{"id":138,"date":"2021-05-10T01:57:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T01:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/?p=138"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:52:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:52:04","slug":"blackbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/blackbird\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackbird"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\">by Paul McCartney<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\">Key of C<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\">These ARE NOT the original Beatles chords.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\">I have simplified them so I can play the song.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\">Robert<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\"><input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='69ea79ea249d56045933618' value='69ea79ea249d56045933618'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-69ea79ea249d56045933618' value='Show More'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-69ea79ea249d56045933618' value='Show Less'><button id='bg-showmore-action-69ea79ea249d56045933618' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-orange-button  '   style=\" color:#4a4949;\">Show More<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-69ea79ea249d56045933618' ><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;font-weight: 900;font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif\">Paul McCartney wrote this about the civil rights struggle for African Americans after reading about race riots in the US. He penned it in his kitchen in Scotland not long after an incident in Little Rock when the federal courts forced the racial desegregation of the Arkansas capital&#8217;s school system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;font-weight: 900;font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif\">&#8220;I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar and I&#8217;d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the &#8217;60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock in particular,&#8221; he told GQ. &#8220;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 &#8216;Blackbird.&apos;&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;font-weight: 900;font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif\">Only three sounds were recorded: Paul&#8217;s voice, his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel. This tapping sound is a bit of a mystery, although in the Beatles Anthology video McCartney appears to be making the sound with his foot. Some sources have claimed it is a metronome. The birds were dubbed in later using sound effects from the collection at Abbey Road, where the song was recorded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 16pt;font-weight: 900\"><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<pre class=\"xNWlr hjutX PBFx0\" style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 900;\"> \r\n \r\n[Intro]\r\n \r\n<span class=\"iGhjU xXjiq VcfKs\" style=\"color: var(--ug-color-text-primary);\" data-name=\"G\">C<\/span> <span class=\"iGhjU xXjiq VcfKs\" style=\"color: var(--ug-color-text-primary);\" data-name=\"Am\">Dm<\/span>  <span class=\"iGhjU xXjiq VcfKs\" style=\"color: var(--ug-color-text-primary);\" data-name=\"G\">C<\/span>    *\r\n \r\n \r\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">[MAIN VERSE]\r\n[C] Blackbird singing in the [Dm] dead of night [Em] [F] Take these [G] broken wings and [G#] learn to [Am] fly [Ab]\r\n[G] All your [F] life [Fm]  [C] You were only [D] waiting for this [F] moment to [C] arise<\/span>\r\n \r\n[Instrumental] - - - - - <span class=\"iGhjU xXjiq VcfKs\" style=\"color: var(--ug-color-text-primary);\" data-name=\"C\">[C] <\/span>[Dm]  [Em] [F]\r\n \r\n[VERSE 2]\r\n[C] Blackbird singing in the [Dm] dead of [Em] night [F] Take these [G] sunken eyes and [G#] learn to [Am] see [Ab] \r\n[G] All your [F] life [Fm] [C] You were only [D] waiting for this [F] moment to [C] be free\r\n \r\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">{ CHORUS }\r\n[A#] Black-[Am]-bird,  [Gm] fly [G]\r\n[A#] Black-[Am]-bird, [Gm] fly [G] \r\nInto the [F] light of the dark black [C] night\r\n \r\n[REPEAT CHORUS]<\/span>\r\n \r\n[Instrumental] - - - - - <span class=\"iGhjU xXjiq VcfKs\" data-name=\"C\">[C] <\/span>[Dm] [Em] [F]\r\n \r\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> [REPEAT MAIN VERSE]<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">[C] You were only [D] waiting for this [F] moment to [C] arise<\/span>\r\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">[C] You were only [D] waiting for this [F] moment to [C] arise<\/span>\r\n<\/span><\/pre>\n<div class=\"vxv2A\"><\/div>\n<pre class=\"xNWlr hjutX PBFx0\" style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Paul McCartney Key of C These ARE NOT the original Beatles chords. I have simplified them so I can play the song. Robert [Intro] C Dm C * [MAIN VERSE] [C] Blackbird singing in the [Dm] dead of night [Em] [F] Take these [G] broken wings and [G#] learn &hellip; <span class=\"more-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/blackbird\/\" class=\"more-link\">CLICK TO VIEW SONG<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Blackbird<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,58,116,117,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-beatles","category-live-baritone","category-live-piano","category-live-tenor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}