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And Your Bird Can Sing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "And Your Bird Can Sing" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Revolver | ||
| Released | August 5, 1966 | |
| Recorded | April 6-June 21, 1966 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2:01 | |
| Label | Parlophone | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon-McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Revolver track listing | ||
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"And Your Bird Can Sing" is a song by the The Beatles, released on their 1966 album Revolver (in the UK and on Yesterday...and Today in the U.S. The songwriting credit is Lennon/McCartney, though the song was written solely by John Lennon. The working title was "You Don't Get Me". The song, with references to "green birds", "prized possessions," and "seven wonders" seems to be an inspired psychedelic vision of reality. Lennon was later very harsh on the song, referring to it as "another of my throwaways",[1] "fancy paper around an empty box". Though Lennon's judgement is hard on the song, it endures as one of The Beatles' many vibrant and inventive works from this period, and a favourite of fans.
The song itself has a guitar sound similar to that found on the rest of Revolver, and a dual-harmony lead guitar intro played by George Harrison and Paul McCartney (along with his usual bass guitar contributions).
A Byrds-like version of the song featuring 12-string guitar was recorded on April 20, 1966, but this was scrapped and the group recorded the album version on April 26.[2] This rejected version is heard on the Anthology 2 album, and features a vocal track in which Lennon and McCartney are giggling hysterically. While the Anthology liner notes do not indicate why they are laughing, some have suggested that they were under the influence of marijuana at the time of recording.
A number of incidents have been proposed as inspirations for the song's cryptic lyrics. Prior to the Revolver sessions, Lennon had received a singing mechanical caged bird as a gift from his first wife Cynthia, which he took as a horrible metaphor of his unhappy marriage. While high on marijuana, McCartney had reportedly jotted down that the secret of life was in "seven levels" ("seven wonders" in the song), which later became a joke with the group. The song is also sometimes said to be a message from John to Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in reference to Jagger's pop star girlfriend ("bird" in slang) Marianne Faithfull. The popular Beatles-influenced band The Jam covered this song as a B-side. The Georgia-based college band Guadalcanal Diary also covered this song, released as a CD bonus track on their 1987 album 2X4. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs covered it on their 2006 album Under the Covers, Vol. 1. Jack Black used its opening riff for inspiritation in a fight against Satan at each show of the Tenacious D 2006-2007 Tour.
Contents |
- ^ David Sheff, All We Are Saying, p. 180
- ^ Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 22, 24
- Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song, Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 0-06-095065-X