Do all the birds on Jaybird Street really want to hear all that tweet, tweet, tweet? – World Baptist News

Some of us still remember song lyrics of our adolescence. We may forget what we were looking for when we opened the refrigerator door, the exact dates of our children’s birthdays, or why we walked into the garage, but those old, rhyming words and phrases from long ago still seem to be. just below the surface of our fragile minds. Go figure!

I don’t know why the lyrics and melody of the hit Bobby Day, originally called Rocking robin, but changed to Rocking robin, keep playing on the squeaky 45 rpm record player with the thick grooves in my brain.

In 1958, Leon Rene ‘, under the pseudonym Jimmie Thomas, wrote the song and made it available to Bobby Day (whose real name was Robert James Byrd), and this act spawned a more than minor story. in rock-and-roll. and the history of rhythm and blues. The otherwise little-known singer led the song to a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and even enjoyed a week at the top of the charts, as No. 1. Younger readers may remember best of Michael Jackson’s remade version of the song produced. in 1972, which was an even greater success.

Please understand I’m about to venture out in a territory for which I don’t even have a passport and I barely speak the language. I’m neither an ornithologist nor a rock and roll historian and I know very little about birds or rock music, for that matter. Nonetheless, as a student of the sociology of human behavior, as a minister trained in theology, and as someone who has “walked around the block” a few times, I wish to raise an important question on one. lines of this song and its possible implications. for our common life.

While I love the upbeat, positive melody and lyrics, I seriously question the veracity of the statement that “All the little birds on Jaybird Street love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.” I know I know. You haven’t given it much thought before. But think carefully about what I think is the romantic, idealized idea that the birds of Jaybird Street might actually enjoy hearing this upstart robin continually “tweedle-lee-deedle-lee-dee” over and over again.

Consider what common observation taught us about the Blue Jays, for example. They are extremely territorial and aggressive towards other birds. When you consider the potential opinions of anonymous Blue Jays, living on “Jaybird Street”, no doubt named after their ancestors, I wonder if they would welcome the intrusions of this unprivileged. outsider make different noises about what they consider to be their Street. In human life, at least, it rarely works that way.

In the current discussions, delusions and delusions about white privilege, LGBTQ, and critical race theory, maybe we should learn a lesson from this. Yes indeed, deep down we would like to like to think that the differentiated and multicolored birds of the kingdom of God would welcome the song of another, not entirely of their kind and distinguished by color and culture. We want to to believe they would celebrate the unique rhythm and melody of a stranger who “cradles in the treetops all day, hopping and singing his song.” My opinion, however, is that this just isn’t happening.

“People in power who bear their names on the streets and who can use their power to control or harass others just do not welcome those who are different or who sing different songs.”

Maybe I should check with Bird Life in Wington or, more appropriately, the written and inspired word of God on it, but in my limited observation, those in power who bear their names on the streets and who can use their power to control or harass others do not welcome just not those who are different or who sing different songs.

I’m also thinking of another set of lyrics from another rock-and-roll hit – this one from 1965. Herbert Newman, director of Era Records, was originally credited with writing it, but he turns out it was actually Newman’s 12-. one year old son who wrote the song, titled Birds and bees.

The preteen Newman boy had recently received his father’s sexuality talk; you know, the one that is often euphemistically referred to as “the birds and the bees.” This 12-year-old picked up that phrase and the idea that this is a basic truth that everyone should know and suggested another basic and essential human perspective – that of love.

Jewel Akins sang it, and it might help we not only remember the words, but consider its truth as we reflect on our current socio-cultural situation. I bet you remember those lines too.

As we seriously consider how to celebrate those who are different from us by color, race, origin, or gender identity, consider these words from life with that familiar tune, also in an ornithological context. .

“Let me tell you about the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
And the moon up there
And a thing called love. …
On a night like this …
It’s so easy to see
That it’s time you learned the facts of life
From a to z
Let me tell you about the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
And the moon up there
And a thing called love. “

Maybe this 12 year old boy was on to something. What do you think?

Bob newell has been a university professor and administrator, local church pastor and cross-cultural missionary. He and his wife, Janice, now live in Georgetown, Texas, and he serves churches as a transition coach and intentional interim pastor. They were the founders and remain the defenders of PORTA, the House of Albania in Athens, Greece.