Bird (1988) Poster

(1988)

Forest Whitaker: Charlie 'Bird' Parker

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Quotes 

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : There's going to be a Birdland in every city one day. There's gonna be a Birdland in Chicago, a Birdland in Detroit, a Birdland right across the street from Camarillo. I am the liberator of Paris and you are a motherfucking afterthought!

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Ain't it a bitch? I go to a liver doctor and I pay him $50. And it don't help me. I go to an ulcer doctor. Same thing, except I pay him $75. But I go to some little cat up in a house somewhere and pay him $10 for a bag of shit and a little peace. My ulcers don't hurt, liver don't hurt. My heart trouble is gone. And this is the man I'm supposed to stay away from? Mr. Gillespie, my comrade in arms, that is what I call a paradox.

  • Chan Parker : Dizzy sent you a birthday card. Seems he's back in town. Do you owe him a phone call?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I owe Dizzy everything... except a phone call.

  • Dizzy Gillespie : No, no... what you're really asking me is, how come when I'm supposed to hit at 9:30, I hit at 9:30... huh? How come I land on a cat I love almost as much as I love you and then fire his ass for showing up late or stoned... I can hold a group together... why I'm a leader.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : That's what I'm asking.

    Dizzy Gillespie : Because they don't expect me to be. Because deep down they like it if the nigger turns out to be unreliable. Because that's the way they think it's supposed to be. Because I won't give them the satisfaction of being right.

  • Benny Tate : When the gig is over, you still be scuffling to find the next one. If there is a next one. You can't earn no living - playing jazz - in the States.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Diz can. Duke can.

    Benny Tate : Well, you ain't Diz - and you sure as hell ain't Duke.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : And they ain't me.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : [on the phone]  Western Union? Telegram to Mrs. Chan Parker. 151 Avenue B, New York City. Chan... comma... Help... period. Charlie Parker.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : [voiceover, as he stares at himself in the mirror]  Come, fill the cup, And in the fire of spring, Your winter garment of repentance fling, The bird of time, Has but a little way to flutter, And bird is on the wing.

  • Chan Parker : Okay. You walked me home. You got me alone. You managed to get me talking and I've told you some of my girlish secrets. But you haven't told me a thing. What's going on?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : There's one night in my life I never want to forget. I never want to go through it again. I was 15 and I woke up feeling more pain than I've ever felt. I didn't know why until somebody told me I was strung out. Somebody had to tell me that. You know, I always thought that, if I hadn't asked, then I wouldn't be. You make me feel very peaceful. You know?

    Chan Parker : You're not my type, man.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I know that.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I'm going on the road again. To Hollywood, back with Dizzy. You know, I hear things about it that make me jumpy.

    Chan Parker : What?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Stuff's not easy to find, for one thing. Tough cops. We'll be the first group to play the new sound out there. I don't know how they'd like that. What do you think about keeping me company?

    Chan Parker : [sarcastically]  Oh, yeah. Hunt for drugs during the day and - lead the applause at night.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You know, Audrey, if we could really hear every sound in the world we'd go crazy. He must be. Crazy, you know?

    Audrey : He always looked fairly normal to me.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Yeah, well, I'm talking about Stravinsky.

    Audrey : So am I. We go to the same dentist.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : We start off with a tour. Ten nights. $150 per man. Per night.

    Red Rodney : Really? That's great. Where?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : South. We drive. Fresh air, scenery - unsophisticated pussy.

    Red Rodney : All right.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You don't get that with Woody Herman, man.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : It's my wish that you remain my child wife. Would you do that for me?

    Chan Parker : You've switched from Bette Davis movies to Jane Eyre. Come on home and eat, Rochester.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : This is the year I'm supposed to die.

  • Red Rodney : Bird, are you crazy? Forget about the fact that nobody's going to believe I'm an albino!

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I believe it.. Whoever heard of a Jewish cat playing trumpet the way you do? Toot toot. Right? Toot toot.

    Red Rodney : Cut the crap! The main thing is that I can't sing. I got a voice like a dying animal!

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Anybody can sing the blues!

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Me and the piano player, we got together and we were working on "Cherokee." Now, this was a song that I had played 10,000 times and I was sick of this song. But, I found this new way of extending the chord changes so it was like - a whole new song. And it still fit. That's been what I've trying to do this since they gonged me off the Reno Club. The bridge of "Cherokee." That's the bridge I crossed - two days before Christmas 1939. What a Christmas present.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Junkies dream their lives away just thinking about living in places like this. What was I thinking about, pudding?

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You don't know her. You're too young. You're too young. She's probably dead by now. But, Violet: the vibrant Violet of song. They billed her at the Apollo. This is the chick I was playing behind when I found my style. I was just backing her up. I didn't even have a regular gig. I was just washing dishes and jamming after hours. Of course, that's before I became the titanic commercial success that you see sitting before you. That's before I captured the fancy of the adoring public. But I started playing these little - these figures behind her, see? And - they fit with the song - but, it was like going *inside* the melody. And she says, right on the stage, she says: Nigger, don't be playin' that shit behind me while I'm trying to sang.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Steinberg - he got one of the camera girls to take a picture of me in the midst of my disorientation.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Work that psychology on him. He's just an overgrown, goddamn adolescent anyway. Dangerous when contradicted, but - an adolescent!

    Chan Parker : God, you're weird.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : God, I'm weird? Is that what they say in Westchester?

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I can't do anything right anymore.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Everyone knows I lost that gig.

    Chan Parker : That's right.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : That's right.

    Chan Parker : So?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : So?

    Chan Parker : So why are we conning each other?

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I'm getting on right now.

    Red Rodney : Yeah, I know.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You know? The less you know about getting on, the better off you be. Another thing, junior. If I ever hear about you using this shit, I will come from my grave and I will haunt you. Have we met?

    Red Rodney : No, sir.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : I learned something. They can get it out of your blood.

    Chan Parker : Sure.

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : But they can never get it out of your mind.

  • Dizzy Gillespie : "Bebop tends to pervert young minds."

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Who said that?

    Dizzy Gillespie : Somebody with enough juice to get 12 radio stations to turn us off. So we going home tomorrow.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You could use a vacation from me. Hold this home together. We both want to do that, right?

    Chan Parker : Oh, Bird. You and your George Brent dialogue.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Smooth as butter and sweet as a little sister's ass.

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : You know where I can get me some stuff?

  • Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Just tell me the secret.

    Dizzy Gillespie : What secret? I know my own secrets, just like you know yours. What you're really asking me is how come when I'm supposed to hit at 9: 30, I hit at 9:30? How can I land on a cat I love as much as I love you and then fire his ass for showing up late or stoned? Why I can hold a group together? Why I'm a leader?

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker : Yeah. That's what I'm asking.

    Dizzy Gillespie : Because they don't expect me to be. Because, deep down, they like it if the nigger turns out unreliable. Because that's the way they think it's supposed to be. And because I won't give them the satisfaction of being right.

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