The 1964 song that David Lynch was obsessed with: “A very sad, tragic story”
For David Lynch, music was always a vital component of his work. In fact, it was the very thing that elevated his films to even greater heights, and that’s because he worked so closely with his musical collaborators, often contributing to the creation of his soundtracks.
I mean, who can forget the video of Angelo Badalamenti describing when he and Lynch made ‘Laura Palmer’s Theme’? Lynch’s guidance was essential, and as a result, his work always contained the perfect musical accompaniments – he kept his collaborators close, reuniting with Badalamenti many times over his career, while he also struck up a partnership with Dean Hurley, who worked on Inland Empire and Twin Peaks: The Return.
With Hurley, Lynch found someone who totally understood his artistic vision and his interest in mixing genres like blues and industrial rock to form this surreal, dark sound that, just like his visual art, had a strong idiosyncratic quality – together, they made music that was dreamy, teetering on nightmarish, but all-consuming, nonetheless.
For Lynch’s second solo album, The Big Dream, Hurley actually suggested that Lynch record a cover to include among their original material, which was a bold choice. You see, Lynch always works best with his own ideas, just look at Dune versus Mulholland Drive, for example. Yet, when Hurley posed the idea of Lynch covering Bob Dylan’s ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’ from The Times They Are A-Changin’, what transpired was a uniquely Lynchian version of the song, which has long captivated the filmmaker.
It’s a tragic song, filled with utter despair for society’s failure. Dylan released the song in 1964, using his incredible storytelling skills to describe a man living in extreme poverty with his wife and five kids – struggling to find work, to secure food and clean water, and reckoning with the endless cries of his hungry children, Hollis Brown eventually spends the only money he has left on shotgun shells, killing the whole family.
The final lines are haunting, with Dylan singing, “There’s seven people dead on a South Dakota farm/Somewhere in the distance there’s seven new people born.” The cycle continues. The track has been covered by many famous artists over the years, and Lynch was actually inspired by Nina Simone’s interpretation, with the filmmaker telling Loud and Quiet, “Big Dean Hurley drew me to that song, and he said, ‘you should think about doing this’, and we did it.”
“It was guided by a Nina Simone version. I really like the song, it’s a great story. A very sad, tragic story, but unfortunately it’s really relevant today.”
David Lynch
In Lynch and Hurley’s hands, the track takes on an even darker sonic palette, with thumping bass and mysterious guitars that sound like they’re ringing out from some seedy back alley beside a run-down bar with flickering neon signs.
You can imagine a scene from one of Lynch’s movies playing out with this evocative soundtrack in the background – a man at wit’s end, with utter hopelessness the only answer. It’s the ultimate take-down of the American Dream, a theme that defined Lynch’s entire oeuvre.
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