Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Song a Day

Pere Ubu - Birdies

I've been a Pere Ubu fan ever since hey started in the mid-late 70s, and they're still going strong. I did manage to see them live 3 times, and each time it was a tremendous experience. It's difficult to describe their music, singer and head of the band David Thomas just calls it rock music, but it's way different than anything else other bands are plaing. It's a sound all of their own. As they started in the Punk/New Wave era, they were quickly labeled to that, but in reality Thomas was always paving his own road. They're probably the only band in the world that has used the theremin as a regular instrument.

By now Pere Ubu are a rock music legend!

Unfortunately, there's not much of their classic titles available online. The first clip is from the great Urgh! A Music War concert movie, the second clip from a more recent concert. The photo at the bottom is one I took at their Munich concert in 2006.





Birdies

I gotta get holda myself.
I gotta pull myself up by my socks.
I gotta grab myself by the collar and shake!
The birdies are singing.
The birdies are saying what I want to say.

Now watch this close.
(Oh, I should say 'closely.')
Here we go!
The foot goes up.
And the foot goes down.
And so I move along.
And actually get somewhere,
actually get somewhere.
And when the feet,
the big feet get tangled...
Bang!
And I fall down on the ground?
Well, I get back up.
I get right back up!

A tree,
a dog,
a cat,
a house,
a car,
fireplug,
mailman.
Dumpdee dump.
Dumpdee da.
Look at me!
I've got my feet on the ground.
And my head in the air.
And I'm moving along.
The wind's going through.
And my hair's standing straight out behind.
And I'm moving along.
I'm standing up.
And I'm going Some-Where.

No comments: