“He was unique”: David Lynch’s favourite David Bowie song
Music was always a vital part of David Lynch’s creativity. It played a huge role in his movies as songs often took on a central position in key scenes, like the use of Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me’ in Wild At Heart or ‘Blue Velvet’ lending its title to Blue Velvet. Lynch himself made music and shot music videos, and was a huge all-around music fan. Certain elements of his taste were surprising, but his love for some artists made unquestionable sense, such as David Bowie.
Lynch’s legacy is so looming yet singular that they had to make a word for it: ‘Lynchian’. Now, things can have absolutely nothing to do with the director but still be part of his legacy simply by referencing his work in some stylistic way. To be Lynchian is to be glamorous yet uncanny, beautiful but unsettling, funny in moments but always in a slightly odd way. Or Lynchian can be a colour palette, rich reds and blues, and neon lights, or it can be a characterisation, a person with allure but a deep mystery to them.
Sure, a lot of David Bowie’s work came first, so perhaps it’s Bowie that was the inspiration. But looking back, there are so many Lynchian qualities to Bowie’s career that it’s easy to see why the director felt such a love for and kinship with the artist.
The strangeness of personas like Aladdin Sane or The Thin White Duke feels Lynchian as Bowie took the idea of a rockstar—something typically wholly seductive and gorgeous—and made it slightly off-putting. With the hyper-focus on aesthetics and glamour, and the way that visuals were such a vital part of his work, that too feels Lynchian, as the message in both of their art often came down solely to the images people saw.
Eventually, the two artists would come together. Their friendship was one built on complete mutual admiration and exchange of inspiration. Bowie loved Lynch’s films, in particular, Eraserhead, which stayed with him from the moment he saw it. So later down the line, when he was cast in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, it was a dream come true to be directed by one of his favourites.
But it was a dream realised for Lynch, too, who was a huge Bowie fan. “He was unique, like Elvis was unique,” Lynch said of the singer, continuing, “There’s something about him that’s so different from everybody else.” Of Bowie’s work, it was the song ‘I’m Deranged’ that spoke to Lynch, naturally. Picked from his 1995 album Outside, the song resonated so much with the director’s creativity that he featured it in The Lost Highway, combining their two artistic worlds once again.
Pairing gloomy, mysterious lyrics with an oddly upbeat, high-octane instrumental, the song nails the weird dichotomy that Lynch was all about. It’s glamorous and a little creepy, stylistic and strange; it’s the perfect soundtrack for a Lynch movie, made by a perfect artist in his eyes.
