The Bird's the Word

Lazy Fred - the real origin of "The Bird's The Word" (song history and meaning)

In 1963 charts there was a popular dance song "Surfin Bird" by The Trashmen. Younger people know it mostly from the cartoon series Family Guy, but it came out first in 1962 as "The Bird's The Word" and the melodically very similar precursor "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" - both by the Rivingtons. The lyrics was a wicked mixture of apparent nonsense words (even more in the Trashmen version) and yet nobody told how it came into being.

Some years ago on a holiday trip I talked to an old bartender who spoke about the origin of this song and played on his blues guitar. I don't know if I remember everything correctly, but it was in 1962 when the Rivingtons handed out test recordings of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow to disc jockeys in L.A. to check the audience before release in record stores. After a gig, the band slept in a hostel dormitory, traveling together with an roadie of the name Fred Parish. Fred was a skinny white man, and because he had a creaky voice and by his color blindness wore clothing in inappropriately combined colors, his nickname was Parrot. As a kind of helper for everything Fred introduced the band to whites, gave small tips for tweaking arrangements and also did warm-up comedy before the Rivingtons played. But he tended to booze excessively, and with hangover he refused to get up next morning and was of little use to the musicians. Sometimes he read novels in bed instead of getting up. When they rang a handbell and dragged him out of the bed, Fred (as the only white man in the dormitory) shouted racist swear words across the room. So the band pranked Parrot several times, finally by hiding a water hose in the bunk bed above him. Fred flew into a rage and got fired.

After a week, Fred had heard by someone that the Rivingtons had exchanged the lyrics of their new song "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" into a mockery about him, and the music hall audience was swept of their feet because "The Lazy Fred" was an even greater success than the somewhat sweetish precursor. (Was this also broadcast on radio stations in 1962? - Please tell if you remember.) The experimental performance started with 2 handbell clangs and first time featured on stage a military snare drummer and a sax player. With its driving beat this came closer to the Trashmen song than any other Rivingtons versions, so at least the Sorensen Brothers may have known it. No records exist, but the lyrics were roughly like this:

(DING! DING!) Raise everybody's head above the bed! b-b-b-b-b-bed, b-b b-bed b-b-b-bed, b-bed, b-b b-bed

Is now everybody's head out of the bed? Raise everybody's head above the bed! b-b-b-bed, b-bed, b-b b-bed b-b-b-bed, b-bed, b-b b-bed

Only Lazy Fred is still in bed. How to get Fred out of the bed? b-b-b-b-b-bed b-b b-b-bed b-b-b-b-b-bed b-b b-b-bed

Hear him snore, he's so dead-drunk no earthquake force can shake him out of his bunk a-hoo - he's sleeping yet a-hoo - so deep in bed!

{background chorus:} in da bed, b-bed, bed bed b-bed in da bed, b-bed, bed bed b-bed ...

{While the others keep singing the bass line, the lead singer pretends to ask the audience in a rap-like manner: "How can we get Fred out of the bed? - Come on! - Shall we make some noise!?" They rang the handbell and the sax played a siren tone. "louder!" Bass chorus sings "But he's still in bed!"}

No alarm clock build in hell can wake him with its jarring bell (ticke-tocke-tock a-hoo!) He stays in bed - not waking yet.

{saxophone solo}

Lazy Fred jumped off the bed: WHO INSTALLED THAT SHOWER HEAD?!! above my bed, my bed, my bed is so wet! ba-ba-ba-ba bed, bed is so wet!

From heel to head he got so wet with his ugly parrot voice he yelled so bad: my ba-ba-bed, da bed, da bed is so wet ba-ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba bed is so wet. bed-bed-bed, the bed is so wet

{Here was plenty of rhythmical syllable staccato like in the Trashmen song. The bartender with guitar could only sketch what it had sounded like.}

Up to the entrance hall we heard him scream, everybody in the house should know what I mean My ba my bed, my bed, my bed is so wet My ba ba ba ba ba bed is so wet my bed bed bed, bed is so wet ba-ba-ba-brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

To get a lazy Fred out of the bed, do install a shower head above the bed, to make da bed so wet ba ba bed - bed - bed so wet

{rhythmical snare pattern with drum-rolls}

{2 lines sung in high pitched soul voice} But he is out of bed! (Fred's bed's so wet) He's out of bed! (Fred's bed is so wet)

But the fired Fred Parish did not find this funny at all, and filed a lawsuit to ban their defamatory song "The Lazy Fred" and eliminate from lyrics any use of possibly recognizable references to Fred, his nickname Parrot, laziness, alcohol and bed pranks by the band. As you can imagine (we are in 1962), having white skin color was threatening enough to win a lawsuit (possibly by extra-judicial settlement - memories fade). So "Lazy Fred" disappeared and the Rivingtons were forced to write a 3rd variant with phonetically similar catchy syllables but different words. The producer also threw out the drum solo and sax part, which he considered too novel for the band's targeted audience. The result became "The Bird's The Word", but as a last act of revenge it got written in a way that listeners who knew the song "The Lazy Fred" would immediately recognize the many allusions to it. So of course "the word" for the bird meant "Parrot". Eventually also the reworked song became such an instant hit (not least by The Trashmen, those initially not even credited Rivingtons properly) that it certainly would have been a better choice for the unknown comedian Fred to keep the fame of his name in it instead of falling with the song into oblivion. People said he later died of cirrhosis; in L.A. Fred was never seen on stage again. Also the Rivingtons tried to make further variants of their "Bird" songs, but without much success. But so it was - the strange story behind "The Bird's The Word".