Stephen Bennett is my guitar hero.

I can't believe a few five-finger picking could make me weep. Blackbird no less.

Background check: Stephen Bennett arranged the music behind that poignant song centered around the struggle of the blacks to have their civil rights recognized. I'm no Beatles fan but I'm slowly falling in love with their music.

I fell in love with the lyrics first, the music after. The lyrics had the Haiku-feel because of how compact it is. The song only lasts for 2 minutes and yet it can say so much more than what a 5-minute song can. It may be soothing but the music behind it gives it so much more layer. The lyrics may be great but the accompanying tune gives it a more dramatic impact. How the lyrics tell of struggling and 'breaking free' is perfectly captured by the music's arrangement making the output a perfect mix of bliss with a tinge of distress. How it captures the emotions (may it be by the blacks' struggle for acknowledgment or some personal struggles) associated with the lyrics make it worth listening to over and over again.

The tempo's really fast, upbeat to a certain extent but it works wonders in my tear ducts. I don't know exactly what kind of style guitar players use when they use all five fingers to create music instead of strumming but for me it's more effective in tugging whatever strings are attached to the heart. By looking at the guitar player, it seems like it's pulling several guitar strings to create that oh so wonderful music; closing my eyes to feel the music, it seems like it's pulling the strings of my heart too, hence creating that internal musical experience that is not only experienced by the ears but by the heart as well.

Sad because nobody felt that Stephen Bennett was worth that picture on the right side of Wikipedia. C'mon people, the man certainly has created the most wonderful musical piece (or arrangement, whatever you call it) by staying faithful to the literary piece that is Blackbird's lyrics. To say that Blackbird's a nice song is an understatement. To treat S. Bennett like he's just one of those music men is an insult to the genius that he is.