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Beyonce's cover of Blackbird (Original Post)
lapucelle
Mar 29
OP
msongs
(67,430 posts)1. youtube has dozens of better covers by people who are not famous. decent try tho nt
OAITW r.2.0
(24,528 posts)2. Nice.
On edit- I think this is a pretty great version of Blackbirds.....
https://music.
Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman...and Bob was playing his acoustic guitar when this was recorded.
lapucelle
(18,296 posts)7. That made me smile.
I didn't know Bob Weir had covered it.
rubbersole
(6,715 posts)3. That's great.
Thanks for posting.
ProfessorGAC
(65,112 posts)4. I Like It
Pretty faithful to the original (the guitar part is spot on) , but some nice jewelry added.
The vocal arrangement is excellent.
lapucelle
(18,296 posts)5. I really like it too.
Here's what Paul McCartney had to say about writing the song.
Paul tells the story of writing it in his 2021 book The Lyrics. At the time in 1968 when I was writing Blackbird, he recalls, I was very conscious of the terrible racial tensions in the U.S. The year before, 1967, had been a particularly bad year, but 1968 was even worse. The song was written only a few weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. That imagery of the broken wings and the sunken eyes and the general longing for freedom is very much of its moment.
snip====================
I had in mind a Black woman, rather than a bird, Paul says of the song in the 1997 book Many Years From Now, by Barry Miles. 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.
snip======================
Paul was especially moved by the Little Rock Nine a group of teenagers, the same age as so many Beatlemaniac fans, who caused a nationwide racist outrage in 1957 when they tried to enroll in an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to block the kids from setting foot in the school. Writing Blackbird in the summer of 1968, with high-profile anti-Black violence in both the U.S. and the U.K., he turned that into the song. 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.
snip====================
I had in mind a Black woman, rather than a bird, Paul says of the song in the 1997 book Many Years From Now, by Barry Miles. 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.
snip======================
Paul was especially moved by the Little Rock Nine a group of teenagers, the same age as so many Beatlemaniac fans, who caused a nationwide racist outrage in 1957 when they tried to enroll in an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to block the kids from setting foot in the school. Writing Blackbird in the summer of 1968, with high-profile anti-Black violence in both the U.S. and the U.K., he turned that into the song. 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.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beatles-beyonce-blackbird-1234996099/
ProfessorGAC
(65,112 posts)6. I've Read That Before
(Beatles freak, here.)
It was good to read it again. Thanks.