A solo performance by Paul McCartney, ‘Blackbird’ was composed shortly after The Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh, India, and featured on the White Album.
The song was written on McCartney’s farm in Scotland. Shortly afterwards, on the first night his future wife Linda Eastman stayed at his house in London, McCartney performed the song to the fans waiting outside the gates.
A few of us were there. We had the feeling something was going to happen. Paul didn’t take the Mini inside the way he usually did – he parked it on the road and he and Linda walked right past us. They went inside and we stood there, watching different lights in the house go on and off.In the end, the light went on in the Mad Room, at the top of the house, where he kept all his music stuff and his toys. Paul opened the window and called out to us, ‘Are you still down there?’ ‘Yes,’ we said. He must have been really happy that night. He sat on the window sill with his acoustic guitar and sang ‘Blackbird’ to us as we stood down there in the dark.
Shout!, Philip Norman
McCartney has claimed that the music was inspired by Bach’s Bouree in E minor, which he and George Harrison had learned to play on the guitar at a young age.
Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between the melody and the bass line which intrigued me. Bach was always one of our favourite composers; we felt we had a lot in common with him… I developed the melody on guitar based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level, then I just fitted the words to it.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The music of ‘Blackbird’ features a number of time signature changes. The phrase ‘Blackbird singing in the dead of night’ is in 3/4, while much of the remainder of the song switches between 4/4 and 2/4.
The lyrics were inspired by the civil rights movement in America; the ‘blackbird’ of the title was said to represent a typical woman facing oppression in the era.
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 say ‘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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the studio
Paul McCartney recorded ‘Blackbird’ alone on 11 June 1968, with just a guitar for accompaniment. It was taped in Abbey Road’s studio two, while John Lennon worked on ‘Revolution 9’ next door in studio three.
McCartney recorded 32 takes of ‘Blackbird’, only 11 of which were complete. The final attempt was the best, and onto it McCartney double tracked his vocals in places, along with a second guitar part.
Sound effects from Abbey Road’s library were also added to the four-track recording, towards the end of the session.
I taped that on one of the first portable EMI tape recorders, in my back garden in Ickenham, about 1965. There are two recordings, one of the bird singing, the other making an alarm sound when I startled it.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Take four of ‘Blackbird’ was included on 1996’s Anthology 3 album. This version transposes the final verse with one of the “Blackbird fly, into the light of the dark black night” sections.
“Blackbird was inspired by the fingerpicking guitar style learned by The Beatles during their stay in Rishikesh, India, which features on many of the White Album’s songs.”
That is not true.
Unlike Lennon’s songs like Julia etc. this one has a completely different picking style. McCartney didn’t learn Donovan’s style like Lennon, so he didn’t use it.
True – my mistake. I’ve corrected the intro now. Thanks for the comment.
As several commentators say, Paul’s fingerpicking style is not the (nice) Travis-picking that John learned from Donovan at Rishikesh. It’s more like what he does on Yesterday, a few years earlier, and what he does on Heart of the Country or Here Today many years later. Pluck the bass note with your thumb, strum (or pluck plus strum) the high strings with your fingers. He does it really well, it’s very musical.
To me Blackbird is right in line with the other back-to-the-acoustics songs from Rishikesh, but it’s hard to see how it’s inspired by Travis picking.
According to Donovan, Paul looked over John’s shoulder and watched John work out Donovan’s style on guitar. According to Donovan, Paul learned this style of playing guitar by watching John.
I think this might be accurate information but slightly muddled up; Paul himself said he made it up as a kid in Liverpool, saying he liked the bass to be played at the same time as the notes. it comes from that Bach piece he and George learned,
It’s the same picking style Paul used forever. He used this same approach in Yesterday and earlier songs… The first barre of blackbird is a piece of Bach’s bouree in E minor reversed, It was a little piece of music both he and George toyed with for the fun of it and Paul’s unusual finger style obviously come from him trying to mimic the counter-point often used by classical style players…
The style of picking that Lennon used was called “Travis Picking” after the country musician Merle Travis. It is used in drop D tunings. I thought I read that McCartney used somewhat of a hybrid with only the forefinger and thumb. I never knew “Blackbird” was in double drop D. I’ll have to give it a shot!
I’ve heard of E dropped to D tuning but never heard of a “double drop D.” Thankfully I do know this: it’s played in standard tuning.
And now for something completely different, my a cappella version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dobH9jopgfw
Enjoy.
I’ve never seen nor heard any of the Beatles use “Travis Picking”… i.e. Mearle Travis’ Canonball rag, Steve Howe’s The Clap, Chet Atkins and Tommy Emanuelle are “Travis Picking”. The effect is a rag-time driving bass (as those strings are usually staccato – or muffled) with a jazz-like melody on top.
First, it uses an independent thumb driving the bass-line, then the other fingers comp or arppegiate the harmony and top off the melody line. It’s approach is to play the melody, harmony and bass all on the instrument at the same time… the instrument is not an accompaniment at that point.
More I think about it Paul comes closest to “Travis Picking”.
FYI…Blackbird is NOT in drop D or double drop D. It’s in standard tuning. Paul plucks the bass E and A string with his thumb and uses his middle finger to pluck the B and high E strings. And in between, he strums the rhythm with both his thumb and index finger held together….his own unique strumming pattern that he used on most of his acoustic songs. And it is no where near the Travis Picking pattern that John learned from Donovan which he used on Dear Prudence and Julia.
I have dropped the low E to a G and dropped the high E to a D (i.e. GADGBD). Standard tuning doesn’t work for me!
I play the whole song on the inside 4 strings, with the “A” (5th string)dropped to a “G”. It has always sounded better to me that way, especially on the ascending part (“Take these broken wings and learn to fly”), with the ascending bass on the 5th string, and the high part staying on the 2nd string. The tone just sounds better than switching the high part back and forth from the 2nd to the 1st string. And, the fingering is much easier.
I play it on the inside four strings, but do use the 1st and 6th strings occasionally, but I don’t drop anything (no jokes about dropped notes please!), and it seems pretty much the way Paul does it. When I get time, I will make a video and upload it. I’ve seen Paul play this song live on video and each time he has not followed the structure of his studio recording (he misses out “Blackbird fly” for example).
Good call! I arrived at the same method today. The easiest way to play the song is in open G tuning (DGDGBD), but since you play everything on the inside four strings, you only have to tune the A string down to G. Move up and down the neck on the second and fifth strings. They’re like railway tracks. The 3rd string provides a drone. Absolutely brilliant!
I have read that the tapping noises on this song were made from either Paul tapping his foot on the ground or from him gently tapping a drumstick on a snare drum.
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P53hJhkJXJc
At 2:32 you can see what he used to do that.
That links to a page saying the video has been withdrawn due to terms of use violation.
According to Ian McDonald (“Revolution in the Head”), its John Lennon’s foot tapping.
Great if its true.
Souns pretty unlikely to me, to say the least. McDonald can tell the difference between Paul’s and John’s shoe just by listening?!
It’s a METRONOME. Paul and Geoff Emerick have both acknowledged that.
Charlie it is Paul tapping his foot. There is a video out there were Paul is singing “Blackbird” and he is tapping his foot.
Charlie, It is Paul McCartney foot tapping when he is playing “Blackbird”. You can see on the outtake. John Lennon is nowhere in sight.
Charlie, it is Paul who tapping his foot. There is video of Paul playing “Blackbird” and you can see Paul tapping his foot.
I suspect that it may be Paul slapping his thigh, as he did for the overdub on
“That’s Alright Mama” on the Sun Sessions.
It is his feet tapping, I’ve seen a video of him recording it. 🙂
It is very anecdotal, so I don’t understand why is not mentioned at the beginning
The tapping was done by his shoes….alternating left than right.
Intriguing idea, McCartney playing this song in double dropped-D. I don’t really see much support for it, though. When he plays it in live settings, he uses standard tuning (at least, I have yet to see him do anything other than this). It would seem strange to me that he used one tuning for the record, but appears to favor another tuning for live performances.
I have never been to this site before …it’s great!
I “shot” my own run-through of Blackbird
guitar part tonight on my Nano, will upload it to youtube.com tomorrow. I have no idea if it’s bad form to include links to your own videos here, or name your channel; somebody clue me in.
I had to go back and listen to the White Album in headphones to get the strum on “Blackbird,” but it seems like thumb and forefinger (then reverse), in between base notes. Sir Paul is pretty strict on this thru most of the studio version — with the metronome going, not quite so much in newer live versions.
I was surprised to hear the double-tracked guitar part; the doubled vocals were expected. In concert it seems like
he usually has a second guitarist playing along.
I missed him in Miami last night, but I have seen him in the same stadium before. My feedback is he was great as usual.
The drop-D idea doesn’t seem feasible to me for either E-string, but I do play a lot of Beatle Tunes in drop-D.
Hi Max. Glad you like the site 🙂
I’m happy for people to post links to relevant videos, as long as it’s not just spam (that’ll get zapped). Let us know your Blackbird url and I’ll have a watch.
Thanks Joe, I appreciate that timely and hospitable response.
For the strummers, I put “Blackbird” out there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oGJJ6tBtw
I also put “Here Comes the Sun” out there, but in a finger-picked version in Drop D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCI03k2_6cE
or channel name = “maxmoose10”
Info from the Miami Paul concert 2 nights ago: he played for 3 hours without a break, and was very youthful.
Supposedly, he stayed close to the original versions of songs. From what I can gather, Blackbird was not done with the very slow tempo that has marked some live performances.
I prefer the livelier tempo for it.
Paul also tapped his feet to keep the beat, which is clearly audible on the song.
Here is my most humble attempt at this great song.
i have learned a new (probably exciting) fact that the name “Lennon” is based on Irish language, and the name meaning is “Blackbird”! this brings a whole new dimension of interpretation to the song i think! 😀
I know, I just discovered that myself, McCartney may of have written the song about Lennon as well. At the time, he wasn’t doing good with the drug usage
the irish for blackbird is lon dubh…
dubh = black
lon = bird
That’s correct… as Dublin – refers to Black pool.
Fascinating find! Not that Paul intended it, but ‘bird’ is British slang for a girl. So a black girl would be a black bird. Still, I like Paul’s explanation better as it suits the image of a bird with broken wings learning to fly in the song. Never understood what it meant until I heard him say it was about a black girl during the tumultuous times of the civil rights era taking the courage to fly free of the social bondage of ignorance, earlier of slavery.
I never believed Paul was accompanied by a metronome when I heard the song, and my “suspicion” was confirmed when I saw some footage of the recording session a few months ago on a Beatles tribute programme: Paul is wearing a special pair of shoes, not tap-dance shoes – almost like clogs. Listen with an open mind to the recording and I think you will find it’s not a metronome – is there testimony from any of the people present that it is?
OK, I’m replying to my own post to keep this issue in the same subthread. I have found footage of Paul rehearsing “Blackbird” in the studio. At one point the camera zooms in on Paul’s tapping shoes.
This is so obvious, how can there be any doubt? those are tap shoes, and they zoom in to show thats exactly what it is, your rite niemand, great video!!!
Hi guys, first post from me on this excellent website.
If you look closely at Paul’s shoes in the video you might recognize them. I have read that they are the actual red and yellow shoes from his Sgt Pepper uniform. It would seem he recorded Blackbird wearing them! Cool or what??
I read in guitar world the tapping is a Metronome & in this same issue they had a picture of his Metronome & Paul playing his guitar to it. And they were pictures from 1968.
I’d like to see the article. Another reason I don’t think it’s a metronome is because at one point there is ritardando in the song, which leads to a complete stop. If Paul was playing along to a metronome then someone would have to slow down the metronome and stop it for him, and know when to do it, and how much to slow it down, and then know when to start up again. It doesn’t make sense. Tapping feet to it means Paul can control the tapping as he plays, and stop and restart when necessary.
The metronome kept playing but was faded out for the ritardando. Geoff Emerick (and others who have examined it) say if you follow the beat , it matches up exactly when the song starts up again. It was miked up away from Paul (possibly in the control room? ) and fed to him via headphones.
Sorry Mike, this is just ANOTHER mistake in Emerick’s fairy-tale book, which was written mostly by Howard Massey and may contain not a single word of authentic dialogue.
It says “foot tapping” on the actual tape-box, so that question has been cleared forever. Check the anniversary book for it.
It’s never sounded like a metronome to me at all either – I’ve never heard such a thing. Any musician who’d been playing (whether in a band or solo) as long as Paul would surely have a superior sense of time and no need for such a thing.
Come on , people! He wanted the beat in the recording, but didn’t want drums. Simple.
And it very much sounds like a metronome. It DOESN’T sound like feet tapping, hands on thigh, or anything of that nature.
I believe Paul uses standard tuning – when I’ve seen him play Blackbird live he didn’t switch acoustic guitars as he went from one acoustic song to another.
The tapping is his foot – there’s a video of it – it’s clearly foot taping.
I mentioned above that I play this on a youtube video, (channel = maxmoose10) but perhaps I didn’t notice the technical debate above. My view: McCartney was never a finger picker that I can think of, but typically wrote songs such as “Yesterday” around a thumb and forefinger strum. This song is no different. I am not sure why many people seem to get this wrong. If you remember to observe the steady on-the-beat playing of a bass note by the thumb, and follow each bass note with a strum of thumb=up, forefinger down, then reverse after the next bass notes, you should have no trouble sounding authentic. It would pictorially look sort of:
TB — T — F – TB — F – T —
It’s easy, but requires a fluent, natural rhythm in the alternating timing of the strums. Sir Paul varies the moves of thumb and forefinger to write other songs such as “Mother Nature’s Son,” but this type of strumming seems very natural to him.
A somewhat more recent example would be “Calico Sky” on the Flaming Pie album.
Remarkably, many “professionals” seem to get this wrong. The worst attempt I have ever seen is on a video by a former editor of an acoustic guitar magazine. The guitarist from the Foo Fighters (?) makes an awful mess of it on youtube as well. Ironically, many absolute amateurs on youtube get it right, and there are some pretty good versions on youtube.
For my two cents, you are best off to keep this simple and natural in the physical practice of the bass note and alternating strum, and not over-complicate it. The explanation is a lot more involved than the actual playing.
I should add to the above, for the sake of clarity that many of those bass notes described above are accompanied by a melody note, often on the second string. So McCartney is typically pinching two strings, often 2 anbd 5, with the strumming in the appropriate measures. That’s about as close as he gets to finger-picking — perhaps more akin to elementary classical guitar in this case. Remember that the guitar part is essentially a simplified Bach bouree with the strumming and singing interweaved. McCartney often credits Bach’s Bouree in E minor as the inspiration for the guitar part. Note that Jethro Tull had a hit in the late 60?s with a syncopated instrumental version of the same piece, led by Ian Anderson’s flute.
I once read an interview of Paul (not sure where – might have been in the Rolling Stone cover story a few years ago) where he said he couldn’t do the Travis picking that John learned from Donovan, so he did his own version, which works quite well in this excellent tune. Max, thanks for illustrating his technique. I could never get it down, though I do play a version of the song that’s very similar in technique to Paul’s.
I don’t remember where I heard this but I thought the tapping was a fault in the demo record of the album. During playback Paul said to keep it in there and it was a happy accident…I’m probably way haha
Certainly played in standard tuning, a quick attempt at playing the beginning G chord will tell you that.
I heard a version of Blackbird where Paul sings a verse, and then during an instrumental section, someone whistles like a bird (instead of the sound effects) hilariously. Could someone reply and tell me what recording it’s on?
Hi, I think Paul used the standard tuning for his recording (approximately 445 Hz). However, he did play ‘Blackbird’ in Drop D tuning during his Wings years. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SrYqLrljU
His entire guitar is tuned down by one note in the Wings video — still standard tuning, but every string lowered by one whole note. So he is playing/singing in the key of F instead of the usual G. Using “Drop D” tuning (DADGBE) for this song does not make much sense; the lowest string is used only a few times in the whole song.
Yesterday is played with guitar tuned down one full step, Live McCartney plays Blackbird and Yesterday on the same guitar which is as far as I can hear tuned down. Alas Blackbird is in F but played (offcourse) using G-shape chord. I am reffering to Rockshow (Full Concert) with Wings youll find it on youtube. Conclusion its palyed in G on the Beatles LP but sometimes in F live using a guitar tuned down one full sted. “Ram” is also played usaing a guitar tuned one full tone lower ..
I learned Travis picking and that is used on Dear Prudence with a drop D tuning.
I also learned Blackbird played in standard tuning. with most of the song played on 5th 2nd and 3rd strings with a lot of up and down scratching with the forefinger nail on the 2nd and 3rd strings.
On the recording,Paul plays Blackbird in open G-tuning The guitar is tuned (from the thickest string) D G D G B D.
Afterwards he discovered that the song is playable in normal tuning.Therefore he play the song in normal tuning live.I have seen plenty transcriptions where it is described how he played it on the record and how he plays it live,
No. He’s always played it in the standard tuning. There is a video footage of the actual recording session and he’s in standard tuning.
Has anyone noticed what sounds like a child’s voice saying “play” at the start of this song ? Or am i hearing things ?
That’s the very end of “I’m So Tired”. I don’t know what that is.
Wow … 5 years later and the same topic persists. OK I’ll bite. If I am playing in Drop D (as frequently happens) I am not about to re-tune a string just to play the G note on the 3rd fret instead of the 5th. Similar logic applies to Double Drop D. If I am playing solo I will tune the guitar up or down a bit depending on where my vocal range has wandered that day. There are not a lot of people listening who have perfect pitch, and therefor be bothered. If you were there in the 60’s, you know the young McCartney’s voice was remarkably adaptable.
A brilliant Paul McCartney composition, It is just such a beautiful song.What a lovely creative way to support the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The “White Album”, just has so many great songs.
This was recorded to support the US civil rights movement? You sure about that?
I don’t buy the story that this song has anything to do with Civil Rights. In the 5-plus decades since this was recorded, not a mention of it was made until sometime in this century. Revisionist history, as far as I’m concerned. Someone is a very good PR man who knows how to make himself look good (any guesses?).
Bill,
You can believe what you want. Just take the time and listen to the demo of 1968 “Post Card” Sessions (Mary Hopkins). With Paul McCartney playing “Blackbird” where he is talking about riots and about Diana Ross with Donovan. And you will know why Paul McCartney wrote “Blackbird” about civil rights. It is a demo from that time!
Of course you don’t buy it, Bill. If the evidence was put right in front of your nose, you still wouldn’t buy it. Anything you can find to suggest Paul has an ulterior motive in everything he does suits you and other John/George fans down to the ground. Sad that people feel the need to diminish McCartney’s reputation by spreading false fan inventions. It’s toxic.
Bill, you really don’t have to “buy” the story – it has been out there forever and is has always been true.
Nothing about it changes, just because you chose to believe in alternative facts.
Personally I don’t need this song to be about civil rights, it’s just a brilliant song to play, to sing and to listen to.
But to claim “Yeah, Paul wants to make himself look good by telling some PR guy to invent a cool story” is just petty and lame and tells us much more about you than about Paul.
What kind of a guitar was used on the recording? I know it’s an acoustic but I’ve always wondered if it’s played on a classical or steel string guitar in on the recording used in the white album
It is a 1967 Martin D-28 (which is a steel string), according to this site. Not sure why it lists it as a 1968 then states the serial number indicates it is a 1967 model.
Coincidentally, I was taught to play Blackbird on almost (I think it was a 1969 model) D-28 around 1980 by my wonderful cousin Debbie. Always sounds just right on that awesome guitar!
Do not make the mistake of repeating the crap written by someone who knows nothing about music, on the Beatles Music History page. No; it *doesn’t* start as a *waltz*, in 3/4 time, nor is there any merit to the term “2/4”. The time signature on ‘Blackbird’ is *4/4*!
Blackbird absolutely has bars in 3/4 and 2/4, though the bulk of the song is in 4/4. Listen again.
I suspect Eve is counting a measure to be double time compared to how Joe is counting. Eve gets 3 bars of 2/4 where Joe gets one bar of 3/4. I tend to count it Joe’s way, but either is fine.
I saw McCartney on tour in 2015, and he asked, “How many people know how to play Blackbird?” everyone put up their hand. Then he asked, “How many know how to play it the right way?” No one put up their hand. The tapping is his own feet alternating to sound like a metronome.
I cannot be a metronome as it’s not “stabile”. It’s not keeping one tempo. It flies slightly up and down throughout the song. I just sampled it and measured the beat. Or… It COULD be a very bad metronome that could hold a steady tempo, but then what’s the point in using it?
This White Album is not as good as Rubber Soul or Revolver and it simply has more than a couple of ‘filler’ songs: not much there, so to speak, in those filler songs.
First of all, Blackbird is a boring song with silly words that are really trite, I mean, really..? you can get up and fly…
And, no there’s no way Paul was thinking of any kind of movement in the U.S. that he supposedly said, later that he did. Especially when he talked of having the idea of the making of the song before the mop tops were ever heard of. Contradictions…
If he did, he’s pandering. In fact, that’s what brother Charlie Manson gave as the meaning of those words in that boring song.
I’ve noticed that Paul often likes to make claims like this years after the fact. I think it makes him feel more cool.
Agree 100%, Paul often changes his story about different happenings.
Don’t buy this whole civil rights meaning for Blackbird. The song represents a crow or raven which represents dark themes and death encroaching. Reference Poe’s, The Raven, and the phrase “dead of night.” Clearly, Poe was a strong influence on the Beatles, as he was on the cover of SPLHCB. This is the scariest and darkest lullaby you could sing to your kid. Sick that Paul would lie about it. There, I said it. (crowd gasps)
I played this song at my dad’s funeral. *My* interpretation is dark- death. But, in a releasing, relief kind of way….
What are you taking about! In the UK, girls are called birds, and a Black bird = to a Black Women. In the sixty’s civil rights! Paul wrote this song in the late sixty’s.
Glenn, Mr. Kite, Pablo Fanque, Fayez Abedaziz & Paul FH;
If you do a little research, you will come across a video on You Tube call Paul McCartney & Donovan “Postcard Sessions” 1968. Just at 2:27 minutes Paul starts playing “BlackBird”. Paul starts talking about what he was reading about in the newspaper, about “RIOTS”! And about how Paul McCartney was playing the Song to Diana Ross. The tape was taking in 1968.
Yes, Fayez, Paul should have known about the Civil Rights movement in the USA, in the 1960’s. Because, He has gone on tour in the USA between 1964 – 1966 and they had to deal with segregation in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Gator Bowl on September 11, 1964. The Beatles refuse to perform at the Gator Bowl because of segregation. Until City officials relented, allowing the stadium to be integrated and the band took the stage. Also, he has met Linda Eastman, who was from USA, at London’s Bag O’Nails Club, in 1967. Later on, Paul and Linda would get married. And in England they had newspapers that would have given Paul McCartney what was happening in the USA, back then in the 1960’s.
Research, before anybody is called a liar!
Please don’t bother the haters with facts – haters gonna hate!
You can also read the whole story in his “Lyrics” book.
Regarding the lyrics, in the 1980 Playboy interviews John is quoted; “I gave him a line or two on that one”, which is pretty significant if true. The lyrics are crucial to this piece and there aren’t many to begin with. John did not comment on which lyrics.
We know John was influenced by Kahlil Gibran in 1968 with Julia; “Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it…”. Its not an outrageous thought that John was also reading Gibran’s “Broken Wing” in 1968. If John contributed the “Take these broken wings” line, that is a crucial contribution; best lyric in the song that the story hinges on.
Either way, the song is a great one because of the lyrics. Without the lyrics, it could have ended up as another one of Paul’s pleasant easy listening diddy’s.
Typical to attribute the best lyric to Lennon, which of course without the song would be nothing. Diddy? Seeing that Paul had a big involvement in the Indica bookshop, how do you know that McCartney himself hadn’t read Gibran? To all of those who question the origins of the song, it is clear as daylight that the song is about civil rights in America, as Paul explained to Donovan in 1968. Found easily enough on YouTube. By the way Jane Asher was a big reader of Poe, apparently it was her bedroom reading as a child. Do people really think John Lennon was the one and only influence on Paul McCartney’s songwriting?
Hi Kallie, I shouldn’t have used the word “diddy’. I love alot of Paul’s sing along songs like “Your Mother Should Know” that don’t have important lyrical content. They are downright fun. Blackbird’s lyrics are great. It is about overcoming darkness. Its inspiring. Great melody AND lyrics by Paul. Although the civil rights inspiration is debatable even though Paul claimed that after 1968 (another story)
My original post was half fact and half speculation (that’s what we do here).
Fact: Lennon claimed to have contributed a lyric or two.
My speculation: what lyric it could possibly be.
I challenge you. Your response is either Lennon did not contribute a lyric (which is fine) or Lennon did contribute a lyric. If its the latter, what lyric do you think it might be?
I think the word you meant to type was ‘Ditty’ , A short simple song and not Diddy.
Eric, In that playboy interview, Lennon said that he written 70% of “Eleanor Rigby”. There is evidence that John was lying about that in his interview. Read Erin Torkelson Weber book The Beatles and the Historians – An Analysis of Writings About the Fab Four. Erin says that it is Paul who is the prime writer of “Eleanor Rigby”. So, my question is to Lennon whether he contributed any line to “Blackbird’?
Eric. What about your ‘fact’? If Lennon could remember contributing ‘Vera Chuck and Dave’ and ‘digging the weeds’ to When I’m 64, then surely he could recall writing what lines to Blackbird and 70% (lol) to Eleanor Rigby. He couldn’t because he didn’t, simple as that, and at best a couple of words not a couple of lines. Which likely happened for all of their songs, including John’s ditties on Side 2 of Abbey Road. It’s a pity people have this ‘gotcha’ attitude towards McCartney. When Lennon explained what his songs were about, did people challenge him? No. Again, as far as Blackbird is concerned, there is a 1968 audio available on YouTube where Paul discusses the civil rights movement with Donovan so get over it. Paul was John’s intellectual equal, no doubt about it, and didn’t need to include chunks of philosophical texts in his songs to prove it. Both men expressed their ideas and feelings in different ways which gave the Beatles strength.
Eric, The exact quote on “Blackbird”.
The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono, page 169
Playboy: “Blackbird”.
Lennon: Enough said. I gave him a line on that one.
And Even you are giving John Lennon more lines than he actually quoted.
And
On “Eleanor Rigby”, let see the piece of paper that John wrote the 70% of “Eleanor Rigby” lyrics on!
Funny that nobody in the comments yet pointed out the glaring example of Emericks’ wrong account of what really happened!
In his fairy-tale book “Here, there and everywhere”, which was written mostly by Howard Massey, he claims that Paul wanted to have something special for Blackbird and recorded it OUTSIDE – that’s why we here the “outside” noises and get the seeling of a “soft summer eve”.
Ken Scott famously called him out on this bs-story and said (no word perfect quote) “I mixed it. There are NO outside noises. All the bird sounds were coming from the sound library”, just like this article here points out.
Emerick ALSO claimed that the “foot tapping” was a “metronome”.
Since it says “foot tapping” on the tape box, as we can see in the anniversary book, that is just ANOTHER example of him spreading false information.
I REALLY wish people would realize that while he surely was a nice bloke and a true Beatles-hero his book is NOT a correct account of what happened. Not even close! It may contain not a single word of authentic dialogue.
Emerick’s book is criticized for everything under the sun for getting facts and memories wrong yet everyone clearly accepts Emerick’s ‘granny music’ comment which he attributed to John. Funny that. Why would this be the one and only truth and everything else not? The term was never used in books and articles about the Beatles before 2006. Correctly, such songs were referred to as music hall or vaudeville pastiche. Good work, Geoff, for ridiculing Paul’s reputation for a large sector of dim-witted Beatles fans. There is no evidence that John actually said that at all or about any particular song. If he did, then for all we know it could have been about some old standard Paul was fooling around with. It’s known that John got frustrated with Obli Di Obli Da but in my opinion Emerick just pulled something out of his head to put two and two together. Fans can’t even decide whether ‘granny’ was about this song or Maxwell’s Silver Hammer making the truth even more dubious. For the life of me I can’t understand why grannies in 1969 would be listening to pastiche ska and songs about serial killers.
Someone above questions if Blackbird song was really written to support the US civil rights movement. Well, Donovan who was in India with Paul when the song was written is sure. Hear Donovan’s own audio tape..easiest place to find it is on Steve Hoffman form where it’s posted several times because folks several times questioned the real motivation for the song. This is one of the few times there’s a witness outside the Beatles inner circle who was there when a song was written and knew of McCartney running the song by Diana Ross to ensure it didn’t offend a black woman. Folks only doubted the motivation for the song because Many Years From Now was written in the era of the meme,..”Paul changes or revises history to make himself important or look cool and whatever John and George said are unquestioned.” Hear Donovan’s audio about this song in the year it was written, in 1968. When Wings played this song on their American’76 tour on their acoustic set, they were mostly playing to a younger audience of wings fans many of whom didn’t know these more obscure Beatles songs or were beginning to discover the Beatles through wings.
I really hope this comment gets posted as I’ve read folks doubt the motivation for the song. I actually read in a late sixties it was about the US civil rights movement and no one questioned it then as Beatles did songs like that and probably it was unquestioned because of the Donovan audio tape about the song.
The instrumentation is Paul McCartney: vocal, acoustic guitar, tap shoes.
He wore tap shoes to allow the percussion of his tapping feet to be clearly heard and recorded.
I question whether John Lennon wrote any lyrics to either of the song “Blackbird” or the song “Eleanor Rigby”? For example, Paul McCartney would tell you I contributed “newspaper taxis” and “cellophane flowers” for the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” written by John Lennon. And John would tell you I contributed “I Love You” to the song “Michelle” written by Paul McCartney. If the other one disagrees, we will know about it. But with the song “Blackbird” and “Eleanor Rigby” does Lennon tell which line or lines of the song he wrote? No! So, I doubt he wrote any of the lyrics in “Blackbird” or “Eleanor Rigby”…
“Blackbird” was written in the 1968. Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey book “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles” came out in the 2006. That is 38 years ago. And No wonder there is so many inaccurate facts or statement or stories in Geoff Emerick book.
“Blackbird” was written in the 1968. Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey book “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles” came out in the 2006. That is 38 years ago. And No wonder there is so many inaccurate facts or statement or stories in Geoff Emerick book. Like Geoff Emerick claims that the “foot tapping” was a “metronome”.