This song was introduced to me in 11th grade by way of a mixtape that my then girlfriend made for me. It has always cracked me up and it mostly just seems silly. Taking a deeper look into it, I now realize it was synched up with a pretty entertaining scene from the film, Easy Rider (see below) which is now on my list must see movies. “Bird Song” was written and performed by a psychedelic folk group who originally formed in the early 1960s, The Holy Modal Rounders. I am not all that familiar with them and maybe after posting this, I’ll change that.

Without question today’s lesser known animal is a bird, the rainbow lorikeet, a species of parrot found in Australia and Tasmania. Its bright display of feathers comes quite close to covering all the colors of the rainbow, with the possible exception of turquoise. We can let our imaginations fill in that one.

This song may provide our imaginations with a boost as it definitely invokes a naive and simple nature of children and basically suggests that really all you gotta do is go ahead give things a shot. Sounds good to me. I suppose we could all use a little silly encouragement to forget the things we think we know about ourselves and take a leap. Who knows, we may just have wings. When you’re ready for some free flying lessons, throw on “Bird Song”, spread your wings and fly.

More info about rainbow lorikeets:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_lorikeet

More info about The Holy Modal Rounders:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Modal_Rounders

“Bird Song” by The Holy Modal Rounders