If you were around when Peter Frampton released his 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive! — a live record which sold more than eight million copies in the U.S. alone — then congratulations! You've lived long enough to hear the rock star sing a sweetly moving, mostly acoustic song about the time he rescued an ailing bird.

Frampton's most recent recordings have recast the singer-guitarist as a gentler acoustic chronicler of life, but his softly accented charm and charisma remain intact. In "I Saved A Bird Today," well, the story is implied in the title. But Frampton had more to say via email.

"'I Saved A Bird Today' is a true story about me saving a large bird, an American Coot who flew into my window and knocked herself out," he writes. "Then how, with expert advice, I brought her back to life. After learning that Coots only take off from water, I had to 'take her to the river.' She jumped into the river as I watched her walk, then run atop the water until she finally took off into the city-lit night sky."

Frampton added a few kind words about the production company dreambear, which created a lovely video for the song with the aid of animators Antonio Corral and Manuel Casares. "Dreambear," he writes, "have made an incredible animation from this true story. Yes, it's about saving a bird's life. But it's about so much more, as depicted so beautifully in this video. 'To care for one another is the reason we are here' is the lyric that sums it up for me. The world has gone mad, and the simple things like love, compassion and caring have been overshadowed by hate and greed. This video shows how important we are to each other whilst showing how much worse things could get if we are not careful of each other and the planet where we live."

"I Saved A Bird Today" is out now.