Everyone in America has heard the song of the red-winged blackbird. It’s one of those birds that sounds like a dial-up modem. Back in the old days, you had to fire up the internet and it played sweet electronic music like a chorus of annoying birds. Now the internet is always on and it sucks. The normies got to it, just like they get to everything. But they’ll never get to me!
The blackbird has red epaulets like a fancy soldier boy. He puffs them up whenever he’s about to sing. His song is usually transcribed as “conk-a-ree,” “conk-la-ree,” “o-ka-lee,” or to some esoteric ears as “gug-lug-gee.”
It begins on the “conk” which is a low whistley D, followed by the “la” which is actually two quick notes up to the Eb and down to the Ab, and finally, there’s the “ree” which is a trill of high F’s.
A century or so ago, F. Schuyler Mathews wrote a musical field guide for birds. This was before sonograms, so everything is notated in classic sheet music style. He’s basically me, but way more awesome. He notates the blackbird’s song thusly:
To be sure, the fellow is pardonably flat at times, and then again distressingly sharp, but on the whole the music is intelligible, welcome, and even inspiring, for it is a joyous announcement that spring is at hand. (Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music by F. Schuyler Mathews)
Mathews notates the blackbird in a minor triad (third inversion). This is a much more musically generous notation, not sciency like my notation above. I believe in science myself, but others, not so much. They’d prefer a bird who could accompany them on acoustic guitar. Picture these poor bastards going camping and trying to transpose their Kum Ba Yahs to nature’s score where the loudest, most annoying animal wins.
The red-winged blackbird isn’t the species that Paul McCartney had in mind for The Beatles song “Blackbird.” Nor was it the Eurasian blackbird that would’ve been common on the English countryside where Sir Paul grew up. No, “Blackbird” is actually about a black woman. Who knew? I guess it makes up for all the times the lads were caught sieg heiling just for funsies.
