Bill Callahan, “Too Many Birds,” Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City, released 14 April 2009)
I will stay with the Callahan mood today, as I am intoxicated with this song from his new album, which is on the whole captivating from start to finish. On this record, Callahan has found a perfect blend of his lyricism and wonderful sonic manipulation, simplicity with ornamentation and experiment, as here, where the song subtly and effectively leaps forward in tempo at the second stanza (“Oh black bird over…” the last words of this line are indecipherable—I’ve done my poetic best).
The final stanza with its word-by-word accrual towards completion is magnificent. It’s a deeply meditative piece, almost fugue-like in construction, very simple on the surface but filled with surprises.
Too Many Birds
Too many birds in one tree
Too many birds in one tree
And the sky is full
Of black and screamin’ leaves
The sky is full
Of black and screamin’
And one more bird
Then one more bird
And one last bird
And another
One last black bird without a place to land
One last black bird without a place to be
Turns around in hopes to find
The place it last knew rest
Oh black bird over black green berm
This is not where you last knew rest
You fly all night
To sleep on stone
The heartless rest that in the morn will be gone
You fly all night to sleep on stone
To return to the tree with too many birds
Too many birds
Too many birds
If
If you
If you could
If you could only
If you could only stop
If you could only stop your
If you could only stop your heart
If you could only stop your heartbeat
If you could only stop your heartbeat for
If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heart
If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat
Read Jason Diamond’s interview with Bill Callahan at Impose Magazine.
