and what do they have to do with sex?
“Well, let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees…and a thing called love.”
Didn’t that expression come from the song?
Or, vice versa?
“Life is hard…but God is good”
Far older than the song, Adam…it was a cliche when I was a kid, before the song came out.
I’ve always understood it to mean the parents explaining sex to their children in the context of its natural expression… Birds lay eggs and sing to each other in courtship, bees fly from flower to flower and pollinate them in passing, now here’s how people do it…
I don’t have any proof of that; it’s simply how I’ve always interpreted it.
Thanks for the (partial) SD, Poly. =)
Actually, The Birds and Bees were a notorious band in the fifties. They appealed to the teenage demographic by writing songs about teen rebellion and sex. So parents would try to set their fractious children straight, starting with “Now let me tell you about The Birds and Bees”.
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.
My mother told my father to tell me about the birds and the bees. He took me to Coney Island, pointed to a couple making love under the boardwalk, and said, “Your mother
wants you to know that the birds and the bees do the same thing.” – George Burns
Gee, I got my lesson watching the cat in heat get nailed by all the toms in the area - including once in the center of my kitchen floor.
There’s a visual.
“Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it”
Cole Porter, I think, circa 1930. I don’t know if that’s the first birds/bees/sex reference, but it’s the earliest one I can think of.
Yep. Let’s do it (Let’s Fall in Love), 1928 by Cole Porter:
Rather risque for 1928 and the double entendre is easily transformed into a euphemism for sex; ideal for use around the children.
I haven’t seen anything that traces the “birds and the bees” phrase to this song, but unless there is a record of its use before 1928, I think its a good candidate.