Saddest Songs - Pretty Little Birds - C. J. Leon

Here is a very sad sequence of vignettes describing scenes of little birds in East Vancouver: drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, the homeless. A song inspired by Mark Berube's "Pretty Little Bird. Lyrics Below.My free albums live here: http://zombieswingers.bandcamp.com

http://www.myspace.com/cjleonspoken

Pretty Little Birds
C J Leon

An old man's stoned, prone, down on the pavement,
and he's pondering at how his poverty's an enslavement,
and he's stinking, drinking, thinking life's a bitch,
when the sunshine and the birdsong start to itch.

They sound like lalala-lalala,
Yeah, well, I'm a pretty, pretty little bird.

A menopausal beggar twitches like a leaf
cross-legged on the sidewalk by the street.
The nighttime from the day gives no relief,
Till a shadow sits a white stone by her feet.

She thinks then lalala-lalala,
I'll fly away with this pretty little bird.

A street punk's in the alley getting junked.
His music, it's on hold, it's not defunct.
And he knows of this garden without pain,
and he gets there with a feather in his vein.

And it goes lalala-lalala,
In here you're a pretty little bird.

A young girl stands akimbo on the corner.
She isn't horny, but a woman has got to work.
Those dealers don't take dimes or nickels or quarters,
and here comes a fifty and a grin on a gritty jerk,

who's singing lalala-lalala,
my oh my, she's a pretty little bird.

An army man jumps a cup outside the booze store.
He carries the weight of wars in his bowed shoulders;
And he's shivering because the gas has stripped his nerves,
and he's jingling just to ask what he deserves.

He jingles lalala-lalala,
Once upon a time, I was a pretty little bird.

The lady who's made a home of the bus shelter
shouts, Wait a minute, son! between the bags and mold.
I don't entertain young men, these days they won't stay over.
She tears some newsprint and she begins to fold.

I'll make you a lalala-lalala,
I'll make you a pretty, pretty little bird.

A sun-browned couple hungrily stalks a pigeon
while cooking up a scheme to feed their children.
They duck into a door and steal a bucket
with crispy breaded body parts piled in it.

I guess we'll lalala-lalala,
I guess we'll eat the pretty little birds.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• CJ
• Leon
• sad
• classical
• guitar
• poetry
• gothic
• Leonard
• Cohen
• homelessness
• Vancouver
• 2010
• Olympic
• City

[scaryfairyboi]

this beautifully sad song gave me a lump in my throat. 

[thesurrationalone]

@scaryfairyboi and quite at the opposite spectrum... i can't wait to be able to play this again... hand problems still prevent it... and even though it takes a lot out of me to do it... funny that this and "sex kitten" are the ones you commented on... funny what a couple years will do, eh? i guess i'm still singing falsetto. ;)

[fngrpkn06]

Great lyrics and the guitar work coincides nicely!

[thesurrationalone]

@fngrpkn06 Thanks. It was just the finger-picked chord progression, and Craig Day, a composer friend of mine, challenged me to do better. That night I wrote the piece and 9 months later I could play it straight through. ;)

[TheBluesBeggar]

makes me rethink the box of KFC after hearing that line about a box of breaded body parts...

[thesurrationalone]

@TheBluesBeggar And btw, please do re-think that box of KFC. They have a terrible record of animal cruelty.

[thesurrationalone]

@TheBluesBeggar yeah, eh? i was so pleased that i had found a way to make such a sad song uplifting at the end. i was later informed that the conclusion, though funny, was far from uplifing. ;)

[thesurrationalone]

@johnengels61 Well, because if you were also a nature photographer, we would be artists working in a similar medium.

[johnengels61]

@thesurrationalone Why do you ask if they are my photos?

[thesurrationalone]

@johnengels61 I suppose you missed the several dozen video and picture montages with originall music that are very similar to your "Birds 2010" video. Are they your photos? "Brother" is perhaps more true than you realize.