David Lynch explains how Jimi Hendrix “took it to another level”
Since the 1960s, David Lynch has been making movies that have challenged even the most open-minded cinephiles. His love of the surreal has made him an auteur, with his style instantly recognisable – dreamlike, uncanny, and often horrifying.
He rose to prominence with his experimental horror film Eraserhead, which has since become a cult classic, before earning critical acclaim with his emotionally devastating movie The Elephant Man. From Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, Lynch’s oeuvre is impressive, to say the least. Each film is pulled from deep within his mind; he’s crafted a world for his bizarre characters to inhabit, full of mystery and allure.
Music is vital to these worlds, and Lynch often collaborated with Angelo Badalamenti to create soundtracks that perfectly suited his films. When he’s not using an original score, Lynch often selects songs that seem as though they were specifically made for one of his movies, such as cuts by Lou Reed, David Bowie, Chris Isaak, Nine Inch Nails and Beck.
The director clearly has a significant interest in music; in fact, it appears to be one of his other main passions besides filmmaking and painting. Throughout the years, Lynch has released various albums, produced records (such as Floating in the Night by Julee Cruise), and worked on music for his films. He released his debut, BlueBOB, in 2001 before releasing Crazy Clown Time in 2011 and The Big Dream in 2013.
Talking to The Quietus, Lynch shared how much he loves a particular instrument. “I like basically the sound of an electric guitar. That is one of the most thrilling things ever invented.” The multi-disciplinary artist loves letting loose on a guitar, explaining, “Yeah, it’s great to light it up and hit it and it’s just – it doesn’t get much better than that!”
There seems to be one guitarist who truly cemented the young Lynch’s love of the instrument: the legendary musician Jimi Hendrix. Surprisingly, Hendrix has never been featured on the soundtrack of any of Lynch’s films, but he remains an enduring symbol of progression and innovation for him.
“Well, I grew up in the ’50s, and that’s the birth of rock and roll, so all the rock and roll riffs were completely thrilling to me. Jimi Hendrix jumped that,” Lynch explained. “It was like he lit the after-burners on the same essence that was born out of rock and roll, the combo of rockabilly and rhythm and blues and blues… and then Jimi Hendrix came along and took it to another level.”
For Lynch, Hendrix was a true master who constantly tried to move guitar music forward. His approach to music was revolutionary, blending genres and injecting many of his songs with an innate sexiness that fitted perfectly into the hippie era, which promoted free love. He transformed rock, inspiring many to take an unconventional approach to guitar playing, instantly attracting Lynch as a young man. He even performed one of Lynch’s favourite songs, ‘Wild Thing’, telling Pitchfork, “It just drives me crazy how great” it is.
Perhaps Lynch will eventually use a Hendrix song in a film or television series, although the director hasn’t released a project for quite some time.
