“Blackbird” by The Beatles

Are you familiar with the song “Blackbird” by The Beatles? Most of us are. I had no idea the meaning behind it. Did you? I will never listen to it the same way again

“Paul McCartney was visiting America. It is said that he was sitting, resting when he heard a woman screaming. He looked up to see a black woman being surrounded by the police. The police had her handcuffed and were beating her. He thought the woman had committed a terrible crime. He found out “the crime” she committed was to sit in a section reserved for whites.

Paul was shocked. There was no segregation in England. But, here in America, the land of freedom, this is how blacks were being treated. McCartney and the Beatles went back home to England, but he would remember what he saw, how he felt, and the unfairness of it all.

McCartney couldn’t believe this was happening in America. He thought of these women being mistreated, simply because of the color of their skin. He sat down and started writing.

Last year at a concert, he would meet two of the women who inspired him to write one of his most memorable songs, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, members of the Little Rock Nine (pictured here).

McCartney explained that when he started writing the song, he had in mind a black woman, but in England, “girls” were referred to as “birds.” And, so the song started:

“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.”