Canticle:
William Carlos Williams, Rockin’ Robin & the Swallows Bobbin’ Home to Roost
Compiled and edited by Eric Darton
Compiled and edited by Eric Darton
They saw the birds with rusty breasts and called them robins. Thus, from the start, an America of which they could have had no inkling drove the first settlers upon their past. They retreated for warmth and reassurance to something familiar. But at a cost. For what they saw were not robins. They were thrushes only vaguely resembling the rosy, daintier English bird. Larger, stronger and in the evening of a wilder and lovelier song, actually here was something the newcomers had never in their lives before encountered. Blur. Confusion. A bird that beats with his wings and slows himself with his tail in landing. The example is slight but enough properly to incline the understanding. Strange and difficult, the new continent induced a torsion in the spirits of the first settlers, tearing them between the old and the new. And at once a split occurred in tha impetus which should have carried them forward as one into the dangerous realities of the future. They found that they had not only left England but that they had arrived somewhere else: at a place whose pressing reality demanded not only a tremendous bodily devotion but as well, and more importunately, great powers of adaptability, a complete reconstruction of their most intimate cultural make-up, to accord with the new conditions. The most hesitated and turned back in their hearts at first glance. Meanwhile, nostalgically, erroneously, a robin. The above passage is taken from the opening of William Carlos Williams’ 1934 essay “The American Background.* The rest of Williams’ piece is as astonishing, incisive, beautifully written and historically grounded. In some thirty-odd pages, WCW goes a long way toward unlocking the American code from which our culture ramified. It takes a poet. And a physician. Or something of the twain. But rhymes do not a poem make. Eight years before Williams’ essay, in the midst of the roaring twenties, Harry Woods’ lyric caught the spirit of the moment: When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob Bobbin’ Along / There’ll be no more sobbin’ when he starts throbbin’ his old sweet song…. Of a host of versions, including Bing Crosby’s – featuring his signature cheek-inflations on the “bob”s – ‘twas Al Joleson’s caught the most worms. Later in the fifties, during the post-war swell of optimism, the rusty breasted thrush achieved its apotheosis on the airwaves and dancehalls: He rocks in the treetops all day long Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and singing his song All the little birds on Jaybird Street Love to hear the robin go tweet-tweet-tweet Chor: Rockin’ robin, (tweet-tweet-tweet) Rock-rock-rockin’ robin (tweet-tweedilly-tweet) Go rockin’ robin ‘cause we’re really gonna rock tonight (tweet-tweedilly-tweet) Every little swallow, every chick-a-dee Every little bird in the tall oak tree The wise old owl, the big black crow Flappin' their wings signin’ “go bird, go” Well the pretty little raven at the bird bandstand Taught him how to do the bop and it was grand They started going steady and bless my soul He out-bopped the buzzard and the oriole… “Rockin’ Robin” was written by Leon T. René (1902-1982) under the pseudonym Jimmie Thomas and recorded by Bobby Day in 1958. Released as a 45rpm record on the Class Records label which René and his brother Otis owned. “Rockin’ Robin” held a top position in the Billboard 100 R&B charts for several weeks. It may be the only R&B song featuring the piccolo as a lead instrument.** As a songwriter, Leon René seems to have had a particular affinity for birds. He is best know for “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” which was a hit for both The Ink Spots and Glenn Miller in 1940. When the swallows come back to Capistrano That’s the day you promised to come back to me When you whispered, “Farewell,” in Capistrano ‘Twas the day the swallows flew out to sea… The mission of San Juan Capistrano was known even before the song as a favored site for migratory birds. Located in present-day Orange County, CA, it was founded in 1776 by Spanish Franciscans who named it in honor of Giovanni De Capistrano, a 15th-century Italian theologian and “warrior priest.” The mission’s primary mission was the conversion the local Indians, and judging by the goodly number of graves marked with Juaneño (or Acjachemen) names in the mission’s campo santo, the friars enjoyed a measure of success. Here too, the criolla, or mission grape, was planted in the late 18th century, from which California’s first wines were produced. It seems probable that some quantity of this wine was consumed at mass in the form of Jesus’ blood. Now some folk may still find WCW’s revelation about the American “robbin” difficult to, well, swallow. But as Aristotle (purportedly) said, and any good Englishman will tell you: One swallow doth not a summer make. Nor an ink spot a Rorschach test. Nor iron bars a gaol. And is it not true that American riot police and UN peacekeepers both wear helmets colored robin’s egg blue? But would one mistake one for the other? Perhaps under certain circumstances. Which would be…? All the mission bells will ring The chapel choir will sing The happiness you'll bring Will live in my memory When the swallows come back to Capistrano That's the day I pray that you'll come back to me * America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait, Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, Harold Rugg, eds. With 120 illustrations. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1934, p. 9. ** In 1972, Michael Jackson recorded his own version of “Rockin’ Robin” to even vaster success. |