Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Songs
chowhound:
Here is what I've been able to find out about songs 1-7 on the song list I posted a little while back (more to follow):
1. Patsy Cline.
a) "Walkin' After Midnight" (1957).
b) Song of yearning for a lost love. (Ennis or Jack in future?).
c) On trucker's radio as they drive towards Signal.
2. Johnny Cash.
a) "I Walk the Line" (1956?).
b) Song about faithfulness and love. (Jack over twenty years - or Ennis?)
c) On portable radio as Jack shaves.
3. Tex Ritter.
a) "Bad Brahma Bull".
b) Song about a young man's first unsuccessful attempt at bull riding - a number of parallels to Jack.
c) Jack plays it on his harmonica after putting up second tent.
4. Hank Williams.
a). "Kaw-liga".
b). Lighthearted song about a wooden Indian figure outside a store who falls in love wiht his female counterpart
outside another store but cannot express this love. Playfully ironic in that Jack has now demnstrated his love for Ennis?
c). Played by Jack on his harmonica after untangling sheep.
5. Roger Miller.
a). "Dang Me".
b). Fairly lighthearted song about an irresponsible husband who runs around, leaving his wife and baby child at home.
(Possible reference to Ennis and Jack later?).
c). On truck radio in scene replaced by toboggan scene.
6. J.D. Miller
a). "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".
b). About an unfaithful married man who has caused "many a good girl to go wrong". An "answer" song, apparently, to
"The Wild Side Of Life" which portrays a faithless bride-to-be who has left her intended for another man. The modern
"strong" woman of the Miller song could prefigure Lureen's future success in the man's world of business.
c). Sung on jukebox by Kitty Wells as Jack and Lureen dance.
7. Statler Brothers.
a). "Flowers On The Wall".
b). More modern, non-linear song sung by somebody - probably high on something - who is replying to someone's concern
for him. Firmly places the scene in the sixties. (Lureen, the modern, sexually liberated woman?).
chowhound:
And here's the same for songs 8-12.
8. Patsy Cline
a). "Crazy".
b). A poignant song about a woman who has been abandoned by somebody she's much in love with. Not particularly
suitable for the moment, except the song's final line - "I'm crazy for loving you" - could apply to Jack.
c). On Jack's car radio as he drives up to be with Ennis.
9. Redbone.
a). "Come and get Your Love".
b). The lyrics are almost impenetrable but as the line "come and get your love" is sung over and over again, I
suppose it is a suitable song for Cassie.
c). On jukebox when Cassie first encounters Ennis.
10. Glen Campbell.
a). "Southern Nights" (1977).
b). As it's such a "feel-good" song, it's in pointed contrast to the downcast Ennis eating his piece of pie on his
own.
c). As Ennis is eating in the coffee shop.
11. Johnny Paycheck.
a). "Take This Job And Shove It" (1978).
b). As it's about a man who worked hard and long for little reward, it may reflect Ennis's situation in general.
c). On Ennis's car radio as he is driving to Lightning Flats (scene deleted).
12. George Strait.
a). "All My Exs Live In Texas".
b). Not particularly appropriate as it's a fairly upbeat song about a man who now lives in Tennessee because all his
exs "live in Texas". Also the date is wrong - it was first issued as a single in 1987 but Alma's scene occurs in 1984.
c). On Alma Jr.'s car radio as she parks when visiting Ennis.
Apart from the last song, most of the other songs seem to have been carefully chosen. Of course we wouldn't have heard
them in full but I can well imagine the some of us scurrying around to identify them and to work out the relationship
between the song and the scene in the movie in which it appears. I don't know who chose the songs but as all of them bar
one are in all the earlier scripts they may well be the choices of Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry.
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