Ann Benson — “High Flying Bird”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 25, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

963) Ann Benson — “High Flying Bird”

A shattering version of the folk/folk rock classic by an almost wholly unknown singer (her sole album from ’69 saw “[o]nly 500 copies” pressed). (Showery Records, https://www.discogs.com/release/6720660-Ann-Benson-High-Flying-Bird) Many who love Ann Benson’s performance have bemoaned the lack of any available information about her, as when Tony G. pleaded on March 1, 2015, that:

I fell in love a few years back with an album called High Flying Bird by Ann Benson. It was released in 1969 on the Aspen label (most likely a private pressing.). I am enamored by it. My search has proved fruitless on finding information on Ms. Benson. What happened to this beautiful voice? Anyone have any history on Benson?!?

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581

Ah, the joys of poking around the internet. Tony G’s note appeared on the Mudcat Cafe, an online folksong database and forum (mudcat.org). Well, a month later, on April 12, Dave Ross responded that “Ann Benson is alive and well, and still sings (and plays guitar) for friends. She lives in Portola Valley, CA. I just got home from a delightful concert put on by Ann and her life & musical partner, Iris Harrell.” (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581)

And then, on April 30, Ann Benson herself responded! From her posts, I offer you:

April 30: “I’m fairly gobsmacked that anyone still has the record I made in 1969, much less that they’re still listening to it. . . . First of all, I’d like to invite you to a little concert at the Ladera Community Church on Alpine Road in Portola Valley next Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 (it’s kind of a small venue, so please get there by 7 pm to get a good seat). Our band More Joy plays folkish, countryish music: Paula on violin/fiddle, Spike on bass & guitar, Ginger on keyboards, me on guitar and voice, and Iris on voice. Iris and I live now in Santa Rosa, but our band is still down on the Peninsula, so we sing two concerts a year, for now, in Portola Valley. Our second concert will be at 7:30 on Oct. 8 at the same venue. . . . Thank you for your interest in my music; I’m very grateful.”

May 1: “Thanks for asking about releasing High Flying Bird onto CD. I hadn’t though of that, but I have the master somewhere in storage, and if it’s still viable, we could think about it. Don’t know how much it would cost, and I can’t imagine that there’s a big audience. But when I go through the boxes we’ll see… . The theme of the songs on our band’s current concert is “Peace begins at home.” . . . After High Flying Bird, I didn’t make any other records. Life happened, and actually we haven’t much done any music for the last 30 years. So it’s way fun to get back to it after all these years.”

June 8: “I guess in 1969 I was listening to the usual suspects: Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Buffy Saint Marie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, Frummox, Willis Alan Ramsey, The Limelighters, and others whose names I don’t remember. I think I got the song “High Flying Bird” from Judy Henske.”

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156581

Then, I happened upon an August 13, 2008, story from The Almanac, a Menlo Park/Atherton/Portola Valley/Woodside California paper — “30-year engagement for Iris Harrell, Ann Benson”:

After almost 30 years together, Iris and Ann are preparing to get married. On Sept. 7, they will marry at Ladera Community Church, and then their home will fill with more than 150 guests for the wedding reception. . . . “We’ve always said, in our lifetime we’d like to be able to get married. In our lifetime,” Ann says. Now they finally can: This past May, the California Supreme Court ruled that gay couples could marry. They were married once before. In 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the city to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, they were among the 4,000 couples who dropped everything to rush to the city hall. They waited in line two days before getting married. Ann said she found it so moving, she cried the whole way through. A year later, the state Supreme Court ruled that the mayor had overstepped his authority, and all of those marriages were annulled. This time, with the Supreme Court squarely behind the marriages, they’re hoping they can stay married.

https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2008/08/13/30-year-engagement-for-iris-harrell-ann-benson

Ann relates in the story that:

“I came out at 18[] . . . . It was in the ’60s, and in the South. [If parents or neighbors found out you were gay] the least that you’d get is kicked out of college, and maybe out of your own family. And that still happens. But also, it was not unusual for you to be committed and have electroshock, if not lobotomy — I’m not kidding. This is what happened. There was no community — you thought you were the only one, and you’re just as homophobic as anybody, because that’s how you were raised. That’s our legacy, and you have to undo that for yourself. Which gives me a lot of compassion for straight people who really don’t get it, because that’s how I was raised, too. I didn’t get it either until I came out. And then, for me, it was totally natural. It’s who I was.”

https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2008/08/13/30-year-engagement-for-iris-harrell-ann-benson

Unjustly obscure artists from the 60’s are/were real people and have/had real lives! They are/were not mythical, mysterious, shadowy, objects of veneration. Well, not just mythical, mysterious, shadowy, objects of veneration!

At least 25 versions of the Billy Edd Wheeler composition “High Flying Bird” have been recorded. (https://secondhandsongs.com/work/134166/all) Richie Unterberger writes that:

“High Flying Bird,” in addition to being a great folk-based song, is a pivotal song in the birth and history of folk-rock. As heard in its original version, as recorded by Judy Henske around late 1963 for her early 1964 High Flying Bird album, there is no other song recorded prior to early 1964 that so much anticipates the sound of folk-rock. It would make its way into the repertoire of numerous early folk-rockers as well, though the first version remains the most powerful. Henske was known primarily as a folk singer when she recorded this as part of her second album, but with a full band backup, the arrangement came close to rock. . . . The brooding, minor-keyed melody of “High Flying Bird” is ideally complemented by a lyric juxtaposing the soaring flight of a bird with the nailed-to-the-ground despondency of the narrator, so broken up over a failed affair that she sounds on the verge of wishing for death to put her out of her misery. . . . “High Flying Bird” was worthy of being a hit single, but wasn’t, perhaps in part to Elektra Records’ non-presence in the 45 market at the time. Several other acts, usually in the folk-rock camp, would record “High Flying Bird” later in the 1960s, but somehow it never did get to be a hit. Among those who tried were the Jefferson Airplane, the Au Go Go Singers (with a pre-Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills on lead vocal), the We Five, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, and H.P. Lovecraft. Of these versions, the Jefferson Airplane’s is certainly the most well known, although it wasn’t released until the 1970s, years after they had recorded it at one of their first sessions in late 1965. . . . Although the 1964 version by the Au Go Go Singers, a folk group with the pre-Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, is obscure, it’s actually pretty good. . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/song/high-flying-bird-mt0030350843

Here is Judy Henske:

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