Birds in Music: I Gave My Love A Chicken - Playlist 1

I Gave My Love A Chicken

Music is really important to me. I’m not an expert in music in any way, but it makes me happy like the birds do. A couple months ago I thought it would be a good idea to start making a playlist of songs and artists that were influenced by birds. I slowly added to it and then forgot about it until today. A song on my Discover Weekly from Spotify made me think of the playlist again.

I’ve heard certain artists who have tried really hard to incorporate birds and have birds be their main focus in a song and, in my opinion, it’s just sounded really gimmicky. I respect what they’re trying to do and it’s great that they’re trying to give birds more exposure but it’s not my cup of tea. An example would be a song by the Swet Shop Boys named Bird Song. Then there’s Ben Mirin, I want to like his stuff so badly because I love the idea of using bird calls to make beats, but damn it sounds way too gimmicky for me. He makes some Youtube videos showing his process and explaining which bird calls he used, which is pretty cool. I would say give it a listen and you might like it. Again, I give these opinions knowing that I don’t have the skill set to do anything remotely close to what they can do. I do respect what they do. I just prefer more subtle bird motifs.

Ok, back to my playlist. Curating playlists for someone has always been a fun thing to do, especially making mix CD’s before. Taking hours to choose the right songs, then realizing that you don’t own the songs, so you go buy all of them, then putting them all in the correct order so it sounds just right, then giving it to your crush, just hoping they’ll get the hidden meaning you’re trying to tell them from all the songs you specifically chose for them, then waiting to hear a response to see if she feels the same way back, and then she finally says “cool CD”… Good times.

So this playlist is for you, whoever you are reading this.

The Playlist

There isn’t much criteria for these playlists that I plan to make except that there is something bird related with the songs or the artists’ name. It could be as simple as just having the word bird in the title. Also, I have to like the song for it to make it here. I chose to share 7 songs with this first playlist. My friend Rosy also told me awhile ago that I should start naming the playlists that I make, instead of just calling it “playlist 1” and “playlist 2” etc… so this first one is called I Gave My Love A Chicken.

I’ll also talk a little about each song that I chose.

Here’s the link to the Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0SEPSCUN7InNI363TY56ip

You’re going to have to have a Spotify account to listen, unfortunately. If you don’t have one and don’t want to make one, I hope you give some of these a listen from a different platform.

Here’s the list:

  1. The Birds Are Singing At Night by Lord Huron

    This was the song that inspired me to start making this playlist. The Peewee in this song really grabbed my attention. Peewees have always sounded melancholy to me. They just sound so lonely.

  2. January Wedding by The Avett Brothers

    This was my first Avett Brothers song. This is also one of my favorites or possibly my favorite song by them. Just a great song. The lyrics, “She knows which birds are singin'
    And the names of the trees where they're performin' in the mornin”, also just really make me happy.

  3. Hours Were The Birds by Adrianne Lenker

    I haven’t listened to a whole lot by her yet, but I do like some of her stuff that I have listened to and I like the name of this song.

  4. Riddle Song by Doc Watson

    This song is my favorite song of 2019 so far. Riddle song or I Gave My Love A Cherry is an old folk song. I’ve been on a big old time music kick and Doc Watson has been huge for me this year. “I Gave My Love A Chicken”

  5. Satisfied by Woody Pines

    This song was the song that got me thinking about this playlist thing again. I’ve only listened to it a handful of times, but it sounds good and it got me to do something, so it makes it on this list.

  6. The Blackest Crow by Bruce Molksy

    I heard a cover of this song when I first started learning clawhammer banjo about a month and a half ago. Another old folk song, I hope to learn this on the banjo soon.

  7. Winter’s Come and Gone by Gillian Welch

    I haven’t listened to this song a whole lot, but I really like Gillian Welch’s voice. She’s just got such a good old time/ folk voice.

If you’ve got any bird song suggestions, leave a comment.

Happy Birding!

 
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Benjamin Lam