A scarecrow or hay-man is a decoy or mannequin in the shape of a human. It is usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.
The 1881 Household Cyclopedia of General Information gives the following advice:
The most effectual method of banishing them from a field, as far as experience goes, is to combine with one or other of the scarecrows in vogue the frequent use of the musket. Nothing strikes such terror into these sagacious animals as the sight of a fowling-piece and the explosion of gun powder, which they have known so often to be fatal to their race.
Such is their dread of a fowling-piece, that if one is placed upon a dyke or other eminence, it will for a long time prevent them from alighting on the adjacent grounds. Many people now, however, believe that crows like most other birds, do more good by destroying insects and worms, etc., than harm by eating grain.
Scarecrow, in comics, may refer to:
Scarecrow is the eighth album by John Mellencamp. Released in September 1985, it peaked at #2 on the U.S. chart behind Heart's comeback album, Heart. The remastered version was released May 24, 2005 on Mercury/Island/UMe and includes one bonus track.
This album contained three Top 10 hits, a record for a Mellencamp album: "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.," which peaked at #2 in the U.S.; "Lonely Ol' Night," which peaked at #6; and "Small Town," which also peaked at #6. "Lonely Ol' Night" also peaked at #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, his second chart-topping single on this chart.
In 1989, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Scarecrow #95 on its list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s, saying: "Scarecrow consolidated the band's rugged, roots-rock thrash and the ongoing maturation of Mellencamp's lyrics."
Rolling Stone also reported that band spent a month in rehearsals, playing a hundred rock and roll songs from the Sixties before going into the studio. According to the record's producer, Don Gehman, the idea was to "learn all these devices from the past and use them in a new way with John's arrangements."
"Lady (You Bring Me Up)" is a 1981 Top 10 hit single by The Commodores. It reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and also reached the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B Chart, peaking at #5. It was also a hit in England, reaching # 56 on the UK Chart.
It was written by Commodores member William King, his wife, Shirley, and Harold Hudson, a member of the Commodores' backing group, The Mean Machine. Lionel Richie sang the lead vocal, and it was one of the group's last big hits before he left the group for a solo career.
7" single
"Lady" is a song written by Lionel Richie and first recorded by American country artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in September 1980 on the album Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.
It is listed at #47 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.
The song was written and produced by Lionel Richie, recorded in 1980, and ranks among Kenny Rogers's biggest hits. Rogers once told an interviewer, "The idea was that Lionel would come from R&B and I'd come from country, and we'd meet somewhere in pop." Lionel wrote the second sentence of the song while he was at the bathroom.
The success of "Lady" also boosted Richie's career. The production work on the song was his first outside the Commodores and foreshadowed his success as a solo act during the 1980s. Rogers was also a featured vocalist on "We Are the World", co-written by Richie. Richie performed the song himself on his 1998 album, Time, and he and Rogers performed the song as a duet on Richie's 2012 release "Tuskegee".
"Lady" is the final single from the 2004 album Baptism by American rock musician Lenny Kravitz. It was released on November 23, 2004. The song is believed to be written about Kravitz's then-girlfriend, Nicole Kidman. The track was used heavily in the GAP ads. The commercials featured Kravitz dancing and singing the song with his guitar to Sarah Jessica Parker.
"Lady" was the most successful song from Baptism on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #27.
The video was directed by Philip Andelman. It consists of Kravitz playing guitar and singing in a circular stage, while women are dancing around him. There are lights that change depending on the intensity of the sound of the song.
ABC made use of the song to promote its hit television series Alias in commercials that appeared in full length in movie theaters and in edited form on the network.