Paul McCartney Shares How Bach Inspired ‘Blackbird’

Paul McCartney and the other Beatles had musical influences often represented in their music. While none of them could read music, they were still inspired by classical music, and McCartney was a fan of the work of Johann Bach. McCartney once shared that the song “Blackbird” included a spin on a piece of Bach’s music. 

Paul McCartney and George Harrison learned Bach to practice guitar

Many people use classic rock songs and easy melodies to help themselves learn how to play guitar. Being the dynamic musicians they turned out to be, George Harrison and Paul McCartney often practiced together but with more challenging songs. In a 2005 appearance on The Parkinson Show, McCartney shared how he and Harrison would incorporate Bach into their jam sessions. 

“Me and George used to sit around and learn the basic rock n’ roll chords, but there was one little thing we used to do, which was a sort of semi-classical thing,” McCartney said. “It was a little show-off piece we had. It was actually classical, but we made it semi. We didn’t quite know it. It was a thing by Bach.”

The Bach instrumental McCartney showed off was the fifth movement from Suite in E minor for Lute, according to openculture.com.

Paul McCartney incorporated Bach into ‘Blackbird’

During his Parkinson Show appearance, Paul McCartney showed how he incorporated Bach’s piece into “Blackbird.” The first three notes come from Bach, then transition into the song’s opening guitar riff. The singer-songwriter also shared why he and Harrison felt a connection to the classical composer. 

“Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between the melody and the bass line which intrigued me. Bach was always one of our favorite composers; we felt we had a lot in common with him. For some reason we thought his music was very similar to ours and we latched on to him amazingly quickly. We also liked the stories of him being the church organist and wopping this stuff out weekly, which was rather similar to what we were doing. We were very pleased to hear that.”

McCartney wrote ‘Blackbird’ about the U.S. civil right movement

In an interview with GQ, Paul McCartney discussed the meaning behind “Blackbird.” Macca says that the song’s idea came after watching footage of the U.S. civil rights movement during the 1960s. He wanted to produce a song that inspired hope and used “Blackbird” as a metaphor for a black girl experiencing racial inequality. 

“I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar, and I’d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the 60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock, in particular,” McCartney shared. “So, that was in my mind, and I just thought, ‘It’d be really good if I could write something that if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might kinda give them a bit of hope.’ So, I wrote ‘Blackbird.’ In England, a bird is a girl, so I was thinking of a black girl going through this. You know, it’s time to arise. Set yourself free and take these broken wings.”