All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise...

I have loved the song "Blackbird" since the first time I heard it. It must have been in the late 70s or early 80s when I first discovered the White Album. It happened to be in my mother's record (as in vinyl) collection. It still baffles me as to how it came to be in my mom's record collection. She is more of an Elvis, 50's bee-bop, "At the Hop" kind of gal. The White Album was cool, and no offense if you're reading this mom, but my mom is just not cool enough to have the White Album.

Honestly, I think I can say with full confidence that the White Album is one of the greatest records of all time. From the first track of "Back in the USSR," to the George Harrison masterpiece of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," to the quirky story-song "Rocky Raccoon," the gritty "Why Don't We Do It in the Road," to the endearing, "I Will," a perennial favorite "Birthday," a song that defined my 17th year: Revolution(1), the seemingly misplaced "Helter Skelter," and a song that resonates to my soul: Blackbird. I love, freaking, love that Album. Just reminiscing about it makes me realize how truly great it is. I used to play Revolution 9 again and again...stop the turn table and spin it backwards to see if I could hear back masked messages. That was the thing to do back then. (BTW, if you listen to "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen backward....eventually you will hear, "It's fun to smoke marijuana." It only took us trying 37 times at Susan Bryan's sleepover to hear it.)

A long, long time ago when I was on my mission, I learned a few guitar chords. No other instrument speaks to me like the acoustic guitar. I love it's simple construct that can create beautiful music. I was determined to learn how to play the guitar properly when I came back to the states. I hired a guitar instructor, and the very first song I wanted to learn was Blackbird. I had to quit my lessons (no cash) before I ever learned to play it properly.

If you've ever tried to play this song, you'll realize that it is not an easy task.

"The structure of the song is quite uneven, featuring a good amount of free verse phrasing, with the timing varying between 3/4, 4/4 and 2/4 meters. It is in the key of G, with the bass and melody lines on the guitar progressing mostly in parallel tenths, all the while maintaining an open G-drone on the third string. The song is played with a unique combination of fingerpicking and (a kind of) finger-strumming, though the bass notes are always played by the thumb on the downbeat." Source: Wikipedia

I have always loved this song. I think it is beautiful.

When I heard that Paul McCartney was going to be playing at the soccer stadium less than a 1/2 mile from my house, it was not a question of if I was going to go. I was going. How can you not go? McCartney is a legend. Good heavens, he was a Beatle! He's getting up there in age, and you never know if this opportunity will ever come again. I jumped at the chance.

I was hoping that he would play Blackbird, and he did. As he introduced the song, he told us his inspiration for writing it. He said that in the late 1960s he watched as the Civil Rights Movement was unfolding in America. He wrote the song in 1968. You might recall that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April of 1968. Paul said (at the concert) that he wanted to write a song that would make people feel good about the situation. What he wrote was Blackbird. He has said that Blackbird is one of his two favorite songs. That is saying much when you consider just how many songs he had to choose from.

He is quoted in other interviews as saying that the Blackbird symbolizes a black woman. That imagery is so powerful when you consider the time, the place, the circumstance, the condition and the revolution of rights that was happening in America at the time. I was not even alive, but that historical moment deeply impacts me today.

When I learned the history of this song last night, it endeared me even more to this song. I have always been a student of American history. Our history is a complex, and it continually incorporates human struggle and triumph. That is one of the things that I love most about my country, my heritage and my history. To find out the true genesis of this song...from the mouth of Paul McCartney himself....had so much meaning for me. In an odd way, "it all made sense." I know that I am not the only person who loves Blackbird. I'm certain that there are millions who love it. But to know that it is Paul's favorite song...to know why he wrote the song...and how much it means to him....well, "it just all made sense" to me. It was kind of like a bit of an epiphany. I felt the song and loved it. To understand it's meaning only makes me feel it more.

So, I will conclude this deeply personal and revealing post with the lyrics of Blackbird and a snippet of the live version I heard last night at the concert.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly

Blackbird fly

Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly

Blackbird fly

Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to be free

You were only waiting for this moment to be free
You were only waiting for this moment to be free