"Foreword by Cyrus Cassells"--from cover. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Introduction : change the history : the blackbird in song, story, and transatlantic flight -- Flee (free) as a bird : the legacy of the ring shout, flying Africans, and gospel in Black music and the Beatles -- Sing a song of blackbird : pre-twentieth-century transatlantic flights in Black music, the Beatles, and Liverpool -- I'm a little blackbird : Florence Mills, blackbirds of the Harlem Renaissance, and the Beatles' jazz age predecessors -- Flying across the ocean : Lead Belly, "Grey goose," and the Beatles' Liverpool skiffle scene -- You can fly away : Lord Woodbine and Lord Kitchener, "Yellow bird," and calypso in the Beatles' Liverpool club scene -- You ain't ever gonna fly : Nina Simone's "Blackbird" and revolutionary responses to the Beatles -- A blackbird on a white album : Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Diana Ross, and other winged inspirations in and around 1968 -- Like a bird up in the sky : Billy Preston flies to the Beatles in London and circles back to LA with "Blackbird" -- Y'all ready girls? : "Blackbird" soars in San Francisco with Sylvester, two tons o' fun, and the band -- I was just seeing myself singing : Bettye LaVette on interpreting the Beatles and singing a bridge of blackbirds -- Conclusion : twenty-first-century "Blackbird" in Paul McCartney's legend, for #BlackLivesMatter, and into transoceanic flightpaths.
Summary:
"Presents a history of the influence of Black musicians on the Beatles, exploring musical and storytelling legacies full of rich but contested symbolism and the transatlantic circulation of diaspora African arts, tropes, and symbols"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.