Did You Hear That??
The many samples, interpolations, and song references on 'Cowboy Carter'
Beyoncé certainly knows the devil is in the details. With the interludes, song references, and interpolations on Cowboy Carter, she demonstrates the depth and breadth of Black, pop, and mainstream influences on her own music and on country, as well.
From Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” to Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” from the Beach Boys to Chuck Berry, these samples and references perfectly illustrate how country – and American popular music as a whole – has always been a cultural and genre melting pot.
2001 – featured in “Ameriican Requiem”
When your husband is also a multi-platinum living legend, it makes sense that his music might serve as inspiration, too. This cut off his landmark 2001 record, The Blueprint, finds HOVA contemplating the trajectory of his career and those who wish to see him fail, a phenomenon Beyoncé has experienced via gatekeepers trying to keep her out of the country genre. And to go a bit deeper down the sample rabbit hole, “Heart of the City” itself samples and is based on Bobby Bland’s 1974 hit, “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City.”
1995 – featured in “II Hands II Heaven”
This song is a hit from Underworld, a British electronic group known for complex and often danceable tracks. The tune also appeared in the 1996 Danny Boyle film, Trainspotting.
1975 – featured in “II Most Wanted”
One of Fleetwood Mac’s best-known and best-loved songs, “Landslide” evokes the heart-wrenching pain of romantic loss via Stevie Nicks’s singular vocal. The song was also famously covered by the Chicks, whose collaboration with Beyoncé on “Daddy Lessons” helped inspire the Cowboy Carter project.
1973 – featured in “Jolene”
Another song that needs no introduction, “Jolene” is widely considered one of Dolly Parton’s most important songs, appearing on her 1973 record of the same name. In her version, Beyoncé updates the lyrics to warn off future troublemakers: “I’m warnin’ you, woman, find your own man.”
1971 – featured in “Oh Louisiana”
Chuck Berry’s influence is all over Cowboy Carter, so much so that Beyoncé even used snippets of his song, “Maybellene,” when teasing the record. On her own song of the same name, Beyoncé pitches up Berry’s original lyrics personifying the Bayou State, for an interlude tying past to present.
1968 – featured in “Blackbiird”
Beyoncé hews closely to the source material on this cover of the classic Beatles song from the band’s White Album. While the original song was not country, its folk leanings lend themselves to well to Cowboy Carter’s rootsy interpretation. And helping flesh out the track’s gorgeous harmonies are a number of today’s more celebrated Black country artists: Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Tanner Adell.
1967 – featured in “Ameriican Requiem”
This Buffalo Springfield song has long been associated with protest and civil rights movements, becoming something of an anthem during the turbulent '60s. (Notably, it was actually written in response to anti-loitering ordinances in Los Angeles.) It makes sense, then, that it would feature on this thesis-establishing introductory song, which takes America to task for its laundry list of injustices against marginalized peoples.
1966 – featured in “Ya Ya”
This mid-'60s pop classic is one of the more iconic pieces of music to come out of Nancy Sinatra’s creative partnership with Lee Hazlewood, who originally heard a variation on the titular line in Nancy’s father Frank Sinatra’s 1963 film, 4 for Texas. “Ya Ya” incorporates the song’s unmistakable opening guitar riff into a tune whose lyrics, like “I just pray that we don’t crash / Keep my Bible on the dash,” trend more traditionally country than other cuts on the album.
1966 – featured in “Ya Ya”
Just as it uses the surf-rock guitar of Nancy Sinatra’s signature hit, “Ya Ya” nods to another sun-soaked classic, the Beach Boys favorite “Good Vibrations.” A classic couplet from the Smiley Smile cut becomes the song’s refrain, delivered with a dizzying, dynamic vocal from Beyoncé.
1965 – featured in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson”
The two “Smoke Hour” interludes on Cowboy Carter feature none other than Willie Nelson, who — alongside Parton and Martell — deejays for a fictional radio station called KNTRY Radio Texas. One of several featured tracks in the interludes is this recording of the legendary blues artist Son House, a pillar of the Mississippi Delta.
1961 – featured in “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin”
Few voices influence country music more than that of Patsy Cline, and “I Fall to Pieces” is one of the finest showcases of Cline’s singular voice. This Shaboozey collaboration opens with Beyoncé singing a variation of the song’s chorus lyric, paying tribute to Cline’s artistry with her own inimitable voice.
1958 – featured in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson”
This breakout hit for Roy Hamilton has inspired a legion of covers from a diverse array of artists, including Jerry Garcia, Isaac Hayes, and Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne. So, it feels fitting to include a snippet of the tune on a record that toys with notions of genre and authenticity, plus it’s just a banger.
1955 – featured in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson”
“Maybellene” isn’t Chuck Berry’s most famous song, but it’s undeniably one of his best. The song is one of the finest examples of a car song (a close cousin of country’s “truck song”), celebrating the power and splendor of a big engine on an open road. Sonically, the tune fits nicely into Cowboy Carter’s musical DNA, with its crunchy roots-rock riff, Western swing-inspired arrangement, and shades of blues and country.
1944 – featured in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s rendition of this 19th-century slave spiritual is also the song’s best-known version, thanks, in no small part, to Tharpe’s virtuosic guitar playing and charismatic voice. In many ways Beyoncé herself is a musical descendent of Tharpe’s, breaking boundaries with her music and asserting herself with an undeniably potent vision.
1924 – featured in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson”
The artist behind the oldest tune sampled on Cowboy Carter (1924) is also one of its most fascinating. Charles Anderson was a Vaudeville artist who also performed blues music and as a female impersonator, doing the latter dressed as a stereotypical “mammy.” He sang in higher registers than was typical of men at the time, earning the nickname the “Male Mockingbird.” “Laughing Yodel” is one of only a handful of known recordings by Anderson.
Lead Image: Chuck Berry, San Francisco Dues; Patsy Cline, courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame
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