Blackbird

As re-recorded by Rick Eagle

Audio Files:
Blackbird - MP3 | Low Quality (3.3 MB)

Blackbird - AIFF | CD Quality (36 MB)

Words & Music: Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon-McCartney)
Producer: George Martin | 1st Engineer: Geoff Emerick| 2nd Engineer: Phil MacDonald
Album: The White Album
Original Recording date: 11- June 1968

Recorded using this gear: Macintosh Mac Pro 3GHz dual Processor Quad Core- Logic Pro 9- Universal Audio UAD-2 card - MOTU Ultralite Firewire - Epiphone Masterbuilt AJ-500RE acoustic - AKG 414B-ULS - AKG C451 - Universal Audio 710 tube preamp - Summit Audio TLA-50 tube compressor - dynaudio acoustics BM5A near field studio monitors

Recording Notes: Vocals and acoustic guitar, were recorded with the AKG 414 and an AKG 451 respectively.

Paul in Abbey Road with his Martin D 28 during the White Album sessions.

It is a solo performance with McCartney playing a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar. The track includes recordings of a blackbird singing in the background. Although the sounds of the birds may have been inspired by such birds in McCartney's garden, the bird sounds on this recording come from "Volume Seven: Birds of a Feather" from the Abbey Road taped sound collection. This particular bird recording was made by (Abbey Road engineer) Stuart Eltham in his back garden around 1965.

I recorded these bird sounds in my garden in Santa Clara, CA.

The instrumentation on the original recording consists of tapping, guitar, vocal and birdsong overdub. The tapping "has been incorrectly identified as a metronome in the past," but is actually the sound of Paul tapping his foot, which was mic'd up separately by Geoff Emerick.

I recreated the "beat" just tapping the 1/4 note beats with my hand to my leg.

For more info on this Beatles song, check out these links:
Blackbird - Wikipedia