by Marilyn Keith, Alan Bergman, and Norman Luboff

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree,
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend,
Leave the nest again?
That is very sad,
Makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away,
In the sky away,
You more lucky than me.

I also had a pretty gal,
She not with me today.
They all the same,
The pretty gal.
Make’em the nest,
Then they fly away.

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree,
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Better fly away,
In the sky away.
Picker coming soon,
Pick from night to noon.
Black and yellow you,
Like banana too,
They may pick you some day.

Wish that I was a yellow bird,
I fly away with you.
But I am not
A yellow bird,
So here I sit,
Nothing else to do.

On a mostly unrelated note (it’s two for one day), Peopeomoxmox (Yellow Bird) was a chief of the Walla Walla tribe in the American northwest who met a tragic end after carrying a white flag to negotiate with settlers in 1855. He was taken prisoner, shot and then apparently mutilated by Americans:

That morning a raging battle with the Indians began, and it continued for several days. According to the stories of the soldiers, Peopeomoxmox and his companions began to shout encouragement to the Indians, and Colonel Kelly ordered them bound. As soldiers attempted to bind their hands, one of the Indians, indignant about being tied up like a dog, pulled out a knife. The man was shot, as were Peopeopmoxmox and the rest of the hostage Indians.

After the death of the regal old Walla Walla chief, the volunteers horribly violated his body. He was scalped, and his ears and hands were cut off. According to one account, “They skinned him from head to foot, and made razor-straps out of his skin.”

Peopeomoxmox had every reason in the world to treat the Americans with bitterness, but despite his own experiences, and to the day of this death, he remained a peaceful chief.

Anyone know a Yellow Bird story with a positive ending?