Asymmetrical Information

Bobby McFerrin has a fine, fine version.

Because Paul is one of the two greatest rock and roll singers, ever? The other was in the same band, so he was unlikely to cover the song, even though there is a fascinating demo of Paul doing John's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".

Just saw your recent Bloggingheads.tv discussion with Henry Farrell.

Thanks for owning the hell out of him on minimum wage.

"Because Paul is one of the two greatest rock and roll singers,.."

That's the numerator, so to speak. The denominator, without which the numerator is meaningless, is that simple music is sometimes the most difficult to perform, because any mistake, or any flaw whatsoever, is nakedly, horribly exposed. In this way, a Haydn symphony is much harder to play than a late romantic work, where many of the notes can't even be heard by the audience. Blackbird is pure classic simplicity.

One of the advantages of writing your own stuff is that you can write to your own capabilities. "Blackbird" is not the type of song that will sound good if you have to work at it (or sound like you worked at it, anyway). It fits comfortably in his range, as opposed to "Let it Be" which pushes him (but sounds good anyway, because it is meant to sound like work). Other people have the added difficulty of differentiating themselves from McCartney verison, which he obviously didn't need to do.

Just imagine "the hardest working man in show biz" singing "Blackbird". It would just be all wrong.

The secret to singing other peoples music is not to try to sing (since in all likelyhood you cant anyway) but to drink low grade whiskey and smoke non filtered cigarettes for two non-stop days and then to try to mimic Tom Waits speaking in monotone as closely as you can.

The result is that people dont comment on your singing because you arent, but how 'emotional' and 'real' you sounded instead.

When Dynamite Hack did "Boyz in da Hood" a few years back, they did a few lines at the end of the song to the tune of "Blackbird" that sounded good enough that they could do the whole thing well.

Seconding Sanjay here — I haven't heard McFerrin's "Blackbird" since, well, forever (undergraduate days), but at the time it blew me away vocally. IIRC it's unaccompanied, and involves disgustingly easy movement between registers.

Then again, at the time I didn't know the original (Shame! shame!), and I haven't heard the McFerrin since I did.

Now you've done it. It's only a matter of time before William Shatner hears about this and decides to pick up the gauntlet.

It's only a matter of time before William Shatner hears about this and decides to pick up the gauntlet.

NOOOOOOOOO! It burns, yes, it does!

You haven't lived until you've heard the Shatner recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. (Yes, it exists. So too does Nimoy's unforgettable "Proud Mary").

You haven't lived until you've heard the Shatner recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

No, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is better. Er, worse.

"Blackbird" is only a deceptively easy song to sing. One of its standout qualities is the speed-up/slow-down rhythm of the words. So a singer has to get all of first words of the song, "black-bird-sing-ing-in-the-dead-of," quickly but still have enough breath to sustain the long held note at "niiiiiiiight." That's not easy. Paul also has an innate sense of rhythm in his singing, and that song puts it on display. If you can't get the faster lines in the pocket -- rat-tat-tata-tata-tat-tat-taaaaaaat," it won't sound good. What seems like a cute little hippie song is actually a musical tour de force that is only for trained vocalists, not gifted but untrained folkies. I don't know who Paul's singing teacher was, but I've read that he spent a lot of time with Little Richard.

I remember back in the 70s here in the Buffalo area, there was a very popular local cover band called Cock Robin. I don't know the lead singers name but his signature song was Blackbird. Every time they played, he was always requested to sing it. I recall he was very good at it too.

Covering any Beatles tune is to flirt with death. They're already perfect by definition, thus very few have managed to pull it off without first making it their own (think Joe Cocker's A Little Help From My Friends)

If you want to hear someone nail a Beatles song on it's own terms, listen to Elliot Smith's version of Because from the I am Sam soundtrack. It's scary good. But then Smith's literally dead, which makes me wonder if delivering a perfect Beatles cover isn't a cosmic marker for the end of one's life. Maybe no one can sing Blackbird because subconsciously they don't want to DIE.

yours/
peter.

I think I recall hearing Stephen Stills sing it during a CSNY concert back in 1969 or so. It wasn't a highlight. It was almost as bad as his "America's Children" rant.

I love Joe Cocker's cover of that tune, and I'm not a huge Beatles fan. Maybe that's why I like it so much.

Shatner does some amazing covers: "Rocket Man" and Pulp's "Common People," among others.
Not sure if he could pull off Blackbird but I'd love to see him try.

Tyler + Lester = the answer to your question

In the The Beatles Anthology, Paul does a demo of "Strawberry Fields" that is amazing. He did it in a John medley tribute in 1990 at a concert I saw as well. It sounded so natural coming from him, and you would think it would not.

Kenny Rankin

Kenny Rankin - years ago. Now, not so much.

NOOOOOOOOO! It burns, yes, it does!

Pfffft...very mild salsa, that. Now, suppose that Mr. David "Hooked on a Feeling" Hasselhoff were to reinterpret it, and...

Dionne Farris' version on her album "Wild Seed Wild Flower" is also excellent, with a great blues guitar accompaniment

I agree - Kenny Rankin

Oh I dunno, I rather like the Sarah McLachlan cover.

'You haven't lived until you've heard the Shatner recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.'

'No, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is better. Er, worse. '

While Shatner is the man to go to to properly butcher a Beatles' song, you need Sebastion Cabot to do proper job on Dylan. Just give "Mr. French Speaks Dylan" a listen.

By the way, for the "how much is enough?" IPOD thread, if you're considering any of these "songs" you've gone beyond enough.

While we're discussing Nimoy's singing career;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04

anony-mouse,

Pfffft...very mild salsa, that. Now, suppose that Mr. David "Hooked on a Feeling" Hasselhoff were to reinterpret it, and...

Jeez, a-m, did you have to do that? You do realize that I'm going to be stuck with that aural image for some time now, yes?

Man, there are way too many Sir Paul fans on this thread!

You might listen to the King's Singers cover of Blackbird. Obviously, they are classically trained singers, but their tenor sounds quite good on McCartney's melody.

There's some truth to your generalization - I think Blackbird is written in a range that's very comfortable for Paul, and it's a nice lyrical melody that requires some good vocal control. But it's not nearly as hard as some of the earlier posts would have you believe!

McLachlan's cover is available on hype machine, as is Elliott Smith's cover. I prefer Smith's cover, myself.

Anon

I'd love to hear Chanticleer do an a capella version of "Blackbird"... I'm sure it would be awesome. That said, the only "cover" I can remember is from one of the early years of ER when Susan's loopy sister when into labor, it was her delivery song. Man, that was a looong time ago. I can't remember when I watched that show last -- but I remember the use of the song in the plot. It fit.

My suspicion is the reason so few covers of Blackbird work is that what makes the song work in the first place is its lack of adornment. This puts anyone trying to cover it in a quandry: sing the song on the same terms as McCartney and risk not differentiating yourself or try to differentiate yourself and risk losing what makes the song pretty in the first place.

I used to think that only Elvis Presley would ever be able to do justice to "Viva Las Vegas", until I heard ZZ Top's cover of it. So in answer to the question, perhaps the problem is people taking the wrong approach, or as one poster put it, not making it their own.

Thus what is needed is an artist more removed from the Beatles zone of pop music, like, oh, Eddie Murphy or perhaps Metallica. No comparison possible, say I, in such a case. In the pop realm, I won't even try to top anony-mouse's inspired suggestion of David Hasselhoff...surely we'd all be hooked, one way or another, on that feeling.

Billy Preston (RIP) did a great version of it

Billy Preston RIP? Shucks.

I'll just point out that some of us would take issue with the idea that McCartney's Blackbird sounds good to begin with. It's just an awful song. But I would agree that everybody else's version sounds much worse.

Using the Milwaukee library's excellent search engine I reviewed their collection of CDs for ones containing keyword "blackbird". This thread will have passed by the time I can listen to the selections I requested, but in the meantime, you will all, even the country music fans, be glad to know that Big & Rich and Trace Adkins turned up only because they recorded at Blackbird Studios.

I wonder when you'll get to the ZZ Top recording that contains the word "blackbird" in the title...

Oh, I noticed it, but like the many jazz renditions of Bye Bye Blackbird it seemed, well, less provocative.

IIRC, there was a Sergio Mendez/Brasil 66 cover of Blackbird that was decent. (Probably benefited from Mendez's production/arranging skills).

Speaking of "Bye Bye Blackbird," anybody else recall Ringo Starr's version on "Beaucoups of Blues"?