Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man
A couple of years back my brother, who is a big music nerd, was trying to come up with music mix CD’s that reflected the recipients interests. So his girlfriends father (who loves jogging) got a CD stuffed with such classics as Bryan Adams ‘Run to You’ and Springsteen’s – Born to Run’ – clever eh!
I was thinking about that again the other day and wondered whether I could come up with a ‘twitching’ mix CD that I might listen to in the car on my way to look for a Varied Thrush or some such. Well I was surprised how many good records (at least in my opinion) I could come up with that either had bird names in the track title or the band name.
Thanks to some help from the folks at Birdforum and the skillz of Eric ‘the frog’ Kupper I think I have built a decent little collection of tunes. I can’t say they are all my favorite records (apart from Gil, The Decemberists and the perfect Eels track) but I could at least tap my toes to most of them – and no godawful ‘Hotel California’ required thank goodness!
Track List in Full:
Black Crowes – Hard to handle
Trashmen – Surfin Bird
One Dove – White Love
Sleeper – Swallow
The Doves – Here it comes
Eels – I like Birds
Buffalo Tom – Birdbrain
Flock of Seagulls – I ran
DK’s – I am the owl
Beatles – and your bird can sing
Stones – Little Red Rooster
The Decemberists – Crane Wife
TV on the Radio – The Owl and the Stork
The Byrds – 8 miles high
Thom Yorke – Black Swan
MIA – Bird Flu
Soulja Boy – Bird Walk
Flamingos – I only have eyes for you
Grant Lee Buffalo – mockingbirds
REM – Swan Swan H
Cymande – Dove
Beatles – Blue Jay Way
Modern Lovers – Roadrunner
Gil Scott Heron – The Bottle
Belle & Sebastian – I’m a Cuckoo
Under Clear Skies 
Cowboy Junkies – Good Friday: Lots of bird/nature imagery – great song!
Luke – the music is great…you’ve got to love the Trashmen. I used to jokingly sing this song to my kids but never really knew where I’d heard it or who it was.
Chrissy – Where’s the bird name in the title? If it was Cowbird Junkies that would be a good one! and dare I say a better band name 😉 Cheers for a fun day Friday – full report on the blog this evening!
Wendy – Glad you liked the music. I only really know the Trashmen song from the movie Full Metal Jacket (which doesn’t have quite the same fun imagery that you have attached to the song) – a great record though.
You’ll be glad to know there’s an entire family guy episode dedicated to Surfin Bird… http://www.familyguynow.com/watch.php?id=702 ; )
Hey Jamie – that link doesn’t work – i think this one does: http://www.hulu.com/playerembed.swf?referrer=none&eid=gsoH3CTNq4xbMyYZN5J5zA but it does have annoying adverts.