David Lynch names “one of the most beautiful songs ever”
A strange beauty finds its way into everything David Lynch creates. From the striking, spirit-dwelling red room featured in Twin Peaks to the memorable mutant baby in Eraserhead, the fantastical filmmaker has always found beauty in the surreal. This stands true in his other artistic endeavours, too. His ventures into painting and music have proven to be just as bizarrely enchanting as his work on-screen.
The artist has honed such a distinctive style that only the word “Lynchian” would suffice to aptly describe it. Indicating a work of art marked out by a dark dreaminess and a sense of the uncanny, the term has become almost as widely used as Kafkaesque. Lynch’s style is so singular that it almost escapes comparison, but that’s not to say that the beauty of his predecessors hasn’t influenced the filmmaker.
When Lynch’s work appeared at the Manchester International Festival in the summer of 2019, the cinema section included a number of films that inspired the director, including Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. During a conversation with The Guardian, Lynch deemed the musical a “cosmic film and meaningful on many, many different levels,” but he was particularly enthusiastic about one element in particular.
“‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is one of the most beautiful songs ever,” he declared. Penned by Harold Arlen and Yip Harbug, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ was intentionally written to feature in the film. The song won the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Song’ in 1939 and has since been taken on by the likes of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and Cliff Richard.
Rising over orchestral swells, Judy Garland took on the vocals as a despairing Dorothy. The imagery in ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is often soft and sweet, marked by rainbows and lemon drops. But as Garland’s voice longs for the lands depicted in lullabies, it is easy to see how the song might match up to the eerie dreaminess of Lynch’s own artistic interests.
The lyrics are filled to the brim with yearning, hopeful to find something beyond life in Kansas or, perhaps, something beyond life altogether. That place over the rainbow could refer to the Emerald City, or it could represent life after death. As the song has come to be a staple at funerals, it’s at once beautiful and melancholic.
Lynch’s assertion is most certainly correct, as the song has become one of the most well-known and well-loved compositions of all time. Revisit it below.
