Paul: (singing) Black bird singing in the dead of night…
Donovan: Yeah, that’s beautiful.
Paul: (singing) Take these broken wings and learn to fly…
Donovan: This is the one just for the guitar on the LP, eh? (apparently Paul nods.) Yeah.
Paul: (singing) All your life… (speaking) It’s about a blackbird.
Donovan: Yeah. A black bird playing a tune, eh?
Paul: (singing) You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Donovan starts making bird noises, similar to those heard on the final recording. Mary Hopkins can be heard trying to sing quietly along with Paul in the background.
Donovan: Fantastic.
Paul: (singing) Blackbird singing in the dead of night… (Donovan joins in attempting to harmonize)…take these sunken eyes and learn to see,
All your life…you were only waiting for this moment to be free,
Blackbird fly,
Blackbird fly,
Into the light of a dark black night.
Donovan: You see now, there are so many blackbirds (black birds?) now.
Paul stops playing.
Paul: I sang it to Diana Ross the other night. She took offense.
Everyone laughs.
Paul: Not really. But I did mean it like that originally.
Donovan: Really?
Paul: Yeah, I remember… I’d just read something in the paper about riots and then (singing briskly) Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you were only waiting…
Donovan: That’s funny, ‘cause when you were just singing I was saying ‘What a way to color a blackbird’ There’re so many beautiful colors to lift a blackbird into people’s eyes. So it’s…that’s wild. But you’ll see so many blackbirds, as well. When I wrote about a magpie, every time I drive now, they cross the path, they’re everywhere you go, as if they’re going (makes a whistle sound, like a bomb being dropped, followed by a small splatting sound).
Everyone bursts out into laughter.
Paul: (laughing) Thanks Don, got it…got it, Don. Nice.
Donovan: Nice one.
Paul: Beautiful, beautiful.
I just felt the need to bring this back.
