Blackbird (Beatles song)

"Blackbird" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney, and performed as a solo piece by McCartney. When discussing the song, McCartney has said that the lyrics were inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird in Rishikesh, India, and alternatively by the unfortunate state of race relations in the United States in the 1960s.

"Blackbird"
Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music
Song by the Beatles
from the album The Beatles
Released22 November 1968
Recorded11 June 1968
StudioEMI, London
GenreFolk
Length2:19
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin
Audio sample
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Origins

McCartney explained on Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, aired in 2005, that the guitar accompaniment for "Blackbird" was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Bourrée in E minor, a well-known lute piece, often played on the classical guitar. As teenagers, he and George Harrison tried to learn Bourrée as a "show off" piece. The Bourrée is distinguished by melody and bass notes played simultaneously on the upper and lower strings. McCartney adapted a segment of the Bourrée (reharmonised into the original's relative major key of G) as the opening of "Blackbird", and carried the musical idea throughout the song.

The first night his future wife Linda Eastman stayed at his home, McCartney played "Blackbird" for the fans camped outside his house.[1] The fingerpicking technique that McCartney uses in the song was taught to him by folk singer Donovan.

Meaning and interpretation

Since composing "Blackbird" in 1968, McCartney has given various statements regarding both his inspiration for the song and its meaning.[2] In one of these scenarios, he has said he was inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird one morning when the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh, India.[3] In another, he recalls writing it in Scotland as a response to racial tensions escalating in the United States during the spring of 1968.[4]

In May 2002, following a show in Dallas, Texas, McCartney discussed the song with KCRW DJ Chris Douridas, saying:

I had been doing some [poetry readings] in the last year or so because I've got a poetry book out called Blackbird Singing, and when I would read "Blackbird", I would always try and think of some explanation to tell the people … So, I was doing explanations, and I actually just remembered why I'd written "Blackbird", you know, that I'd been, I was in Scotland playing on my guitar, and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic.[5][6]

In 2018, McCartney further elaborated on the song's meaning, explaining that "blackbird" should be interpreted as "black girl",[7] in the context of the civil rights troubles in southern 1960s US.

A third scenario came from the recollection of his stepmother, Angie McCartney.[3] She said that McCartney wrote it for her elderly mother, Edith Stopforth, who was staying at Jim McCartney's house while recovering from a long illness. Angie recalled that McCartney visited the house and sat at Edith's bedside, where Edith told him that she would listen to a bird singing at night.[3]

The lyrics have invited similarly varied interpretations – as a nature song, a message in support of the Black Power movement, or a love song.[8] Writing in the 1990s, Ian MacDonald dismissed the idea that "Blackbird" was intended as "a metaphor for the black civil rights struggle".[1] Noting instead the composition's romantic qualities, MacDonald said that the early-morning bird song "translates … into a succinct metaphor for awakening on a deeper level".[9] However, during an informal rehearsal at EMI Studios on 22 November 1968, before he and Donovan took part in a Mary Hopkin recording session, McCartney played "Blackbird", telling Donovan that he wrote it after having "read something in the paper about the riots" and that he meant the black "bird" to symbolise a black woman.[10]

Along with McCartney's "Helter Skelter", "Blackbird" was one of several White Album songs that Charles Manson interpreted as the Beatles' prophecy of an apocalyptic race war that would lead to him and his "Family" of followers ruling the US on countercultural principles. Manson interpreted the lyrics' repetition of the word "rise" as a call to black Americans to wage war on their white counterparts, and instructed his followers to commit a series of murders in Los Angeles in August 1969 to trigger such a conflict.[11]

Composition and recording

The song was recorded on 11 June 1968 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London,[12] with George Martin as the producer and Geoff Emerick as the audio engineer.[13] It is a solo performance with McCartney playing a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar. The track includes recordings of a male Common blackbird singing in the background.[13][14]

Only three sounds were recorded: McCartney's voice, his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel.[15] This tapping "has been incorrectly identified as a metronome in the past", according to engineer Geoff Emerick, who says it is actually the sound of Paul tapping his foot. McCartney also said the same in The Beatles' Anthology documentary. Emerick recalls as being mic'd up separately.[16] Footage included in the bonus content on disc two of the 2009 remaster of the album shows McCartney tapping both his feet alternately while performing the song.

The mono version contains bird sounds different from the stereo recording, and was originally issued on a mono incarnation of The Beatles (it has since been issued worldwide as part of The Beatles in Mono CD box set). The song appears on Love with "Yesterday", billed as "Blackbird/Yesterday". "Blackbird" provides an introduction to "Yesterday".

Live performances

In 1973, McCartney included the song, along with the Beatles track "Michelle",[17] as part of his acoustic medley in the television special James Paul McCartney.[18] Starting with his 1975–76 world tour with the band Wings, McCartney has performed "Blackbird" on every one of his concert tours.[19] A solo performance of the song, followed by "Yesterday", appears on Wings' 1976 live album Wings Over America.

McCartney also included "Blackbird" in his set at the Party at the Palace concert in June 2002. In 2009, McCartney performed the song at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, commenting prior to singing it on how it had been written in response to the Civil Rights Movement, and added, "It's so great to realise so many civil rights issues have been overcome."[20]

A live version appears in the multi-CD collection Good Evening New York City, which was released in 2009 and recorded inside the American stadium Citi Field.

Legacy

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed "Blackbird" at number five in his ranking of the White Album's 30 tracks. He said that its "beautiful calmness" was at odds with the growing racial tensions that allegedly inspired the song, and concluded: "For many, it's the apotheosis of McCartney's career and remains a standout in his solo live shows."[21] Although the 1985 Mr. Mister song, "Broken Wings" contains an identical lyric, "Take these broken wings and learn to fly", Mr. Mister member Richard Page has described this as "a mindless unintentional reference" attributable to songwriter John Lang being inspired by the Kahlil Gibran book, The Broken Wing.[22]

Personnel

According to Ian MacDonald:[23]

Cover versions

According to music journalist John Elmes of The Independent, "Blackbird" was one of the top ten most recorded songs of all time up to December 2008.[24] Among the most notable examples are:

gollark: You DO realize that they are massively bigger than AMD and make up basically the entire server market still?
gollark: What? No.
gollark: IIRC their Atoms from the time were pretty competitive with ARM. But they never took off because... I'm not actually sure.
gollark: They did, they just didn't seem to do it very effectively.
gollark: Are you aware of the brief proliferation of x86-based tablets?

References
  1. MacDonald 1998, p. 256fn.
  2. Flemming, James (11 November 2009). "The Records, Day Four: 1968–1969". PopMatters. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  3. Turner 1999, p. 160.
  4. Everett 1999, p. 190.
  5. Paul McCartney, Interview with KCRW's Chris Douridas, 25 May 2002 episode of New Ground (17:50–19:00)
  6. KCRW, "New Ground" with Chris Douridas, 25 May 2002 (17:50–19:00), "KCRW Archive", "Audio" Archived 22 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Paul McCartney, Interview with GQ, Sept 2018 (16:35–17:17)
  8. Miles 2001, p. 317.
  9. MacDonald 1998, pp. 256, 256fn.
  10. "Paul McCartney & Donovan – Postcard Sessions 1968". 13 April 2016.
  11. Miles 1997, pp. 489–90.
  12. MacDonald 1998, p. 255.
  13. Lewisohn 1988, p. 137.
  14. "Blackbird". Rolling Stone.
  15. "Blackbird by The Beatles - Songfacts". www.songfacts.com.
  16. Recording the Beatles, pg. 484
  17. Madinger & Easter 2000, p. 180.
  18. Badman 2001, p. 96.
  19. Womack 2014, p. 153.
  20. Bychawski, Adam (18 April 2009). "Paul McCartney gets emotional during marathon Coachella set". nme.com. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  21. Stolworthy, Jacob (22 November 2018). "The Beatles' White Album tracks, ranked – from Blackbird to While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The Independent. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  22. "19 of the greatest power ballads of all time". Smooth. 2 July 2018.
  23. MacDonald, Ian (1998). Revolution In The Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. London. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-7126-6697-8.
  24. Elmes, John (5 December 2008). "The 10 Most Covered Songs". The Independent. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  25. Hoffman, K. Ross. "Michael Jackson's death causes The Dandy Warhols to cover The Beatles". NME. IPC Media. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  26. "The Dandy Warhols Are Sound – The Dandy Warhols". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  27. Price, Deborah Evans (April, 2012). "Cover Set Soars". Billboard - The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment. ProQuest 1030338784.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. Spanos, Brittany (29 February 2016). "Dave Grohl Plays Touching 'Blackbird' Cover at Oscars 2016". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  29. Stone, Natalie (28 February 2016). "Oscars: Dave Grohl Performs Paul McCartney's 'Blackbird' for "In Memoriam"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 December 2018.

Sources
  • Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology. New York, London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • MacDonald, Ian (1998). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6697-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Madinger, Chip; Easter, Mark (2000). Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium. Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions. ISBN 0-615-11724-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Miles, Barry (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-8308-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sounes, Howard (2010). Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-723705-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Turner, Steve (1999). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Carlton/HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-273698-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Womack, Kenneth (2014). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39171-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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