Patti Smith - Birdland Lyrics

BON SANG

All I can say is ...her performance dang! Her writing surely some of the best of my 60 years...That she is back, her timing couldn't be more impeccable.

There is something in her voice that I don't like , especially when she begins to repeat that style to singing in the more animated parts of the song. To explain, I love the beginning of the song, but when it's begin to rise up I hate her voice..

Never forget Wilhelm Reich!

Play this at my funeral. It'll just be the funeral guy - nobody else will be there - and he'll just be doing his job, but at least he'll get to hear one of the most amazing songs ever recorded.

I agree. I think it's one of the best songs ever recorded belongs in every "greatest songs of all time" compilation that philistinic critics routinely assemble. If we lived in a just world of taste and propriety, this song would have the fame and critical ranking it deserves.

I never understood why this song wasn't more popular than it was. Every now and then I come back and listen when I'm super sad.

I just read an article that said this song is about Wilhelm Reich and his son.
https://www.popmatters.com/kate-bush-patti-smith-wilhelm-reich-2495378607.html

Genuine is a word that doesn't exist in nowadays music. This song alone has more soul than any song of the year. No perfection, no politically correct, just genuine artist here in this perfect poem song.

Love her voice, the lyrics of this song and everything about it. Patti Smith is so fucking underrated.

nothing before, and nothing since had ever sounded like this. you wouldn't get far on x-factor with this. how did we become so shallow and vacuous?

Easily one of the best writers of her generation

i'm 23 and i listened this album for first time on my life on vynil (one of all that my father owns, mostly of jazz music, he had anyway some rock-folk vynils, joni mitchell and neil young particularly) and it's incredible how music of over 40 years ago it's so incredibly timeless...good music will never die
i didn't hear nothing of patti smith before...this album is a travel, a trip...
i knew john cale anyway, and the music of velvet underground and lou reed, i would read the lyrics, so i can better understand (i live in italy and i've learn more english on songs than on school books...)
but she can transmit you emotions, feelings, pictures with her voice
amazing, as said before...this is transcendent

That's right, Music will stay on forever, especially the good stuff, *Stefandreus*... However, the correct spelling of *vinyl* is like this... (;o)*
LPM

Found this album in first year of college and I haven't been the same man since.

His father died and left him a little farm in new england.
All the long black funeral cars left the scene
And the boy was just standing there alone
Looking at the shiny red tractor
Him and his daddy used to sit inside
And circle the blue fields and grease the night.
It was if someone had spread butter on all the fine points of the stars
'cause when he looked up they started to slip.
Then he put his head in the crux of his arm
And he started to drift, drift to the belly of a ship,
Let the ship slide open, and he went inside of it
And saw his daddy 'hind the control board streamin' beads of light,
He saw his daddy 'hind the control board,
And he was very different tonight
'cause he was not human, he was not human.


And then the little boy's face lit up with such naked joy
That the sun burned around his lids and his eyes were like two suns,
White lids, white opals, seeing everything just a little bit too clearly
And he looked around and there was no black ship in sight,
No black funeral cars, nothing except for him the raven
And fell on his knees and looked up and cried out,
"no, daddy, don't leave me here alone,
Take me up, daddy, to the belly of your ship,
Let the ship slide open and I'll go inside of it
Where you're not human, you are not human."

But nobody heard the boy's cry of alarm.
Nobody there 'cept for the birds around the new england farm
And they gathered in all directions, like roses they scattered
And they were like compass grass coming together into the head of a shaman bouquet
Slit in his nose and all the others went shooting
And he saw the lights of traffic beckoning like the hands of blake
Grabbing at his cheeks, taking out his neck,
All his limbs, everything was twisted and he said,
"i won't give up, won't give up, don't let me give up,
I won't give up, come here, let me go up fast,
Take me up quick, take me up, up to the belly of a ship
And the ship slides open and I go inside of it where I am not human."

I am helium raven and this movie is mine,
So he cried out as he stretched the sky,
Pushing it all out like latex cartoon, am I all alone in this generation ?
We'll just be dreaming of animation night and day
And won't let up, won't let up and I see them coming in,
Oh, I couldn't hear them before, but I hear 'em now,
It's a radar scope in all silver and all platinum lights
Moving in like black ships, they were moving in, streams of them,
And he put up his hands and he said, "it's me, it's me,
I'll give you my eyes, take me up, oh now please take me up,
I'm helium raven waitin' for you, please take me up,
Don't let me here," the son, the sign, the cross,
Like the shape of a tortured woman, the true shape of a tortured woman,
The mother standing in the doorway letting her sons
No longer presidents but prophets
They're all dreaming they're gonna bear the prophet,
He's gonna run through the fields dreaming in animation
It's all gonna split his skull
It's gonna come out like a black bouquet shining
Like a fist that's gonna shoot them up
Like light, like mohammed boxer
Take them up up up up up up
Oh, let's go up, up, take me up, I'll go up,
I'm going up, I'm going up
Take me up, I'm going up, I'll go up there
Go up go up go up go up up up up up up up
Up, up to the belly of a ship.
Let the ship slide open and we'll go inside of it
Where we are not human, we're not human.

Well, there was sand, there were tiles,
The sun had melted the sand and it coagulated
Like a river of glass
When it hardened he looked at the surface
He saw his face
And where there were eyes were just two white opals, two white opals,
Where there were eyes there were just two white opals
And he looked up and the rays shot
And he saw raven comin' in
And he crawled on his back and he went up
Up up up up up up
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way, sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way, sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
We like birdland.

Geez. That's mind-bending poetry; it's too much to take.

It really helps to read the lyrics as this song plays. Thanks.

Damn! Talk about emotionally intense! The first time I heard this song, by the time it was over, I was bawling like a baby .

Thanks for the lyrics!

Between the lyrics, Patti's singing, and the music, that makes for one masterpiece of music.

primal scream immaculate

15 dislikes? You kidding me?

Not Enough?

coz  birdland's  otherworldly  +  not  human  it  was  as  if  someone  had  spread  butter  on  all the  fine  points  of  the  stars  +  when  he  looked  up  they  started  to  slip

otherworldly  +  not  human  =  birdland

The best poem in the history of music!!! TS Eliot and Blake is here

and Rimbaud

Timeless masterpiece.

Goosebumps...

How can a song be both the most punk song ever, and the least punk like song ever, at the same time?

Mike Dickman It’s art punk

A Masterpiece

Timeless beauty

LOVE THIS,AMAZING,LOVED IT FOR 30YRS STILL DO XXX

No thanks. I tried to give it a chance.

Oh Patti...! quelle émotion cette chanson...40 ans sont passés, toujours autant émue..!!!

My old man is playing this on his Santa Cruz -- for me. I'm a queen. (He's good)

absolute highest class

aaahhhh my fav xx Patti

magníficas canciones , tengo los acetatos horses , easter y radio etiopia . larga vida a patti smith

no significan nada los dislikes para mí , igual puede estar robert fripp co n sólo dislikes o mahavishnu o rachmaninof , etc.

a masterpiece. incredibly vivid imagery, & somehow she manages to capture the terrible painful space between what you want & what you have.

My favourite Sci-Fi themed song ever.

stunning

6 people dislike this? What's wrong with people? This is transcendent.

almost all youtube videos have about 2% dislikes despite popularity. I always note this and am always impressed with the consistency (unless the video is controversial or really bad. then it's slaughtered with dislikes)

Listened to this album so many times and then the hooks got into me.

What's Wong with you ! Every bady is dyfferent !

Probably too intense for some people. I agree, it's incredible.

She has a very particular voice, especially when her songs rise up..it's possible that someone dislike this. I love something of her, but not all.

Awesome CD. My favourite songs are *"Gloria,"* *"Redondo Beach,"* and *"Birdland."*

Listening to the words, I'm reminded of when my older brother died several years ago, leaving a teenage son and a teenage daughter. Their mother wasn't able to care for either of them. She was either too drunk to care, or some crazy thing. This song makes me think about what happened. My nephew had since gotten a job and cares for his twin boys.

+Jason Carpp Didn't mean to open up something too heavy. It's a great song. I'm listening to it now in a different emotional register too.

Different emotional register?

As in I hadn't really thought about it that way before. Now I'm in a little bit of a funk, but it won't last.

I agree. It is a great song! :)

RMS MUSIC SOCIETY TOP 100 SONGS OF ALL-TIME....like us on facebook to receive our free new music report

Such great production from Mr. John Cale,who also produced The Modern Lovers debut album.

irishmusicfan51 so he's the genius behind this album. Thank you big Irish!!!

First album Stooges too.

John Cale also produced the debut album by The Stooges,3 albums by Nico and the first single by Sham 69.

...5 peoples have never...... circled the blue fields...or... greased the night.

WELL SAID X

where is everybody?

soul

one of the albums i can listen to again and again and again...

Happy birthday Patti! 68 years old but young inside! ;)) 

Great album :)

I think horses album was her shinning moment- I love Birdland lyrically it is superior- how death and what comes after it could be so poetically described as both ugly and beautiful- imagery is out of this world- she is a master writer!!!

The lyrics are madly good

amor a este tema

This song always touches me : - (

Redondo Beach Patti Smith Bernardo Coopi

Patti Smith played in Liverpool a couple of years ago. I didn't go to see her.

DOH!

i was thanking the great artist, but why not thank you for spreading The Work as well? all in the same boat!

Idk if you are thanking me...instead, please thank the great, great artist, Patti Smith.

"like compass grass coming together into the head of a shaman bouquet"

thank you!

Back to 76 endless plays and black hash. Timeless.

~ ! ~ so damned beautiful..........