Similarities between Beyonce's COWBOY CARTER and the Beach Boys' Smile

COWBOY CARTER is Beyonce’s latest album. Smile is an unfinished Beach Boy’s album from the 60s (1).

  • Both open with prayer: The first track of Smile is called "Our Prayer”, and CC’s opening “AMERIICAN REQUIEM” ends with the word “amen”. The religious themes continue throughout both albums

  • Both feature Good Vibrations (2)

  • Both feature prominent covers / interpolations collaged together with original material. This is pretty typical in modern hip-hop and pop pop, but was much more unusual in the 60s. On CC are “Blackbird”, “Jolene”, “Good Vibrations”, and “Oh Louisiana” among many others. On Smile you have most notably “Gee” and “You Are My Sunshine”

  • Both are symphonic concept albums. On both, one track often flows directly into the next. Alongside traditional 3-5-minute pop songs, both also contain a lot of short song segments stitched together (e.g., “MY ROSE”, the last 40 seconds of “SPAGHETTII”, “I’m in Great Shape”, the bridge of “Heroes and Villains”)

  • Both are a sort of reclaiming and mythologizing of Americana. Smile was explicitly meant to act a “riposte to the British sensibilities that had dominated rock music of the era”. COWBOY CARTER is, among other things, a “journey through a reinvention of Americana, spotlighting the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history.”

  • And both have a specific interest in westerns: Smile has the western-set “Heroes and Villains”, and Beyonce has described watching hundreds of westerns as inspiration for CC

  • Both feature performances from notable non-American Paul McCartney: Beyonce’s cover of “Blackbird” uses his guitar and foot-tapping from the original. On “Vega-Tables” it is rumored that he is the one percussively chewing celery

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  1. The album was never officially finished or released, but an approximation of the album - titled The Smile Sessions - was released in 2011. That is what I am referring to when talk about Smile throughout.

  2. On CC it is interpolated into the song “YA YA”