Abubilla Music

Big Old Bird: Background to Song and Lyrics

Written by Jimmy

Updated on Valentines Day 2010:  Not too many songs about IVF and infertility treatment. Oh, the good, bad and ugly that is Abubilla Music.  We promised you demos as we work on the 2010 CD — hopefully we’ll sort out vocals before we put this on a disc!

So I’ll tell you five things about this if you care – a bit on the lyrics in verses, then the chorus/middle 8 bit, then a bit on recording this with Andy at 3AM and then about the band and the song – finishing with the Arrival of Sophie, who will eventually get round to writing her blog.

1. The Lyrics in the Verses:  Big Old Bird is the second attempt at a 25th Annivesary present for Kathy.  The first attempt was abandoned at the lyric stage — a bit too silly and cliche.   I like this one a lot.   The verses are straight autobiographical, with four songs put in to give a sense of decade.  Verse 1:  We met in College our Freshmen Year, dancing at in the basement of the ‘Peep Lounge’ to Sailing Shoes by Robert Palmer (please buy this album to hear him go from Sailing Shoes, to Hey Hey Julia to Sneaking thru the Ally with Sally).   We had the Dance Floor to ourselves, as most of the Peeps were pretty stoned by that time and sitting against the walls startin at the Dark Side of the Moon painting done in black light.   That covered the 70’s.  Verse 2:   struggling students, travelling between DC and Boston, thru MA/MBA and MD… married in the middle of it, but i think occassionally lived the line ‘more in love with resumes than ourselves’.   Takes us thru 80’s buying first apartment and listening to Wishing Well a lot.  What ever happend to Terence?   Verse 3:  Suffering thru IVF.  We have always been very open about all our infertility issues because we know that couples going thru it think they are the only ones are earth suffering (a bit like miscarriages, where only when you have one do you find that both Mom’s and most aunts had one).   Love the line ‘less lovers now and more eggs and sperm on call.’  That’s what it was like.  At one point, Kathy was waiting for embryos to be implanted and the nurse on duty hit a little bell in the waiting room and announced ‘Miss Kathy, your eggs are ready!’  A lot of nervous giggling from a lot of other ladies.   Added Waterfalls in this one as one of Kathy’s favourite songs and she needed some good songs going thru all the treatments.  Verse 4 is simply to show us now, with all the teenagers the same age now as when we met – the new skinny pelicans.  Like the outro, with ‘we’re an ATM with feathers, a shuttle bus with wings, a pair of Mary Poppin’s Robins to gather up their things.’  No big illusions about parenthood, but wouldn’t trade it for the world.  Added Bleeding Love because the kids have been tortured on many occassions by their father’s version of the chorus.   At somepoint we’ll record my cover version! 

2. The Chorus/Middle 8:  The Chorus/Middle 8, are trying to get at the essence and tension of a long marriage.   The chorus talks about marriage as a partnership, trying to keep the big old bird in the air, flapping madly to keep going – no direction, just keep the thing in the air.   And the middle 8 points out that in all that you can forget the love bit — ‘the girl who now defines my life.’   for those who know us the ying and yang thing is self-evident, as unfortunately is the line ‘the one left behind to explain all my actions and my words.’  Kathy is often the elephant poo shoveler working hard to make sure we get invited back to parties.  Oh well.     Most of my friends who listen to this have a big problem with the chorus — I argue ‘you got your strengths, I got mine.’  they point out that Kathy and all their wives would never acknowledge that the boys bring much to the marriage.  Pretty much one wing flapping and one wing holding the remote!  Oh well. 

3. Recording this at 3Am.   Like Roadside Comedy, I pretty much had melody done, except for middle 8.   We had all arrived late at night for our Winter Jam in Spain and I tried to go to sleep.  Young Andy was staying in studio and chose to start playing guitar at about 12 midnight, waking me up.  So I went down to kitchen to work and e mailed him (yes e mailed him in room next door) to say, ‘well you’ve bloody woken me up, so if you’re up, let’s do a song).  he emailed back welcoming me up.  So at 1230 or so, I sang song to him and Andy being Andy had the structure by about 130AM.  We then sorted the middle 8, played it a few more times and recorded it … on his mobile phone.  Now I never really understood why in a fairly expensive studio we recorded it on his phone, but Andy is Andy so you don’t argue with Yoda.  

4. The Band.   Next morning we started the Spanish jam with Invading London (still a work in progress).   In afternoon, around pool, Ed asked why Andy and I looked so tired and we explained about Big Old Bird.  Andy played it to Ed on mobile who immediately started picturing a chorus in his head.  Now this is important.    Ed imagines a key board in his head and then works out chorus by thinking thru notes of a chord.  In the Studio he’ll often jump up and go stare at the key board.  He nevers plays a note, just stares and comes back and asks Louise to sing a different note.  Weird.  So Ed knew what he wanted to do on this first listen.  So afternoon we went up and did this version in about an hour.    And then we took all our music back to London only to realise that we had lost Big Old Bird.  Andy then spent about 12 days getting Joy to go into Studio every morning to press some buttons to give him remote access (see Global Village blog).  Finally he downloaded and did a mix before Christmas.   Ed added some amazing strings on the middle 8 as Andy did on roadside comedy.   Andy secretly wants to write for a nice little quartet playing at a Four Seasons tea — but is stuck with us!    Ed also came up with the great little riff that kicks in mid way thru the third verse.    The single best thing about this magical little band is the magic dust is pours on top of little ideas in your head.  For that I will always be eternally grateful.  On the other hand, as usual when I’m forced to the mic, I really, really hate the vocals.  I’m the opposite of magic dust – crap powder?  Louise insisted that we post as is and she’d have ‘none of the nonsense that happened with Sandy’ (her words, if shouts thru the medium of e mail can be called words)  where we spent a year trying to improve the first take only to have Louise threaten to quit unless we post Take 1.  So apologies to all that have to listen to this.  She uses words like ‘authentic, emotional’.  I use words like ‘awful’ and ‘it sucks.’  As with all things Louise, she wins and I can only apologise.

5.  This is the updated bit.  So since the orginal posting, little Sophie and Cecily (yeah, she names and sleeps with the cello) joined us.    While Ed and Louise were working on the final touches of Immovable Thing, Andy was writing and recording the cello bits with Sophie for Big Old Bird.   We love the addition because it grounds the song, giving it a feel of stability and romance, which fits where we were going.  The other good thing, is none of us have yet figured out an image or phrase that has destroyed Big Old Bird in the same way that we’ve destroyed Immovable Thing.  So still out there as one we don’t hate.  My goodness we have extraordinary ambitions — try to finish a song before we hate it.  Watch out Beatles.

Jimmy

(Happy Valentines Day, 2010)