Category: Music

“Bird on a Wire” and the Return of the Bald Eagle

bald eagle live feed

Last year, along with John Fullbright’s cover of Steve Earle’s “Me and the Eagle,” we posted a live feed of a bald eagle and its eaglets in a nest in Iowa. Well, those babies have flown off, but the feed now has a bald eagle with some new eggs, so we check in on the new babies while we also listen to a Johnny Cash song on a day that would have been the country legend’s eightieth birthday. Recently there was posted live feed of a mother Bald Eagle from Decorah, Iowa. [2024 Update: Unfortunately, the live stream is no longer available.]

The nest seems fairly secure for the high winds, but seeing the family so high up reminds me of one of Leonard Cohen’s most covered songs, “Bird on a Wire.” Cohen originally recorded the song in 1968 for the album Songs from a Room (1969). The song has been covered by The Neville Brothers, Willie Nelson, KD Lang, and others. My favorite cover is the one made by Johnny Cash for the 1994 album that marked a comeback for him, American Recordings. The weariness of his voice goes perfectly with the song.

A version of Cash singing the song with an orchestra appeared on Unearthed (2003), and Cohen has also performed his song with an orchestra. But I like the sparse instrumentation versions.

bald eagle The song is so beautiful that Kris Kristofferson, who has written many beautiful songs, has stated that he’d like the first three lines of “Bird on a Wire” on his tombstone.

Like a bird on a wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free.

The song has been described as a “bohemian My Way,” and one can sense a more realistic and darker life appraisal in Cohen’s song than the Frank Sinatra classic. While “My Way” is underscored with pride, “Bird on a Wire” is tempered with regret (“I have torn everyone who reached out to me”). There are some reports that the song inspired the title of the Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn movie, Bird on a Wire (1990), but it is hard to see the meaning of the song in the action-comedy film, so I hope that story is not true.

For today, here is to the Iowa bald eagles who unlike us, live free without regret. And here is to Johnny Cash on his birthday, because his music helped us comprehend freedom as well as sorrow, atonement, and grace.

What is your favorite version of “Bird on a Wire”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Oscars Show Snubs Best Song Nominees

    Man or Muppet Muppet Movie Jason Segel

    The Academy Awards show organizers have decided not to schedule the traditional musical numbers for the best song nominees this year. The Academy had already shown disdain — or disappointment — in the film songs this year by only nominating two tunes out of thirty-nine possible choices through a criticized nominating process. But now even those two songs will not get to take the stage. And we lose the chance to see Muppets singing on stage.

    So, you will have to enjoy the nominated songs elsewhere. One is “Man or Muppet,” featuring Jason Segel, from The Muppets (2011).

    And another is “Real in Rio” from Rio (2011).

    Which song do you prefer? Should the Academy allowed the songs to be performed Sunday night? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Pres. Obama Sings With B.B. King

    Obama singing with B.B. King

    One advantage to being a sitting president is that you do not have to go through the party debates. Instead of standing on stage with people attacking you, you get to do cool things like sing with B.B. King. This clip is from an tribute to the blues yesterday at the White House, which included Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, and Booker T. Jones. At the end, Pres. Barack Obama gave in to the requests to sing a few lines of “Sweet Home Chicago,” his follow-up single to his cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”

    White House press secretary Jay Carney commented on Pres. Obama’s impromptu songs by noting that the president has “a hidden talent that we’re just getting to hear.”

    Which former president would you like to hear sing? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Woody Guthrie’s “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You”

    woodie guthrie dust bowl ballads

    Folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912 in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. In honor of his birthday, Chimesfreedom will consider some of the songs and life events of this man who looms large in both the American songbook and in our concepts of a period of American history.

    Guthrie is a part of our past, but also our present and future, as his spirit lives on in many musicians, including the young disciple he met before he died, Bob Dylan. Guthrie’s songs reflect both the American spirit and the American struggles of his time, so it seems appropriate that we celebrate his life this year as the world has been struggling through economic hard times. But he is always relevant, as a large number of people suffer even when times are “good.”

    “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You”

    We start with one of Guthrie’s earliest songs, “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You.” According to Woody Guthrie: A Life, by Joe Klein, Guthrie wrote the song not long after dust storms hit Guthrie’s home in Pampa, Texas in spring 1935 (“In a month called April, a county called Gray”).

    Out of the experience, Guthrie, who recently became a father, wrote the song.  Originally, he called the song “Dusty Old Dust” and would sing in the local saloons.

    Rob Tepper does this video of “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You” using his best Woody Guthrie imitation showing what a Woody Guthrie video might look like had they had videos back in Guthrie’s days. Tepper is a talented actor who does a one-man show portraying Woody Guthrie, and he appeared in the short film Been Good To Know Yuh – a Woody Guthrie Story. Check out his video of the song.

    Inspirations for the Song

    Guthrie took the melody for “Dusty Old Dust” from Carson Robison’s “Ballad of Billy the Kid.” But the chorus was Guthrie’s original work. Below is Marty Robbins singing “Ballad of Billy the Kid.”

    When Guthrie wrote “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You,” Guthrie was still a young man in his early 20’s yet to do most of his travels.  Despite his youth, his song shows a skill in using a happy-sounding song to express subtle anger.

    Guthrie remembered local townspeople who raised prices to capitalize on the natural disaster.  And he recalled the response of Preacher McKenzie, who “could not read a word of his text,/An’ he folded his specs, an’ he took up collection.”

    Recordings

    Years after Guthrie left Texas and ended up in New York City, he recorded the song for an album, Dust Bowl Ballads.

    Later, Guthrie wrote another version of the song specifically about World War II. This other version included the lyrics, “So it won’t be long till the fascists are gone/ And all of their likes are finished and done.” Here is Guthrie singing the WWII version of the song.

    As is the case with many of Guthrie’s songs, “So Long” seems like a tune I have known since birth.  So I cannot remember when I first heard it. It just always was there.

    Like many people, my introduction to “So Long” probably came through the Weavers, who polished up the song with some harmonies. The group, including Pete Seeger, also performed the song in a B-movie musical, Disc Jockey (1951).

    So long, but only for now.

    What’s your favorite version of “So Long”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

    [Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Rob Tepper is the same Robert Tepper who sang the theme song from Rocky IV. Thanks to Julian Tepper for the correction.]

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    Peter Paul & Mary: El Salvador

    On today’s date of February 19 in 1981, the United States government released a report claiming an El Salvador insurgency came from aggression by communists. The report prompted the U.S. government under new President Ronald Reagan to begin to address the perceived threat. The U.S. then assisted the government of El Salvador against rebels by sending money and advisers to the country.

    Through the 1980s, the U.S. government spent more and more money on El Salvador. Still, violence and instability continued in El Salvador, with many accusations of torture, kidnapping, and assassination on both sides.

    Although Peter, Paul & Mary are best-known for the songs they recorded in the 1960s, they still made some excellent music later in their career. One of their late-career highlights is “El Salvador,” which they recorded in 1982 soon after the U.S. report and the escalations in that country.

    In the song “El Salvador,” written by “Paul” — i.e., Noel Paul Stookey, the trio helped bring attention to the continuing atrocities in that country and the involvement of the U.S. government in the mess. Stookey and the other singers were surprised to sometimes hear booing when they sang the song, which later appeared on Songs of Conscience and Concern (1999). Here, Peter, Paul & Mary perform “El Salvador” at their 25th Anniversary Concert in 1986 — without any booing.

    At the end of the song, the trio asked a question:

    peter paul and mary songs of conscience and concern

    They’ll continue training troops in the USA,
    And watch the nuns that got away,
    And teach the military bands to play South of the Border,
    And kill the people to set them free;
    Who put this price on their liberty?
    Don’t you think it’s time to leave
    El Salvador?

    In 1992, the United Nations and Costa Rica President Oscar Arias helped negotiate a deal between the warring parties in El Salvador. Although a U.N. commission condemned the U.S.’s involvement in Salvadoran military atrocities, then U.S. President George H.W. Bush claimed that the peace was a result of the U.S.’s long fight against communism El Salvador.

    But today even the U.S. Department of State website recognizes the problems: “During the 12-year civil war, human rights violations by both the government security forces and left-wing guerillas were rampant.”

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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