In this digital age, one of my most favorite things to do with albums has really been forgotten and lost and that is reading the printed lyrics along with an entire album while listening to it. The first album I really remember doing this with was Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding in the fifth grade. Well, I thought I’d put this song up because 1. It is my favorite Ray Lamontagne song 2. It has beautiful lyrics 3. Someone took the time to make this video with the lyrics in it. Thanks go to the person who put this together. The song is called “Empty” and it is off Ray’s sophomore album, Till The Sun Turns Black.
Here are some of my favorite uses of music in movies (the ones I could remember of the top of my head).
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS: The instrumental version of “Hey Jude,” performed by The Mutato Muzika Orchestra, follows the narration at the start of this movie nearly perfectly. I love how the climax of the song (the “Na NaNa Na” part) happens just as Richie’s lets his pet Hawk, Mordecai, take flight.
AMADEUS: This scene is hands-down one of my favorites because it takes the viewer directly into the mind and thought process of a composer (Mozart) and shows how a good composer can hear multiple parts in the creation of one grander piece. Fantastic writing and acting…
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION: This is simply a beauiful scene. The piece played by Andy here is “Duettino-Sull’Aria” from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. I love the crane shot in the courtyard of all the prisoners staring at the loud speaker. The narration perfectly sums up the power of music.
GOODFELLAS: I love how Scorsese uses the entire piano coda of the Derek & The Dominoes song “Layla” in this film. It goes so well with the mood of the film that this section of music has practically become synomnous with this movie. A little known fact: The piano coda to “Layla” was not written by Eric Clapton, rather Derek & The Dominoes drummer, Jim Gordon. Gordon is currently in an insane asylum for killing his mother with a butcher knife.
THE BLUES BROTHERS: As a kid I watched the music scenes in this movie religiously and this cover of Wilson Pickett’s “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” was one of my favorites. I can’t even begin to tell you how important this movie was for me. It brought Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Cab Calloway directly into my living room. For an 8 year old, that was pretty damn cool. Thank you John Belushi and Dan Akroyd.
OTHERS THAT I DIDN’T POST: “Shout” from Animal House, “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Wayne’s World, “Stuck In The Middle With You” from Reservoir Dogs, “Tiny Dancer” from Almost Famous, “Johnny B. Goode” from Back To The Future, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” from Blow, “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” from Hustle & Flow, “You Never Can Tell” from Pulp Fiction, “Twist & Shout” from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, all the other songs in The Blues Brothers, and many more I am forgetting. Can you think of any?
Used to play along with this song for hours when I was in high school. Still one of my favorites. This clip is from the Neil Young & Crazy Horse DVD, Rust Never Sleeps, which was recorded on their 1978 tour. This song was banned in Spain, where Cortez is still considered a national hero.
Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Old Crow Medicine Show put a nice treatment on this classic, which was written by Robbie Robertson. The original version appeared on The Band’s debut album, Music From Big Pink, which was released in 1968.
