Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
music in the background
JT:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 25, 2006, 11:24:47 pm ---I love "King of the Road." I don't remember when I learned all the words to it, or why. But I've got a special place in my heart for any song that mentions Bangor, and then last year I found out that my maternal grandfather "rode the rails" during the Depression, looking for work, just like the guy in the song.
I like the duet between Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson on the soundtrack, too. It takes the song from being about one guy to being about two.
--- End quote ---
I love this song too! And yes, I memorized the words also. I do love their two voices together; they go together like milk and water. But for some reason, when ever I hear this song, I always visualize the post-divorce scene.
I have a hard time hearing "I'm always on a mountain when I fall" but I sure love the title of the song. It seems to have a very special meaning for BBM.
I also feel that most of the songs pertains to the thoughts or situations of the two guys. For example, "He was a friend of mine" has Ennis' thoughts written all over it, while "A love that will never grow old" has Jack's.
mvansand76:
I have "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers on my iPod (not just because my own name is Melissa...) and every time I hear it it reminds me more and more of the struggle than Ennis went through, it's not always literally with the lyrics, but it's the sadness in the song, the fatalistic nature of it I guess.
Here it is again:
Crossroads seem to come and go.... yeah
The gypsy flies from coast to coast,
Knowin' many lovin' none,
Bearin' sorrow havin fun,
But back home he'll always run....
..to sweet Melissa. mmmhmmm...
Freight train, each car looks the same.... all the same
And no one knows the gypsy's name,
No one hears his lonely sigh,
There are no blankets where he lies,
In all his deepests dreams the gypsy flies.....
..to sweet Melissa.
Again the mornin's come,
Again he's on the run,
Sunbeams shinin' through his hair,
Appearin' not to have a care.
Pick up your gear n' gypsy roll along...
..roll along.
Crossroads, will you ever let him go? ...no, no.
Oh will you hide the dead man's ghost?
Or will he lie beneath the plain?
Will his spirit roll away?
But I know that he won't stay...
..without Melissa.
Yes I know that he won't stay...
..without Melissa
Penthesilea:
I want to go back to the first lyrics in this thread, because Katherine's kidding striked something in me.
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 25, 2006, 10:05:38 am ---Is this a clue in the "would Jack quit Ennis?" mystery? (Hope not.)
--- End quote ---
Kidding or no kidding, this thought of yours is not so bad. I thought similar, but from a different angle:
Jacks does leave Ennis by dying. Jack's gone and Ennis is left behind. You could see this lyrics as a foreshadowing as well. In the movie, there are many foreshadowing things, or things that could be considered as foreshadowing, to phrase it less definite. Just yesterday we mentioned it about the sign at Aguirre's trailer. Then there is the slaughtered sheep.
Ruthlessly once said, every music making (singing, humming, harmonica playing) by Ennis or Jack foreshadows Jack's death. For example, Ennis hums the Cowboys Lament (Streets of Laredo) before he encounters the bear - and it's about a dead cowboy. Jack plays 'He was a friend of mine' on the harmonica (again: Ruthlessly's words) when the tent don't look right and after they untangled the Chilean sheep from Aguirre's.
I was, and still am, critical about Ruthlessly's absoluteness, but he sure had a point there.
So music/lyrics as foreshadowing death is a very likely possibility in this movie and I think these specific lyrics do just that.
There is an additional aspect that makes me think that this specific song/lyrics show us Jack's death: in a long-ago thread we talked about colores, chlothes and their significance. Back then it was my idea that Jack was (maybe) already dead when Ennis and Cassie encounter at the diner. But both, Ennis and we, don't know it yet.
What made me think this was Ennis's jacket. He never wore this dark grey jacket before, but from the diner scene on, we see him in no other jacket than this. He wears it when he receives that fatal postcard and in every scene when Jack is dead. "Ennis didn't know about the accident for months..."
--- Quote from: goadra on September 25, 2006, 11:10:17 pm ---Haggard...Ennis. Yes, that’s how he looks.
--- End quote ---
How fitting :(
nakymaton:
Ok, here's a thought, and I'm not sure if it makes sense or not. Sometimes I wonder if the music playing in the background reflects the thoughts or personality of the man who isn't in the scene.
For instance, "Melissa" reminds me more of Jack:
Crossroads seem to come and go.... yeah
The gypsy flies from coast to coast,
Knowin' many lovin' none,
Bearin' sorrow havin fun,
Jack's the one who travels, he's the one who has affairs with other men (but I don't think he loved any of them), he's the one who looks like he's having fun on the surface.
And he keeps coming back to Ennis.
Even...
Crossroads, will you ever let him go? ...no, no.
Oh will you hide the dead man's ghost?
Or will he lie beneath the plain?
Will his spirit roll away?
...after he's dead, in the form of the shirts.
And then "I Will Never Let You Go" reminds me, actually, more of Ennis, in a way:
Even though this wasn’t meant to be
It’s gonna break my heart to watch you leave
But I will never let you, I will never let you,
I will never let you go
I guess I see Ennis as the one who believes that "this wasn't meant to be." I guess both of their hearts get broken watching the other one leave, over and over, though, so it could be referring to either one of them.
When I feel that lonesome prairie wind
I let my soul get back to you again
And if you read Jack=wind, then this reads like a reminder to Ennis of Jack. (Though if the wind=Wyoming and Ennis=Wyoming, then it could refer to Jack thinking of Ennis.)
(I agree that there's a lot of foreshadowing of death in the music.)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 26, 2006, 08:43:52 am ---Ok, here's a thought, and I'm not sure if it makes sense or not. Sometimes I wonder if the music playing in the background reflects the thoughts or personality of the man who isn't in the scene.
--- End quote ---
That's an interesting idea. Although I'll have to say that in the case of Melissa, I've always thought of it as reflecting Ennis' subconscious thinking, maybe especially because he's the one who selects it on the jukebox. Particularly these lines
Knowin' many lovin' none,
Bearin' sorrow havin fun,
But back home he'll always run....
..to sweet Melissa. mmmhmmm...
which I have always seen as being about Ennis' dating Cassie (if admittedly not having much fun doing it) but running back home to Jack. But you're right, it could go the other way just as easily, maybe even more easily. Regarding what you said yesterday, Mel, about gender-neutral lyrics. Is this the only song in the movie that's specifically about a man and woman? But even that makes sense, in a roundabout way, because Ennis pretends to be with a woman -- even though Melissa sure isn't Cassie.
Back to shirt colors and foreshadowing music. I notice that the spooky music we hear the day after TS1, when Ennis finds the dead sheep and Jack is doing laundry naked, is the same as the music we hear during the Earl flashback. Is it also the same as the music we hear when Ennis finds the shirts? I think so. How about when he gets the "deceased" postcard? That I can't remember.
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