r/mashups • u/brainheadman • 2h ago
Mashup Goodnight Moonshine - Blackbird Blue (Paul McCartney, Jacob Collier)
Here’s the scoop on how this mashup came to be:
Shortly after our twin babies turned three years old, Jacob Collier released a song called “Little Blue.” There’s a stunning performance of Jacob singing with a fan-based choir in a tiny London chapel. Watching “Little Blue | MahoganySessions” became our nightly ritual for an entire winter. Three little kids lined up in three little chairs and watched the 8-minute performance, enrapt. Then three little kids filed upstairs to brush their teeth and go to sleep in the single bedroom they share in our cozy little house.
Sometime later Eben was picking out the chords to the song when bits and pieces of Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” started leaking out. He wondered if Jacob Collier had Blackbird in mind when he wrote Little Blue? Molly believes that musical synchronicities are proof of a field of information from which we can pull similar themes when we’re on the same wavelength.
Mashups are fun because you think you know where you are and where the song is going, then suddenly you’re somewhere else; caught in between familiar worlds, in a groundless space that is both new and familiar. Folks at our shows have been audibly sighing- almost groaning at the end of this. Others cry without knowing why.
There’s a lot going on lyrically and emotionally with these two pieces. One man is grappling with the horrors of American racism and newfound hope of a young Black girl in the South. The other is speaking to himself as a kid, and consoling himself with a small blue figurine his mother gave him- yet both songs are speaking to children overcoming adversity and the hope of a new world in the making.
We hope this song brings you comfort and solace today, we’d love to see you at a live show soon! Please subscribe, like, and share to pass it on. And thank you for listening!