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Andrew Bird — Fiery Crash
Album: Armchair Apocrypha
Avg rating:
6.9

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1490









Released: 2007
Length: 4:09
Plays (last 30 days): 2
Turnstiles on mezzanine
Jet ways and Dramamine fiends
And x-ray machines
You were hurling through space
G-forces twisting your face
Breeding superstition
A fatal premonition
You know you got to envision
The fiery crash

Oh close your eyes and you wake up
Face stuck to a vinyl settee
Oh the line was starting to break up
Just as you were starting to say
Something apropos I don't know

Beige tiles and magazines
Lou Dobbs and the CNN team
On every monitor screen
You were caught in the crossfire
Where every human face
Has you reaching for your mace
So it's kind of an imposition
Fatal premonition

To save our lives you've got to envision
And to save all our lives you've got to envision
The fiery crash

It's just a formality
Why must I explain?
Just a nod to mortality
Before you get on a plane

Oh close your eyes and you wake up
Face stuck to a vinyl settee
Oh the line was starting to break up
What was that you were going to say?
Comments (102)add comment
This is Boeing's new company song.
 dingomuse wrote:

I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?



I don't know, you tell me.
 dingomuse wrote:

I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?

or human nature? saw Andrew Bird with Calexico in Boston and bought this album. wasn't disappointed

 dingomuse wrote:

I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?



I had a friend once accuse me of changing by saying, "you've changed, man" when I expressed I needed to go to work on Monday and couldn't just hang out and goof off. That's when I realized that yes, I had changed, and yes, that was a good thing. Growing and changing is a very human thing to do and in IMHO is better than staying static and not changing. Kudos to you for being open enough to change your mind!
Wilco, man, Wilco
Is this song about a Tesla in self-driving mode? 
Nice WILCO riff
 sunnyS wrote:


Gerhard Richter "Betty"
 The most Awesome.

 ednazarko wrote:
One of those songs that can mean a lot to certain people. I flew two to five flights a week for 30 years. Been down the emergency exit slides a couple times, off ends of runways, so many touch and gos I stopped noticing them, emergency landings in Japan after clear air turbulence caused overhead bins to fall on passengers... and this song is exactly why I quit my last job, never to fly again.

Bad timing? I guess, in the last few months you probably wouldn't have had to fly so much?)




Gerhard Richter "Betty"
❤️
 deepwoodskev wrote:

Listen to Wilco's "War on War." You might change your mind.
 

Sounds like Jay Bennet's mellotron in there to me.
 Proclivities wrote:

I don't hear that, for one thing this song is in an unusual time signature; just about everything Tweedy and Wilco have done is in 4/4 time.  We all hear different things though.
 
Listen to Wilco's "War on War." You might change your mind.
 dingomuse wrote:
I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?
 
Kierkegaard and Kant and Nietzche and Camus still have answers for these questions. Or would that be questions for these answers? 
Somehow, reminds me to The National.
 dingomuse wrote:
I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?
 
Exactly!  They're all valid states of mind at various times...in fact i'd go so far as to say the cyclical nature of, well nature, is a given; everything works by waves, up, down, up, down, just at different frequencies, wavelengths and amplitude.  This one's a 7 for me (today) and Long Live RP!!
I guess I was in a bad space when I heard this some other time.  Or am I in a good space now?  Or just the right space?  How cd I move it from a 3 to a 6?  It's like I am not even the same person sometimes. What can be said of integrity?  Or is it about subjectivity?  Or impermanence?
One of those songs that can mean a lot to certain people. I flew two to five flights a week for 30 years. Been down the emergency exit slides a couple times, off ends of runways, so many touch and gos I stopped noticing them, emergency landings in Japan after clear air turbulence caused overhead bins to fall on passengers... and this song is exactly why I quit my last job, never to fly again.
Because who doesn't need a little ditty reminding you of trying to sleep smashed into an airport chair?
I just heard some of his music on the soundtrack of a new movie. I attended a Brooklyn screening on Monday nite 3/26. Outside In is a quiet, non-flashy well-acted character study, shot Washington state north of Seattle. 
 deepwoodskev wrote:
Replace Andrew with Jeff Tweedy and this could be a dead ringer for a Wilco song.

Tweedy Bird? 

 
I don't hear that, for one thing this song is in an unusual time signature; just about everything Tweedy and Wilco have done is in 4/4 time.  We all hear different things though.
Dead-on. Thought this sounded just like Wilco. Good call! 

deepwoodskev wrote:
Replace Andrew with Jeff Tweedy and this could be a dead ringer for a Wilco song.

Tweedy Bird? 

 


Funny!

deepwoodskev wrote:
Replace Andrew with Jeff Tweedy and this could be a dead ringer for a Wilco song.

Tweedy Bird? 

 


Replace Andrew with Jeff Tweedy and this could be a dead ringer for a Wilco song.

Tweedy Bird? 
Boy, some of those opening riffs reminded me of Hawkwind's Spirit of the Age
This one caused me great pause. And now instead of getting any work done I must ponder the meaning of the words. And read all the comments. And Google about hither and yon regarding Mr. Bird.

Before I know it it'll be quittin' time round this here workaday ranch! 
Complex music and lyrics don't have to be all grokked at once (or even ever).  There is much to like. You can dig into any one part of it or let it float over you or try to get it all.  There is so much to enjoy in Andrew Bird's music.  Just let it wash over you and enjoy.

8 for me
 
 Rooney wrote:
here, knock yourselves out, boys and girls. I don't see how this artist can get a 10 worth of anything.  He is impossibly difficult to understand, unless you take the time, and follow along, word by word, his lyric sheet.  Does the CD even come with one?  It should be mandatory.  Heaven knows, he may be gifted, but why try, is my question, when he sounds like he has the kitchen towel stuck between his teeth.  Lovely.  Must be some worthy reason he wants you to try so hard to follow along...I'm not buying it, or the CD either.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NP7-jX8tv8

Lyrics to Fiery Crash :
turnstiles on mezzanine
jet ways and Dramamine fiends
and x-ray machines
you were hurling through space
g-forces twisting your face
breeding superstition
a fatal premonition
you know you got to envision
the fiery crash

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
just as you were starting to say
something apropos I don't know

beige tiles and magazines
Lou Dobbs and the CNN team
on every monitor screen
you were caught in the crossfire
where every human face
has you reaching for your mace
so it's kind of an imposition
fatal premonition

to save our lives you've got to envision
and to save all our lives you've got to envision
the fiery crash

it's just a formality
why must I explain?
just a nod to mortality
before you get on a place

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
what was that you were going to say?



 

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ear-Wax


Now THIS is a melody.  Thank you!
Hearing a great song like this on RP reminds me to drop a couple of sawbucks Bill's way this morning.
he's about to tour. just got some tix a few days ago for june show. 
 
I like to listen to this song in airports.
 Byronape wrote:

The best music is often music that takes time to understand.  Layers of harmony, subtle cues, and depth of lyrics often make a song too complex to really appreciate passively.  It's that kind of complexity that makes many songs great after years and years of listens.  Unfortunately, it also can make a song hard to understand and turn away people that are not willing to put in the effort.

I'd call that the difference between a music fan and a music enthusiast. 


 

You are correct! Very well said.    {#Yes}
..what tha frack is that bird (parakeet?) looking at, anyhow?..oh, & holding steady at 8! on this trip thru..
Bill - more like this please!!  Great way to start the day here in the UK

G
I guess it's time that we peep back into the source of music which gave us so much such as folk. Musicians like Andre Bird and Bon Iver are reinterpreting music for us. We need more such endeavours. 
I really enjoy Andrews tunes.
Don't know why just do.
I absolutely love this song, but I have no idea why.  Complex music is always like that.
Been awhile since I heard this on RP.  Amazing song. 

This is a 10 for real music fans like myself, in my not so humble expert opinion. {#Nyah}
 Proclivities wrote:


Listening to music doesn't have to be a passive activity (i.e., "I'll just sit here - entertain me").  Many things are "difficult to understand"; that doesn't make them inferior to something which is easier to understand.
 
The best music is often music that takes time to understand.  Layers of harmony, subtle cues, and depth of lyrics often make a song too complex to really appreciate passively.  It's that kind of complexity that makes many songs great after years and years of listens.  Unfortunately, it also can make a song hard to understand and turn away people that are not willing to put in the effort.

I'd call that the difference between a music fan and a music enthusiast. 

 horstman wrote:
 Rooney wrote:
here, knock yourselves out, boys and girls. I don't see how this artist can get a 10 worth of anything.  He is impossibly difficult to understand, unless you take the time, and follow along, word by word, his lyric sheet.  Does the CD even come with one?  It should be mandatory.  Heaven knows, he may be gifted, but why try, is my question, when he sounds like he has the kitchen towel stuck between his teeth.  Lovely.  Must be some worthy reason he wants you to try so hard to follow along...I'm not buying it, or the CD either.


I saw Andrew on Austin City Limits and was blown away by his musical artistry. He is hard to understand but you could say that about a lot of artists. Some of us listeners (myself included) pay more attention to the melody and the organization of the instruments than to the lyrics. Usually when I love a song and don't understand the lyrics, I read them and this helps to bring it all together.

Anyway, this boy gave it a 7 and just bumped it to an 8. I like the whistling as I am an avid whistler. I whistle in tune and everyone in my office knows the songs I whistle at work instantly because of this musical precision which I employ.

Not that they like it!!!{#Whistle}
 
With you there (re: lyrics)—I always say too many years of industrial noise, rock music and shooting guns did me in.  Funny, one company used to test our hearing every year and then I would get a statement saying that I had probably experienced some high frequency loss—but with no reference to any kind of 'base'. So—compared to what? The point that I was getting to before wandering is that even in my better years I was first attracted to the sound and if the lyrics seemed interesting I would later go back and try to interpolate.  Of course I wouldn't think of doing that now unless I had exhausted Google (and it doesn't happen often).

 Rooney wrote:
here, knock yourselves out, boys and girls. I don't see how this artist can get a 10 worth of anything.  He is impossibly difficult to understand, unless you take the time, and follow along, word by word, his lyric sheet.  Does the CD even come with one?  It should be mandatory.  Heaven knows, he may be gifted, but why try, is my question, when he sounds like he has the kitchen towel stuck between his teeth.  Lovely.  Must be some worthy reason he wants you to try so hard to follow along...I'm not buying it, or the CD either.

 

Listening to music doesn't have to be a passive activity (i.e., "I'll just sit here - entertain me").  Many things are "difficult to understand"; that doesn't make them inferior to something which is easier to understand.
 Rooney wrote:
here, knock yourselves out, boys and girls. I don't see how this artist can get a 10 worth of anything.  He is impossibly difficult to understand, unless you take the time, and follow along, word by word, his lyric sheet.  Does the CD even come with one?  It should be mandatory.  Heaven knows, he may be gifted, but why try, is my question, when he sounds like he has the kitchen towel stuck between his teeth.  Lovely.  Must be some worthy reason he wants you to try so hard to follow along...I'm not buying it, or the CD either.


I saw Andrew on Austin City Limits and was blown away by his musical artistry. He is hard to understand but you could say that about a lot of artists. Some of us listeners (myself included) pay more attention to the melody and the organization of the instruments than to the lyrics. Usually when I love a song and don't understand the lyrics, I read them and this helps to bring it all together.

Anyway, this boy gave it a 7 and just bumped it to an 8. I like the whistling as I am an avid whistler. I whistle in tune and everyone in my office knows the songs I whistle at work instantly because of this musical precision which I employ.

Not that they like it!!!{#Whistle}
here, knock yourselves out, boys and girls. I don't see how this artist can get a 10 worth of anything.  He is impossibly difficult to understand, unless you take the time, and follow along, word by word, his lyric sheet.  Does the CD even come with one?  It should be mandatory.  Heaven knows, he may be gifted, but why try, is my question, when he sounds like he has the kitchen towel stuck between his teeth.  Lovely.  Must be some worthy reason he wants you to try so hard to follow along...I'm not buying it, or the CD either.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NP7-jX8tv8

Lyrics to Fiery Crash :
turnstiles on mezzanine
jet ways and Dramamine fiends
and x-ray machines
you were hurling through space
g-forces twisting your face
breeding superstition
a fatal premonition
you know you got to envision
the fiery crash

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
just as you were starting to say
something apropos I don't know

beige tiles and magazines
Lou Dobbs and the CNN team
on every monitor screen
you were caught in the crossfire
where every human face
has you reaching for your mace
so it's kind of an imposition
fatal premonition

to save our lives you've got to envision
and to save all our lives you've got to envision
the fiery crash

it's just a formality
why must I explain?
just a nod to mortality
before you get on a place

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
what was that you were going to say?


Anyone know who the female vocalist is in this song?
Song sounds average, maybe its me, but the mix sounds sort of muffled.
I like the album cover. Reminiscent of Grerhard Richter painting "Betty", only not as well done - and decades later.
pretty bird
More irritating with every play.
...oh BOY I like this tune, this CD, this artist...  catch him live if you can and be AMAZED...
We heard this album on OPB public radio when they still played music most evenings, and we bought it and have had it in constant rotation ever since. Saw him in concert since, and got a few other albums, all have been very good, but this album is the one I always pick to listen to.
This is much better than "Not A Robot, But A Ghost", which is the only other Bird song I've heard thus far.
I'm glad I didn't switch stations when I saw his name come up.

lowered from 9 to 8...I'm hearing it too much!!
{#Motor} SWEEEEET !!!{#Guitarist}
 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
bought the album .. one of the better recent acquisitions.
 

Second that emotion.
 Patagonia wrote:
One of the best new songwriter I've heard in ages. Very talenful.
 

Talonful? No wait, do budgerigars have talons?

Maybe it's actually picture of Andrew and not a bird at all.
Bird by name, bird on your album. Fair enough!
Arm Chair Apocrypha is an absolute masterpiece.  I would start there.
 
TriskyJen wrote:
Every time I hear Andrew Bird I think I want to buy and album but can't decide which one... any suggestions?
 


Every time I hear Andrew Bird I think I want to buy and album but can't decide which one... any suggestions?
Nice song, and nice album cover, too.
Has this guy ever opened his mouth more than a crack while singing, or done anything with any energy whatsoever?  {#Yawn}
I'm digging Andrew Bird more and more. Smart and interesting lyrics, good beats, nice layering of sound. It used to bug me that he sings with his mouth closed, but I'm over it. I don't even mind his whistling, as long as he keeps it brief... {#Yes}
 Patagonia wrote:

Same for me. Keeps playing after all these weeks.
 
Agreed. Its one of the few I just cant seem to remove from my Ipod to make room. Love this guy.
NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
bought the album .. one of the better recent acquisitions.
Same for me. Keeps playing after all these weeks.
bought the album .. one of the better recent acquisitions.
One of the best new songwriter I've heard in ages. Very talenful.
....what was it I was going to say?
mefrombrazil wrote:
why?
Because it's fun to say. It sounds like one of those exercises the choral teacher makes the class do to warm up.
mefrombrazil wrote:
why?
Because he plays this song every single day, so we get to hear "Armchair Apocrypha" on a consistent basis?
mefrombrazil wrote:
why?
Because i've heard him say the name of the album a number of times before/after this song. If we could all say "Armchair Apocrypha" into a soft, foamy microphone at least thrice a week, we'd all live longer. Nobody can argue with that.
alph wrote:
I've concluded that Bill enjoys saying the words "Armchair Apocrypha" :)
why?
I've concluded that Bill enjoys saying the words "Armchair Apocrypha" :)
Great! so I just ordered it along with Boxer, by the national.
Enjoying Andrew Bird more and more. He used to annoy me a little. Now I like him. Hm. At this rate I'll end up liking Cake or even Radiohead. Naw. That's just the crazy talking.
A good one to wake me up along with my coffee in front my screen early in da morning. Cheers
youngj wrote:
I thought this was the best album from 2007. Love this from start to finish.
This album, Robert Francis' new and first album and The National, Boxer were indeed my favorite albums of the year.
I thought this was the best album from 2007. Love this from start to finish.
I have yet to tire of this good job Dearest Drew
Per the comment below, here's a link to Andrew Bird as Dr. Stringz in Jack's Big Music Show. Watch and then try to tell me he's not one of the coolest people around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HmkLu24w2o
SO growing on me; the music and the album cover. I like it a little more every time it comes up.
He loops it up live! See him!
Actually quite decent. The man has talent.
own this one thanks to rp. talented. interesting. 8
Could you please play more of this guy !? Sounds like he knows very well what he's doing !
I like his voice.
He's from Chicago and he's played with seemingly everyone. Kelly Hogan to Neko Case to Bonnie Prince Billy. Apparently he also appeared on Jack's Big Music Show (a kids program) but I have not yet seen it (I'm guessing he has kids). He's a gem and makes me proud to call Chicago home.
mefrombrazil wrote:
very good. where is this guy from?
Chapel Hill's Squirrel Nut Zippers
no, i didn't, stevenq did (see his post below). i am a diehard andrew bird supporter though.... Wizzuvv_oz wrote:
you upload it? I dig it a lot.
IMGoph wrote:
glad to see this made it through the LRC ringer!
you upload it or just see it there? I dig it a lot.
glad to see this made it through the LRC ringer!
very good. where is this guy from?
This is my upload from LRC, he bragged. I'm so pleased with myself. Enjoy.
Like much of Andrew Bird's music, this song is literate, musically inventive, has whistling, and falls gently on the ears.
brownbrown wrote:
he is an AMAZING performer, go see him immediately!
Saw him in a small club in Sweden, he was amazing.
he is an AMAZING performer, go see him immediately!
love it!
Very interesting guy to see/hear live. I really enjoy his music :)
I went and bought this album because I heard it hear on RP. I like the whole album and my wife does too! We don't often enjoy the same music. I highly recommend this album if you like this song.
Wizzuvv_oz wrote:
I don't know this guy. I like this.
dig deeper...you won't be disappointed. this disc and his previous (the mysterious production of eggs) are not much like anything else out there. this isn't even close to his best stuff and still it is great
I don't know this guy. I like this. Digging it quite a lot. Thanks tjr, I will do that
Someone said this earlier, but, Awesome set, it's keeping me from getting my work done this morning. Live it
1st? =)