''Dead Man'' is the soundtrack to the 1995
Jim Jarmusch western-themed
film of the same name starring
Gary Farmer
Gary Dale Farmer (born June 12, 1953) is a Canadian actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Nobody in the films ''Dead Man'' (1995) and '' Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai'' (1999), and for his role in '' Smoke Signals'' (1 ...
, and
Johnny Depp as William Blake.
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...
recorded the soundtrack by improvising (mostly on
Old Black
Old Black is the nickname given to Neil Young's primary electric guitar. Most of Young's electric guitar work has been recorded using this instrument. Though he has used a variety of different instruments, this Les Paul has remained ubiquitous ...
, his famously customized
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
, with some acoustic guitar, piano and organ) as he watched the newly edited film alone in a
recording studio. The soundtrack album consists of seven instrumental tracks by Young, with dialog excerpts from the film and
Johnny Depp reading the poetry of
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
interspersed between the music. The version of the main theme used over the film's beginning and end credits is not included, but was released as a promo single. The soundtrack differs from the film in that it uses background noises of a driving car while the film is set in a time before automobiles were widely available.
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
ranked the soundtrack at 15 on their ''50 Best Movie Scores of All Time'' list, saying that "Old Black is featured in its purest form on the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s hallucinatory western Dead Man. Young’s low, ominous notes are inseparable from
Robby Müller’s striking black-and-white cinematography, lending an elemental pull to the increasingly strange odyssey of William Blake (Johnny Depp) and Nobody (Gary Farmer), Blake’s sardonic Native American guide."
Releases
The album was released in 1996 on CD and vinyl. In addition to a standard CD release, a "special edition" was released, which was bound in a customized cover. Made to look like a 19th-century photo album, the spine is covered in a mauve-brown cloth and the cover itself is a black laminated cardboard. The booklet normally included in the CD is bound in this "book" along with a cardboard folder to hold the disc itself.
A reissue of the album was released on 8 March 2019. In addition, the album is available for streaming in 24bit/44.1 kHz quality on
Neil Young Archives
The Neil Young Archives is a longtime project by singer-songwriter Neil Young. It started as a series of archival releases featuring previously released as well as unreleased studio and live recordings. It eventually developed into a website featur ...
website.
Track listing
Track names aren't listed anywhere on the physical copies of the album.
"Theme from Dead Man"
The main theme of the film, an instrumental tune featuring acoustic and electric guitar which plays during opening and closing credits, wasn't included on the soundtrack album (although the motif is reprised throughout it). It was only issued as a rare promo CD single before the album release.
A music video was also released, featuring excerpts of the film mixed with studio footage of Young recording the soundtrack.
References
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Neil Young soundtracks
Western film soundtracks
1996 soundtrack albums
Albums produced by Neil Young
Albums produced by John Hanlon
Experimental rock soundtracks