Blackbird (song)

Blackbird
The Beatles
publication	November 22, 1968
length	2 min 18 s
Genre (s)	Folk
Author (s)	Lennon / McCartney
album	The Beatles

Blackbird ( English for Blackbird is) the title of a song of the Beatles , that of Paul McCartney but, as usual, was composed the Copyright Lennon / McCartney was attributed. The piece was published on November 22, 1968 on page 2 of the first record of the double album The Beatles .

Emergence

Paul McCartney composed Blackbird on his farm in Scotland . He himself named a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach as inspiration for the music , which George Harrison and himself had often played on the guitar. It is Bourrée in E minor from the lute suite BWV 996 .

"The structure of this piece includes a special harmonic connection between melody and bass accompaniment, which fascinated me from the start."

- Paul McCartney

The text was written with a view to the civil rights movement and the associated unrest in the USA in the spring of 1968. It is about an African American woman who is exposed to everyday discrimination in the USA. The Blackbird ( English : 'Blackbird') stands symbolically for this woman.

"Instead of getting concrete and singing about a 'black woman in little rock', that woman became a bird, a symbol that the audience could then relate to their particular problem."

- Paul McCartney

admission

Paul McCartney recorded Blackbird without the participation of the other Beatles on June 11, 1968 in Studio 2 of Abbey Road Studios . He needed 32 takes for this  . The recording consists of a guitar track used was McCartney's Martin D-28 , McCartney's song, which in a few places with overdubs were added, and admixed song of a blackbird male from the sound archives of the studio. You can also hear the beat being stepped on the floor with your foot. The song was mixed in a mono and a stereo version, in which the blackbird's song also differs.

An alternate version of Blackbird was released after the group split up. Take 4 from June 11, 1968 can be heard in the third part of the anthology . On the remix album Love , a guitar passage by Blackbird serves as an introduction to Yesterday .

Cover versions

Blackbird was one of the first Beatles songs that Paul McCartney played in his concerts after the group split up - for the first time during his USA tour with the Wings in 1975/1976. A live version of these concerts appeared on the album Wings over America . Paul McCartney reversed the copyright on the cover to "McCartney / Lennon". In 1991, another live version appeared on the album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) , which had been recorded as part of the MTV Unplugged series . The third live recording followed in 2002, made during the McCartney USA tour in the same year, released on the albums Back in the US and Back in the World . The piece was also on McCartney's 2009 concert tour and a version appeared on the album Good Evening New York City .

The band Alter Bridge uses excerpts from the Beatles' song for the introduction of their song of the same name, Blackbird , on some of their live performances, including on the DVD Live from Amsterdam .

Numerous other artists recorded the song, including Justin Hayward , Maria João (album Undercovers ), Bobby McFerrin (solo on The Voice ), Sarah McLachlan , Jaco Pastorius and Carly Simon . Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sang the song at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 .

Web links

• Alan W. Pollack's analysis of Blackbird
• The Beatles Bible: Blackbird

Individual evidence

1. ↑ He Can Work It Out . ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed January 26, 2010. 
2. ↑ Barry Miles: Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now . P. 602.
3. ↑ Barry Miles: Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now . P. 603.
4. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions . London: Hamlyn 1988, p. 137.
5. ^ LP Word of Mouth (1981)