Birds Fly – A Summer of Nostalgia and Questionable Video Rentals

A look at TMBG's “Birds Fly” and a strange summer of bunkhouses and VHS mishaps.

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For an entire summer, my best friend was having a house built on a big plot of land shared with a great-aunt. There was a horse pasture, a stable, and something his parents called a bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was like a mini house—no bathroom or kitchen, just a living room area, dining space, and a main bedroom. This is where the couch, TV, and video games ended up. For reasons known only to teenage us, we referred to the bunkhouse as "Hitler’s Bunker."

Discovering "Birds Fly"

“Birds Fly” is a beautiful, sophisticated piece of Bossa Nova pop. At least, that’s the vibe I get from all the 7th and extended chords. Add in The Harmony of The Johns™, and you’ve got an incredible listen. (Though honestly, it could just be Flansy layered on top of himself—still amazing.) This week, I even decided to start learning it on the guitar.

I can’t remember if we first got Miscellaneous T that summer, or if it just happened to play at the exact right moment in my friendship with my best friend. Either way, listening to “Birds Fly” now brings me back to those days. Days spent bouncing between a camper and “Hitler’s Bunker” to play Street Fighter 2 or watch whatever movies we could talk the video store clerk into letting us rent. If I wanted to shower, I had to brave the Death Valley heat of the main house—a third location on this micro-campus of 90s teenage freedom.

A Song for the Boundless Summer Days

The opening chords of “Birds Fly” relax me almost instantly. The song’s prettiness aside, it brings back that feeling of boundary-less days with my best friend on that property. Those days were ours to shape however we wanted. My time at home, meanwhile, was growing more confusing—my relationship with my mom was strained, and her relationships with everyone around her just added to the tension. Home was not a place to relax or let my guard down.

That’s why songs from Miscellaneous T, and especially “Birds Fly,” became touchstones for me—reminders of a space where I could just be.

Could "Birds Fly" Have Made Lincoln?

“Birds Fly” has a Lincoln-esque flavor, in my opinion. I wouldn’t necessarily swap any track from Lincoln for it, but I’ve always wondered why this song didn’t make it onto a full studio album. The lyrics paint a picture of someone whose life is crumbling, who feels misunderstood and invisible. He thinks the only way anyone would find anything worthwhile in him is if they looked through a microscope. That’s where his best intentions are hiding. And he doesn’t say there are GOOD intentions, just that they are the best ones.

There's a vocal part that I’ve always loved where a single syllable is sung almost like it’s a guitar chord being strummed. It’s a sound from the back of the throat—if I had to spell it, it would probably be "Ngah." Like an "ng" sound from the end of a word plus an "ah." It’s sung seriously, not as a silly noise, and somehow that "Ngah" moment sold me on the entire song.

A Boy, His Dog, and a Video Rental Catastrophe

One day that summer, we rode our bikes to the local video store, "A/V Video"—or, as we called it, "Audio Visual Video." Years later, we learned that A/V actually stood for "Auburn Valley," where the original store was located. What a disappointment. Naming a video store “Audio Visual Video” is so much more funny.

On the shelf, we found a VHS called A Boy and His Dog. The back cover described a 1975 post-apocalyptic movie about a boy and his telepathic dog named Blood, who end up prisoners of an all-women society that wants to use him for procreation. Naturally, we thought this sounded like the perfect movie to attempt renting—what teenage boy doesn’t immediately assume “all-women society” means “nudity jackpot”?

Imagine our disdain when (spoilers for the cult classic A Boy and His Dog) the protagonist is kidnapped by this society and hooked up to a giant…semen-milking machine. Think of the contraption that strapped down Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc., except this one harvested semen rather than screams. (Although, screams were likely involved in both scenarios, just… for different reasons. Honestly, semen could be involved in both as well. Mr. Waternoose never went into great detail about his scream sucking device. )

What’s Your Music Time Machine?

No matter how many years (decades) have passed, “Birds Fly” still has this power to transport me back to that summer. What song does that for you? Let me know in the comments!

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