the boys have done a bit of bird

[jmg123]

This is a part of the song "tripping" by "Robbie williams"

You've been messing with some very heavy faces
The boys have done a bit of bird

What does this sentence mean?

Could anybody help me?

 

[MichaelW]

They have been in prison. English slang, "bird" is a prison sentence. Maybe American slang too, I don't know.

 

[bibliolept]

It is not, to my knowledge, AE slang.

 

[Adam Cruge]

So does it mean that the boy has gone into prison several times ?

 

[MichaelW]

The boys, plural, have all served a term or so in prison.

A "heavy" in English slang is a thug, a bruiser, a person who knows how to use violence, hence "heavy faces".

So the two lines mean "you have been playing games with some dangerous and violent people". Not good.

 

[alacant]

Also the boys in question could be adults, and not necessarily young.

Saludos, ala

 

[Wayland]

And of course face was/is cockney (?) / London (?) slang for person.

The beat combo "The Small Faces" were named thus I believe because the four boys in the band were all diminutive chaps.

 

[Mr.TechComm]

Asked an Irish colleague about "done a bit of bird" and he had no clue. I suppose it's "local" enough since it was not known (had not been "exported") at that stage in Ireland. This is when the tripping song was launched, so... that's around 6-7 years ago.
May be known or even widely used in Ireland nowadays. Any Irish man around?

 

[JulianStuart]

I continue to be impressed with the WRF dictionary and its capture of things like this - I now routinely check words there before answering posts (don't you all do that too, like good foreros following the rules? ?)

Under the entry "bird"

do (one's) bird Brit. informal serve a prison sentence. [bird from rhyming sl. birdlime ‘time’.]