And Your Bird Can Sing

Infobox Song
Name = And Your Bird Can Sing


Artist = The Beatles
Album = Revolver
Released = 5 August 1966
track_no = 9
Recorded = Abbey Road Studios 20 April; 26 April 1966
Genre = Rock
Length = 2:01
Writer = Lennon/McCartney
Label = Parlophone
Producer = George Martin
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Revolver
Type = studio
Tracks = ;Side one
# "Taxman"
# "Eleanor Rigby"
# "I'm Only Sleeping"
# "Love You To"
# "Here, There and Everywhere"
# "Yellow Submarine"
# "She Said She Said";Side two
# "Good Day Sunshine"
# "And Your Bird Can Sing"
# "For No One"
# "Doctor Robert"
# "I Want to Tell You"
# "Got to Get You Into My Life"
# "Tomorrow Never Knows"

"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". Lennon was later dismissive of the song, referring to it as "another of my throwaways...fancy paper around an empty box". [David Sheff, "All We Are Saying", p. 180]

History

The song, a hard-edged rocker, is memorable for its circular, dual-harmony guitar riff played by George Harrison and John Lennon.

A version of the song featuring a Roger McGuinn -Byrds sounding Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, especially in the opening riff, was recorded on April 20, 1966, but this was scrapped and the group recorded the album version on April 26. [Mark Lewisohn, "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions", p. 22, 24] This rejected version is heard on the "Anthology 2" album, and features a vocal track in which Lennon and McCartney are giggling hysterically. The "Anthology" liner notes do not indicate why they are laughing, claiming that the tapes do not indicate the source of the laughter. However, somewho have suggested that the group was under the influence of marijuana at the time.

A number of incidents have been suggested to have been inspirations for the song's cryptic lyrics.

• One popular belief is that the song is a teasing jibe by Lennon at his friend Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in reference to Jagger's pop star girlfriend ("bird" in British slang of the era) Marianne Faithfull.

• 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.

• According to an unsourced claim by the author Jonathan Gould, in a 2007 book, "Can't Buy Me Love", "bird" was a popular term that Frank Sinatra used to describe himself or others, and that Lennon wrote the song in response to an official press release promoting a Sinatra TV special as a show for those who were "tired of kid singers wearing mops of hair thick enough to hide a crate of melons." Without citing any source for his claim, Gould states that that Lennon was also dismayed that Sinatra won Grammys for Best Album and Best Male Vocalist in 1965 over the Beatles' "Rubber Soul", or Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited". Gould asserts that Lennon's lyrics "Tell me that you've heard every sound there is, and your bird can swing. But you can't hear me. You can't hear me." were a response. No Lennon biography or Lennon quotation is cited to substantiate Gould's theory.

Credits

* John Lennon – lead vocal, rhythm guitar, handclaps
* Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass, handclaps
* George Harrison – harmony vocal, lead guitar, handclaps
* Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine

Covers

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 inspiration in a fight against Satan at each show of the Tenacious D 2006-2007 Tour. Les Fradkin has a snappy instrumental version on his 2005 CD "While My Guitar Only Plays".

First Issued

*US: Yesterday . . . and Today - June 20, 1966
*UK: Revolver - August 5, 1966

Notes

References

* Turner, Steve. "A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song", Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 0-06-095065-X
* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/aybcs.html Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "And Your Bird Can Sing"]
* [http://www.snopes.com] Guitar Man.

External links