Lord Reith wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 10:10 pm
I have always hated the song Surfin' Bird since I was 10 years old.
Dude!! The Trashmen! This was their big hit. They have bunches of other songs, too. But this was their claim to fame. Yeah, it's annoying. More than that, it's senseless. The words mean less than nothing. But, the beat, man. The vibe. This is so out there. No, I'm not going to convince you of anything here. Nor do I need to.
My love for this song is tied to my Dad's love for this song, and songs like it. I have an ethereal musical bond to the songs he grew up with, to the artists he grew up with. We have this connection and can refer to it frequently in our conversations.
In the grand pantheon of great bands, The Trashmen is right up there at about #10,006 or so. But the memories that Surfin' Bird elicits are priceless.
However, that said...it's a rude awakening to hear that in place of what would have otherwise been a much more priceless recording of The Beatles Live.
And I have another anecdote.
In the 80's, the local classic rock radio station here was called, KLSX 97.1. Classic rock came into being in the mid 1980's here in SoCal. Every night on KLSX they had a program called, "Album Archives." At midnight they would track an album all the way through. I would faithfully be stationed by my stereo, with my tape recorder at the ready to collect yet another classic album. Well....one night the DJ was asleep at the wheel (or was he?...) Halfway through an album he cued up, "Heard It In A Love Song" (Marshall Tucker) came bursting through the speakers, polluting the otherwise serene night, and destroying the vibe. And my tape recording, too. Not only did it shatter the mood, it shattered the night, shattered my high. Damn near shattered all the glass in the apartment. An awful shock. This same kind of shock is certainly visited on the Beatles recording by the entirely unwelcome presence of Surfin' Bird.
But I still love Surfin' Bird. The bird is the word, man!