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Beatles - Blackbird Song Meanings

Blackbird is a song inspired by the black civil rights movement in america

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-10-07 03:27:57     Rating:

Paul says it himself on the "back in the us" tour concert dvd, that this song was written in the sixties when there was trouble in the southern states of american particularly over civil rights. The term bird refers to 'girl' as girls are often refered to in england.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-11-19 20:06:36     Rating:

Not only could this song be interpreted as a comment on the civil rights movement of the time, but also on the rising anti-vietnam sentiment of the time..."Blackbird" is also another name for the american helicopters that were being used in Vietnam.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-12-04 01:48:21     Rating:

Actually I reaad somewhere(dont remember where) an interview they did to the Beatles. In it both John and Paul say that is about a black woman and how now(thee sixties) is the time for her rise above discrimination and fight for her rights. They decided to use blackbird so any other person could relate it to their lives.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-12-19 01:29:33     Rating:

Initially I thought 'Blackbird' was a song for the blacks in the sixties. Then I read a book about the Beatles' songs called 'A Hard Day's Write' by rock music journalist Steve Turner.

The book pointed out that the problem with the story about 'Blackbird' being written about the racial tension in America and using the blackbird taking its broken wings to fly as a metaphor of racial minorities getting stronger was that the death of Martin Luther King Jr., which provoked riots in April 1968, didn't take place until Paul had returned from the States with the song already written.

The book also says that Paul often cites 'Blackbird' as evidence that the best of his songs come spontaneously, just like 'Yesterday'.

~M

Submitted by: chuckslade
Added: 2007-05-03 18:33:12     Rating:

Blackbird was Paul's song for the civil rights movement. It was about the uprise from the black race rising up after all this time. He say
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 arrive
Blackbird fly.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-05-19 03:12:16     Rating:

Incidentally, this was one of the songs that led Charlie Manson to his Helter Skelter theory.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-11-19 02:21:45     Rating:

The Beatles are famous for having double meanings in their songs, take day tripper for example, it is about a drug trip, but it was also about a cheater on the surface.

Well anyway, on the surface, blackbird is about racial tension, the real meaning and this is going to be a stretch.

I was watching real world, and their was a guy on their who took a lot of acid, and we all know that the Beatles took a lot of acid, so the guy on real world, anytime anyone close to him would die, he would see a blackbird, no one else could see it but he could, and when he saw the blackbird, he immediately, checked his email, and he had a message saying that his grandpa died. Listen to the lyrics a lot of dead in it, and arise, like a soul goin to heaven.

Submitted by: Chinaplate
Added: 2008-02-01 16:01:05     Rating:

I know this song is about the civil rights movement. I've heard that the blackbird was symbolic of Rosa Parks. Rosa was the lady who. on December 1st, 1955, refused to give up her seat for a white person - she had paid the same fare - Her case became prevalent in the fight against segregation in the early civil rights movement and was one of the events that brought the great Nobel Prize winner Dr Martin Luther King to the public eye.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2008-03-12 23:36:48     Rating:

Mom sending her children off into the world. Get over the heavy weight stuff. Sometimes there is joy in what people want to read as dark

Submitted by: KittenStuffy
Added: 2008-05-09 15:48:49     Rating:

This song is totally about the civil rights movement! it SO shows! (I'm REALLY sorry if this sounds racist, but the Blackbird is an African American experiencing the civil rights movement) Here are a few lines:
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night": during slavery, the slaves had to do things under cover
"Take these broken wings and learn to fly": Even though you've been miss treated, still try to be free
"You were only waiting for this moment to arise": you've been waiting for people to help you.
"Take these sunken eyes and learn to see": even though there's a ton of bad things, try to see the good in the world
"You were only waiting for this moment to be free.": your race has always wanted to be free.
"Blackbird fly Blackbird fly": Be free!
"Into the light of the dark black night": This is hard! Let's see if I can word this right; maybe it's like, bad things have been happening, but good things are just around the corner!

This is most likly WAY off. I'm just guessing!

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