Blackbird Versions

[William Dupere]

McCartneyexplained on Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road that the guitar accompaniment for "Blackbird" was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Bourre in E minor, a well-known lute piece, often played on the classical guitar. As teenagers, he and George Harrison tried to learn Bourre as a "show off" piece. The Bourre is distinguished by melody and bass notes played simultaneously on the upper and lower strings. McCartney said that he adapted a segment of the Bourre (reharmonised into the original's relative major key of G) as the opening of "Blackbird", and carried the musical idea throughout the song. The first three notes of the song, which then transitioned into the opening guitar riff, were inspired from Bach.[1][2][3][4]

Since composing "Blackbird" in 1968, McCartney has given various statements regarding both his inspiration for the song and its meaning.[6] 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[7] writing it in Scotland as a response to the Little Rock Nine incident and the overall Civil Rights movement, wanting to write a song dedicated to people who had been affected by discrimination.[8][9]

His stepmother, Angie McCartney, [7] has claimed that McCartney wrote it for her elderly mother, Edith Stopforth, who was staying at Jim McCartney's house while recovering from a long illness. Angie recalled that McCartney visited the house and sat at Edith's bedside, where Edith told him that she would listen to a bird singing at night.[7]

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.[15]

The song was recorded on 11 June 1968 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London,[16] with George Martin as the producer and Geoff Emerick as the audio engineer.[17] 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.[17][18]

Apart from the blackbird, only three sounds were recorded: McCartney's voice, his guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel.[19] 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.[20] 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.

The mono version contains the bird sounds a few seconds earlier than the stereo recording, and was originally issued on a mono incarnation of The Beatles (it has since been issued worldwide as part of The Beatles in Mono CD box set). The song appears on 2006 remix album Love with "Yesterday", billed as "Blackbird/Yesterday". "Blackbird" provides an introduction to "Yesterday".

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."[24]

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."[25] Although the 1985 Mr. Mister song "Broken Wings" contains an identical lyric, "Take these broken wings and learn to fly", Mr. Mister member Richard Page has described this as "a mindless unintentional reference" attributable to songwriter John Lang being inspired by Kahlil Gibran's 1912 book Broken Wings.[26]

Crosby, Stills & Nash recorded a version in February of 1969 during sessions for their debut album; it was later released on their box set of 1991. Concert versions by the trio can also be found on the document of their 1974 tour as well as the 2019 expanded set of performances from the Woodstock Festival.

In 2021, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr released their first new studio album in over a decade, titled Blackbird Lennon-McCartney Icons. The album is composed of songs penned by McCartney and Lennon, and was inspired by the social and political climate of the time and its similarities to the 1960s. "Blackbird" was released as the only single from the album, with an accompanying music video produced.

In 2024, Beyonc covered the song for her album Cowboy Carter, titled "Blackbiird", featuring country singers Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy.[34]Her version uses the original Beatles instrumental.[35] McCartney expressed admiration for Beyonc's cover, stating: "I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyonc has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!"[36]

Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis sang '"Blackbird" in Scottish Gaelic in a cover version commissioned by Mojo magazine to celebrate The White Album's fortieth anniversary.[37] The song was released as a download single from Fowlis' own website in October 2008.

I want to know what changes people usually play on the first 16 bars of 'Bye Bye Blackbird'. You'll see both of these versions in various real books and although they're pretty much the same idea, the ii Vs in the first four bars are kind of different. I'm inclined to think that most people probably play the first set of changes? Seems like most modern players prefer putting more ii Vs in instead of an entire bar of a diminished chord (same w/ Have You Met Miss Jones?).

Find 750 of Harry's solo piano arrangements and tutorials at

These arrangements are for teaching solo piano chording using Harry's 2+2 harmony method.

Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

In both versions, the 2nd 8 bars are pretty similar, but the 1st 8 bars in the 2nd version fits the melody MUCH better, and that's what most people play, in my experience. Remember, too, that this in an "old-timey" tune. Nothing wrong with modernizing or freshening up an arrangement or a chord progression, but that especially holds true when blowing a solo. When stating the melody, even a reharmonized set of changes needs to fit the melody, and the 1st version clearly doesn't.

I also think that the 1st 8 bars of version #1 is a weak progression, and really goes nowhere - it's far LESS interesting than the traditional changes. Just checked the Sher version - some of the ll-V's are parenthetical, so I don't know if they're used that much on the Miles version in question, merely implied, or what. I'd have to listen to the version in question.

The original version- posted above - was an eye opener , thanks - like most of us I didn't know that other section . What I learned from it was one or two superior melodic choices that I had forgotten or never knew 2 thumbs up

This is one of those tunes like Round Midnight that everyone plays differently. Depending on the situation when I play this --which is usually behind a singer or sometimes a horn player - I usually go with the bass player's changes--that is if I feel he/she is a good player and knows the tune and the idiom well.

Also wanted to mention that when I've played this with guys from an older generation then me such as Andy Simpkins, Putter Smith, Bob Maize, to name a few- they all seemed to stay on the Fmaj.7 for all 4 bars at the top of the tune before going up to the Am7 or F/A. This gives credence to that movement as these guys grew up playing that tune, and are closer to the *source* then me.

Great questions T. I'll answer from the jazz perspective, but just to be clear, I play in a B3 group and we do Shotgun when we bring in a sax. And I play in a southern rock group and when the guitar player says 'stay on the A' we do, and have fun. Each of these is a different role for me as a player, with different musical values.

So, this isn't about jazz guys vs R&B guys or rock guys, but about the different aesthetics of each genre. If you don't like a genre, that's ok. But let me answer, IMHO, from a jazz aesthetic perspective:

1). It's far more piano oriented, and the pianist's job in a jazz band is harmony. If I'm playing a song the first three bars of which are the tonic, I'm immediately thinking 'how do I make this more harmonically interesting'. Imagine the harmonic progression of 'The Saints' as played by Oscar Peterson vs your third grade music teacher. We're not hiding our inadequacies, we're displaying our musical skills.

2). All the players, from a jazz perspective, want to play more interesting harmonies if the original is plain vanilla. And there are many many ways to get from the tonic to the dominant 7th. From a group perspective this gets 'interesting' and can lead to train wrecks unless everybody listens and adapts. This could be interpreted as 'dread', but a blues band might feel the same if 'Stormy Monday' is called and you don't know which version.

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