I’ve mostly stuck to themes on these Beatles weekends, picking two songs from the same album, two songs by George Harrison, two sides of the same single, etc. This week I’m eschewing a thematic connection and just highlighting two great songs.
‘Blackbird’ has always been one of my favorite Beatles songs. I remember first becoming aware of it during the summer after my junior year in high school.
That was the summer I became obsessed with The Beatles, buying all of their CDs (newly released in that format) and transcribing all of the lyrics on my typewriter. I’d probably heard ‘Blackbird’ throughout my life without really being aware of it, but I vividly recall lying on a couch and listening to the song through headphones and being blown away by its simple beauty.
I also remember mistaking the birdsong in the second half of the song for a malfunction on the cassette tape I was listening to (I had recorded the CDs to tape so I could listen to them on my walkman… how did we survive before iPods??).
Fifteen years later, I was singing this song to put my baby daughter to sleep. Funny how a song, without changing a note, can mean different things at different times in our lives.
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Black bird 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 arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Meet Me In Montauk 
Thanks for the chance to revisit some great er memories this morning. For some reason, the clip I posted – and the episode in which it was featured – was the first time I remember being blown away by this song. I, too, am sure that I’d heard it before, but the context in which it was sung in this episode made me fully understand it for the first time. The song would go on to be associated with this character, and this show, throughout its run (though I didn’t watch the last couple of seasons; just now I watched the last minutes of the last episode and cried like a baby 🙂
One of my biggest (only?) disappointments in the Cirque du Soleil Love show in Vegas is the way they integrate this song. I was anticipating it throughout the show, and when it finally arrives they somehow play it more for laughs (albeit sweet ones) than anything else.
Still, for me, this song will always be associated with singing babies to sleep – er’s Susan her niece, me and my own darling babies, and my brother with his girls. And that’s a pretty wonderful association.
it sure is Amy
It’s interesting that both Clay and Amy associate this song with singing to a baby, when the lyrics were arguably discussing racial tensions, MLK’s death, and emerging from death or sorrow within the context of those dark days. Neverthless, I can readily understand the transformation of this song into a lullaby of sorts, as it is undoubtedly beautiful–one of the best things Paul has ever written.
I believe that’s the only episode of er I’ve ever seen. I watched it because it was directed by Quentin Tarantino.
I also sang ‘We Shall Overcome’ to put the babies to sleep. 🙂
My babies would fall asleep just to stop hearing me sing 😉