Chords for Paul McCartney – Blackbird (The Beatles) | Het verhaal achter het nummer

What it was, was [E] George and I used to sit around as kids, [F] _ _
[Bb] as [C] teenagers,
and mainly we were just [A] playing sort of, you know, rock and roll.
_ _ Well, I got a weird working machine.
You know, [N] 20-flight rock and stuff. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [G]
But we had a little piece which [D] was like a [N] party piece to show people that,
you know, we weren't as stupid as we looked.
And it was by Bach, _ _ and [Em] it went like that.
_ _ _ [A] _ [B] _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ [Am] _ [A] _
[B] _ _ [Em] _ [B] _ [E] _ So what we liked [Gb] was the _ [Eb] _ [Bb] _ melody [Em] and then there's _ [E] a_
[B] Or [G] _ [Gb] _ [N] whatever, you know, the bass line going at the same time.
That was kind of harder to do than anything we did.
So that was how we did it.
But we got it wrong.
It should go_ _
_ _ _ It goes on and on.
[E] But we just truncated it and did it like short like that.
[Em] _ _
_ [B] _ And that bit [A] _ [B] _ I kind of always liked.
[B] _ So then I ended up [Ab] adapting that years later,
remembering this little thing we used to do [G] into sort [Am] _ [G] _
of_
_ And just looking for all those little [Am] shapes.
[G] _ _ [C] So [G] _ [B] _ [Em] _ _
it had a melody on the top and a little [Cm] bass line.
_ _ [Db] _
[C] _ _ [Cm] _ [G] _ [A] _ [G] _ So that's where Blackbird came from.
_ [Em] _ _ [Dm] _ [C] _
_ [Bb] _ [C] Blackbird fly.
_ _ [Em] _ _
[G] Blackbird [C] _ [Gm] fly.
[A] _ Into [G] the line of a dark [Am] black night.
[G] _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _
[Em] You know, of [Eb] all the classical composers, I [G] think for the [Db] Beatles and [C] me [Cm] since,
_ [G] Bach has always [A] been an influence.
[G] He's got good tunes.
You know, he's almost a pop star in his own day.
If you think of something like Air on a G-string,
you know, it's one that everyone knows.
_ [F] And, you know, then you had Procol Harum doing White A Shade Of Pale.
And a lot of people are influenced by his thing.
We always used to say when we were asked,
who's your favorite classical composer?
It was Bach.
Probably because we didn't know [Bb] anyone else.
When you take [B] these [F] broken wings [G] and learn [Dm] to fly _
[Db] _ _ [F] all [B] your [Bb] life _
[Bbm] _ _ [F] you were [G] only waiting for [Bb] this [F] moment to arrive. _ _ _
[Bb] Blackbird [Ab] fly.
_ _ [Bb] You know, what's nice about it [F] is that people [Bb] who play [Fm] guitar all around the world [G] learn [Cm] it.
[Bb] Lots of [F] people learn it.
So I run into lots of people, you know.
I even remember George Harrison saying to me, is this how it goes?
Because, you know, George hadn't really watched while I did it on the session.
He didn't sort of ask me to show it him.
So years later, [Bb] he'd just been trying to [G] pick it up, [C] you know.
But I just like [Bb] the fact that people [Db] like it enough [F] to try and learn it.
That's a great tribute for me, [E] you know.
When that song came out, we were in, you know, we were in England shortly thereafter.
And I think Stephen figured out how to play it.
We said, Jesus, that's beautiful.
I bet we could do a three part of it.
[D] And so we [Em] tried and we did.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
_ _ _ [C] [G] Take these [D] sunken [Gb] eyes and [Em] learn to see
[Eb] _ _ _
[D] All [Am] your _ life
[Cm] _ _
[G] You were [A] only waiting for [G] this moment to be free
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] Blackbird fly
_ [C] _ _ [F] _
[C] Wow.
No, I haven't heard it.
_ [Gm] Well, that's what I [A] mean.
You know, how [Dm] cool is that?
Wow.
In the dark [G] black [F] [G] night
_ _ _ _ Originally, I [Db] had in [Em] mind a [F] black woman during the civil rights _ _ time
_ when people were, you know, being excluded back of the bus.
People couldn't go in hotels.
Black people in America particularly couldn't go in South Africa.
They didn't have access to the places that white people had.
So for me, it was a kind of there was a civil rights aspect, [Bb] you know.
And I used the blackbird [Dm] as a kind of symbol [Db] of a black [C] woman [B] in the [Bb] South.
_ [Bbm] And you were only [Fm] waiting for this moment to arise.
You know, you're finally getting your rights.
[F] So it was kind of symbolic of that.
[Bb] So [F] that's [G] another reason I [F] like it and I'm proud of it. _
_ _ [Bb] [F] You were [G] only waiting [Bb] for this moment [F] to be free
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _