tweeting birds

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on a beach boys thread i professed a liking for At My Window. I think it was Dr C who criticized this choice, with the killing putdown of 'its got TWEETING BIRDS'

but thats why i like it! i love Piano Magic's Wintersport/Crosscountry for much the same reason. so, are records with tweeting birds on any good? and what are your favourites (suggestions gratefully receieved for my forthcoming tweeting birds mixtape)

― gareth, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my mum and dad have lots of tapes of bird song which they recorded off classic fm before it was classic fm (when they were testing it out, and all it played all day long was bird song). but its just bird song, not really tunes or anything, obviously.

so a bit redundant.

― ambrose, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There are a number of great tracks with tweeting birds, "Ripples" by Trembling Blue Stars, "Sketch for Summer" by Durutti Column, "Avenue" by St Etienne (right at the end).

― MarkH, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can't pinpoint the exact track(s), but there must be some tweeting birds on The Orb's "Adventures beyond the Ultraworld". An ambient double-cd without tweeting birds ain't no ambient opus stonus.

― Omar, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There are tweeting birds on TVP's 'i know where syd barrett lives'. Funny, 'cause at the end, the birds are tweeting for a while and he just goes 'aw, shut up!'.

Off the top of my head, other tweeting birds songs are Badly Drawn Boy's 'Epitaph' and the Beatles' 'Across the Universe'.

― alex in montreal, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Obviously: Aaliyah's "One In A Million".

Not quite but close: chirruping crickets on Monolake's _Hong Kong_ album

― Tim, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Kinks - End of the Season.

Can I have a copy of your tweeting tape?

― Nick, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aavikko! I think the track is "Krakovan Niityt", but it might be "Samojedien Keskuudessa". Tape loops of birds chirping triggered in time (er, approximately) to deranged Finnish lo-fi circus music reconstructed on dodgy 80s My First Casio beaten to within an inch of its life. Completely fantastic. Erm, in my opinion. I'm sure there are more personal favourites but I can't think of any others offhand.

I think I like it. At least, I like it on that track, and I can't think of any songs I actively dislike it on. However, if Peel plays one more song by that birdsong imitator I may have to throw rocks at my radio.

A friend of mine's done a great track with some synth-reconstructed seagull noises on. He says he got the idea from another song he liked. The first track's unfinished and unreleased and I can't remember where the idea was from, so no possibility for recommendations there, but I think I'm pro-seagull-noises on records.

― Rebecca, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Er... the whole of one episode of Bod (Bod And Breakfast) has birds tweeting throughout it, for no reason whatsoever except I guess it's set on a farm. Great music, though - courtesy of that underrated genius of children's song Derek Griffiths.

Oh, and Quasi's 'Featuring Birds' finishes with bird song. And it's a great bloody album, a thousand zillion times better than Elliott Smith (the two acts share musicians) - so there!

― Jerry, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a tape with nothing but tweeting birds. BBC, c.1984. It's nice. It taught me to recognize a chaffinch, if nothing else.

Bizarre birdsong sideline: about 8 years ago they were testing a radio station signal for London, before launch, and the test involved broadcasting perpetual birdsong from a park somewhere. At least that was the sense I made of it. Anyone else remember this? It was one of my oddest ever sonic experiences.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh all bloody right then - since I've been namechecked as a prime influence in this thread of threads I may as well join in with : XTC "Senses Working Overtime".

This, however, has ROOKS on it (at the end) and they don't TWEET. They CAW. So this in no way invalidates my 100% hatred of all songs with tweeting birds. The birds on End of The Season also don't TWEET, they TWITTER which is just about OK.

By the way, in-depth analysis (a couple of plays) by leading music experts (er, me) of the Sunflower/Surf's Up two-fer has revealed that Al Jardine had a hand in an even worse song than At My Window - the utterly grotesque Take a Load Off Your Feet.

So if I had some bullets I'd spare the tweeting birds and pump a dozen rounds into the hapless Mr. Jardine.

― Dr. C, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Much in favor of crickets, instead. XTC again: "Summer's Cauldron."

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oooh... Derek and the Dominoes "Thorntree in My Garden" or something like that

and Paul McCartney's something or other either in the Beatles or by himself... or was it John?

And I don't suppose Messiaen counts? Or Eric Dolphy?

― Mickey Black Eyes, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dr C's post reminded me that there is cawing by rooks, or possibly crows (some member of the Corvidae anyway, ornithology fans) at the beginning of "Sixth continent" by the Blue Aeroplanes.

― MarkH, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Seagull noises = 'Ask' by Them Smiths. (The Pinefox is clearly slipping.)

― stevie t, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, but seagulls don't tweet. When the session version of 'What Difference Does It Make?' finished, John Peel the comment 'Ah, the cry of seagulls' in reference to Morrissey's 'controversial' vocalisations on the outro. I always wondered whether the seagull noise on 'Ask' was an in-joke prompted by this.

N.B. I wasn't actually listening to this broadcast at the age of 10. I have it on a tape somewhere.

― Nick, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

pinefox doesnt like my posts! 8 years ago, that *was* the classic fm testing...it went on for ages.

i'll ask the parents where their tapes are,. they also have the video "birds of great britain" if you are interested

― ambrose, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they also have the video "birds of great britain" if you are interested

I think I have that one, Ambrose. It came in a two-fer set with 'Big n' Busty Vol. III'

― Nick, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Chris Watson's 'Outside the Circle of Fire' includes a number of field recordings of exotic birdsong, as well as the sound of a leopard snoring.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If yer going exotica, can't forget Martin Denny - his birdcalls are beautiful...

― Jason, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seem to recall that Ariel M's version of Last Caress has birdsong on it...

I am particularly partial to Jonathan Richman's mimicry of birdsong on the uber-twee Buzz Buzz Buzz, but perhaps that's not entirely what you're looking for...

(oh, and I used to end one of my band's songs with some preset birdsong voice on the keyboard, but let's not go into that)

― emil.y, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Seagulls don't tweet, but I want more tracks with seagull noises, so as far as I'm concerned the seagull track recommendations are very welcome. (Sorry, Gareth, not really trying to steal your thread!)

I was going to post to the other thread going, "Yeah, Sueno Latino has lots of cricket noises," but now I listen to it to check I don't think there are any. I am officially going mad. There's that owly sort of noise, though, so I'm mentioning it here instead. Well, some variety of bird. I don't know, my bird identification skills are somewhat lacking. I tend to say things which make my mother think something really unusual has visited her birdtable and then after half an hour spent consulting a Collins Gem Guide to Birds confess that it was actually your bog-standard sparrow type thing.

― rebecca, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

1. Ambrose - sorry, missed you. I didn't know it was pre-recorded - but I suppose it must have been. It was a very strange experience for me. Birds in the real summer world outside, birds on the radio.

2. Stevie: Yes, I am slipping. No, I am not blind.

3. The 'Ask' seagulls are a bit apocryphal, really, no? I mean, we all think they're seagulls, but they're not real seagulls. And nothing in the song suggests seagulls either.

4. Lemonheads, 'Seagulls Aren't Free'.

― the pinefox, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

synthetic tweeting on 'Morgenspaziergang' - or is that twittering?

― youn, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pink Floyd, "Cirrus Minor" and "Grantchester Meadows", among others.

― Phil, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no i dont think it was pre recorded or anything, they just sort of broadcast the sounds of the birds outside, or something. is that preposterous? i dont understand about radio/waves/broadcasting things

ed would know. where is he?

― ambrose, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the hidden track on beck's 'mutations', where all the music is whirled away to tweety bird noises, and then comes rushing back. i meant to mention that song on the millennium thread.

― ethan, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

Piano Magic- "You and John are Birds". While playing this mp3 for the first time a few minutes ago, there were genuine, honest-to-goodness, real life Chirping Boids outside my windows- so I had to spend a little while playing and pausing the song trying to figure out if the chirping was emanating from the speakers or the garden.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven years pass...

I just had a weird run of these listening to stuff on shuffle. Anyway what I've found so far:

Los Mirlos- "La Danza de Los Mirlos"
OOIOO- "return to NOW!!!"
Colleen- "Everyone Alive Wants Answers"
Yosi Horikawa- "Wandering"
Os Mutantes- "Adeus Maria Fulô"
Bomba Estereo- "Pajaros"
Paavoharju- "Tuoksu tarttuu meihin"

So I'm going to stop looking since I have gone insane and hear tweeting in basically everything now.

― o_o, Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:47 (thirteen years ago)

isn't there some jeff beck song where he duets with a real bird of some sort?
also, ltj bukem used to use that loon call a lot.....
also, when is this mixtape getting made?

― m0stlyClean, Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:59 (thirteen years ago)

One of my favorite tracks from The Verve, Twilight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOJBuWLuYzY

― bodacious ignoramus, Sunday, 5 May 2013 23:34 (thirteen years ago)

Chris Hughes - Slow Motion Blackbird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrZawHxzIdA

― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Sunday, 5 May 2013 23:41 (thirteen years ago)

isn't there some jeff beck song where he duets with a real bird of some sort?

Would you accept a minute of Kate Bush instead?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJq0dGHPss

― Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 7 May 2013 03:08 (thirteen years ago)

three months pass...

Northern Picture Library - "Skylight" (towards the end)
Jessica Lea Mayfield - "Tell Me" (nicely incorporated throughout)
Memphis - "For Anyone Eighteen"
Enon - "Colette" (short break towards the end)
The Imagined Village - "The Lark in the Morning"
Future Islands - ""Little Dreamer"
XTC - "Summer's Cauldron" (cricket noises too)
Baths - "Rain Smell"
Epic45 - "For Virginia Astley" (instrumental)
Animal Collective - "Baleen Sample" (am I hearing that right?)
Always - "Park Row" (instrumental)

I always thought there were seagulls in "Tomorrow Never Knows" but further research sez it's laughter

Anyone ever heard a Wagon Christ song built on seagull samples?

― zaxxon25, Saturday, 31 August 2013 18:42 (twelve years ago)

minnie riperton "lovin' you" obv

― dyl, Saturday, 31 August 2013 21:00 (twelve years ago)

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