music in the background

[nakymaton]

goadra just brought up the lyrics to "I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall" by Merle Haggard, which is playing in the background while Ennis is eating pie in the Greyhound station. She mentioned how they reflect Ennis's mood at the time, and it struck me that a lot of the background music seems to have been very, very carefully chosen to fit the scene.

Here are the lyrics.

Most of my life, I've almost been a winner.
I've come so close but never really won.
Just when I thought I finally made it,
I found myself back where I started from.
I hate to say I'm giving up but I believe,
Losin's just become a way of life for me.
Losin' wouldn't be so bad at all,
But I'm always on a mountain when I fall.

Then you came along and had me, had me believin',
For once in my life my luck had finally changed.
And now you say you're gonna leave me,
Seems everything I do winds up the same.

I hate to say I'm giving up but I believe,
Losin's just become a way of life for me.
Losin' wouldn't be so bad at all,
But I'm always on a mountain when I fall.

Losin' wouldn't be so bad at all,
But I'm always on a mountain when I fall.

Yeah, Barbara, you're right about fitting the mood...

Then you came along and had me, had me believin',
For once in my life my luck had finally changed.
And now you say you're gonna leave me,
Seems everything I do winds up the same.

!!!

[serious crayons]

Wow! That fits so perfectly I was half expecting to see I'm nothing, I'm nowhere!

And now you say you're gonna leave me,
Seems everything I do winds up the same.

Is this a clue in the "would Jack quit Ennis?" mystery? (Hope not.)

[nakymaton]

Is this a clue in the "would Jack quit Ennis?" mystery? (Hope not.)

I don't think so. I don't think anything in the movie is as straightforward as that. Sometimes the background music says something about the dynamic that's on the screen, sometimes it provides a bitter contrast. ("It's So Easy to Fall in Love," for instance. Yeah, speak for yourself, Linda. )

I think what gets me about the background music is that it's really very typical of country music. (Old joke: what happens when you play country music backwards?) All these open declarations of love. All these broken hearts... it's like country roads must be littered with more broken hearts than beer bottles. And then here are these two guys who are hiding all these same emotions.

I feel really stupid and insensitive for saying this, but... you know, unless a love song is performed by an openly gay singer (I'm thinking in particular of Melissa Etheridge), I've usually thought it was referring to two people of the opposite sex. And, duh, it doesn't have to be. The quiet contrast between the music in the background and the struggles on the screen really drive that home for me.

[serious crayons]

I don't think so. I don't think anything in the movie is as straightforward as that. Sometimes the background music says something about the dynamic that's on the screen, sometimes it provides a bitter contrast. ("It's So Easy to Fall in Love," for instance. Yeah, speak for yourself, Linda. )

True. I was kidding. Unfortunately, the movie (or story) never provides those kind of definitive clues that tell you for sure that your interpretation is correct. Even though some people seem certain that they know, by piecing together clues in the movie, what the "right" answer is to such questions as whether Jack quit Ennis, or whether Jack was murdered, I think the movie, like life, provides little conclusive evidence.

I feel really stupid and insensitive for saying this, but... you know, unless a love song is performed by an openly gay singer (I'm thinking in particular of Melissa Etheridge), I've usually thought it was referring to two people of the opposite sex.

Don't be too hard on yourself, Mel, I think it's kind of natural to hear music lyrics from your own perspective (in fact, I generally think lyrics are specifically about ME). But it is interesting how, when I listen to the BBM soundtrack, the opposite phenomenon occurs -- the lyrics, though ambiguous, always seem specifically about two men!

[nakymaton]

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.

[JT]

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.

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.

Is this a clue in the "would Jack quit Ennis?" mystery? (Hope not.)

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..."

Haggard...Ennis. Yes, that’s how he looks.

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]

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.

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.