Paul McCartney explains his pride for The Beatles classic ‘Blackbird’
Paul McCartney has a lot to be proud of. Throughout his career with The Beatles, he helped craft some of the most enduring pop songs of all time, songs which continue to inspire and soothe to this day. Here, McCartney discusses one of his most celebrated songs, a track that, in his view, captures what was so special about The Beatles.
A few years ago, McCartney was invited to break down some of his most iconic songs for GQ. As well as recalling the origins of tracks like ‘And I Love Her’, ‘Yesterday’ and ‘A Day In The Life’, McCartney explained how he came up with his 1968 White Album cut ‘Blackbird’. “I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar,” he began, “And I’d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the ’60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock in particular. I just thought it would be really good if I could write something that, if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might give them a little bit of hope. So, I wrote ‘Blackbird.'”
‘Blackbird’ is one of The Beatles’ simplest recordings. It features just three recorded elements: McCartney’s vocal, his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar, and the tapping of his foot, which is panned hard-left. Apart from a touch of reverb and a smatter of double tracking on the vocal, the recording is incredibly sparse, allowing Macca’s lyrics to hold the listener’s attention. Eventually, the sound of a blackbird’s song seeps onto the music, at which point they begin duetting.
For McCartney, ‘Blackbird’ was an attempt to connect with his listeners on an earnest level and to create something that might serve as a balm in times of trouble. This, he later said, was his favourite thing about The Beatles’ catalogue: that it gave so many people so much comfort. “One of the nice things about music is that you know a lot of people listening to you are going to take seriously what you’re saying in the song”.
He added: “So I’m very proud of the fact that The Beatles’ output was always really pretty positive. There’s hardly anything in there that says, you know, ‘go out and screw your parents.’ It’s always ‘Let it Be’, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Blackbird’ – it’s hopefully a good message. I particularly like that, and sometimes when I’m writing songs, I’ll think: there are some people out there who are going through some problems. And hopefully, people out there will listen to it and think, ‘ ‘oh yeah, it’s not just me going through this.'”
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