Beatles: Blackbird Meaning

Song Released: 1968

Covered By: Glee Cast (2011)

Blackbird Lyrics

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...

1. anonymous

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   Mar 14th 2011 !⃝

   It's about the civil right movement. In the USA we call girls chicks in England they call girls birds. So there talking about a women during to civil rights movement.
2. anonymous

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   Mar 9th 2011 !⃝

   Most of these posts are thinking in terms of creativity being very concrete, which it isn't. when most artists (other than rappers) talk about composing songs, VERY RARELY do the lyrics come first or even simultaneous to the melody -unless forced by constraints such as writing for a movie.
   
   With that reality established, Paul has stated on numerous occasions that the melody for Blackbird was inspired by a bit of Bach that he and George used to show off with. the lyrics, as usual, came later and are about a nonspecific young black woman w/in the context of the civil rights movement. it's not about Rosa Parks or Vietnam or MLK or any of that other rubbish. although any song can hold particular meaning to anybody, the question here is about the artist's inspiration for creating it.
   -----
   fyi, to the guy that posted on Dec 19, 2006; the violence associated w/the civil rights movement did NOT begin w/MLK's death. it was ongoing t/o the 50s & 60s. duh!
3. anonymous

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   Jan 24th 2011 !⃝

   Even though i am aware that Blackbird was written for civil rights movements, i came up with my own interpretation that applies to myself and many others. Mine is that you feel lost and in other peoples shadows.
   That you wanna break out from everything. And you finally get the chance to.
   I suffer from depression and this song just makes me think. It helps me know that ill get that day when i can one day be free from all the bad people and things surrounding me right now.
   
   
4. anonymous

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   Dec 8th 2010 !⃝

   It's hard to argue that the song was not written about civil rights. But I swear when I listen, he is singing to me about my stillborn son.
   
   What would we do without music?
5. anonymous

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   Nov 10th 2010 !⃝

   "I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird. 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.' 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."
   Paul McCartney
6. anonymous

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   Nov 9th 2010 !⃝

   It's not just about civil rights movement it's about slavery.
7. anonymous

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   Oct 3rd 2010 !⃝

   How about a parent talking to a new child. "Blackbird" - any new child. "Broken wings" - beaten down experiences of the parent; "sunken eyes" - ones that have seen "too much", maybe seen too negative and hope is diminished; take these sunken eyes and learn to see - start where I am but see with new vision and hope.
   
   FWIW
8. anonymous

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   Jul 3rd 2010 !⃝

   This song was written while on the ship they took to get back from India. The sea inspired Paul to write a song about Blackbeard the pirate. When he played it for the rest of the band Ringo stated that, while it sounded great, the lyrics just made no sense. So Paul rewrote the lyrics to be about helicopters.
9. anonymous

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   Jun 6th 2010 !⃝

   Hey Bridge Player player -- that's a great tall tale! Case closed? In your dreams, pal.
10. anonymous

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    Jun 5th 2010 !⃝

    I know Paul very well, we used to be in the same bridge club. Anyways, one night after a long night of card playing he confided in me that the song actually WAS about helicopters. He said that if it wasn't for the band he would have become the best helicopter pilot in the world, boasting that he would do loop-de-loops even. Case closed.
11. anonymous

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    Apr 13th 2010 !⃝

    I'd like to note that Hey Jude is not about the same person as those other songs, Hey Jude was about John's son Julian. I don't understand how Sexy Sadie and Blackbird and Hey Jude are all about the same person. That makes no sense.
12. anonymous

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    Apr 6th 2010 !⃝

    This song was actually inspired by a bird that woke McCartney up while he was in India. The song is in fact about the civil rights movement at the time it was written.
    In the second line in the first verse, flying away is a metaphor for take your freedom, another metaphor is found in learning to see in the second verse. the broken wings and sunken eyes refer to how beaten they were as slaves. The dead of night refers to how black people at the time had to do everything in hiding, at night. Blackbird fly is a metaphor for take your freedom. when he says you were only waiting for this moment to arrive he says "you" in reference to the entire black race and the moment that they have been waiting for is their freedom.
13. anonymous

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    Mar 11th 2010 !⃝

    I was at a Paul McCartney concert last year in DC, before he played this song he said in different and better words; "it was written about a black girl he saw sitting on a park bench, and that it was about the civil rights movement."
14. anonymous

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    Feb 23rd 2010 !⃝

    Do you think maybe it could not mean anything?
    
    It could just be randomly meaning helicopters or civil rights or death.
    
    Does it really have to mean things?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. Blackbirrd1

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    Feb 10th 2010 !⃝

    Paul McCartney concert at the Portland, OR Rose Garden, Back in the USA tour: Song- Blackbird is about the civil rights movement AND its beginnings with the Underground Railroad during the Civil War era.
    
    It's not about Vietnam BUT the fact that someone can interpret his songs to fit their beliefs and/or circumstances is a testimony to Paul and the Beatles' universal appeal. They wrote from the heart, they wrote together and individually, and their songs touched us all.

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