A long, long time ago… I worked on a production line building computers. That probably gives you an idea of how long ago this took place. When was the last time a computer was built in an American factory? Anyway, I digress.
The story starts on the afore-mentioned production line with two of my co-workers. One an Indian woman and the other a black man. They flirted constantly, and one day he asked her out. In that moment her demeanor changed. She told him “No” and he kept pushing until finally she said it wouldn’t work because the were too different. In her words, “I don’t date outside of my race“. You can guess how that went over. She was called a racist, he stormed off, awkward silence, and we all got back to building PCs.
After a bit of time to think about what I just heard, I asked her why. She told me that they were too different in so many ways. Their cultures had nothing in common, she said. She went through a very well thought out list of reasons it was not possible. She even ended with something that I had never considered. She was Hindu, a polytheistic faith, and he was Christian who believes in a single god. How could they understand each other enough to build a life together?
That got me thinking about Fiddler on the Roof and Tevya saying:
“A bird and fish may love each other but where will they build their home”.
Fiddler on the Roof
After a lot of revisions Blackbird was the result. The first verse and the chorus were written to lead the listener through the relationship as if they were people. To reel them in (sorry, could resist the pun). Then the bomb would drop on the chorus with these lines:
I don’t date outside my race
Original chorus for Blackbird
It is just a simple fact
Cause it is not the color of my skin
That makes me black
A blackbird and a goldfish
They could fall in love
But where would the build their home
In the see or up above
I know. Not our best moment.
These were the lyrics when we started recording the song until our keyboard player, Neil Podgursky, refused to play on it. He told us that he got what we were doing but he was afraid of people taking it the wrong way. We argued about it. Threatened to hire another piano player. But, in the end we changed the lyrics.
This is not our time and place
Final chorus for Blackbird
It is just a simple fact
Cause it is not the color of our skin
That holds us back
A blackbird and a goldfish
They could fall in love
But where would the build their home
In the see or up above
I think we changed it for the better.
You can check out Blackbird here on Spotify and you can check out the entire album The Burden of a Healthy Mind here
PS. Thanks Neil for keeping us from making a big mistake.
written by J Peck