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The Beach Boys are going to play Live At Chelsea 2026 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of 'Pet Sounds'
A portion of the concert proceeds will support the Chelsea Pensioners.
Nov 24, 2025 • 11:37 AM
About This Track
"California Saga: The Beaks of Eagles" is a track by The Beach Boys, from the album Holland, released 8th January 1973. The track is 3:49 long. It's filed under Rock. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 1 article about The Beach Boys.
About the Artist
Lyrics
An eagle's nest on the head of an old redwood On one of the precipice-footed ridges above Ventana Creek That jagged country which nothing but a fallen meteor will ever plow No horseman will ever ride there And no hunter will cross this ridge but the winged ones No one will steal the eggs from this fortress The she-eagle is old, her mate was shot long ago She has now mated with a son of hers When lightning blasted her nest She built it again on the same tree In the splinters of the thunderbolt A broken shaft, an old man takes his time about dying And just at the back, where wildflower bed left her lying In dawn's new light a man might venture A horse drawn stage from Monterey The she-eagle is older than I She was here when the fires of '85 raged on these ridges She was lately fledged and dared not hunt ahead of them But ate scorched meat The world has changed in her time Humanity has multiplied, but not here Men's hopes and thoughts and customs have changed Their powers are enlarged Their powers and their follies have become fantastic Still down the hill a wagon load of bodies lay scattered Shipwrecked at sea, the limestone ore is all that mattered They took it from the hills right into the cargo doors And how many ships have come and gone and there's no standing shore The unstable animal never has been changed so rapidly The motor and the plane and the great war have gone over him And Lenin has lived and Jehovah died While the mother eagle hunts the same hills Crying the same beautiful and lonely cry And is never tired, dreams the same dreams And hears at night the rock-slides rattle and thunder In the throats of these living mountains It is good for man to try all changes Progress and corruption, powers, peace and anguish Not to go down the dinosaur's way Until all his capacities have been explored And it is good for him to know that his needs and nature Are no more changed in fact in ten thousand years Than the beaks of eagles The eagle's plight, we know that nature's balance is undone It's the birthright of man to unify and live his life as one A whisper of the wood will let you soar with your soul
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