoping to find songs that referred to specific kinds of birds, rather than 'birds' in general.

You know, rather like erm - a million 'Alfa Romeo Giuliette 159 MiTo's, rather than just 'cars'??

I was hoping to tick them off on my list to save having to go out looking for them :rolleyes:

Please sir, I have been doing my best! So far I have mentioned:

Crow
Seagull
Owl
Magpie
Chicken
Condor
Sparrow
Skylark
Lark
Albatross
Pigeon
Whimbrel
Duck
Housemartin
Eagle
Swan
Parrot
Cuckoo
Blackbird

And here's another one for you:

Turkey, as in "It ain't the turkey neck stew" from Filipino Box Spring Hog by Tom Waits.

I think with a list like that I should get to go to the front of the class and hand out pencils!

Also, how specific do we need to be, regarding species? For instance 'owl' is a family of birds, not a species. We would need to put other words in front of it to classify it as a species, such as Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Spotted Eagle Owl etc. That would also apply to most of those in my list, with the exception of Magpie, Blackbird, Housemartin and Skylark (although I stand to be corrected on that point).

Methinks you set us too difficult a task, Mr. Birdsong sir! :rolleyes:

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P.S. What about the truly awful 'Una Paloma Blanca' (A White Dove) by Jonathan King?

And another obvious band we all seem to have missed, to which I'm currently listening - Penguin Café Orchestra.

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All brilliant stuff, as I said. Keep 'em coming!

We'll try fish next

Canary In A Coalmine - The Police
Duck & Cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EVBxkq-1U&feature=fvw
Swallow It - Fad Gadget
The Owl & The Pussycat (love theme) - Blood Sweat & Tears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88K0XLTipw&feature=related
That's What Friends Are For - The Vultures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88K0XLTipw&feature=related