FLIP SIDE BEATLES: presentations, books, musical analysis
  • Beatles Minute
  • Pop Goes the Theory
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Blogs
    • Beatles Blog
    • Pop Music Blog
    • Star Wars Blog
    • Origami Blog
    • Shakespeare Blog
  • Contact

Was "Blackbird" Inspired by J. S. Bach's Bourrée in E Minor BWV 996?

5/14/2014

4 Comments

 
Paul McCartney has cited Johann Sebastian Bach as an influence on "Blackbird". He admitted in 1997: "The original inspiration was from a well-known piece by Bach, which I never know the title of, which George and I had learned to play at early age; he better than me actually. Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between the meldoy and the bass line which intrigued me. Bach was always one of our favourite composers; we felt we had a lot in common with him. For some reason we thought this 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. I developed the melody on guitar based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level, then I just fitted the words to it." (Miles page 485)

Paul has forgotten the Bach piece's title, but many fans and scholars have assumed it's the Bourrée from his E Minor Lute Suite, BWV 996.
The only similarity I hear by listening is that they're both played on acoustic guitars. (But even then, the guitar Paul played on "Blackbird" had metal strings, whereas classical guitars typically use nylon strings to give a warmer sound - and the above recording is no exception).

Perhaps score study will yield results.
Picture
The Bourrée is in E minor while "Blackbird" is in G major - so they share the same key signature of one sharp - and both use highly chromatic harmony, but there is no clear relationship. This makes me wonder why so many have assumed the Bourrée to be the correct Bach piece. Might it be some other?

As it turns out, no, it is the Bourrée. Paul might not know the name of it, but he can still play it, and on 28 July 2005, Paul performed a live solo concert at Abbey Road Studios, which was recorded and released as Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road. During the performance, he again cited Bach as an influence on "Blackbird" and even played a few measures of the Bach original to illustrate the similarities (which can be heard from about 37:39-38:51 in the video below).
This proves that Paul was indeed thinking of the Bourrée in E minor when composing "Blackbird". However, Paul actually plays it wrong when demonstrating. He even acknowledges that the way he plays it, saying, "it really should go [sings it correctly], but we didn't know that bit." The version Paul played, then, is transcribed below (and transposed from D minor up to E minor for the sake of comparison).
Picture
Paul further admitted that "the bit where we went wrong, I later took that, the idea that you get the bass line and the top line (the melody) and turned it into 'Blackbird'." And now it makes sense! Comparing the Bourrée (as Paul played it) and "Blackbird" side by side, we can easily see the similarity. The example below shows in blue notes that are identical between the two, while red notes indicate comparable (if not identical) similarities. Further notice that Paul adds several notes (the black ones). 
Picture
And the rest of "Blackbird" uses similar harmonies - parallel tenths with a pedal G on the off beats. Those parallel tenths are only found in Paul's version of the Bourrée. Thus, Paul definitely was influenced by Bach's Bourrée in E minor  when writing "Blackbird", but by his own version of the Bourrée rather than the Bach original.


CITATIONS
Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Henry Holt and Company Inc., New York, NY 1997.
4 Comments
Lindsey Lewis
9/21/2015 10:49:32 am

I'm currently working on a pedagogy/schenkerian theory article for the Bourree(BWV 996) for a class and hoping to get it published in a few classical guitar magazines. I grew up with 70's rocker parents(I was even named after the guitarist in Fleetwood Mac), so obviously finding out this had inspired Blackbird was huge, and might help inspire my parents to read my article HAHA!
This is a video clip of him talking to classical guitarist Carlos Bonell. I haven't fully checked out your website to see if you have checked out the Beatle's Classical Mystery Tour but they get together with local symphonies and bring "look-a-like" beatle musicians to play with the symphony and play Beatle's music. The symphony, I'm a librarian for, had them come out and it was a great experience! Plus I got to look at all the full arrangements for all of their pieces:D (sorry but I believe I just met the first person who might actually understand how awesome the experience was)!! As a Beatle's scholar, I'd try and see if you can get your hands on some of those arrangements too!

Here is the video: https://youtu.be/k9zL_lfGGQw

Reply
Aaron Krerowicz
9/22/2015 07:29:05 am

Thanks for the video with Paul and Carlos Bonell - I had never seen that before!

Nor had I heard of Classical Mystery Tour, although apparently I just missed my chance - they played in Indiana last month and have no return dates scheduled as of yet.

I've found "The Beatles Complete Scores" to be extraordinarily helpful when analyzing their music. It has the best and most accurate transcriptions of their music I've ever encountered!

Reply
manuela
5/27/2017 10:27:58 am

Hi ,
Great story . I love the Beatles, Black bird is a genial song. Of course it has to be Bach .
Thanks

Reply
Bobby Fiske
7/17/2017 10:31:13 pm

"Bachbird" :-)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Beatles Blog

    This blog is a workshop for developing my analyses of The Beatles' music.

    Categories

    All
    12 Bar Blues
    Abbey Road
    Abbey-road-medley
    Ab Road Bootlegs
    Across The Universe
    Act Naturally
    A Day In The Life
    A-hard-days-night-album
    A Hard Days Night Film
    A Hard Days Night Song
    All Ive Got To Do
    All My Loving
    All Together Now
    All You Need Is Love
    And I Love Her
    And Your Bird Can Sing
    Anna Go To Him
    Another Girl
    Any Time At All
    Ask Me Why
    Astrid Kirchherr
    A Taste Of Honey
    Avant Garde
    Baby Its You
    Babys In Black
    Baby Youre A Rich Man
    Bach
    Back In The USSR
    Bad Boy
    Bad To Me
    Ball State University
    Barry Miles
    Beatlemania
    Beatles
    Beatles For Sale
    Because
    Beethoven
    Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
    Billy J Kramer
    Birthday
    Blackbird
    Blue Jay Way
    Bootlegs
    Boys
    Buddy-holly
    Cadences
    Cant Buy Me Love
    Carl Perkins
    Carry That Weight
    Catcall
    Chains
    Chuck Berry
    Collage
    Come Together
    Come-together
    Cry Baby Cry
    Cynthia Lennon
    Day Tripper
    Dear Prudence
    Devil In Her Heart
    Dig A Pony
    Dig It
    Dizzy Miss Lizzy
    Doctor Robert
    Dominant Chord
    Dont Bother Me
    Dont Let Me Down
    Dont Pass Me By
    Do You Want To Know A Secret
    Drive My Car
    Eddie-cochran
    Eight Days A Week
    Eleanor Rigby
    Electronic Music
    Electronic Sound Harrison Album7660042653
    Elvis-presley
    Everly Brothers
    Everybodys Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
    Everybodys Trying To Be My Baby
    Every Little Thing
    Fixing A Hole
    Flying
    Formal Structure
    Formal-structure
    For No One
    For You Blue
    From A Window
    From Me To You
    George Harrison
    George-harrison
    George Martin
    Get Back
    Getting Better
    Girl
    Giveaways
    Glass Onion
    Golden Slumbers
    Goodbye
    Good Day Sunshine
    Good Morning Good Morning
    Good Night
    Good Vibrations
    Got To Get You Into My Life
    Hamburg
    Happiness Is A Warm Gun
    Harmonic Analysis
    Hello Goodbye
    Hello Little Girl
    Help-album
    Help Movie
    Help Song
    Helter Skelter
    Here Comes The Sun
    Here-comes-the-sun
    Here There And Everywhere
    Her Majesty
    Hey Bulldog
    Hey Jude
    Hold Me Tight
    Honey Dont
    Honey Pie
    How I Won The War
    I Am The Walrus
    I Call Your Name
    I Dont Want To See You Again
    I Dont Want To Spoil The Party
    I Feel Fine
    If I Fell
    If I Needed Someone
    Ill Be Back
    Ill Be On My Way
    Ill Cry Instead
    Ill Follow The Sun
    Ill Get You
    Ill Keep You Satisfied
    Im A Loser
    Im Down
    I Me Mine
    Im Happy Just To Dance With You
    Im In Love
    Im Looking Through You
    Im Only Sleeping
    Im So Tired
    Indian Songs
    Indica Gallery
    I Need You
    In My Life
    In-spite-of-all-the-danger
    I Saw Her Standing There
    I-saw-her-standing-there
    I Should Have Known Better
    Its All Too Much
    Its For You
    Its Only Love
    It Wont Be Long
    Ive Got A Feeling
    Ive Just Seen A Face
    I Wanna Be Your Man
    I Want To Hold Your Hand
    I Want To Tell You
    I Want You Shes So Heavy
    I Will
    Jane Asher
    Jerry-lee-lewis
    John Lennon
    Julia
    Kansas City Hey Hey Hey Hey
    Lady Madonna
    Lecture-tours
    Let It Be Album
    Let It Be Song
    Like Dreamers Do
    Little Child
    Little-richard
    Long Long Long
    Long Tall Sally
    Lonnie Donegan
    Love
    Lovely Rita
    Love Me Do
    Love-me-do
    Love Of The Loved
    Love You To
    Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
    Maggie Mae
    Magical-mystery-tour-album
    Magical Mystery Tour Song
    Mahler
    Martha My Dear
    Matchbox
    Maxwells Silver Hammer
    Maxwells-silver-hammer
    Mean Mr Mustard
    Michelle
    Misery
    Modulations
    Money Thats What I Want
    Moog Synthesizer
    Mother Natures Son
    Mr Moonlight
    Nobody I Know
    No Reply
    Norwegian Wood
    Not A Second Time
    Nowhere Man
    Numbering System
    Obladi Oblada
    Octopuss Garden
    Oh Darling
    Old Brown Shoe
    One After 909
    One And One Is Two
    Only A Northern Song
    Otis Redding
    Panning
    Paperback Writer
    Paul Mccartney
    Paul Mccartneys Bass Playing
    Penny Lane
    Peter Asher
    Piggies
    Pinky And The Brain
    Please Mister Postman
    Please Please Me Album
    Please Please Me Song
    Polythene Pam
    Power Puff Girls
    P S I Love You
    Quarrymen
    Rain
    Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
    Revolution
    Revolution 1
    Revolution 9
    Revolver
    Ringo
    Rock And Roll Music
    Rocky Raccoon
    Roll Over Beethoven
    Rubber-soul
    Run For Your Life
    Savoy Truffle
    Sexy Sadie
    Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album
    Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise
    Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Song
    She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
    She Loves You
    She Said She Said
    Shes A Woman
    Shes Leaving Home
    Slow Down
    Snow White
    Solos
    Something
    Song-structure
    Sour-milk-sea
    Step-inside-love
    Stereo Panning
    Strawberry Fields Forever
    Sun King
    Taxman
    Tell Me What You See
    Tell Me Why
    Thank You Girl
    That Means A Lot
    The Ballad Of John And Yoko
    The Beatles Album
    The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
    The-continuing-story-of-bungalow-bill
    The End
    The Fool On The Hill
    The Inner Light
    The Long And Winding Road
    The Night Before
    The One After 909
    Theres A Place
    The Word
    Things We Said Today
    Thingumybob
    Think For Yourself
    This Boy
    Ticket To Ride
    Till There Was You
    Timeline
    Tip Of My Tongue
    Tomorrow Never Knows
    Tonality
    Twist And Shout
    Two Of Us
    Wait
    We Can Work It Out
    What Goes On
    What Youre Doing
    When I Get Home
    When Im Sixtyfour
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps
    White Album
    Why Dont We Do It In The Road
    Wild Honey Pie
    With A Little Help From My Friends
    Within You Without You
    With The Beatles
    Woman
    Words Of Love
    World Without Love
    Yellow Submarine Album
    Yellow-submarine-album
    Yellow Submarine Film
    Yellow Submarine Song
    Yer Blues
    Yes It Is
    Yesterday
    Yoko Ono
    You Cant Do That
    You Know My Name Look Up The Number
    You Like Me Too Much
    You Never Give Me Your Money
    You Really Got A Hold On Me
    Youre Going To Lose That Girl
    Your Mother Should Know
    Youve Got To Hide Your Love Away
    You Wont See Me

    Archives

    May 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Beatles Minute
  • Pop Goes the Theory
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Blogs
    • Beatles Blog
    • Pop Music Blog
    • Star Wars Blog
    • Origami Blog
    • Shakespeare Blog
  • Contact