I’ve been playing with the idea of writing songs either directly to, or as extensions of existing well-known songs. This is my first attempt at that idea.

Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” was my jumping off point for this one. The song is written to his song imagined as an elusive, untethered muse … ’cause who hasn’t loved “Blackbird”, right?

The acoustic guitar fingerings are on the low E, A and B strings with the open drones in G like “Blackbird”. Although that’s really where the acoustic guitar and song similarities end. The vocal and acoustic guitar are just a single live take in front of a mic as I was sketching the structure and finishing the lyric … then a quick piano and electric guitar part were recorded. Written and recorded in March/April 2013.

Thanks for listening!

Little Blackbird

non-flash play link: http://bit.ly/16HRomq

sweetest sound I ever heard

Don’t know why
I love you like I do,
sweet little thing
you wear no ring
no one is caging you

You step right up
and sing just like a bird,
my sweet little Blackbird

So fly on, fly on little bird

The trees they hold you
and don’t want to let you go,
a home in the Spring
just to hear you sing
when blooms begin to grow

’til you fly away
and find another one,
somehow they all forgive
once your song is sung

So fly on, fly on little bird,
why must you be the sweetest sound
I’ve ever heard?

I know, what you don’t
I will, what you won’t
I’ll stay, what you fly
what I know, I’ll never know why