Birdland
Patti Smith
Track 3 on Horses

Produced by
John Cale
The 3rd track from Smith’s debut album Horses (1975). In her lyric collection Complete, Smith writes “Birdland” was inspired by a passage from Peter Reich’s Book of Dreams. His father Wilhelm Reich had died, and during a family gathering, he thought he saw the lights of a spaceship while the song ‘Party Doll’ was blaring. He believed his father to be at the helm. But depite his desperate cries, the light vanished into the night sky as Peter lay on the grass, weeping beneath the stars.

The hit song “Cloudbusting”, from Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds of Love, was also inspired by the same book.

https://genius.com/Patti-smith-birdland-lyrics

[Verse 1]
His father died and left him a little farm in New England
All the long black funeral cars left the scene
And the boy was just standing there alone
Looking at the shiny red tractor
Him and his daddy used to sit inside
And circle the blue fields and grease the night
It was as if someone had spread butter
On all the fine points of the stars
'Cause when he looked up they started to slip
Then he put his head in the crux of his arms
And he started to drift, drift to the belly of a ship
Let the ship slide open, and he went inside of it
And saw his daddy behind the control board
Streaming beads of light
He saw his daddy behind the control board
And he was very different tonight
'Cause he was not human
He was not human

[Verse 2]
The little boy's face lit up with such naked joy
That the sun burned around his lids and his eyes were like two suns
White lids, white opals, seeing everything just a little bit too clearly
And he looked around and there was no black ship in sight
No black funeral cars, nothing except for him the raven
And fell on his knees and looked up and cried out
"No, daddy, don't leave me here alone
Take me up, daddy, to the belly of your ship
Let the ship slide open and I'll go inside of it
Where you are not human
You are not human"
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[Verse 3]
But nobody heard the boy's cry of alarm
Nobody there except for the birds around the New England farm
And they gathered in all directions, like roses they scattered
And they were like compass grass coming together into the head of
A shaman bouquet, slit in his nose and all the others went shooting
And he saw the lights of traffic beckoning like the hands of Blake
Grabbing at his cheeks, taking out his neck, all his limbs
Everything was twisted and he said:
"I won't give up, won't give up, don't let me give up
I won't give up, come here, let me go up fast
Take me up quick, take me up, up to the belly of a ship
And the ship slides open and I go inside of it
Where I am not human"

[Verse 4]
"I am helium raven and this movie is mine"
So he cried out as he stretched the sky
Pushing it all out like latex cartoon
Am I all alone in this generation?
We'll just be dreaming of animation night and day
It won't let up, won't let up and I see them coming in
Oh, I couldn't hear them before, but I hear them now
It's a radar scope in all silver and all platinum lights
Moving in like black ships, they were moving in, streams of them
And he put up his hands and he said:
"It's me, it's me, I'll give you my eyes, take me up
Oh now please take me up, I'm helium raven
Waiting for you, please take me up, don't leave me here!"
The son, the sign, the cross, like the shape of a tortured woman
The true shape of a tortured woman, the mother standing
In the doorway letting her sons, no longer presidents but prophets
They're all dreaming they're gonna bear the prophet
He's going to run through the fields dreaming in animation
It's all gonna split his skull, it's gonna come out
Like a black bouquet shining, like a fist that's gonna shoot them up
Like light, like Mohammed Boxer, take them up, up, up, up, up, up
Oh, let's go up, up, take me up, I'll go up, I'm going up, I'm going up
Take me up, I'm going up, I'll go up there
Go up, go up, go up, go up, up, up, up, up, up, up
Up, up to the belly of a ship. Let the ship slide open
"We'll go inside of it where we are not human
We're not human"