‘Blackbird’ – the Beatles

About
“Blackbird” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. The album is also known as “the White Album”.
This song was written by Paul McCartney with credit to Lennon–McCartney. It was performed as a solo by McCartney.

Paul McCartney and the rest of the Beatles most certainly grew up hearing Eurasian Blackbirds, in their home of Liverpool. Eurasian Blackbirds are common in the gardens and throughout the countryside in Great Britain.

Meanings

McCartney has said that the lyrics of the ‘Blackbird’ song were inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird in Rishikesh, India.

But – McCartney wasn’t really singing about the actual bird.

The song was inspired alternatively by the unfortunate state of race relations in the United States in the 1960s.
He was actually singing about the racial strife in the American South in the sixties.

It was a trying time, and McCartney said later that he saw the song as empowerment.

McCartney’s full qoute as it appared in Many Years from Now, by Barry Miles:

”   I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird.
Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so- this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States:
‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith;
there is hope.’   “

As is often the case with my things, a veiling took place, so rather than saying, “Black woman living in Little Rock” and be very specific, she became a bird, became symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem.’

Lyrics
by John Lennon, Paul McCartney /
Lead Vocals: Paul McCartney.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly
Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night

Blackbird fly
Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Live performances

In 1973, McCartney included the song, along with the Beatles track “Michelle”,as part of his acoustic medley in the television special James Paul McCartney.

Starting with his 1975–76 world tour with the band Wings, McCartney has performed “Blackbird” on every one of his concert tours.
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.”

The multi-CD collection Good Evening New York City,ןincludes the live version- 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.”

Covers of the song

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.
Among the most notable examples are:

1.”Blackbird” appears on the Crosby, Stills & Nash 1991 box set, having been recorded during the sessions for the album Crosby, Stills & Nash. They performed it often in concert, also at their performance at Woodstock festival 1969 and a live version appeared in 2014 on the CSNY 1974 album.
-this cover is inculded in the ebook.

2.For the 2001 film I Am Sam, Sarah McLachlan provided a version of the song, on a soundtrack made up entirely of Beatles covers.

3.The Dandy Warhols released a recording of the song in July 2009 following the death of Michael Jackson, fulfilling a promise made in the first and title track of their 2003 album Welcome to the Monkey House (“When Michael Jackson dies, we’re coverin’ ‘Blackbird'”).

The line was thought to partially reference Jackson’s ownership of the Beatles’ back catalogue of songs- when he bought Associated Television (ATV), which had previously acquired Northern Songs, in the mid-1980s.

‘Blackbird’ on the Crosby, Stills & Nash 1991 box set

4. Sarah Darling recorded the song in November 2011 for the album Let Us In: Nashville – A Tribute to Linda McCartney, and it was released as a single. Darling’s version was later featured in the 200th episode of Criminal Minds.

5. Bettye LaVette recorded it in 2010 as part of her Interpretations album and it inspired her 2020 album Blackbirds.

6.In 2019 with the help of linguist Katani Julian, 16-year-old Emma Stevens, a high school student from Nova Scotia, Canada and a member of the Eskasoni First Nation, covered the song in Mi’kmaq to spread awareness of Indigenous language and culture.
-this cover is inculded in the ebook.

7.Dave Grohl performed the song during the In Memoriam tribute at the 88th Academy Awards.

The 16-year-old from Eskasoni, N.S., recorded a cover song — Blackbird by The Beatles — that had been translated into Mi’kmaq as a class project.

Emma said she’s excited to share her language with those who’ve never heard it before.

“It gives them a different perspective and shows them that our language is very beautiful,” she said.

Emma and her fellow music students at Allison Bernard Memorial High School recorded the cover as part of the International Year of Indigenous Languages.

That’s a United Nations initiative aimed at raising awareness of endangered Indigenous languages around the world.

Around 9,000 people spoke Mi’kmaq in Canada in 2016, according to Statistics Canada.

Mi’kmaq people traditionally lived in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I. and parts of Newfoundland).

Paul McCartney Meets Women Who Inspired Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’
Two members of the Little Rock Nine visit singer backstage at Arkansas concert.
By DANIEL KREPS.

Paul McCartney met two of the women who helped inspire the Beatles‘ White Album classic “Blackbird” backstage at his Little Rock, Arkansas concert Saturday night.

The women, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, were two members of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine black students who faced discrimination and the lasting impact of segregation after enrolling in the all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, following the Supreme Court’s historic Brown vs. the Board of Education decision.

After the Little Rock Nine enrolled, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus protested their entrance into the school, which in turn sparked the Little Rock Crisis. It was these events that inspired a young McCartney to pen the song “Blackbird.”

“Incredible to meet two of the Little Rock Nine— pioneers of the civil rights movement and inspiration for Blackbird,” McCartney tweeted.

At the Little Rock concert, McCartney introduced “Blackbird” by telling the audience, “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit, and that’s this next one.”

the full article in the next url-

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-mccartney-meets-women-who-inspired-beatles-blackbird-57076/

bonous – a Rare Rehearsal

The End

Hope you enjoyed this ebook 🙂