THE BIRD'S THE WORD

396 pages with well over 2000 images in B&W and colour.

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“Everybody’s heard about the bird” is a familiar statement for most music lovers.

 Although there had been many songs of an “Avian variety”, to quote Family Guy's Peter Griffin, the “Bird” that this treatise deals with is SURFIN’ BIRD, the 1964 national and international hit by The Trashmen’s from the wilds of Minneapolis, Minnesota, some 900 miles from the East Coast; some 1000 miles from the Gulf Coast and some 1400 miles from the West Coast.

 Yes, I know there is surfing (sometimes) in the Great Lakes, etc., but does that really count?

 The novelty of a Surf Music hit from a bunch of landlubbers of course adds to the charm of Surfin’ Bird, which after all is a considerably up-tempo mish-mash of two hits Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow and The Bird’s The Word from West Coast combo The Rivingtons, who were equally ignorant of the surfing culture as were The Trashmen.

 How The Rivingtons’ two songs become Surfin’ Bird is the subject of this book, as is the impact that Surfin’ Bird has had on the musical psyche ever since late 1963 when it first hit the airwaves.

 Many associate it as a being part of the “One Hit Wonder” type-casting, but really?

 Although The Rivingtons with their two songs and The Trashmen with their individual interpretation of “The Bird” caught the attention of a teenage populace eager for something new, at least two more distinct generations were caught in the musical web of “The Bird”.

 This new focus was thanks to the musical exploits of the Power-Pop-Punk band The Ramones who enthralled many of the children of the parents who had previously rocked out to The Rivingtons’ Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow and The Bird’s The Word, and of course The Trashmen’s Surfin’ Bird.

 The children of these Ramones’ fans were also the generation who were subsequently re-awakened to Surfin’ Bird by the pet fascination of the Family Guy’s Peter Griffin with the song during the first decade of the third millennium.

 The words “It’s my all-time favourite song” are hard to forget, especially coupled with the crazy antics that followed, in particular Peter Griffin’s “Bird” dance which he performed at every opportunity at the hint or mention of “The Bird”.

 This use of Surfin’ Bird in the “I Dream Of Jesus” episode of Family Guy was the primary motivator of the resurgence of interest in the song itself, and by default Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow and The Bird’s The Word.

 All three songs interacted with each other and had been doing so for years, with place, social standing, politics and personal and cultural persuasion being no barrier.

 Both Papa-Oom-Mom-Mow and Surfin’ Bird had most definitely crossed the cultural chasm, being not only performed in a variety of languages around the world, but also recorded and released in languages as diverse as Russian, Finnish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, etc., sometimes to the point where the original idea, in particular with Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, had been irretrievably lost.

 Nonetheless, the element of fun had been successfully retained.

 This book also endeavours to document all of the different versions, interpretations, parodies, etc. which have found release via Vinyl, CD, Cassette and Digitally, the latter a format that has exploded exponentially when it comes to “interpretations” of Surfin’ Bird, often at the hands of the “DJ”.

 This is not the individual (disc jockey) who was responsible for spinning the latest and greatest and potential hits on the swingiest radio stations around the globe, but the individual manning “the desk” at you local club, transforming, creating, re-creating and re-interpreting past and present material in a style commensurate with their own musical taste, instinct or proclivity, or that of the club they “worked” in or the audience for whom they catered.

 In particular, this musical development allowed for considerable flexibility with “samples” becoming a regular feature, often creatively important to the task at hand.

 Not only were Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, The Bird’s The Word and Surfin’ Bird all sampled, so too was Peter Griffin of the Family Guy’s interaction with the song.

 The bountiful supply of material contained within these pages is evidence enough to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that “The Bird” is indeed “The Word” and will remain so for years to come!

 And of course, lets us not forget (for that matter), the phrase ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’ that started it all!!

 As long as Family Guy is being aired; the Ramones’ version of the tune is being played and re-recorded ad infinitum; and there are oldies radio stations airing The Trashmen’s original, you will always know the answer to the question … “Have you heard?”

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