November 29, 2023 • 23 mins
“Long Tailed Winter Bird,” “Bluebird,” and “Single Pigeon” are just a few of the many bird-oriented songs Paul McCartney has written over the years. His love of ornithology extends back before his songwriting days to his early childhood. “Blackbird”, one of the most universally cherished songs in his canon, was born of that love and worked well with the civil rights allusions that were the song’s subtext. The latter day companion of “Blackbird”, “Jenny Wren,” was also born of that love. Released 40 years apart, those two songs explore McCartney as an ornithologist as well as the ways in which he’s in dialogue with his songs as a writer.
“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries.
The series was produced by Pejk Malinovski and Sara McCrea; written by Sara McCrea; edited by Dan O’Donnell and Sophie Crane; mastered by Jason Gambrell with sound design by Pejk Malinovski. The series is executive produced by Leital Molad, Justin Richmond, Lee Eastman, Scott Rodger and Paul McCartney.
Thanks to Lee Eastman, Richard Ewbank, Scott Rodger, Aoife Corbett and Steve Ithell.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Look, there's a beautiful bird.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I loved bird watching when I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
How can you tell one bird from another?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
So I like to be able to get out of
the normal stream of life. We were about a mile
away from quite deep countryside, so I used to just
go on my own, just being away from the normal stuff, school,
family life. Appearance is one way to identify birds.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
How does it look?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I had a little bird book, the Observers Book of Birds.
In yards or in pipes, wherever people are, you are
likely to find another small bird with a beautiful song.
The wren was a great favorite because you wouldn't see
that often, just suddenly see it flit from one little
push to another.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This small brownish bird is a wren.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And singing as it goes.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
We can learn to know ren's by their sounds.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So I loved birds.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Because of that, I started being able to recognize the birds.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'm Paul Monteaux and I've been fortunate to spend time
with one of the greatest songwriters of the era.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And will you look at me?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I'm going on too.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
I'm actually a.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Performer, that is Sir Paul McCartney. We worked together on
a book Looking at the lyrics of more than one
hundred and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many
hours of our conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Songwriter, my God, well, that crypt homie.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
This is McCartney, A life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir,
and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic
figures in popular music. In this episode, Jenny Wren, The.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Girls, Jenny Wren to King, she could See.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
And'sche Way.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Paul McCartney has been a nature lover and birdwatcher since childhood.
His song catalog is teeming with feathered friends. There's single
Pigeon from nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Single Pigeon through the railent did she throw you out?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There's Bluebird from the same year.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
Night Window, WILLI p DoD blind.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Your don't?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
And you know what love this?
Speaker 7 (03:23):
I'm a blue bed.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And there are a couple from the Beatles era.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I am a rabbit ornithologist. I like my birds say.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
When Paul McCartney went off bird watching as a kid,
he was trying to escape the daily grind of school, errands,
work and other people. Even though when he's looking for
a location to buckle down and write songs, here's the
same impulse.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
When you're writing something as embarrassing, as potentially embarrassing as
a love song, it's best to hide away in the
furthest corner cupboard you can find so that no one
can hear you.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Do this process.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
So I will often literally try and get away so
that nobody can hear me do this, because this is
like very private.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
It's got to just be me and this guitar.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Then I can touch this sort of inner place where
I am the troubado wandering around in the forest thinking
of love, thinking of the beauty of it, the mystery
of it, and the strength of it. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But I say it's potentially embarrassing because you know, someone.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Could walk in and go, oh god, you know, and
that would be the worst thing.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So I'm gonna be very hidden away.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
So but once I get on that trail, I really
like it.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Your impulse to get into that coboard. Yeah, to get
into that little place to work. Yeah, it's a kind
of nesting impulse.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I think.
Speaker 8 (05:12):
Is it partly.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, maybe I think it's mainly privacy. I think it's
mainly to not be overheard.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
For privacy, one can head either to the tiniest cupboard
or to the great outdoors, as McCartney did when he
wrote Jenny Wren.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I was in Los Angeles and there's a canyon that
I particularly like to go walking in, and you have
to drive there, so I'd gone on my own. I
just found a little quiet parking space along the side
of the road, and it was very rural area. I'd
(06:02):
taken my guitar unusually, so I meant to go and
write a song, but again, this was my outdoors cupboard.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
Like so many girls, Jenny Wren could sing bird.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Talker so away, Like so many.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Girls, Jenny Wren good sing bud.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Talker, song away.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I remember just sitting there thinking, yeah, just said. The
idea of the story was she could sing. Well, something
had happened, we don't know what.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The protagonist of the song, Jenny Wren, is halfway between
bird and human, singing and taking wing like the other.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
Girls, lightly the girls, Jenny Wren tooking.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
She could see the world.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
AND's nge way.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
In fact, McCartney may have derived the name from a
character in Charles Dickens's eighteen sixty five novel Our Mutual Friend. Here.
Jenny Wren is a dressmaker for dolls she's a teenage
girl who was born with a crooked spine and underdeveloped legs.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
Something sparkled down among the fair hair, resting on the
dark hair, and if it were not a star, which
it couldn't be, it was an eye.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Despite her struggles, Jenny Wren has a sunny outlook and
keen powers of observation.
Speaker 9 (08:02):
And if it were an eye, it was Jenny Wren's eye,
bright and watchful as the birds. Whose name she it taken.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
I mean, it's the name is has currency beyond that.
Jenny Wren was a term we used, perhaps you used
when you were not in the fields, outside the estate,
just about the regular the little wren.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, which is often think it's probably my
favorite bird.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
So it's very little, very private, very sweet little thing.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
So in other words, because she doesn't sing, but she
can see the world in its foolish ways, how we
spend our days. Cassin love society. You can see the
reality of the situation.
Speaker 10 (08:53):
Spay, you can see all these sad things happening.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Side of life.
Speaker 11 (09:07):
Dab No, that broken world is not unreminiscent of the
broken wings of that other singer.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, that's right. Blackbirds singing in the dead.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
Nd take these broken wings and learn to fly. All
your life you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.
Speaker 11 (09:44):
Which I think again.
Speaker 8 (09:47):
Songs being in conversation with songs from the tradition, but
also within your own work.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They're talking to each other. Yeah, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah. I think.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
You know, when you're sitting down with an acoustic guitar,
there's a few ways you can go. And with black
Bet it's a little part. It's a guitar part that
you sing against rather than strumming chords, and so I
(10:20):
think this has the same kind of thing. This is
a little part rather than just chords. So I mean,
I think I was probably intentionally writing another blackbird.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Black bird lie, black bird line.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Into the line of a dark black line.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
If the guitar part of Jenny Wren echoes McCartney's Blackbird,
then it carries within it another echo, one from the
classical genre. Bach's Burret in e minor.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
A little guitar part which is so much a part
of it was something that George and I it was
a party piece of us when we were kids, and
it's it's box, it's do do do do do do
do do do do do do do do do do
(11:30):
do do do do.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Do do do do.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And we knew the tune, liked the tune, and but
particularly liked the counterpart, because well do do.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Do do do do do do do.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Do do do there's a bassline h.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So with this bark piece, George and I learned.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Do do do do do do do you do do
do do as the melody, and then do you do
do do do do do do do do do do,
And then we kind of ran out. We didn't know
how it went, so we made up the rest of
the door. So so we have our own little version
of this backgo which become a party piece. And I
(12:21):
know that I've been fascinated with it and its structure.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Do you do do do do do do.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Do do do do that little bit, do do do
do that little thing. I just switched it around a bit,
made it my own, but I knew where I was
coming from.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Handy with that became the blackbird singing in the dad
of night.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Black bird singing in the dead n.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
All your life.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So I had that, and then I just I don't
know really, I think it was in Scotland the time
or the break I got this idea of a blackbird
singing the dead and eyes and so it's just an
image of a silhouette of a blackbird silhouetted in the
dead of night in a sort of forest somewhere as
(13:19):
being this lonely sort of image blackbird line.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Into the light of a dull black light.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The loneliness of the blackbird is reflected in the simple
instrumentation of that famous song no orchestration, justin McCartney and
his guitar and the terps of the bird. He's singing about.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Blackbird singing in the Dendam take the broken Wings and
learned fly.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
On your line.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And I there's such an all encompassing record company of
the old variety that they had a sound like. So
if I wanted the sound of blackbirds singing, I could
just sort of look it up on a large most
birds blackbird and you would get you know, you can
(14:23):
look it up and get someone will go up and
get the lack.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
You were only waiting for this moment do a rise.
You were only waiting for this moment to ride.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You were only waiting for.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
This moment, do a ride.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
The song may have started out as a simple image
of nature, the silhouette of a lonely bird crying out
into the dark, but when McCartney wrote the song in
the spring of nineteen sixty eight, he was also speaking
to the turbulence of the American civil rights movement, including
(15:11):
the enforced desegregation of schools.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Then it started to be about arising. Yeah, you know,
black said to take these broken wings.
Speaker 12 (15:24):
So in others I was writing about the civil rights
disturbances in the Little Rock, particularly that we've been hearing
about segregation and stuff that shocked us so.
Speaker 13 (15:38):
Much, the right of color children to attend, that all
white schools have been upheld by the United States, have
been caught city and state police had cordened off the school,
and many table makers were taken it a custody.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
You know, your broken wings, sunken eyes, seeing broken wings flying,
you know, this is your moment to arise and be free.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And yeah, then I realized I was sending.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
It in that direction. Who now wasn't just ornithological piece.
It was now to do with sort of politics and
to do with freedom.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Really, she saw pity breaking up Home Wooded Warriors Took
a Song Away.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
The Blackbird, McCartney writes about is singing and protest and
Jenny Wren. However, the bird's protest comes in the form
of silence. Instead of selecting a chirping bird to accompany
this song, McCartney included a du duc An Armenian woodwind
(16:58):
instrument with a haunting sound.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
The minute I'm talking about Jenny Wren, I'm seeing the bird,
and then I'm seeing a person. And then in this story,
for no apparent reason, she just doesn't sing anymore. But
she could sing. She's a great singer, and she doesn't
(17:45):
sing anymore. And it turns out that it's because of
all our foolish ways, like a protest, and so then
it just becomes a bit reflective about our society, how
we screw things up and everything, and so now we
(18:07):
sympathize with the person new protests. Oh, she's even lost
her voice over this, like the.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Other girls Jenny Wren took Queen.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
She could see.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
And it's ways.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
What did Jenny Wren see?
Speaker 11 (18:34):
You saw who we are?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah? What did she see? Who are we?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
She saw our foolish ways and the way we cast
love aside the way we lose sight of life. So
we are we have poverty, breaks.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Up homes regular and we wounded warriors.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Took a song away.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
She saw, sure the screw up that society is. And
you know, like everyone, we're just looking for that better way.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
So it's kind of nice that someone spotted the change
needs to happen. I think, you know, it's it's a
good old.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
World, really, and I do think we screw it up.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
You know, that's it's it's highly obvious with the ocean
filled with plastic, it didn't get there by itself, and
so you could say we screwed that up.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
In typical McCartney fashion, he ends the song on a
note of hope rather than despair. By taking the protests
of Jenny Wren as a warning sign, he builds a
world in which she may sing again, but.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
The day will come. There you go, it's going to
be a great day. Jenny Wren will sing, but.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
It will come.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Jenny will sing when the spoken word, when's it's foolish.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
Ways we spend.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Ca uh couser, Jenny?
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Where can you hear a little bird singing? At the moment?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yes, that's a rain? Is it really yes it is.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's a house rain. Wow.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
The Indian name for it, I happen to know is
a little bird with a big voice and that's it.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Wow. Well that is pretty cool. Oh I love that
little Journy Wren. J Yeah, it's so beautiful. Now now
why is that so beautiful?
Speaker 8 (21:52):
But also, you know what that gives one faith that
everything comes together is connected?
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I think so.
Speaker 14 (21:58):
Too, Jenny Wren from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,
(22:31):
released in two thousand and five.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
In the next episode, an argument through song.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Now again.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
It was at a time when John was firing missiles
at me with his songs. I don't know what he
hoped again, other than punching me in the face. And
this kind of annoyed me. Obviously, I suddenly decided I
did to turn my missiles on him.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
McCartney. A Life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia,
n p L and Pushkin Industries
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Look, there's a beautiful bird.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I loved bird watching when I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
How can you tell one bird from another?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
So I like to be able to get out of
the normal stream of life. We were about a mile
away from quite deep countryside, so I used to just
go on my own, just being away from the normal stuff, school,
family life. Appearance is one way to identify birds.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
How does it look?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I had a little bird book, the Observers Book of Birds.
In yards or in pipes, wherever people are, you are
likely to find another small bird with a beautiful song.
The wren was a great favorite because you wouldn't see
that often, just suddenly see it flit from one little
push to another.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This small brownish bird is a wren.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And singing as it goes.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
We can learn to know ren's by their sounds.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So I loved birds.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Because of that, I started being able to recognize the birds.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'm Paul Monteaux and I've been fortunate to spend time
with one of the greatest songwriters of the era.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And will you look at me?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I'm going on too.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
I'm actually a.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Performer, that is Sir Paul McCartney. We worked together on
a book Looking at the lyrics of more than one
hundred and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many
hours of our conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Songwriter, my God, well, that crypt homie.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
This is McCartney, A life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir,
and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic
figures in popular music. In this episode, Jenny Wren, The.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Girls, Jenny Wren to King, she could See.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
And'sche Way.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Paul McCartney has been a nature lover and birdwatcher since childhood.
His song catalog is teeming with feathered friends. There's single
Pigeon from nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Single Pigeon through the railent did she throw you out?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There's Bluebird from the same year.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
Night Window, WILLI p DoD blind.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Your don't?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
And you know what love this?
Speaker 7 (03:23):
I'm a blue bed.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And there are a couple from the Beatles era.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I am a rabbit ornithologist. I like my birds say.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
When Paul McCartney went off bird watching as a kid,
he was trying to escape the daily grind of school, errands,
work and other people. Even though when he's looking for
a location to buckle down and write songs, here's the
same impulse.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
When you're writing something as embarrassing, as potentially embarrassing as
a love song, it's best to hide away in the
furthest corner cupboard you can find so that no one
can hear you.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Do this process.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
So I will often literally try and get away so
that nobody can hear me do this, because this is
like very private.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
It's got to just be me and this guitar.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Then I can touch this sort of inner place where
I am the troubado wandering around in the forest thinking
of love, thinking of the beauty of it, the mystery
of it, and the strength of it. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But I say it's potentially embarrassing because you know, someone.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Could walk in and go, oh god, you know, and
that would be the worst thing.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So I'm gonna be very hidden away.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
So but once I get on that trail, I really
like it.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Your impulse to get into that coboard. Yeah, to get
into that little place to work. Yeah, it's a kind
of nesting impulse.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I think.
Speaker 8 (05:12):
Is it partly.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, maybe I think it's mainly privacy. I think it's
mainly to not be overheard.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
For privacy, one can head either to the tiniest cupboard
or to the great outdoors, as McCartney did when he
wrote Jenny Wren.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I was in Los Angeles and there's a canyon that
I particularly like to go walking in, and you have
to drive there, so I'd gone on my own. I
just found a little quiet parking space along the side
of the road, and it was very rural area. I'd
(06:02):
taken my guitar unusually, so I meant to go and
write a song, but again, this was my outdoors cupboard.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
Like so many girls, Jenny Wren could sing bird.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Talker so away, Like so many.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Girls, Jenny Wren good sing bud.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Talker, song away.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I remember just sitting there thinking, yeah, just said. The
idea of the story was she could sing. Well, something
had happened, we don't know what.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The protagonist of the song, Jenny Wren, is halfway between
bird and human, singing and taking wing like the other.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
Girls, lightly the girls, Jenny Wren tooking.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
She could see the world.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
AND's nge way.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
In fact, McCartney may have derived the name from a
character in Charles Dickens's eighteen sixty five novel Our Mutual Friend. Here.
Jenny Wren is a dressmaker for dolls she's a teenage
girl who was born with a crooked spine and underdeveloped legs.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
Something sparkled down among the fair hair, resting on the
dark hair, and if it were not a star, which
it couldn't be, it was an eye.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Despite her struggles, Jenny Wren has a sunny outlook and
keen powers of observation.
Speaker 9 (08:02):
And if it were an eye, it was Jenny Wren's eye,
bright and watchful as the birds. Whose name she it taken.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
I mean, it's the name is has currency beyond that.
Jenny Wren was a term we used, perhaps you used
when you were not in the fields, outside the estate,
just about the regular the little wren.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, which is often think it's probably my
favorite bird.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
So it's very little, very private, very sweet little thing.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
So in other words, because she doesn't sing, but she
can see the world in its foolish ways, how we
spend our days. Cassin love society. You can see the
reality of the situation.
Speaker 10 (08:53):
Spay, you can see all these sad things happening.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Side of life.
Speaker 11 (09:07):
Dab No, that broken world is not unreminiscent of the
broken wings of that other singer.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, that's right. Blackbirds singing in the dead.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
Nd take these broken wings and learn to fly. All
your life you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.
Speaker 11 (09:44):
Which I think again.
Speaker 8 (09:47):
Songs being in conversation with songs from the tradition, but
also within your own work.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They're talking to each other. Yeah, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah. I think.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
You know, when you're sitting down with an acoustic guitar,
there's a few ways you can go. And with black
Bet it's a little part. It's a guitar part that
you sing against rather than strumming chords, and so I
(10:20):
think this has the same kind of thing. This is
a little part rather than just chords. So I mean,
I think I was probably intentionally writing another blackbird.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Black bird lie, black bird line.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Into the line of a dark black line.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
If the guitar part of Jenny Wren echoes McCartney's Blackbird,
then it carries within it another echo, one from the
classical genre. Bach's Burret in e minor.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
A little guitar part which is so much a part
of it was something that George and I it was
a party piece of us when we were kids, and
it's it's box, it's do do do do do do
do do do do do do do do do do
(11:30):
do do do do.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Do do do do.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And we knew the tune, liked the tune, and but
particularly liked the counterpart, because well do do.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Do do do do do do do.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Do do do there's a bassline h.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So with this bark piece, George and I learned.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Do do do do do do do you do do
do do as the melody, and then do you do
do do do do do do do do do do,
And then we kind of ran out. We didn't know
how it went, so we made up the rest of
the door. So so we have our own little version
of this backgo which become a party piece. And I
(12:21):
know that I've been fascinated with it and its structure.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Do you do do do do do do.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Do do do do that little bit, do do do
do that little thing. I just switched it around a bit,
made it my own, but I knew where I was
coming from.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Handy with that became the blackbird singing in the dad
of night.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Black bird singing in the dead n.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
All your life.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So I had that, and then I just I don't
know really, I think it was in Scotland the time
or the break I got this idea of a blackbird
singing the dead and eyes and so it's just an
image of a silhouette of a blackbird silhouetted in the
dead of night in a sort of forest somewhere as
(13:19):
being this lonely sort of image blackbird line.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Into the light of a dull black light.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The loneliness of the blackbird is reflected in the simple
instrumentation of that famous song no orchestration, justin McCartney and
his guitar and the terps of the bird. He's singing about.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Blackbird singing in the Dendam take the broken Wings and
learned fly.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
On your line.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And I there's such an all encompassing record company of
the old variety that they had a sound like. So
if I wanted the sound of blackbirds singing, I could
just sort of look it up on a large most
birds blackbird and you would get you know, you can
(14:23):
look it up and get someone will go up and
get the lack.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
You were only waiting for this moment do a rise.
You were only waiting for this moment to ride.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You were only waiting for.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
This moment, do a ride.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
The song may have started out as a simple image
of nature, the silhouette of a lonely bird crying out
into the dark, but when McCartney wrote the song in
the spring of nineteen sixty eight, he was also speaking
to the turbulence of the American civil rights movement, including
(15:11):
the enforced desegregation of schools.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Then it started to be about arising. Yeah, you know,
black said to take these broken wings.
Speaker 12 (15:24):
So in others I was writing about the civil rights
disturbances in the Little Rock, particularly that we've been hearing
about segregation and stuff that shocked us so.
Speaker 13 (15:38):
Much, the right of color children to attend, that all
white schools have been upheld by the United States, have
been caught city and state police had cordened off the school,
and many table makers were taken it a custody.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
You know, your broken wings, sunken eyes, seeing broken wings flying,
you know, this is your moment to arise and be free.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And yeah, then I realized I was sending.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
It in that direction. Who now wasn't just ornithological piece.
It was now to do with sort of politics and
to do with freedom.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Really, she saw pity breaking up Home Wooded Warriors Took
a Song Away.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
The Blackbird, McCartney writes about is singing and protest and
Jenny Wren. However, the bird's protest comes in the form
of silence. Instead of selecting a chirping bird to accompany
this song, McCartney included a du duc An Armenian woodwind
(16:58):
instrument with a haunting sound.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
The minute I'm talking about Jenny Wren, I'm seeing the bird,
and then I'm seeing a person. And then in this story,
for no apparent reason, she just doesn't sing anymore. But
she could sing. She's a great singer, and she doesn't
(17:45):
sing anymore. And it turns out that it's because of
all our foolish ways, like a protest, and so then
it just becomes a bit reflective about our society, how
we screw things up and everything, and so now we
(18:07):
sympathize with the person new protests. Oh, she's even lost
her voice over this, like the.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Other girls Jenny Wren took Queen.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
She could see.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
And it's ways.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
What did Jenny Wren see?
Speaker 11 (18:34):
You saw who we are?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah? What did she see? Who are we?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
She saw our foolish ways and the way we cast
love aside the way we lose sight of life. So
we are we have poverty, breaks.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Up homes regular and we wounded warriors.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Took a song away.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
She saw, sure the screw up that society is. And
you know, like everyone, we're just looking for that better way.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
So it's kind of nice that someone spotted the change
needs to happen. I think, you know, it's it's a
good old.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
World, really, and I do think we screw it up.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
You know, that's it's it's highly obvious with the ocean
filled with plastic, it didn't get there by itself, and
so you could say we screwed that up.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
In typical McCartney fashion, he ends the song on a
note of hope rather than despair. By taking the protests
of Jenny Wren as a warning sign, he builds a
world in which she may sing again, but.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
The day will come. There you go, it's going to
be a great day. Jenny Wren will sing, but.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
It will come.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Jenny will sing when the spoken word, when's it's foolish.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
Ways we spend.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Ca uh couser, Jenny?
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Where can you hear a little bird singing? At the moment?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yes, that's a rain? Is it really yes it is.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's a house rain. Wow.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
The Indian name for it, I happen to know is
a little bird with a big voice and that's it.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Wow. Well that is pretty cool. Oh I love that
little Journy Wren. J Yeah, it's so beautiful. Now now
why is that so beautiful?
Speaker 8 (21:52):
But also, you know what that gives one faith that
everything comes together is connected?
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I think so.
Speaker 14 (21:58):
Too, Jenny Wren from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,
(22:31):
released in two thousand and five.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
In the next episode, an argument through song.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Now again.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
It was at a time when John was firing missiles
at me with his songs. I don't know what he
hoped again, other than punching me in the face. And
this kind of annoyed me. Obviously, I suddenly decided I
did to turn my missiles on him.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
McCartney. A Life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia,
n p L and Pushkin Industries
Host
Paul McCartney
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.