The Bird (Jerry Reed song)

Infobox Single
Name = The Bird


Artist = Jerry Reed
from Album = The Bird
A-side =
B-side =
Released = September 1982
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1982
Genre = Country, novelty song
Length = 3:16
Label = RCA Records
Writer = Hal Coleman and Barry Etris (main portion of song)

* Johnny Bush and Paul Stroud ("Whiskey River")

* Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman ("He Stopped Loving Her Today")

* Willie Nelson ("On the Road Again")
Producer =
Chart position =
Last single = "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)"
(1982)
This single = "The Bird"
(1982)
Next single =

"The Bird" is a song made famous by the country music singer Jerry Reed. Written by Hal Coleman and Barry Etris, this novelty song contains impressions of Willie Nelson's "Whiskey River" and "On the Road Again;" and George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Released in the fall of 1982, "The Bird" peaked at No. 2 on the "Billboard magazine" Hot Country Singles chart just before Christmas.

tory

The song is told in first person from the point-of-view of a blue-collared worker, who stops at a roadside tavern. While there, a gentleman walks in the door with a curious-looking bird on his shoulder. The man, who turns out to be a smooth-talking salesman, walks up to the main character and boasts about the bird's singing abilities. The protagonist is skeptical and asks the salesman to back up his claim. The salesman tells The Bird, "Do Ol' Willie." To the protagonist's disbelief, the bird immediately sings the chorus to Nelson's "Whiskey River."

Sensing a possibly huge windfall with this novelty act (for instance, creating a show with a singing bird as his main act), the main character asks the salesman to have the bird perform one more song. The Bird sings the chorus of Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Immediately thereafter, the protagonist agrees to buy The Bird for $500. The deal is closed, and the salesman walks out the door. Moments later, as the protagonist is dreaming about a lucrative career as novelty act performer, The Bird flies out the door, never to be seen again. He immediately realizes that he has been conned, and can only watch helplessly as The Bird flies out into the night, singing modified lyrics to Nelson's "On the Road Again." (The modified lyric is: "The life I love is making money with my friend" (compare to the Nelson original: "The life I love is making music with my friends")).

As the verse to "On the Road Again" repeats to the fade, Reed can be heard screaming for The Bird to come back; one of the final things he says before the fade ends is "Find me a branch, somebody!"

References

*Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=33:hjfixx8aldhe All Music Guide — "The Bird" by Jerry Reed] .