By Nicko
Aquila audax A-List:
A lot can and has been said about raptors. Science and lore. Objects of wonder and longing for their imperious freedom. Metaphors and similes. Mostly good, sometimes bad (usually bad for vultures and buzzards).
They figure in stories and mythologies from everywhere and all times. Raptors, along with other bird forms, appear frequently as mythical creatures, such as Garuda in Hinduism and Buddhism and as a secular symbol for Asian nations, the North American Thunderbird and Horus with a falcon’s head. Griffins (or, if you like, Gryphons) or those big eagles in Tolkien which didn’t just make things easier by carrying the ring to Mt Doom.
They have some hold on our imagination. None of this would be new, so let’s take flight.
Bird Of Prey (Jim Morrison and The Doors) [magicman]
Bird of prey
Bird of prey
Flying high
Flying high.
We are introduced in short style by Jim who asks to be taken along. First mention of that effortless flight we see as freedom. Fatboy Slim set it to beats. Nommed, it’s fine, but it didn’t fit.
This weekend I found out that wedge-tailed eagles fly at least as high as 7000 metres. The question is: why? It’s such a good thermal they don’t want to quit?
The Great White Sea Eagle (James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra with guest Nina Persson) [DiscoMonster]
Unexpectedly our eyes are lit
By the sight of the eagle
The great white sea eagle
High in the rooftops of the tall unfurling trees
“And do you see it”?
“I saw it, Dadda, I saw it.”
A quiet story of wonder and gratitude at the flight of an eagle. Sadly, this is no picnic. They go from the hospital, it seems a parent and child, to the forest. It’s bleak with realisation of the illness until the sight of the eagle.
The Windhover - Lorcán Mac Mathúna [pejepeine]
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing.
Fanciest language this week. Gerald Manley Hopkins poem written as above. He sees a kestrel and thinks of God. Falcon as Gerry says or kestrel? Same, a kestrel is a small falcon.
Man Walks Among Us - Marty Robbins [TarquinSpodd]
It's an eagle that circles above me
And he screams to his friends on the hill
"Stay close together, move not a feather
Man walks among us, be still, be still
Man walks among us, be still."
I didn’t figure Marty for a greenie. More of a gunfighter, but here is an environmental song. Featuring the eagle eye. Hiding is good, but it won’t help habitat destruction for housing or anything else. A few songs touched on the ‘environmental’ side. I always welcome it.
The Boat Of Millions Of Years - Van der Graaf Generator [TatankaYotanka]
Horus the Good lived in the North
In lands of fertility and beauty
But Set stayed in the hard desert
To him belonged all drought and perversity
While he sheds his tears
Beneath the Boat of Millions of Years
He fights to kill the hawk,
Bearing with him evil and darkness.
But Horus lives with the sun.
This one has hawks but really is about Horus with a falcon’s head. Representing mythological raptors this week. It’s like the Egyptian Book of the Dead. I wonder if it is.
Eagle Man/Changing Woman - Buffy Sainte-Marie [George Boyland]
Eagle man, climbing the skies
Red light of evening falls like rain
Rainbow's my yarn
The sky is my loom
I will weave sunsets later on.
Buffy sings of the eagle man and the changing woman. Perhaps not herself – the ‘Changing Woman’ is a creation spirit for the Navajo. She is Cree but perhaps it applies. She does refer to oldest religions, simple and clear, but I don’t know. Intriguing though.
Saint Jerome in the Desert Observes Hunting Hawks - Them Bird Things [DiscoMonster]
Let us speak
Of the strong and weak
Of flight and appetite
And hawks that hunt
Let us speak
Of rabbits that shriek
And blossoms of blood
Flowering in the air.
Let’s not forget that raptors don’t only inspire wonder or inspiration in flight but tear flesh. Finland’s foremost psych folk combo muse on the killing lives of raptors. I guess Jerome did have plenty of time to observe with all that time in the desert.
L’Aigle Noir - Barbara [ajostu]
Oh, tell me bird, take me away
Let's go back to our old land
Like before in my childish dreams
To pick up, shivering
Some stars, some stars.
This song was voted the third most valued French song in some poll. It sold a million copies in 12 hours in 1970. I had never heard of Barbara who sang it.
She falls asleep by a lake, a black eagle appears touching her cheek. Then she recognises it from the past. It leaves, leaving her with her sorrow. English subtitles on the video.
Her childhood included sexual abuse from her father, but also hiding with her Jewish family from the Nazis. It was scarring and a feeling of emptiness is in many of her songs (thanks, Wiki).
Goaskinviellja [Eagle Brother] - Mari Boine [Traktor Albatrost]
Eagle brother, eagle brother, when, when
When will I be able to fly with you again?
When will I be able to fly with you again?
Far north, under Ursa Major, I saw, I saw
I saw your brothers fly
I saw them enjoy themselves under the clouds
Sámi singer with some voice. That’s half of the lyrics, the rest are about binding the wings, which I don’t understand, but no matter. I’m imagining the eagle soaring in Sápmi skies. There are longer live performances on YT.
Gamen [The Vulture] - Garmarna [Traktor Albatrost]
Then the old vulture came to her
"Let me be your speedy messenger
If I could get food for my young from you,
I could be there in an hour or two."
Some Swedish punky folk about a vulture. Not your traditional negative vulture connotation, but as a messenger. King marries off daughter to a foreign lord, she is shackled after the wedding night for not being a virgin. An old vulture offers to deliver a message to the father. Father comes, father’s horse kicks the foreign lord, killing him. Daughter and king return home.
Where Eagles Dare - Oddjob [untergunther]
Oddjob do a short job of the theme to the movie Where Eagles Dare. Which has an excellent opening of a camouflaged plane flying low over/through snowy mountains to the theme. A few soundtrack songs nommed. All good.
Aquila audax in flight
Vultures - Israel Vibration [Uncleben]
The cat chased the mouse
While the dog raced the cat around the corner
The vultures are waiting, to see the great slaughter
So that they can fly down and clean up after
While the big guys sit up over yonder
Having all the laughter.
There’s aways trouble in Babylon. Here the big guys assemble and laugh. No food for your yard. Babylon chasing after you. Vultures wait to clean up. But push, bredda, stay strong. RIP "Skelly" Spence who died last year.
Carcará - Maria Bethânia [pejepeine]
Caracara!
Catch, kill and eat
Caracara!
It won't die of hunger
Caracara!
More courage than men.
This song almost picks itself as a song about the Caracara. But it’s worthy anyway. Maria is not complimentary of the bird, calling it evil (that’s unfair, Maria). There must be an analogy for the survival of people in the dry sertão of Northeastern Brazil. Details are given of a human population exodus from there by 1950.
Aerie (Gang Of Eagles) - Jefferson Airplane [TarquinSpodd]
How he knows where he's going
Never lost
No one, well there's no one faster
Direction born in his brain.
By the Grace of Slick, here’s another powerful female vocal. The eagle is free, never lost. Humans can’t fly and need guns, but still, we are ‘masters’. Perhaps the eagle symbolism in the human US is part of this. There was eagle decline due to DDT in the 60s (which was banned in the USA in the year of this song) but idiots with guns are always about.
Day Of The Eagle - Robin Trower [Fred Erickson]
Another day, another night
I want to love, they want to fight
I need the time, I got to be alone
I got to meet a lover on my own
I watch for the love
Living in the day of the eagle, eagle not the dove.
The eagle not the dove. Martial not peaceful applies to history mostly, but the song is personal. ‘Eagle Day’ was code for a German plan to knock out British air defences in 1940. Didn’t work. One of the best post-Hendrix trios and I’ve had this album since a teenager.
Eagle Rock - Daddy Cool [ajostu]
I’m gonna turn around once
And do the eagle rock.
I’m not sure how it fits but I’m contractually obliged to list it as an Australian. It’s one of those songs – it’s been in the national ear for ½ a century. Best I could do was include Trower and pin this one to the long outro, but a fun end to a list is OK too, I guess.
Not sure what the eagle rock is. Given how gawky Daddy Cool are in their moves, I don’t think you have to be too slick. There is an old Furry Lewis blues with a verse about his baby being best at the eagle rock, which would be rude of course.
The video includes eagle ‘dancing’. It’s Aquila audax, alliteratively honoured in the name of this list.
The Aquila audax A-List:
Buteo buteo B-List:
The Last Lonely Eagle - New Riders of the Purple Sage [magicman]
And take a last, flying look
At the last lonely eagle
He's soaring the length of the land
Shed a tear for the fate
Of the last lonely eagle.
NRPS bemoan the fate of the eagle. People cutting their hair too. This was 1971, with raptors being poisoned by DDT, which was finally banned in the US in 1972. Perhaps the context. There are now, I read, 25x more Bald Eagles in the mainland USA than in 1970. Only just pipped by Marty Robbins for environmental country song on the A-list.
Thrasher - Neil Young [Uncleben]
Where the eagle flies descending
There’s an ancient river bending.
Neil says this is about his time/troubles with CSN. Lots of images, with eagles ascending and vultures descending swooping the pool. Keenly delivered as only Neil can.
The Redtail Hawk - Kate Wolf & The Wildwood Flower [BanazirGalbasi]
The Redtail Hawk
Writes songs across the skies.
Kate sings a sincere song about the golden rolling hills of California and being alone. Some comfort is found in nature. That’s positive.
Falcon - Richard and Mimi Farina [Loud Atlas]
Oh, the falcon was a pretty bird, wandered as she flew
She danced around and pranced around wherever the warm winds blew
And the falcon was a pretty bird
Her voice was always still
But men with drums and men with guns they taught her how to kill.
There must be a metaphorical element to this. It’s folk, it’s the 60s o war and Vietnam?
The Vultures Fly - Renaissance [Fred Erickson]
The vultures fly high
They circle over us all
The vultures fly high
I'll take your hand if you fall.
Proggy folk, from ex-Yardbird Keith Relf and his sister Jane Relf on vocals and others. Hollow eyes, finding a way to criticise, looking for weakness. The offer of help is there though.
The Falconer - Nico [severin]
The falconer is sitting on his summersand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silver cages
And with a silverdin arise.
Here is the domesticated raptor song of the week. What does it mean? I don’t know. But it’s about a falconer. Droney, John Cale imprint. The run-together words seem deliberate.
Red Kite - Grasscut [untergunther]
There's a red kite flying above the pines
There's a black crow sat on the phone line.
A soaring one about a kite. Everyone was a bird, they say, from a bit of Siegfried Sassoon poetry. A remix is zedded.
Casual Vulture - James Domestic [Carpgate]
‘Cause I’m a casual vulture
I’ll strip away your culture
I’m gonna pick your bones clean.
Electro, deliberately cheap beat but oddly compelling. Only song that rhymed ‘vulture’ with ‘culture’ that I recall.
The Hawk - Superchunk [happyclapper]
Hello hawk, come pick me up
Grab us by the neck
I volunteer as prey.
Chunky song about something about getting out of here.
Eagle Rock - Thee More Shallows [Shoegazer]
Down in the mole hole
Or up on Eagle Rock/
Crushed like a nut
Or saved by dumb luck.
Not much about eagles except the rock perhaps. One for all those geological formations out there called Eagle Rock.
Eagle’s Son - Electric Banana [ShivSidecar]
When you saw the enemy, I heard turned to run
Now your soul flies higher now they've taken away your gun.
(Eagle’s son) x 3
The EB were The Pretty Things in drag. There’s not much detail on the eagle family or much else. A version sung by a rich French playboy called Phillipe Debarge who hired the Things to back him was also nommed. Tried, but couldn’t fit it in the A.
I Was An Eagle - Laura Marling [Maki]
When we were in love (if we were)
When we were in love
I was an eagle
And you were a dove.
This is not a ‘fly like an eagle’ song. It’s about a failed relationship where Laura was the eagle and the other party a dove. She doesn’t seem that apologetic. Ornithologically, a hawk or falcon might have been better – more likely to attack doves.
The Vulture - Gil Scott-Heron [BanazirGalbasi]
Standing in the ruins
Of another Black man's life
Or flying through the valley
That’s separating day and night
"I am death," cried the Vulture
"Yes, for the people of the light."
Viva Super Eagles - Super Eagles [Uncleben]
Gambian heroes of the 60s. Sounds like they are starting with a greeting.
Poem or song. This vulture is the meanest creature ever known. Habitat is the ghetto. A wilderness of heartbreak and a desert of despair.
El Condor Pasa - Los Incas [BanazirGalbasi]
The most whistled too song of the week? It’s a sweetie. Originally composed in 1913 with no plan for Andean instruments, but this is the known version (Simon & Garfunkel zedded).
The Buzzard Song - Miles Davis [ParaMhor]
Instrumental, from Miles’ great reading of the Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess, with Gil Evans arrangements. No vocal version was nommed, but this one is very nice. The buzzard flying overhead was a portent of bad times for Porgy. Not the only superstition involving a raptor.
Buteo buteo B-List:
Gypaetus Guru’s Wildcard List:
I Am Eagle - Xavier Rudd
I can not move your machines
I can not bring back the trees
I cannot have my day in court
Let my voice be heard.
Xavier has indigenous heritage through his Wiradjuri great grandmother. He has passion for indigenous rights and for nature. Here the eagle looks down on the destruction we wrought. Vocals in language by Josh and Kyle Slabb. Bonus raptor whistle.
Dancing (With My Spirit) - Archie Roach
I am flying
With the eagle
Up on the wing
Our voices will ring.
Archie was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man who died last year. Storyteller and national conscience. Stolen from his mother and fostered with a white family, a hard life on urban mean streets, alcoholic, found some redemption.
The title track of an album he said was exploring his spirituality. Recorded in the early ‘90s but released much later. Tiddas doing the vocal backup. Archie’s logo has an eagle in silhouette.
Wings Of An Eagle - Russell Morris
On the wings of an eagle I find myself lifted through the skies
Lifted up above the world to sing
On the wings of an eagle I find myself lifted through the skies
Lifted up above the world to see
Can you see me?
Can you see me?
Tasty Australian soft folky rock from 1973. It’s my favourite ‘wah-hoo’ song.
I read this was inspired by Russell’s love for ancient mythology and how indigenous people and early Romans might believe an eagle took the spirits of the dead to the heavens (following Archie). Perhaps. Our place in nature and helping your brother too.
Vulture - Jana Hunter
I can feel my thoughts a-circling like vultures do
When it comes on
Comes on so strong.
Jana compares her wayward thoughts to a vulture circling in a lovely short song.
Eagle - The Cat Empire
Hold your breath and watch the eagle go, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh.
They use the eagle in flight image. It’s really a love song. A curious one from Harry Angas who is singing here (my favoured of the two TCE singers).
The Vulture - Labi Siffre
They call me The Vulture
‘Cause that’s my name
I fly high
Around the town looking for game.
A grooving confession/brag of a human vulture. Scavenging the bones of broken love. It really isn’t fair to real vultures. I love this one.
Gypaetus Guru’s Wildcard List:
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Talon-spotting? It's songs about raptors. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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