Quite appropriately ironically, the "DEAD MAN SESSION" is now playing on Screen #2 in the HEARSE THEATER | Neil Young Archives.
Neil Young writes:
While I watched the movie and played along live.
Jim Jarmusch filmed me. He cut this together. That’s how we did the soundtrack for DEAD MAN too . . . I think that movie is a masterpiece.
The soundtrack is available on Vapor records.
Watch it now at the HEARSE THEATER.
The Recording Of Dead Man - Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Directed by Jim Jarmusch, "The Recording Of Dead Man" documents the scoring of the 1995 film "Dead Man" by Neil Young (more below).
This is also a good time to look a little closer at the creative relationship between filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young.
Jim Jarmusch discussed his masterpiece DEAD MAN starring Johnny Depp in a Q&A during Film Society of Lincoln Center's complete retrospective "Permanent Vacation: The Films of Jim Jarmusch" in 2014. (Thanks Hounds That Howell!)
Dead Man (1995) réalisé par Jim Jarmusch avec Johnny Depp pic.twitter.com/lpS2QHSz1j
— o. (@deppendencee) March 7, 2019
Be sure to check first ~10:00 minutes of session where Jarmusch discusses recording the film soundtrack with Neil Young.
Jim Jarmusch: "You can not trick Neil Young! Don't even try, trust me. He is way ahead of all of us!"
(More on Jim Jarmusch on Recording Neil Young for 'Dead Man' Film Soundtrack.)
Director Jim Jarmusch's film Dead Man -- with a Neil Young soundtrack -- was considered by critic Greil Marcus in Salon Magazine to be "the best movie of the end of the 20th century." Among reasons that Marcus cites are: "For a film set more than a century ago, an electric guitar, playing a modal melody, surrounded by nothing, sounds older than anything you see on the screen."
In an interview, Jim Jarmusch said of Neil's efforts:
- "What he brought to the film lifts it to another level, intertwining the soul of the story with Neil's musically emotional reaction to it - the guy reached down to some deep place inside himself to create such strong music for our film."
Dead Man film clip
Jarmusch's concert film of Neil Young and Crazy Horse from the the 1996 tour has been called: "A concert film-group portrait that captures as well as any other music movie the natural, untethered essence of live rock." (John Anderson, in the LOS ANGELES TIMES).
Yet, the album Year Of The Horse, contains none of the performances that are in the film. Go figure.
From Australia's The Age Newspaper interview with Jim Jarmusch by writer Stephanie Bunbury:
- "For "Year of the Horse", his documentary about a Neil Young concert tour, Young himself suggested the project after he had written the music for Dead Man and they had made a video clip for his song Big Time. "Young said: 'Look, I'll pay for it. Just shoot some stuff and see if you like it, and we'll continue if you do, and if you don't, I'll just put it on a shelf somewhere.' How could I refuse that? And it was a really great experience, because there was no road map at all."
With the discussion of Neil having a new tone on the 2010 Le Noise tour and the followup on some of the technical details on his signature style made us consider one his most distinctive and evocative sonic creations for the 1995 film Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch.
From Now Magazine interview with Jim Jarmusch by INGRID RANDOJA (DECEMBER 18-24, 1997) on Year Of The Horse:
"Neil's incredible," recalls Jarmusch.
We showed him the Like A Hurricane number, which right in the middle of the song cuts from him now to him 20 years ago.
"Neil jumps out of his seat. I thought, 'He's going to say something about how different he looks.' Instead, he says, 'Look at Old Black!' which is the name of his guitar. 'She looks so new and shiny! She was so young back then.'
"We were laughing so hard, but he was deadly serious. He wasn't self-conscious about his own image changing, just 'Look at Old Black. I haven't taken good care of her.'"
But Jarmusch gets serious when he says, "If Neil were a native American he would be a 'contrary' -- a medicine man. He'd have to walk backwards, because everything Neil does is contrary to what is natural.
"Neil is a perfectionist who embraces imperfection. Everything he does is like that, and the more you get to know him, the more you see it in him.
"Jesus, he doesn't even dress like a rock star. He dresses like a garbage man. He doesn't care."
Austin Chronicle: What did you see as your greatest challenge in making this movie?
Jim Jarmusch : No, ah, there wasn't a challenge. You know it was really fun and Larry (L.A. Johnson) was so amazingly organized. I wish my feature films could have the same kind of organization because Neil's people, his road people, man we should make a movie just about them. Cause his road crew are like pirates, or a biker gang, or something. Very organized. And they were great.
And then Larry, whatever we needed was suddenly there. Like Neil asked us to go on the road and in three days -- I was in New York, Larry lives in L.A. -- he had all the equipment together, all the film material, everything was on the way. It was amazing. I guess the challenge to it came after collecting the material and sitting down and being open enough so that the material told us -- me and Jay Rabinowitz, the editor -- what the film wanted to be. You know, to just not try to bludgeon it into any form at all, just sort of in a Zen-like way say, "Okay, what do you want us to do with you now?"
That was like the most challenging thing. It was a fun film to make.
#TBT! An old beautiful interview about Dead Man. 🎬 #JohnnyDepp pic.twitter.com/5g9e0RcFgp
— IFOD (@itfansofdepp) March 8, 2019
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- In 2019, Dead Man was reissued on CD and Vinyl formats (see amazon.com.)
Announcing Vinyl & CD reissues of Neil’s score for Dead Man, a film by Jim Jarmusch - Available this Friday, March 8.— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) March 6, 2019
From Pitchfork- “Old Black is featured in its purest form on the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s hallucinatory western"
Where music lives https://t.co/G4M690w8Qo pic.twitter.com/iX9nxxGqYp
A comment on 3/08/2019 04:17:00 PM by rolandthompsongunner said...Some great articles from Criterion on the score:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5676-dead-man-earth-wind-and-fire
From that article, just a sample quote:
"Young is an environmentalist, meaning he supports causes that protect natural resources. He stands publicly against GMOs, climate-change deniers, deforestation, and so forth. But his music, too, and for just as long, has been environmental."
&
"The sound of it all, the tone of it, seems to be bigger than him and bigger than me. It’s almost physical; more precisely, it’s environmental. Young lets single notes ring for a while. He lets the note get around you and lets you get around it. Sometimes the note or the sound doesn’t necessarily have a point, or if it does, the point may be you; you adapt in relation to it. There is a basic sense of integrity and purpose built into Young’s playing. And aside from that, I am certain that a few of the times I’ve heard him—particularly playing solo or playing outdoors—have been some of the best listening experiences I’ve ever had."
I think that's a great take from a film critic who must be a pretty big Neil fan. It's a great film, and is enhanced by Neil's music.
Also, I could swear Neil said the "I just want to tell you, you sure mean a lot to me" line from Falling Off the Face of the Earth from Prairie Wind was based upon a voicemail he received from Jarmusch. I tried to find the interview (maybe during the stretch on Conan?), but I've come up empty.Thanks RTG! This Film's For You!
Also, see:
- Dead Man Film Reviews
- Dead Man on YouTube: More on Neil's Tone
- Year of The Horse Film
- trailer for the film "Year of The Horse"
- Jim Jarmusch interview on directing Neil Young and Crazy Horse in a concert film
- Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young
- Jim Jarmusch: "I thought Neil (Young) might burn psychic rays through my skull..."
- Bible Study with Neil Young & Jim Jarmusch
- Neil Young Films
I’m actually a big fan of both ‘Dead Man’ & ‘Year of the Horse’, and Neil’s work for the ‘Dead Man’ soundtrack is positively brilliant. I’m really glad that he finally released it on vinyl, as it makes for a great listen around 3am in the morning….. for some reason. Absolutely stunning work from stem to stern. Now if Neil would please release the music from the ‘Year of the Horse’ film to be on Vinyl, although they’ll have to give it a different name, so as not to confuse the masses.
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I remember Robert Cristgau reporting on a Neil Young "press meeting" around this time. "The doctor is in but his bedside manner leaves something to be desired."
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