"Blackbird" - The Beatles

"Blackbird” by The Beatles

Theresa Fox

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 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.

McCartney wrote “Blackbird” for The Beatles in 1968 and became a global hit instantly (Rolling Stone, 38). Even decades later, the song is still prominent in our lives. The entire song is a metaphor, using a black bird to express one’s lifestyle. Analyzing the lyrical composition, the color black is mentioned throughout the song expressing being hidden and breaking free from a constraint to reach full potential.
McCartney opens the first line of the song with “Blackbird singing in the dead of night”. It is suggesting that at night when no one is around, the bird sings. The black bird sings at night because of its color hiding in the dark, no one knows where the singing is coming from. The next line in the verse says, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly”. This symbolizes that the individual has had some sort of constraint in which their “wings” are broken and do not know how to fly away from their problems. The last line of the verse says, “All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise”. The color black shows how the individual is hiding and breaking free by giving the blackbird finally a chance to fly away when no one is watching at night.
The next verse says, “Black bird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see”. Black is a color that is very hard to see at night, therefore the individual or the “black bird”, is given the opportunity to understand what has torn him or her down. The end of the second verse is very similar to the first, “All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free”. A black bird flying into the night is breaking away from its blackness and being free.
The chorus consists of two lines, “Blackbird, fly. Blackbird, fly. Into the light of the dark black night”. This is the part of the song in which black can eventually be viewed as something light or positive. The black resembles the troubles by ending the song of how the outcome can be positive if you keep pushing through the blackness.

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Works Cited

Costello, Elvis. "'Blackbird' - 100 Greatest Beatles Songs." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2015. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-beatles-songs-20110919/blackbird-19691231>.