Bird on the Wire

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This article is about the song. For similar titles, see Bird on a Wire.
"Bird on the Wire"
Song

"Bird on the Wire" is one of Leonard Cohen's signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album Songs from a Room. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, entitled "Like a Bird", was added to the 2007 remastered CD. Judy Collins was the first to release the song on her 1968 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes.

In the 1960s, Cohen lived on the Greek island Hydra with his girlfriend Marianne (the woman depicted on the back cover of Songs from a Room). She has related how she helped him out of a depression by handing him his guitar, whereupon he began composing "Bird on the Wire" – inspired by a bird sitting on one of Hydra's recently installed phone wires, followed by memories of wet island nights. He finished it in a Hollywood motel.

Cohen has described "Bird on the Wire" as a simple country song, and the first recording, by Judy Collins, was indeed done in a country setting. He later made various minor changes, such as the modifications present on Cohen Live. Different renditions are included on all of his live albums. On occasion he also performed Serge Lama's French version, "Vivre tout seul", in concert.

In the sleevenotes to a 2007 rerelease of Songs From A Room the song was described as "simultaneously a prayer and an anthem, a kind of bohemian 'My Way'."[1]

Composition

In the liner notes to the 1975 compilation The Best of Leonard Cohen, Cohen wrote about the song:

I always begin my concert with this song. It seems to return me to my duties. It was begun in Greece and finished in a motel in Hollywood around 1969 along with everything else. Some lines were changed in Oregon. I can't seem to get it perfect. Kris Kristofferson informed me that I had stolen part of the melody from another Nashville writer. He also said that he's putting the first couple of lines on his tombstone, and I'll be hurt if he doesn't.

It has been suggested that the song to which Kristofferson was referring is "Turn Me On", written by Nashville songwriter John D. Loudermilk, which was originally recorded by Mark Dinning in 1961 and later covered by many other artists, including Nina Simone, and which shares a similar melody and some lyrical patterns with Cohen's song.[2]

Cover versions

Many artists have covered the song, often as "Bird on a Wire" (indeed, this variation appears in the compilation The Essential Leonard Cohen), including:

Further utilization

  • The Norwegian band Midnight Choir had its name from the song's opening lines, "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free."
  • It was featured in a promo for an episode of the TV series Lost.
  • A cover version of the song sung by Katey Sagal was featured in a closing segment of an episode, during the third season, of the TV series Sons of Anarchy.
  • It was also featured in the TV Series Parenthood.
  • Nigel Blackwell of the UK band Half Man Half Biscuit occasionally sings the opening lines of the song during live versions of his band's song '24 Hour Garage People', after mentioning being able to hear the songs playing on Graeme the shop assistant's iPod. The song is also referenced in another Half Man Half Biscuit song 'Letters Sent.'
  • A cover is featured in the concluding scenes of director Robert Altman's 1978 film A Wedding.
  • In British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, protagonist Edina Monsoon recites and sings this song in the episode Jealous in 1995.
  • It was also featured in the Movie Bird on a Wire.

References

  1. ↑ Sleevenotes, Songs From A Room, 2007 SONY
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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