The Steve Reynolds Program - And Your Bird Can Sing
Hello!
The queen of England died. Sorry this is the way you're finding out. It happened yesterday. No foul play suspected. One of her sons is king now. Weird trivia: his name was Charles, but is now Charles III. I guess "III" means "the king" and "II" means the queen. So lotsa luck, Charles the king! Pace your kinging for bottom burp's sakes! You're 73!
I'm gonna start doing two write-ups a week. I don't wanna take two years doing this goofball idea. Slightly less than a year is just right.
To facilitate this, I'm not gonna ramble here. Gonna get down to the real stuff. Not gonna whine about politics. That's what Twitter's for. I'm not gonna tell you I smoked ribs last weekend but my substitution of habanero powder for chili powder in the rub made them too spicy to eat. Nope. That experience is in the lockbox. Next year when this is done, I'll spill the tea.
Song #3
"And Your Bird Can Sing"
The Beatles
Having only one Beatles song on a top 100 songs list looks wrongheaded, I know. The Beatles are the all-timers. We all know their songs. We celebrate them all the time. I guess they don’t seem personal choices anymore. They’re like the standard issue pack you get as a recruit at training camp. Sure, they’re necessary and important, but they were given to you.
Plus my one choice isn’t the Beatles song most would think of. In the book Counting Down The Beatles: Their 100 Finest Songs, the author ranks it #82, just behind "Ob-La-Di Ob-La–Da." Oof. (Oh, what was #1? A Day In The Life, a song I worshiped in ninth grade, but now focus way too much on the corny panting after “noticed I was late.” In A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner’s rehash of all the Beatles songs (there are tons of Beatles books I’ve discovered), he devotes two short paragraphs (this is after a two page meditation on "Paperback Writer") to "And Your Bird Can Sing," calling the lyrics “meaningless psychedelia.” Hell, John Lennon in later interviews called the song “throwaway” and “a horror.”
That's some bullstürm und bulldrang. This song is great. Who are you gonna believe: me or John Lennon? This was 1970 Lennon calling it a horror, the 1970 Lennon who just wrote and released "My Mummy’s Dead." Me. I don’t know if John had a headache that day or felt pressure from the hours already spent in the studio recording the album Revolver. Maybe he felt encroached on by Paul McCartney playing a guitar line, harmonizing with George. Maybe he felt it was taking attention away from "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "She Said She Said", the barrier-breaking tunes at the time.
Or maybe I gravitate to catchy tunes more than a serious listener should. I don’t know.
The “meaningless psychedelia” assessment of lyrics by Very Serious Beatles Author confounds me. These aren’t surreal lyrics or fantastic imagery – the closest is when he says what color is the bird (green). It seems to be the singer telling another musician or artist that their art is unrelatable to them. I guess people would venture this was about a specific person, like Mick Jagger or someone. (Me, I think it’s Warren Beatty.) Who knows, it could be aimed at himself.
When your bird is broken
Will it bring you down?
You may be awoken
I'll be 'round
I'll be 'round
You tell me that you heard every sound there is
And your bird can swing
But you can't hear me
You can't hear
Me
Who will cave first, Lennon or the bird-haver? Will this person, who Lennon claims has everything they want, understand Lennon’s plea for connection, or will Lennon relent and admit this person is making something of merit? Is that the horror that Lennon put on this song later? Was he embarrassed at the pettiness? The tragedy of Lennon’s early death is for all his peaks and valleys, his growth was stopped. We have the tales of abuse but none of atonement or self-reflection on that. My guess is he would’ve been innovative and progressive in self-regard, and participated in a very okay Beatles reunion by the early nineties. Hey, there’s an alternate history book to be written about that. You can shelve it along with the zillion Beatles books written already.
Thangs
*One thing I left out here this song really clicked with me when I saw a tribute band do it in 2007. I don't seek out tribute bands, but I gotta admit I have fun any time I see one. I just thought of one that should happen: GWAPG-13 - A slightly cleaner version of GWAR. Let's get on this!
This week’s song that I omitted and am mad now: "Get Down Tonight" by KC and The Sunshine Band. Classic overplayed but underrated cut.