Blackbird (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Blackbird" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album The Beatles | ||
| Released | 22 November 1968 | |
| Recorded | 11 June 1968 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2:18 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon-McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| The Beatles track listing | ||
| "I'm So Tired" (10 of disc 1) |
"Blackbird" (11 of disc 1) |
"Piggies" (12 of disc 1) |
| Music sample | ||
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"Blackbird" (file info) |
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"Blackbird" is a Beatles song from double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). It was written by Paul McCartney and is played by him on a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar and features recordings of a blackbird singing. The tapping sound on the track, which is sometimes thought to be a metronome, is in fact McCartney tapping his feet on the hard studio floor. This can clearly be seen in the short piece of film which was made during the recording and is included in The Beatles' Anthology series. The song was recorded 11 June 1968 in Abbey Road studios, with George Martin as the producer and Geoff Emerick as the audio engineer.
McCartney was inspired to write this while in India, after a bird woke him up at six in the morning. Charles Manson took the song, along with "Helter Skelter" and "Piggies", as a metaphor for black and white race relations in the United States, which helped inspire his murders. McCartney said in 2002: "It was written when there were a lot of troubles in the southern states, over civil rights. I don't know if any of you know, but in England we sometimes call girls 'birds'… and I kind of wrote this song with that in mind." The first night Linda Eastman, who would later become his wife, slept over, McCartney played it to the fans camped outside his house.
McCartney revealed on PBS's Great Performances (Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road), aired in 2006, that the guitar accompaniment for Blackbird was inspired by Bach's Bouree, a well known classical guitar piece. As kids, he and George Harrison tried to learn Bouree as a "show off" piece. Bouree is distinguished by melody and bass notes played simultaneously on the upper and lower strings. McCartney adapted a segment of Bouree as the opening of "Blackbird", and carried the musical idea throughout the song.
[edit] Covers and cultural references
Many bands and performers have made covers of it, including Crosby, Stills & Nash, Doves, Brad Mehldau, Sarah McLachlan, Harpers Bizarre, Bobby McFerrin, Jaco Pastorius, Dan Fogelberg, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews Band, Elliott Smith and Maria João & Mário Laginha.
Elements of the lyrics ("take these broken wings and learn to fly") have re-appeared in other pop songs over the years, notably the number one hit "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister and the Savage Garden song, "You Can Still Be Free" from the Affirmation album. The Indigo Girls 2006 song "I Believe in Love" on their album Despite Our Differences includes the lyric, "I remember that cold morning, when the trees were black with birds." Sections of "Blackbird" were incorporated into The Waterboys' cover of the Van Morrison song "Sweet Thing" on their album Fisherman's Blues, and into the end of U2's "Beautiful Day" during their set at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on July 2, 2005, as well as some of the shows on the Vertigo Tour. Dynamite Hack references it at the end of their cover of "Boyz-N-The-Hood".
Composer Gustavo Santaolalla was inspired by "Blackbird" when he wrote "The Wings" for the movie Brokeback Mountain.
