"Two hours later, they had written their magnum opus, which became the opening track of their debut album.... [W]ith its imagery of a 'white bird in a golden cage' who 'must fly, or she will die,' the song encapsulated a longing by the flower-power generation to escape a conformist life and soar toward a loftier plane of existence. The song lived on, but the romance between the LaFlammes did not.... 'What we didn’t realize,' Ms. LaFlamme once said... 'is that we were connected so musically that we were not connected in the sense that you would say, married people had this love....'"
What was the "loftier plane of existence" described in that song? Meade and I had entirely different impressions (dating back half a century). Tell me yours and I'll fill you in on ours later.
Never heard the song, but I was 8. They were trying to reach Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds so they could kick her in the ass, but she got the first blow and knocked them off their horse onto the grass.
I saw It’s a Beautiful Day perform - including 'White Bird' of course - in Berkeley in the summer of '69; 4th of July weekend, as I recall. It was the early days and Berkeley was fantastic then. They were in a parking lot just off Telegraph Av ("The Av") and they were performing from a flat bed truck. It was a groovelicious Berkeley scene. There was a naked guy on the truck, dancing off to the side of the band. Freshly arrived in the Bay Area, this Iowa boy's mind was blown.
I don't have much of a memory of that group. Back then I was still groovin' on AM radio hits. A loftier plane of existence would have had something to do with the consumption of Budweiser.
I do not recall ever hearing this. During the hippie heyday I was a kid who had just discovered JSB was much more than a piano exercise. Consequently, my music-listening hours were dominated by other material, and my allowance was being large spent on Archiv pressings at Sam Goody's.
I never heard of the song or the band. In 1969 I was wearing army dress greens and was an EM in the Pentagon. My impression of late 1960s and early 1970s hippies was that they claimed to be against conformity, but within their hippie culture they conformed to a (different) set of noms to an amazing degree. You could tell a hippie chick a half mile off (and she could tell from our short hair, clean-shaven face, and short sideburns that we were soldiers).
RIP. Unlike Iman I liked the song and actually owned 2 or 3 "It's a Beautiful Day" albums. Choice Quality Stuff/Anytime was rockier but probably the one that got played the most.
"Hot Summer Day" was on the same album. It has a similar vibe. I am surprised to see so many negative comments about "White Bird." I liked it.
From the Wiki: "Where the 'white bird' thing came from ... We were like caged birds in that attic. We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable. We were just barely getting by on a very small food allowance provided to us. It was quite an experience, but it was very creative in a way."
I liked that album. I have it recorded on reel-to-reel tape. Put a lot of effort into building that library but haven't played them in many, many years. I assume they're trash now.
I liked it enough that I bought their second album, "Marrying Maiden." That album has a song called "Let a Woman Flow" which has the creepiest lyrics ever. I just pulled it up and couldn't listen to it for more than about 15 seconds.
I listened to AM radio in SoCal from around 1967 until the early Seventies, and never heard this one. I didn't miss much, but at least it's not "How Do You Do" by Mouth & McNeal...
This song and “Get Together” by the Youngbloods were much disliked at my high school.
We had a tight end on the varsity team who announced that Get Together song had to be the Song of the Year, given Nixon’s War and all the recent assassinations and protests. The kid got the sh*t kicked out of him and finished the football season as a wide receiver.
White Bird got a lot of airplay on the local free form radio station when I was young. Hot Summer Day and Girl With No Eyes from that album as well.
One thing I noticed, the beginning of the song Bombay Calling sounds very similar to the start of Deep Purple's Child in Time, released less than a year later. In 1995, Deep Purple put out a live record called...Bombay Calling.
"The Cracker Emcee Refulgent That song is burned in my mind when, as a newly horny 13 year-old, it played while the girls who took the P.E. Dance elective did their thing."
We had split lunch. Girls P.e.class on trampoline in gym with glass windows facing courtyard always drew a crowd
I remember that song from when I was a high school senior in 1972. IABD was a one hit wonder, but it was a good song. Like many one hit wonders from that period.
Sounds like a I-VIIb-IV-I chord progression, which is the go-to chord progression for everything from wistful folkie-esque longing (this song) to psychedelic tripping out (Traffic, Dear Mr Fantasy) to full-bore revolution rock (the Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again, the chord gets embellished a fair amount as the song goes on, but the basic progression is always in there somewhere).
But the noodly guitar loses it for me; discipline is important. Lyrically, gets rather boring really fast. Some decent vocal harmonies though; their voices are complementary.
I think I saw them in Sacramento that summer. It was in an old grocery store that had been converted into a concert venue. Pretty sure that’s who I’m thinking of.
Along with the first King Krimson album, It’s a Beautiful Day was one of the great LSD albums. Both played endlessly at every college LSD party of the era. I always loved “White Bird,” and knew the LaFlamme’s. It’s been decades since I listened to the album. I don’t know what I would think of it today.
I bought the album sometime during high school. After the angry music about Viet Nam I loved this folksy, quieter music . Then a friend of mine went to one of their concerts and told me it was the loudest music he had ever heard; he could hardly listen to it.
Organisms have evolved to assess their environments, and make adjustments to address those aspects that are not conducive to growth. Organisms that are good at this, grow. From a human perspective, this means that the world is full of things we perceive to be making us unhappy. It would then seem to follow, that if those things can be eliminated, happiness must, necessarily, follow. Yet this is not true. Our desires are not a reliable guide to happiness. So then, what is, or might be? (The cage).
"Meade and I had entirely different impressions (dating back half a century). Tell me yours and I'll fill you in on ours later."
Meade said he'd always understood the white bird to be the symbol of peace, so the white bird in the cage and unable to fly represented the absence of peace in the world.
I thought the white bird — "White bird must fly/Or she will die" — represents a female human being who cannot live in domestication but must be free. It was, to me, one of many songs of that era that preached against marriage and permanence.
I saw them perform this in the Music Hall in Boston in the fall of 1970, having just arrived in Boston - well, Cambridge - for my start at M.I.T. They were on a twin bill with The Flock. I loved the song (and still do). I thought she was gorgeous and had a wonderful voice. I thought that the white bird just symbolized people in general and how you had to break free of externally imposed restraints in order to be free to reach your own potential.
A year later I saw her sing with the Grateful Dead. Fantastic voice as usual.
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60 comments:
I hated that song, but RIP.
By loftier I take it to mean they want Hells Kitchen high ceilings in their SOHO place.
Never heard the song, but I was 8.
They were trying to reach Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds so they could kick her in the ass, but she got the first blow and knocked them off their horse onto the grass.
So much of creativity is recognizing happy accidents.
I love that it's basically a garage band, and they had a huge hit with that setup.
I saw It’s a Beautiful Day perform - including 'White Bird' of course - in Berkeley in the summer of '69; 4th of July weekend, as I recall. It was the early days and Berkeley was fantastic then. They were in a parking lot just off Telegraph Av ("The Av") and they were performing from a flat bed truck. It was a groovelicious Berkeley scene. There was a naked guy on the truck, dancing off to the side of the band. Freshly arrived in the Bay Area, this Iowa boy's mind was blown.
If I thought of anything when I heard the song, it would have been about dove hunting, and the end of peace in the Middle East if I shot a white dove.
The bird represented freedom to me, but I was only 13. I thought the whole hippie movement was about freedom to explore.
It was popular with weed smokers back in the day. A nice record to put on the turntable on a lazy Sunday morning.
I don't have much of a memory of that group. Back then I was still groovin' on AM radio hits. A loftier plane of existence would have had something to do with the consumption of Budweiser.
I do not recall ever hearing this. During the hippie heyday I was a kid who had just discovered JSB was much more than a piano exercise. Consequently, my music-listening hours were dominated by other material, and my allowance was being large spent on Archiv pressings at Sam Goody's.
One hit wonder.
Just to be certain, I looked up the lyrics, and my interpretation remains mundane: bird wants out but can't get out. Sad.
Alternatively, it encapsulates the lived experience of white American women longing to escape the rules and requirements of the Patriarchy. Also sad.
Imma go with the bird theory.
I never heard of the song or the band. In 1969 I was wearing army dress greens and was an EM in the Pentagon. My impression of late 1960s and early 1970s hippies was that they claimed to be against conformity, but within their hippie culture they conformed to a (different) set of noms to an amazing degree. You could tell a hippie chick a half mile off (and she could tell from our short hair, clean-shaven face, and short sideburns that we were soldiers).
RIP. Unlike Iman I liked the song and actually owned 2 or 3 "It's a Beautiful Day" albums. Choice Quality Stuff/Anytime was rockier but probably the one that got played the most.
I was too busy listening to The Beach Boys, Beatles, Moody Blues, and miscellaneous others. Make of it what you will.
As Bart Simpson expressed it, "Great [song], Grampa. Could've used a vampire though. Night."
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/99bceb51-af1d-4454-848f-7dbf9977a487
For the record, I did not like this song. It bothered me then and it bothers me now.
Too mushy.
I join in with those of you who were in the 12-14 age range when this came out, who never heard of this song or this band.
"Hot Summer Day" was on the same album. It has a similar vibe. I am surprised to see so many negative comments about "White Bird." I liked it.
From the Wiki: "Where the 'white bird' thing came from ... We were like caged birds in that attic. We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable. We were just barely getting by on a very small food allowance provided to us. It was quite an experience, but it was very creative in a way."
Never trust a soi-disant non-conformist.
👀
I think that means you understand it. It's about the thing we never lost, and can never get back.
That song is burned in my mind when, as a newly horny 13 year-old, it played while the girls who took the P.E. Dance elective did their thing.
I liked that album. I have it recorded on reel-to-reel tape. Put a lot of effort into building that library but haven't played them in many, many years. I assume they're trash now.
"It bothered me then and it bothers me now". What bothered / bothers you about it ?
I thought it was a pretty song about a bird wanting to be free.
Did you guys not have AM radio?
I don't know that song, but it's always sad when love LaFlammes out.
There is a video of the much older LaFlammes performing the song with Dr. Elmo's Supersonic Reindeer Band.
R.I.P.
Will she now be riding the great white bird into heaven?
It's a memorable song. It brings to mind cloudy damp weather that you can't escape.
Never heard of the sing or the band but that music hurt my ears.
I liked it enough that I bought their second album, "Marrying Maiden." That album has a song called "Let a Woman Flow" which has the creepiest lyrics ever. I just pulled it up and couldn't listen to it for more than about 15 seconds.
I listened to AM radio in SoCal from around 1967 until the early Seventies, and never heard this one. I didn't miss much, but at least it's not "How Do You Do" by Mouth & McNeal...
What did the gym coach say when he caught you choking’ teh chicken?
Or “gleaming teh tube steak”, as no one said ever…
This song and “Get Together” by the Youngbloods were much disliked at my high school.
We had a tight end on the varsity team who announced that Get Together song had to be the Song of the Year, given Nixon’s War and all the recent assassinations and protests. The kid got the sh*t kicked out of him and finished the football season as a wide receiver.
LSD. I saw plenty of white birds...or maybe that was retinal shocks.
- Krumhorn
Let the white bird roll.
White Bird got a lot of airplay on the local free form radio station when I was young. Hot Summer Day and Girl With No Eyes from that album as well.
One thing I noticed, the beginning of the song Bombay Calling sounds very similar to the start of Deep Purple's Child in Time, released less than a year later. In 1995, Deep Purple put out a live record called...Bombay Calling.
I converted all my 1960s and 1970s music from 7" reel-to-reel tapes to .mp3s.
"The Cracker Emcee Refulgent
That song is burned in my mind when, as a newly horny 13 year-old, it played while the girls who took the P.E. Dance elective did their thing."
We had split lunch. Girls P.e.class on trampoline in gym with glass windows facing courtyard always drew a crowd
We were like caged birds in that attic. We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable.
Sounds like winter in Seattle. Oh, wait. That's exactly what it is.
Airplane, quicksilver, Grateful dead , big brother and all the rest, free concerts at the Panhandle in Golden Gate Park and elsewhere.
I remember that song from when I was a high school senior in 1972. IABD was a one hit wonder, but it was a good song. Like many one hit wonders from that period.
Oh, sure, the bird had to be WHITE. Racist!
Sounds like a I-VIIb-IV-I chord progression, which is the go-to chord progression for everything from wistful folkie-esque longing (this song) to psychedelic tripping out (Traffic, Dear Mr Fantasy) to full-bore revolution rock (the Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again, the chord gets embellished a fair amount as the song goes on, but the basic progression is always in there somewhere).
But the noodly guitar loses it for me; discipline is important. Lyrically, gets rather boring really fast. Some decent vocal harmonies though; their voices are complementary.
4/10, lousy beat and you can’t dance to it ;-)
Around that time I was trying to play like Leo Kottke. Fail.
The loftier plane of existence was invoked by the aspen trees. They had probably visited Boulder
Me too. Epic fail.
That song always takes me back to that time. The album cover was a takeoff on a famous impressionist’s work.
I think I saw them in Sacramento that summer. It was in an old grocery store that had been converted into a concert venue. Pretty sure that’s who I’m thinking of.
Along with the first King Krimson album, It’s a Beautiful Day was one of the great LSD albums. Both played endlessly at every college LSD party of the era. I always loved “White Bird,” and knew the LaFlamme’s. It’s been decades since I listened to the album. I don’t know what I would think of it today.
I bought the album sometime during high school. After the angry music about Viet Nam I loved this folksy, quieter music . Then a friend of mine went to one of their concerts and told me it was the loudest music he had ever heard; he could hardly listen to it.
I bet you guys hate Prog Rock, too!
Organisms have evolved to assess their environments, and make adjustments to address those aspects that are not conducive to growth. Organisms that are good at this, grow.
From a human perspective, this means that the world is full of things we perceive to be making us unhappy. It would then seem to follow, that if those things can be eliminated, happiness must, necessarily, follow. Yet this is not true. Our desires are not a reliable guide to happiness. So then, what is, or might be? (The cage).
"Meade and I had entirely different impressions (dating back half a century). Tell me yours and I'll fill you in on ours later."
Meade said he'd always understood the white bird to be the symbol of peace, so the white bird in the cage and unable to fly represented the absence of peace in the world.
I thought the white bird — "White bird must fly/Or she will die" — represents a female human being who cannot live in domestication but must be free. It was, to me, one of many songs of that era that preached against marriage and permanence.
I saw them perform this in the Music Hall in Boston in the fall of 1970, having just arrived in Boston - well, Cambridge - for my start at M.I.T. They were on a twin bill with The Flock. I loved the song (and still do). I thought she was gorgeous and had a wonderful voice. I thought that the white bird just symbolized people in general and how you had to break free of externally imposed restraints in order to be free to reach your own potential.
A year later I saw her sing with the Grateful Dead. Fantastic voice as usual.
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