High Flying Bird is an evolving website. Essential to it is deep respect for open-minded observation of an important part of American history, that being the distinct culture of the San Francisco Bay Area during the middle of the twentieth century, which culminated in an explosion of interest from other places during the mid-1960s.
Whatever happened in that area has been written about by many before. This is not an attempt to supplement, summarize or usurp any of the thoughts of those previous writers. It also isn't a blog. We being the website producer and surroundings, with by now you the reader, we are only providing a point of reference along the path to knowledge. There isn't any authority implied here. Rather, more and more people who weren't there are trying to study and understand the time and place from a further distance every hour of this day and the next and so on; this is a way of getting beyond sketches and documentaries and into allowing some reflection through exploration and thought. In addition, High Flying Bird is not going to sell you anything or seek sponsorship from anyone; this production will always be non-commercial.
The site is operating on the assumption that readers have good imaginations, so there are not many pictures, images or videos. It's likely there won't be any mulitmedia parts to the site. It is intended to be read, although there are on these pages links to other sites which include plenty of visual as well as verbal information.
“High Flyin' Bird”, alternatively titled “High Flying Bird”, is a song that was written in the early sixties by an artist from West Virginia, Billy Edd Wheeler. It is a folk/country song; Wheeler wrote several of those, which can be explored further at his website: billyeddwheeler.com. The song became popular when Judy Henske recorded it and titled her second solo album High Flying Bird after it in 1964. The beat and folk rock cultures that this site will explore were both traversed by her performances. This site suggests you read what folk chronicler Richie Unterberger has to say about that on his site: www.richieunterberger.com/henske2.html, and that you visit Henske's site as well, judyhenske.com.
The song became a frequent centerpiece of Jefferson Airplane performances in the Bay Area during 1966-67, and as such it exists as a cultural touchpoint, which inspired this site's URL and its title. The website contacted Billy Edd Wheeler to get his approval for its use, which he gave as he wished us good luck, and mentioned that Neil Young has a version of “High Flyin' Bird” on his album Americana, released June 2012.
Links:
atsf.co.uk, Discography of Elektra Recordings late 1963 to 1964, showing cover art and song lists for releases surrounding Judy Henske's High Flying Bird.
Elektra60.com, lyrics of the song and cover art for Henske's album.
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