Carrie Fisher’s favourite song of all time was a heartbreak classic
Carrie Fisher rose to global stardom portraying Princess Leia in George Lucas’ three original Star Wars films. After an early peak, Fisher made occasional appearances, including those in Hannah and Her Sisters, The Burbs, When Harry Met Sally, and Soapdish.
As well as the daunting burden of the Star Wars typecast, Fisher’s career prospects over the late 1980s and beyond were hampered by a struggle with bipolar disorder and a difficult relationship with substance abuse. In the latter years of her career, Fisher received praise for speaking publicly about her experiences with mental disorder and addiction and wrote several highly impactful books, including Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking.
In December 2016, aged 60, Fisher sadly died four days after falling unconscious on a flight from London to Los Angeles. The cause of death was identified to have been from a convergence of factors, including cardiac arrest and asphyxiation due to sleep apnea. A full coroner’s report released six months after Fisher’s death detailed that Fisher had cocaine in her system, as well as traces of heroin, other opiates, and MDMA at the time of death.
In 2018, on the two-year anniversary of her mother’s death, Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, posted on Instagram to pay a touching tribute. Lourd filmed herself in a Christmas scene as she sat at a piano and sang Jackson Browne’s ‘These Days’, citing the classic as one of her late mother’s all-time favourite songs.
The post’s caption read: “It has been two years since my Momby’s death and I still don’t know what the ‘right’ thing to do on a death anniversary is (I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way about your loved ones).”
Adding: “So I decided to do something a little vulnerable for me, but something we both loved to do together – sing,” she continued. “This is the piano her father gave her and this was one of her favourite songs. And as the song says, we must ‘keep on moving.’”
Billie Lourd continued to say, “I’ve found that what keeps me moving is doing things that make me happy, working hard on the things that I’m passionate about and surrounding myself with people I love and making them smile. I hope this encourages anyone feeling a little low or lost to ‘keep on moving’. As my Momby once said, ‘take your broken heart and turn it into art’ – whatever that art may be for you.”
The track is a bout as close to the purest recollection of heartbreak as pop music has produced. Written by Browne when he was just a teenager, the tune is achingly beautiful as it captures those first moments of aterial disruption. “That can be the most formative time in your life,” Browne explained shortly after the track was released, “Trying to get through your early years is a harrowing experience for a lot of people.”
Though as time moved on Browne would change the lyrics, “Over the rest of my teenage years and into my 20s I developed a kind of optimism, a kind of resoluteness, so I changed it to ‘I’ll keep on moving, keep improving,'” he said. “That’s more to me what life is made of, the idea that I’ll get through this, I’ll continue looking.”
But it is still one of the more delicately balanced heartbreak anthems we’ve ever heard. It feels particularly poignant that Fisher should find some joy in the track. Only 19 when she became the iconic Princess Leia, Fisher famously fell in love with her co-star Harrison Ford. While we can’t be sure if there is any connection between this relationship and her love of the tune, the timing suggests there may have been some crossover.
Later marrying Paul Simon, Fisher’s connection with music seems a pure one. This was demonstrated further when she housed James Blunt as he wrote and recorded his mega-hit debut Back to Bedlam. Whichever way you look at it, Fisher clearly knew a good song when she heard one.
