Blackbird is one of my favorite songs ever created. It's been covered many times, but probably my favorite version is off the Across the Universe soundtrack, sung by Evan Rachel Wood. It is so incredibly different than the original version by The Beatles, which gives it a whole new feel and grooooove.
The cover lyrics are identical to the original, so I'll skip over that and talk about the differences in the melody. Although they are still extremely similar, The Beatles play out most of their song in a major key, but Evan Rachel Wood sings in mostly a minor key. I still think it's a little hard to decipher between the two if you haven't listened to these version a ton, though. The instruments used behind Wood also helps in giving the song a "minor" feel, which brings me to the real contrast in the two pieces: musical quality.
The one thing these songs have in common is the lyrics. The pitch, intensity, timbre, speed, and harmony, however, are SO much different between the two. I'll start with analyzing the original done by The Beatles. Even though they're singing about a "blackbird singing in the dead of night," it sounds like a happy song! The audience doesn't realize it is kind of a happy thing they're singing about (learning to fly) until a little bit later. It's upbeat and very light. It starts out with a soft intensity, adding to the airiness of the song. However, starting at about :57, the volume picks up, and although it's louder, it doesn't take away from the happiness they started out with. The timbre is very simple; one twangy guitar for the melody, playing two strings at a time; one guitar for the bass, playing one note on the beat for four beats every measure; and a simple metronome to keep their beat! No drums, no symbol, no bongos. Just a metronome. One Beatle starts out the song by himself, and is later joined at the chorus by another fellow Beatle. The second voice sounds like there should be a harmony under-lapping the melody, but instead he just adds to the volume of the voices. My favorite thing in the whole song is the part where the tempo slows down and you think it's over at 1:41, but GOTCHA, they pick it back up again for another repeat of a verse, accompanied by some bird chirps.
Evan Rachel Wood does it an entirely different way. The song starts out MUCH more somber than the original. Now, it actually does sound like the blackbird is a sad thing, but instead of coming to a realization that it's actually a song about hope, the gloominess of the song stays throughout the entire thing. The tempo is much slower, and the intensity is much louder. It's still pretty even though it's kind of "in your face." The timbre is more complex than the original. An accordion is played to start off the song (the intro is longer than the original), and is later accompanied by a guitar, right before she starts to sing. Later, something that sounds very much like a piccolo is added in. Although it's only two more instruments than the original had, it still makes the song seem much more complex, and the audience may feel like there's a lot going on. Notice how I didn't say what was keeping the beat? That's because there is nothing keeping the beat. Wood takes it at her own pace, the tempo swinging in and out from slower to faster. Each musical interlude in between her singing doesn't stick to a beat either. Overall, the pitch is lower than the Beatles version, in everything except her voice, which is obviously taken up one octave. No one sings with Wood; she does the whole song by herself. I think it adds to the gloominess of the entirety of the song.
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