The Neil Young song that left a whole crew in tears but lost an Oscar: “Neil Young trusts this movie more than I do”
There’s a certain glamour to Hollywood that is often bemoaned by those who are ensconced in it. “It’s not all glitz and glam,” they protest. But when you look at awards shows or endlessly supplied freebies, it is difficult not to find yourself dreaming. But perhaps the greatest magic trick most movies can pull off is pulling out the finest musicians the world has to offer in a drop of the hat. That’s certainly how things turned out for Jonathan Demme when he sent a hopeful note to Neil Young.
Philadelphia remains one of the defining moments of the AIDS epidemic. The picture pushed the crisis into the collective consciousness, and Tom Hanks’ portrayal of Andrew Becket, a gay attorney suffering from the disease, challenged societal norms on both HIV/AIDS and homophobia. It was one of the first mainstream movies to show gay people in a positive light and was rightly recognised at awards season, with Hanks picking up ‘Best Actor’ for his efforts.
One of the standout moments from Demme’s production was his bookending of the picture with two incredible pieces of music from the pantheon of America’s greatest songwriters, as the director aimed at the mainstream music world as well as Hollywood. While Bruce Springsteen would provide the song for the movie’s more hopeful opening, it would be Young who would take on the far more melancholy ending of the picture with his song ‘Philadelphia’.
A touching track, Demme said of reaching out to Young to Rolling Stone: “I thought, what we need is the most up-to-the-minute, guitar-dominated American-rock anthem about injustice to start the movie off. Who can do that? Neil Young can do that. So, we edited a title sequence to ‘Southern Man’ to help him see how his music could power the images we were working with. He said, ‘I’ll try.'”
Young was still one of the most beloved rockers of his day at the time, so moving back into the space of a ballad was a little more tricky than expected. The original melody came to Demme fairly quickly, but he didn’t quite connect with it. Young was undergoing a reunion with his band Crazy Horse at the time, and the original melody was a little too peaceful for the director, who called it “too pretty”. Demme asked the songwriter to portray himself in the song as Andrew Beckett, a lost man now facing a dark future. What came back was some of Young’s finest work.
Demme continued with Rolling Stone: “Six weeks later, ‘Hi, it’s Neil, I’m sending a tape.’ So in comes this song. We were crying the first time we heard it. I went: “Oh, my God, Neil Young trusts this movie more than I do.”
It’s an extremely moving piece of work, and it certainly deserved its spot in the nominations list for ‘Best Original Song’ at the Oscars that year. Young even performed the track at the event, singing it solo accompanied only by a grand piano. However, in a somewhat cruel twist of fate, Springsteen’s more lively opener would take the award home, perhaps showcasing the Academy’s preference for hope.
So, if you ever come across someone in the film industry, agree that life isn’t about awards shows or goodie bags. You get into making movies, so you can call Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen to write you a couple of tunes.
