Author Topic: lovable subtle details  (Read 476165 times)

Offline EDelMar

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #340 on: January 30, 2007, 02:09:33 pm »
So... ok, it existed in the early 60's. I doubt that Jack Twist would have had Bob Dylan bootleg recordings hiding under the seat of his old truck, but maybe he could have heard the "traditional" song? I dunno.

You are all digging too far.  The studio just plopped it in there.

When they had that damn movie camera hooked up to my truck that day I was ridin' with Alma Junior, they dubbed in "I'll Be Gone" on the truck radio.  First off, the radio don't work.  Second, Fred Peterson wrote and recorded it just a couple years ago, not back in the 70s and 80s.  And third, it belongs to a studio music licensing firm so is not available anywhere nor would it have played on the radio for sure.  :)

  -Ennis

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #341 on: January 30, 2007, 02:14:29 pm »
Uh, Ennis, we were talkin about what Jack was trying to play on his harmonica..."He Was a Friend of Mine." But how did he know that song, hunh? (sorry for stealing your line)

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #342 on: January 30, 2007, 02:19:34 pm »
I love this idea!! Where is that topic!! What immediately comes to mind is Jack's expression as Ennis is telling his life story and Ennis's subsequent face as he says "What?"

Your wish is my command, Lee. I found the thread, moved it to the Open Forum and bumped it. It's so ancient the computer tried to talk me out of bumping it (the last post was from April), but it's still a good topic!

Offline EDelMar

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #343 on: January 30, 2007, 02:39:53 pm »
Jack's harmonica, both times he plays, is positively a variant of "He Was a Friend of Mine".  Gustavo Santaolalla is the actual player, and using his own harmonica, in a recording studio.  (The "amateur" sound he's mimicking is actually quite hard to duplicate... but gives the flavor of someone not very good at playing harmonica.)

Open up the first harmonica sound bit (campfire scene).  It has 4 sections.  Here are the corresponding lyrics to those sections:
#1:  Heeeeeeee was a friend of miiiiiiiine.  He--- [cuts off here]
#2:  Heeeee--
#3:  Was a friend of mine.
#4:  [He] just kept on movin',

On the 2nd harmonica piece as they're going up the hill.  It has 5 sections back to back.
#1:  Heeee was a friend of miiiiiiiine.
#2:  [He] just kept on movin',
#3:  Heeee waas a frieeeend  (bad key...improvised)
#4:  Was a frieeeeend    (again bad key...improvised)
#5:  Was a friend of mine.

It's a contortion of the song really...again deliberately warped and twisted.  :)

"He Was a Friend of Mine" as we know it today is the collaborative work of 3 artists circa 1960: Bob Dylan, David Van Ronk and Eric von Schmidt.  Dylan once said he got it from Blind Arvella Gray, a street musician in Chicago, but that's probably not true.  WELL, he might have heard "Shorty George" being played by this musician.  (See below).  David Van Ronk stated at a concert once (right before playing the song), "I learned this song from Eric von Schmidt, who learned it from Dylan, who learned it from me".  Around 1980 the 3 artists mutually decided to split royalty monies for the song.

Dylan recorded his version (upon which the Willie Nelson version was based) in 1961.

The ORIGINAL version is Shorty George, a southeastern US african spiritual or something written by Smith Casey.  I have this recording; it's not readily available, and was recorded in 1939 for the US Library of Congress.

If you want to hear all 3 versions, come to Brokeback BBQ 2007 (http://www.brokeback2007.com) and I will have them there along with a large portion of the rest of the master soundtrack and early versions of stuff.

In the late 1960s the Grateful Dead played a song called "He Was A Friend of Mine" as well.  Different lyrics, and that was really just a PORTION of another song, by Mark Spolestra from 1965, "Just a Hand to Hold".  THIS SONG undoubtedly was inspired by "He Was a Friend of Mine" by Dylan/Van Ronk/von Schmidt because 1 year after Dylan recorded his version, Spolestra performed with him AND Van Ronk in New York City frequently.

  -Ennis

PS: Ossana and MacMurtry originally scheduled Jack's 2 harmonica pieces to be "Kaw-Liga" and "Bad Brahma Bull".  I have those too; come to the BBQ!!
« Last Edit: January 30, 2007, 02:45:52 pm by EDelMar »

Scott6373

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #344 on: January 30, 2007, 03:06:15 pm »
Jack's harmonica, both times he plays, is positively a variant of "He Was a Friend of Mine".  Gustavo Santaolalla is the actual player, and using his own harmonica, in a recording studio.  (The "amateur" sound he's mimicking is actually quite hard to duplicate... but gives the flavor of someone not very good at playing harmonica.)


Holy crap...thanks E...I thought it was such a little thing I heard...who knew...LOL

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #345 on: January 31, 2007, 12:24:06 am »
FRiend, that's the most you've spoke in two weeks.  :)

« Last Edit: February 01, 2007, 12:33:00 pm by Front-Ranger »
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Offline nic

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #346 on: January 31, 2007, 06:20:07 am »
Wow - that is really interesting.  Another new thing that has stunned me from this whole experience after ~ a year!  And that is subtle.  It is so great to be able to share this.   :) And that has got to be one of the most subtle details.

My fave lovable detail from the film is not so subtle but I love the lean back that Ennis does so he can get a better view of Jack going up the mountain.  Such an inscrutable expression on his face.   I also like the fact that Ennis calls out to Jack about the horse's low startle point - cos I wouldn't have expected to hear a peep out of him so soon given his near silence up til that point. 
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Offline saucycobblers

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #347 on: January 31, 2007, 09:22:59 am »
My fave lovable detail from the film is not so subtle but I love the lean back that Ennis does so he can get a better view of Jack going up the mountain.  Such an inscrutable expression on his face.   I also like the fact that Ennis calls out to Jack about the horse's low startle point - cos I wouldn't have expected to hear a peep out of him so soon given his near silence up til that point. 

Yeah, you're right, though I'd never tought of it that way before. I think that Ennis has been slightly overawed by Jack's obvious presence and skill socially since their first meeting, but this is Jack's first sign of 'weakness', so to speak, in struggling to control the horse. At last Ennis has a chance to assert himself by displaying his skill & knowledge with horses.
Will you stop playing with that radio of yours, I'm trying to get to sleep!

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #348 on: January 31, 2007, 10:32:36 am »
I love the lean back too, nic. And it's clear to me that he's doin it so he can see from under his hat brim. Which is not a little thing, because the first thing he did when he saw Jack for the first time was lower his hat brim.
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Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: lovable subtle details
« Reply #349 on: February 21, 2007, 10:32:30 pm »
I'm sure this has been mentioned many times before... but I love how that one jacket's arm keeps swinging in Jack's closet when Ennis bends down to look at the boots and then looks up to discover the shirts.  It's like that jacket is nudging Ennis on to find those shirts.
 :'(
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