behind the beatles: blackbird

Blackbird stands out as the simplest, least affected track on the White Album. While there are other quiet tracks on the disc, as well as countless stripped down rockers, this is the track that sits quietly in the corner without trying to be special. This is not to say that it's a lesser track or an unecessary one. It just stands in--some would say necessary--contrast to the rest of the album. It also harkens back to earlier, less experimental music without being bogged down by Paul's frequent, blatant stabs at oldies/old-timey music. There's a subtlety, but there's no gimmick. It makes you think of "Yesterday," without making you think, "Paul's trying to record another Yesterday."

"It's simple in concept because you couldn't think of anything else to put on it. Maybe on 'Pepper' we would have sort of worked on it until we could find some way to put violins or trumpets in there. But I don't think it needs it, this one. You know, it's just... There's nothing to the song. It is just one of those 'pick it and sing it' and that's it."

--Paul, 1968

"The original inspiration was from a well-known piece by Bach, which I never know the title of, which George and I had learned to play at an early age-- he better than me actually. Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between the melody and the bass line which intrigued me... I developed the melody based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level, then I just fitted words to it. I had in my mind a black woman, rather than a bird."

--Paul, 1994

previously on WTG: