"The Birdman" is Our Lady Peace's first single off their debut album Naveed. Because of the Naveed cover, Saul Fox is best known for being the Birdman. The chorus of the song originates from an early demo that the band cut in 1992 called "Nobody's Wrong" with a completely different meaning. Release "The Birdman" is the first single released by Our Lady Peace, only in Canada, on January 17, 1994. It was considered to be the least accessible track off Naveed and was chosen to be the first single for that reason. According to Catherine McRae, manager of domestic marketing and artist development for Sony Music Canada, "We deliberately chose a single which wasn't an immediate, commercial, hit-radio single and then serviced it specifically first to campus radio to build a street buzz on the band." Raine Maida admitted that he knew "The Birdman" wouldn't do well at radio. He said in an interview with Billboard in 1995, "What it did was allow us three months to tour with other bands and get better. Now we're all confident about our live show. We're not intimidated by playing with anybody." Meaning The song is about a man that lead singer and lyricist Raine Maida once saw on the street. The Birdman was the nickname of convicted killer, Robert Stroud who was imprisoned at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary for 17 years. "I assumed he was some kind of politician that lost it and was living on the streets and just going nuts all night. It was strange; I just caught a few words as I passed by him, and he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever heard speak. Right then I had this enlightenment. I did not give him a chance and there are probably times where you miss opportunities because you form opinions so quickly." - Raine Maida "I was in Kansas city a while back and there was this man on the street. I was in my hotel room and I couldn't sleep ‘cause this guy was just yelling through a megaphone and he was yelling about a bunch of propaganda and stuff but the next day when I went down from the hotel and he was outside still. I had a chance to pass by, read his booklet and stuff and I heard him talking to some other people and the song encompasses the thing where