Paul McCartney is for the birds, or he at least has an affinity for our fine, feathered friends. That’s what we discover on the latest episode of the McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast, which focuses on two avian-themed compositions by the rock legend—the 1968 Beatles classic “Blackbird” and his 2005 solo tune “Jenny Wren.”
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McCartney explained early in the episode that he developed a fascination with bird-watching when he was young, which may be why he wound up writing as many songs about them as he did.
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“I loved bird watching when I was a kid, ’cause I like to be able to get out of the normal stream of life,” he noted. “We were about a mile away from quite deep countryside, so I used to just go out on my own, just being away from the normal stuff—school, family life.”
McCartney revealed that the music for “Blackbird,” which showcased his acoustic guitar-picking skills, was inspired by a classical piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Bourrée in E Minor,” that he and George Harrison both learned so they could play it at parties.
“I just switched it around a bit and made it my own, but I knew where I was getting it from,” McCartney explained.
He then came up with the phrase “blackbird singing in the dead of night,” which evoked loneliness, but as he put the lyrics together, he realized that a deeper underlying meaning was taking shape.
“[I]t started to be about arising,” McCartney explained. “[I]n other words, I was writing about the civil rights disturbances in Little Rock, [Arkansas,] particularly, that we’d been hearing about, segregation and stuff that shocked us so much. You know, ‘your broken wings,’ ‘sunken eyes,’ seeing broken wings flying, you know, this is your moment to arise and be free … And it now wasn’t just [an] ornithological piece. It was now to do with sort of politics and to do with freedom, really.”
As for “Jenny Wren,” McCartney pointed out its musical similarity to “Blackbird,” noting that they both feature little finger-picked guitar parts that he sang along to rather than just strumming the chords.
“I think I was probably intentionally writing another ‘Blackbird’ [with ‘Jenny Wren,’]” he admitted.
Also like “Blackbird,” “Jenny Wren” had a message about making the world a better place. The song tells the story of a character who is part bird and part girl, and who is a great singer but she loses her ability to sing because of the troubles in the world.
“[I]it turns out that [she loses her voice] because of all our foolish ways, like a protest,” McCartney noted. “And so then it just becomes a bit reflective about our society, how we screw things up and everything, and so now we sympathize with the person who protests. ‘Oh, she’s even lost her voice over this.’”
McCartney pointed out that he ended the song on a positive note, as the song’s lyrics promise “the day will come” when Jenny Wren will sing again, and, he maintained, “it’s going to be a great day.”
The McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast series is co-produced by iHeartPodcasts and the Pushkin audio-production company.
Two 12-episode seasons of the series are planned, with new episodes of the first season premiering in weekly installments. The first 10 episodes of the podcast can be heard now at iHeart.com, Pushkin.fm, and on various popular streaming services.
Photo by Mary McCartney
