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Song: Little Birds

Albums: Little Birds

Year released: 2011

Lyrics: Little Birds

Chords: Little Birds

Earliest known performance: 12/5/98 Athens, GA

Trivia[]

  • This is the last known song that Jeff recorded after In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.
  • The record is dedicated to University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was murdered two months before the song was composed in December 1998.[1]
  • Jeff, discussing songs he wrote during this period: "One weird thing about those songs is that they were so linear. They weren't abstract in any way, and they weren't really fragmented, either."[2]
  • "'Little Birds' and its 7-inch present a prayer-like song Mangum wrote quickly in 1998 and played later that day at a friend’s party, shortly before he stopped doing Neutral Milk Hotel. He wouldn’t play the song again for 10 years, but that live recording floated around online. Mangum wrote the song after a confrontation with a street preacher in downtown Athens who was spewing hatred towards LGBTQ people. A small group of five or six people gathered and shouted back. Mangum yelled to the point that the preacher got off his stool and slinked away. That distressing experience reverberated as Mangum wrote “Little Birds,” a song about many things, including how conservative Christianity too often imbues so-called believers with an utterly warped sense of morality."[3]
  • The live version of this song was recorded the day it was written.[4] It was recorded by Lance Bangs, who also recorded Live At Jittery Joe's.

References[]

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