How Well Do You Know the Lyrics to Brandon Michael Lowden’s ‘I Like Birds’?
By: Eric Lowden
Tags: Brandon Lowden, Poetry, Brandhole, Birds

Brandon Michael Lowden found a real gem when he wrote ‘I Like Birds’, but how well do you know this prolific masterpiece?

1. “I Like Birds/Yes I do/Please don’t __________.”

a. Tell our robot overlords

b. Sign that executive order to have them all exterminated, Mr. President

c. Tell them about my date last night, they might get jealous

d. Think it’s sexual in any way at all

2. “I can name __________.”

a. My next pet bird after you

b. The state bird of every state as long as the state is named Wyoming, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, or Nebraska

c. Every single pigeon in New York City

d. My children after birds, that’s how much I like birds

3. “It’s not a thing __________/It feels so good to __________.”

a. My parents allow me to do; be a rebellious teenager

b. I can tell just anybody; have someone I can trust

c. That other people do; watch a hawk murder a squirrel

d. For the faint of heart; have a strong will

4. “Just coz __________/It doesn’t mean that __________.”

a. Seagulls suck; all birds do.

b. I like birds; I want to have sex with them

c. Humans and birds have been at war since the invention of airplanes; we can’t learn to coexist peacefully.

d. My name is Brandon; I am Brandon Boyd, the lead singer of the rock band Incubus

5. “The others would __________/So promise me __________.”

a. Turn me over to the robot overlords; that you won’t turn me over to the robot overlords

b. Call me a traitor, just like Senator McCarthy did to anybody who said anything bad about him; you won’t tell them that I have been associating with the enemy.

c. Destroy my entire collection of LEGOs and Transformers; you will hide them and keep them safe

d. Order Chinese food from Red Dragon; you’ll order from China Palace, they’re so much better

6. “But to think __________.”

a. KA Applegate turned Tobias into a hawk in Animorphs to show that birds and people aren’t so different after all

b. That birds and humans once lived together in harmony gives me hope

c. Is a crime now that the robot overlords have taken control

d. My life would be complete if I could figure out what dogs are

7. “So please don’t tell them __________/__________/I Like birds.”

a. My deepest darkest secrets; and don’t leak my emails to my political rivals

b. About my unbridled passion for birds; I promise you it isn’t sexual

c. Anything I just told you; Oh, wait, that’s right you’re deaf and you can’t hear me

d. [Nothing, these are the only lyrics]

Answers:

1. “I Like Birds/Yes I do/Please don’t __________.”

d. Think it’s sexual in any way at all

Brandon begins his song by proclaiming his affinity for avian creatures to his friend, but wants to make sure his friend doesn’t mistake this for bestiality.

2. “I can name __________.”

c. Every single pigeon in New York City

In this part of the song, Brandon reveals that he likes birds so much, he has gone out of his way to learn how to speak pigeon in order to learn the names of each and every pigeon in the largest city in America.

3. “It’s not a thing __________/It feels so good to __________.”

a. My parents allow me to do; be a rebellious teenager

Here we learn that this is a true story from Brandon’s teenage years, and that his parents weren’t always the bird lovers they are today.

4. “Just coz __________/It doesn’t mean that __________.”

c. Humans and birds have been at war since the invention of airplanes; we can’t learn to coexist peacefully.

Here Brandon makes it even clearer that this song is based on a true story of his life. The Wright Brothers were very well known for their anti-bird rhetoric. They started the Human-Avian War when they invented the airplane, a way for humans to fly without the help of birds. This crippled the bird economy, and the birds responded by declaring all-out war on humanity, a war that lasted many years with countless casualties on either side.

5. “The others would __________/So promise me __________.”

b. Call me a traitor, just like Senator McCarthy did to anybody who said anything bad about him; you won’t tell them that I have been associating with the enemy.

Here, Brandon appropriately parallels the similarities between anti-bird feelings in the early 2000s to the anti-communist attitudes of the 1950s. He implores his friend not to tell anybody about his affinity for birds which he is confessing.

6. “But to think __________.”

b. That birds and humans once lived together in harmony gives me hope

Now Brandon is thinking about the past, before the Great War, and how beautiful the world must have been. This, coupled with his special relationship with birds, gives him hope that maybe one day the two sides can set aside their differences and once again live together peacefully

7. “So please don’t tell them __________/__________/I Like birds.”

d. [Nothing, these are the only lyrics]

Realizing that he must work carefully to achieve peace between humans and birds, Brandon finishes the song by warning his friend one last time not to tell anybody that he likes birds, the sworn enemy of humans at the time the song was written.

There you go! We all know Brandon as the heroic negotiator that brought a peaceful end to the great Human-Avian War in the year 2007. The 104 year long conflict, one of the bloodiest in history, inspired some of the greatest art, poetry, and music that has ever been created. The finest work to come from it is unarguably ‘I Like Birds’, Brandon’s own account of the struggle of being an edgy teen human with an affinity for birds in the late war years. How well did you do? Do you know this song as well as Brandon himself would? Or do you need to brush up on your Human-Avian War history?