"Blackbird" is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartn… Read Full Bio ↴"Blackbird" is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and recorded by The Beatles for their 1968 album The Beatles.

The first night Linda Eastman, who would later become his wife, slept over, McCartney played it to the fans camped outside his house.

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.

Meaning & Interpretation

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

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.

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 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.

Recording

The song was recorded on 11 June 1968 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, with George Martin as the producer and Geoff Emerick as the audio engineer. 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.

Apart from the blackbird, only three sounds were recorded: McCartney's voice, his guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel. 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 [Paul's foot-taps, presumably] as being mic'd up separately. 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.

Blackbird
Beatles Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

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

Overall Meaning

The Beatles' song Blackbird is a masterpiece that carries a beautiful message of hope and freedom. The song begins with the metaphor of a blackbird singing in the dead of the night, which symbolizes someone who is struggling in the darkness of their despair, waiting for some sort of opportunity or sign to rise above it all. The lyrics urge this person to take their broken wings and learn to fly, encouraging them to leave their painful past behind and embrace the freedom that comes with it.

The second verse takes a turn towards acknowledging the person's pain and past experiences, stating that they need to take their sunken eyes and learn to see. This may mean they need to let go of prejudices or certain ways of thinking that have kept them trapped, and open their minds to what the world truly has to offer. The chorus of the song is an uplifting call to action, telling the blackbird to fly into the light of the dark black night. This may seem paradoxical, but it suggests that even in the midst of darkness, there is something worth reaching towards.

The song ends with a repeat of the first verse and an added line urging the blackbird to seize this moment and soar. The lyrics of Blackbird reveal the beauty of life after struggling with pain, breaking free of those chains, and emerging into a new world full of possibilities. It is a song that inspires and uplifts, reminding us to never lose hope and to keep on searching for the light of our own dark night.

BlackbirdBeatles Lyrics

Blackbird
Beatles Lyrics