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Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:29 am
by mark lynn
Below is the earliest incarnation of the Cooleybird from what Wes believes to be 1989. Back then it was simply called the Black Flamingo.Wes and Cooley hadn't yet met though he does think "you can see a remarkable resemblance." I'd have to agree. Wild how these things happens sometimes for sure. Just passing this on from our good friend over at Willard's Garage :D
Image

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:19 pm
by RevMatt
I am setting in side some money in hopes of comissioning a piece from Wes Freed. His prices seem very reasonable and he has a lot of great stuff, not just DBT related either.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:16 pm
by GW in IA
One of my little side note day-dreams, is to somday have Wes do a tailgait for my old truck. Not gonna happen anytime in the near future, but it sure would be the shit!

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:27 pm
by mark lynn
Sorry guys. The image is attached. Who runs this fucking place anyway :D

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:43 pm
by dime in the gutter
mark lynn wrote:Who runs this fucking place anyway :D

zip city?

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:32 am
by mark lynn
dime in the gutter wrote:
mark lynn wrote:Who runs this fucking place anyway :D

zip city?


Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 5:13 pm
by GuitarManUpstairs
Thanks Mark Lynn. You know, when I first asked about the Cooley Bird a few weeks ago, i figured this had to have been asked about before and there were gonna be some really cool, if not well known stories folks would tell me about it, or at least someone would make some shit up. But, all i really got was, " I don't know where it came from...but its BADASS!" A sentiment which I wholeheartedly agree with, but I was actually genuinely curious as to how it became such a consistant character in the DBT artwork(Maybe I should direct this to Wes.). Apparently no one really knows that much about it so its like a puzzle now picking up these little tid bits of info. Cool.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:59 pm
by dime in the gutter
i always kinda thought the origins (for dbt's use) were some how tied into the skynyrd/70's rock/race relations/duality of the south deal going on with sro. phoenix like bird rising from the burned out wreckage left by the self destructive power of rock and roll....or some shit like that. although, i doubt they would be that obvious....it works for me.

it suggests many things to me today.

cooley death bird makes an appearance in murdering oscar. sounds just like it looks.

all just my opinion.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:01 pm
by Smitty
i think it became the "cooley bird" after the artwork to gravtiys gone in the ABAAC sleeve

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:25 am
by GuitarManUpstairs
I think the official name should be Cooley's Crowmingo...that cracked me up dude. :lol:

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:41 am
by GuitarManUpstairs
dime in the gutter wrote:i always kinda thought the origins (for dbt's use) were some how tied into the skynyrd/70's rock/race relations/duality of the south deal going on with sro. phoenix like bird rising from the burned out wreckage left by the self destructive power of rock and roll....or some shit like that. although, i doubt they would be that obvious....it works for me.

it suggests many things to me today.

cooley death bird makes an appearance in murdering oscar. sounds just like it looks.

all just my opinion.


That may be somewhat obvious to some but I think it definitely fits thematically...I say its an apt observation. :geek: Although....does the Cooley Bird actually appear in the SRO artwork? (Sorry, this may kick me out of the club, but I dont actually own a SRO vinyl/CD...yet....just the download.) I just know it has the Spooky Owl on the front cover.

Also, what part of Murdering Oscar did you mean? The song or elsewhere on the album...I'm gonna have to give it a spin and see what part your talkin about.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:00 pm
by TruckerTomer
Nice. Never saw that...thanks. It seems the bird got younger with the years... :)

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:27 pm
by dime in the gutter
GuitarManUpstairs wrote:
dime in the gutter wrote:i always kinda thought the origins (for dbt's use) were some how tied into the skynyrd/70's rock/race relations/duality of the south deal going on with sro. phoenix like bird rising from the burned out wreckage left by the self destructive power of rock and roll....or some shit like that. although, i doubt they would be that obvious....it works for me.

it suggests many things to me today.

cooley death bird makes an appearance in murdering oscar. sounds just like it looks.

all just my opinion.


That may be somewhat obvious to some but I think it definitely fits thematically...I say its an apt observation. :geek: Although....does the Cooley Bird actually appear in the SRO artwork? (Sorry, this may kick me out of the club, but I dont actually own a SRO vinyl/CD...yet....just the download.) I just know it has the Spooky Owl on the front cover.

Also, what part of Murdering Oscar did you mean? The song or elsewhere on the album...I'm gonna have to give it a spin and see what part your talkin about.

i think you're right about the sro/owl. spooky owl begat cooley deathbird. don't ruin it for me, man.

murdering oscar the song. cooley guitar sounds like the death bird's war cry....or some shit like that.

just my opinion.

thc

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:48 pm
by GuitarManUpstairs
dime in the gutter wrote:
GuitarManUpstairs wrote:
dime in the gutter wrote:i always kinda thought the origins (for dbt's use) were some how tied into the skynyrd/70's rock/race relations/duality of the south deal going on with sro. phoenix like bird rising from the burned out wreckage left by the self destructive power of rock and roll....or some shit like that. although, i doubt they would be that obvious....it works for me.

it suggests many things to me today.

cooley death bird makes an appearance in murdering oscar. sounds just like it looks.

all just my opinion.


That may be somewhat obvious to some but I think it definitely fits thematically...I say its an apt observation. :geek: Although....does the Cooley Bird actually appear in the SRO artwork? (Sorry, this may kick me out of the club, but I dont actually own a SRO vinyl/CD...yet....just the download.) I just know it has the Spooky Owl on the front cover.

Also, what part of Murdering Oscar did you mean? The song or elsewhere on the album...I'm gonna have to give it a spin and see what part your talkin about.

i think you're right about the sro/owl. spooky owl begat cooley deathbird. don't ruin it for me, man.

murdering oscar the song. cooley guitar sounds like the death bird's war cry....or some shit like that.

just my opinion.

thc


Yeah, after I asked about that i went and put it on and picked that part out immediately...and no worries man I think you're spot on.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:39 pm
by RevMatt
SRO has the Hood Owl. Decoration Day's got the Cooley Bird.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:46 am
by mark lynn
More on the Cooley bird from our good friend Jyl:

To GW in IA who has truck dreams: check out our friend Jim's truck

http://bikenutz.com/shoptruck/

- Wes did the dashboard ( see 'dash job' page ) and will also be
doing some more stuff, soon as Jim tells him what he wants. Way cool
that his tail gate was courtesy the man who did many of the Mail Pouch
Tobacco Barns - an incredible stroke of luck.

http://bikenutz.com/shoptruck/dashjob/

+++++++++
The Cooley Bird /Cooleybird

Despite what some may think, the name Cooleybird originated here at
Willard's Garage by yours truly, not long after Wes showed it to the
band as a prototype for their record "Decoration Day". I just
thought "Cooley Bird" sounded funny, and it did remind us of Cooley
in some ways. I think maybe around then Patterson had started calling
it "The Death Bird", which I never liked, as it sounded cliche and
goth and the bird really had nothing to do with death. But in years
since, a lot of people would call it that not knowing that P. or the
band also used that from time to time - funny how it makes people
think of death. I guess storks deliver babies so black flamingoes
are The Grim Reaper ? I don't know...

I guess you could say it's origins were kinda/sorta 'goth' - Wes had
this idea for a painting of a punk rock ( I guess) trailer with
black, rather than pink, flamingoes all over the front yard. He
resurrected the bird to see if the band wanted it for DD,

When he showed it to the band, they were unsure about it - and who
could blame them ? At the time there was no secret meaning or
subtext relevant to anything to do with DBT or us, just a weird
image. I think the band kind of reluctantly, at first, decided to
go with it - along with the rest of the DD art, but when they did
give it the "go ahead", Patterson was quite adamant about them
owning the bird. He said emphatically, "That bird is OURS!" - sort
of like the flying cat was Cracker's for awhile. About 10 minutes.
I love David, Johnny & Bob, but they really didn't use that cat image
to its full potential. So Wes reclaimed it. We don't like it when
animals are homeless.

That's why Wes can't / won't use it for other people's logos and
such ( some have asked...), or for commissioned pieces. Tattoos are
fine, of course. Public domain and all, and frankly at this point
it's fun to think that it may one day be one of the most popular
rock and roll related tattoo images of all time. People all over the
world have Cooley Bird tattoos. Crazy.

More trivia: Originally there were two Cooleybirds. This was back
before we had the technology to just email the band artwork & get
immediate feedback, so Wes initially told P. about it over the
phone. He said, "Yeah, there's two black flamingoes looking over a
sinkhole with a cross over it."

That was received with a very, very long period of silence. Then Wes
said, "Maybe you need to see it..." !!!!!!! Hilarious. Who
knew, right ?

Some years ago one of our regular customers dubbed it a "crowmingo" -
and I see others have thought of that same thing, too. I love that.
Wes has always loved crows, so... you know. "It's all good.",
as the kids say.

So that's prolly more than anybody wanted to know about the bird(s) -
sorry to disappoint anyone, but there's no reason for them being
other than "they look cool", however, as with song lyrics, art is
really about what you choose to see anyway, so feel free to invent
any stories you like. We get a kick out of hearing them !

Much love from all of us at Willard's Garage - DBT fans are birds in
this world. Non pareil.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:27 pm
by dime in the gutter
mark lynn wrote:More on the Cooley bird from our good friend Jyl:

so feel free to invent
any stories you like.

i knew i was right.

thanks for posting. great read.


maybe you need to see it.

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:53 pm
by bovine knievel
Crowmingo :lol:

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:34 am
by GuitarManUpstairs
Excellent post Mark Lynn. Thanks - thats exactly what I wanted to know about it...not exact meanings and such...just a little on how it came to be. I love the fact that the meaning of its presence is open for interpretation. Art/Beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all...

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:39 am
by GuitarManUpstairs
RevMatt wrote:SRO has the Hood Owl. Decoration Day's got the Cooley Bird.


This is somewhat of a tangent but the Owl over the high way on the cover of SRO reminds me of the Mothman...Anyone ever see that movie? (Mothman Prophesies.)

Re: Origin of The Cooley Bird

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:36 pm
by Clams
Thanks for the write up, Jyl, and thanks for posting it, mark lynn. Great stuff, really interesting.