And Your Bird Can Sing?

Okay. I know. I am STILL not done with Here, There and Everywhere- hot and awesome Beatle book by Geoff Emerick (and Howard Massey). But this has been tickling my brain for quite some many years and yesterday I saw something that turned my casual intrigue into obsessive need to blog about it. About what, you ask?

Lennon, McCartney and birds.

Those Len/Macca boys wrote a couple songs about birds. One of my faves happens to be the Anthology  version of And Your Bird Can Sing because, let's face it, John and Paul laughing is the cutest thing EVER.

The thing that started me on this whole business in the first place comes from Anthology. Rumor has it that Paul, while recording Free as a Bird (bird?) saw John Lennon's ghost in the form of a white peacock.

Okay, let me back up and explain, if you aren't crazy and don't know the background. John Lennon told people that if he ever died, he would send a white feather to show that he was around or something. Julian Lennon even started the White Feather Foundation in the spirit of this to save the planet.

Dad once said to me that should he pass away, if there was some way of letting me know he was going to be ok - that we were all going to be ok - the message would come to me in the form a white feather. Then something happened to me about ten years ago when I was on tour in Australia. I was presented with a white feather by an Aboriginal tribal elder, which definitely took my breath away. One thing for sure is that the white feather has always represented peace to me.

Julian Lennon, 2009

So hearing all of this, I started noticing that there was a lot of birdness surrounding the Beatle boys. I also noticed that John tended to dress in white a lot and Yoko in black, yin and yang like. Guess what I also noticed.... so did John and Paul.

So in this theory, if John were a white bird wouldn't that make Paul a black bird? Singing in the dead of night? Perhaps?

ANYWAY, Paul's song "This One" from the album Flowers in the Dirt came across my YouTube stalking ways yesterday. And Lo and Friggin' Behold.....



Now, another thing strikes me about this video... the reference to India.

Then there's the whole eye thing that I'm not even going to get into, nor that Flowers in the Dirt seems to reference Sgt. Pepper because that'll just make me look crazy like I look too far into things *nervous laugh*... And if we are to assume that MAYBE Paul might have been referencing to John, then the lyrics... well...

THIS ONE Written and composed by Paul McCartney

THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

DID I EVER TAKE YOU IN MY ARMS,
LOOK YOU IN THE EYE, TELL YOU THAT I DO?
DID I EVER OPEN UP MY HEART,
LET YOU LOOK INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING ABOVE THE OCEAN,
A GOD IS RIDING UPON HIS BACK.
HOW CALM THE WATER AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW
FADE THIS ONE TO BLACK.

DID I EVER TOUCH YOU ON THE CHEEK,
SAY THAT YOU WERE MINE, THANK YOU FOR THE SMILE?
DID I EVER KNOCK UPON YOUR DOOR
AND TRY TO GET INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING ABOVE THE OCEAN,
A GOD IS RIDING UPON HIS BACK.
HOW CALM THE WATER AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW
FADE THIS SWAN TO BLACK.

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DID WE ALLOW TO FLOW BY
FEELING LIKE THE TIMING WASN'T QUITE RIGHT?
WHAT KIND OF MAGIC MIGHT HAVE WORKED IF WE HAD STAYED CALM,
COULDN'T I HAVE GIVEN YOU A BETTER LIFE?

DID YOU EVER TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS,
LOOK ME IN THE EYE, TELL ME THAT YOU DO?
DID I EVER OPEN UP MY HEART,
LET YOU LOOK INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING (is gliding)
ABOVE THE OCEAN, (above the ocean)
A GOD IS RIDING (a god is riding
UPON HIS BACK. (on his back)
HOW CALM THE WATER (calm the water)
AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW (bright the rainbow
FADE THIS SWAN TO BLACK.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING, OOH -
A GOD IS RIDING, OOH -
HOW CALM THE WATER,
BRIGHT, BRIGHT THE RAINBOW, OOH -.

Maybe he was only waiting for this moment to be free? As a bird? So who knows. Alls I'm saying is that John and Paul might've had a bird thing....

Now if I could only remember the name of that band that Paul started after The Beatles....