Beyoncé’s ‘Blackbiird’ breathes new life into a symbol that has inspired centuries of Black artists, musicians and storytellers

By Katie Kapurch, Texas State University and Jon Marc Smith, Texas State University

Prior to the release of “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé explained that her album’s links to country were motivated by industry gatekeeping. She was likely referencing the hostile reception she experienced after her performance of “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks during the 2016 Country Music Awards.

Feeling “unwelcome,” Beyoncé said she decided to delve into Black Americans’ “rich musical archive” for inspiration, and “Cowboy Carter” became a project akin to her previous album, 2022’s “Renaissance” – a way to teach listeners about Black music and Black history.

One of the songs, “Blackbiird,” is a rendition of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” from their 1968 White Album. The Beatles’ “Blackbird” has a folk bent, but they were certainly influenced by country and other American genres, especially Black rhythm and blues. All of this musical history comes together in Beyoncé’s cover of “Blackbird,” whose composer, Paul McCartney, has a producer credit.

Beyoncé’s version appears to retain the Beatles’ instrumentation, incorporating McCartney’s acoustic guitar and foot tapping. But, importantly, Beyoncé also includes the voices of four Black female country singers: Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer.

Black musicians have long used the symbol of the blackbird to describe their careers – the isolation they’ve felt and the discrimination they’ve faced along the way. To appreciate Beyoncé’s “Blackbiird,” we think it’s important to go beyond the shadow McCartney’s song has cast over the symbol.

The legend of McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’

Many listeners hear the Beatles’ “Blackbird” as a civil rights song. Part of that may have to do with the evolving ways McCartney has talked about the song in the decades since its release, which we address in our 2023 book, “Blackbird: How Black Americans Sang the Beatles Into Being – and Sang Back to Them Ever After.”

After the release of the White Album, McCartney did mention “civil rights” and “riots” during a recording that captured a conversation about the track with the singer-songwriter Donovan. McCartney also mentions the “offense” Diana Ross took when he played “Blackbird” for her.

For the next three decades, though, he didn’t publicly connect the track to civil rights. Then, in Barry Miles’ 1997 biography of McCartney, McCartney says “a Black woman” was the inspiration for “Blackbird.”

In the 21st century, however, McCartney has been keen to make connections to various places and events associated with the movement during live performances. He mentioned “the Southern states” in 2002; by the 2010s, he started regularly identifying “Alabama” and “Arkansas.” Then, once McCartney specified “Little Rock,” he drew an even clearer connection to the Little Rock Nine, who integrated Central High in 1957. That year, a teenage McCartney was auditioning for John Lennon at the Woolton Village Fete in Liverpool, England, 11 years before “Blackbird” was composed and recorded.

Whatever the origins, McCartney now clearly wants listeners to hear his song in relation to civil rights and current movements like Black Lives Matter.

We aren’t suggesting McCartney’s feelings about these movements are insincere. But when we trace the evolution of his stories, we see the former Beatle working in earnest to emphasize “Blackbird” as a civil rights anthem after the fact.

Dreams of the skies

With “Blackbiird,” Beyoncé reasserts a legacy of Black artistry that predates McCartney. Centuries before the Beatles, birds and flight served as powerful symbols in Black storytelling and arts.

Enslaved Africans in the Americas imagined freedom by circulating tales about gaining the ability to fly. Their return home to Africa became possible when a spiritual leader arrived with a “secret password,” one that would allow them to soar as a flock.

Children’s author Virginia Hamilton’s illustrated retelling of the myth compares flying Africans to “blackbirds” with “Black, shiny wings flappin’ against the blue up there.”

The trope finds expression in lonely birds, too; some versions of the myth center on a single bird or flying person. The absence of a flock and the inability to fly are metaphors for slavery’s brutality, particularly the ways in which families were torn apart.

Blackbirds take flight

Black musicians in the 20th century often used birds to explore themes of isolation and discrimination. Sad, dejected birds populate the blues, including Lonnie Johnson’s 1926 song “Blackbird Blues.”

“If I was a blackbird, I’d pack my troubles on my back,” he mournfully sings. “I would leave this world, and I never would look back.”

Then there was Florence Mills, one of the most famous Black American stage performers in the 1920s.

Mills debuted “I’m a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird” in 1924. The lyrics are explicit: She wants to find “a bluebird” – a metaphor for happiness – the kind that “white folks” are allowed to pursue.

Although Mills didn’t compose it, the song became one of her most well-known and an anthem for racial tolerance.

In interviews, Mills also detailed the song’s symbolism, connecting the bird’s predicament to the lack of opportunities Black Americans faced. With her talent and success, she felt an obligation to her community.

The blackbird of show business

Nina Simone co-wrote and released “Blackbird” in September 1963, five years before the Beatles released the White Album.

While Mills’ blackbird yearns for something better, Simone’s pessimistic speaker tells “little sorrow” not to bother trying to fly. McCartney’s “Blackbird” is upbeat, and its entreaty to “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” seems like a hopeful response to Simone’s “Blackbird,” although he has never mentioned the connection.