“Awakening”: Val Kilmer’s five favourite songs
People are always going to reflect upon the music they grew up listening to with a touch of nostalgia, and the way these early impressions shape your tastes and listening habits later in life is crucial to the development of a person’s identity. For a lot of people of a certain generation, the inescapable presence of The Beatles was sure to make a long-lasting impression on listeners, and they’re ultimately still regarded as saviours of music for those who grew up in the same era as the height of their popularity.
While they’re still highly regarded and celebrated by people who weren’t present for their rise to prominence in the 1960s, the level of fame that they achieved was due to the contemporary reception of their output rather than a retrospective appraisal. Had they not been the chart-topping tour de force that they were, there’s every chance that someone would have stumbled upon their works later down the line and hailed them for their groundbreaking music, but the way history panned out was that they were almost unavoidable for the best part of a decade.
It wasn’t just a handful of people enamoured by their work; it was virtually everyone. Regardless of your identity, background, or profession, you would have had some exposure to The Beatles if you were a conscious being in the ‘60s, and the figures of their record sales suggest that legions of listeners were being converted into fans without much persuasion being required.
Such was their influence that some younger listeners would have been inspired by listening to The Beatles to form bands or pick up their first instruments. Others may not have been so inclined, but would still have been obsessed to the point that they bought all of their records and created shrines to the band in their teenage bedrooms, abandoning goals of emulating them to focus on dedicated fandom.
While he may have been more frequently associated with The Doors, having portrayed Jim Morrison on screen, the late actor Val Kilmer was a self-confessed Beatles fanatic, and much like other impressionable kids of his age, was transported to another world by the works of the Liverpool foursome. Having been born at the tail end of the 1950s, he would have only been a youngster when they first emerged, but even a six-year-old Kilmer knew that he was listening to something special when he first heard their song, ‘Eleanor Rigby’.
In a radio broadcast where he picked his favourite songs for KCRW, the actor explained why this song touched him in a way like no other song. “That song, it’s two minutes,” he began, “And the way it starts, it’s this attack. There’s something about the energy which is rock n’ roll and then this subject grabbed me when I was a kid.”
Reflecting further on his song selection, Kilmer stated that it still stands out to him today for the nostalgic and formative value it holds for him. “I was born the last day of the 50’s so the seminal years of rock history, they were all crucial years in my life,” Kilmer explained. “‘Eleanor Rigby’, it kind of goes like most of my songs that I picked in my development and just awakening into artistic expression.” While it might not be a song that is entirely reflective of the band’s output, its uniqueness and punchy impact is what makes it such a timeless track for many listeners, especially Kilmer.
It was a song that opened up his worldview and welcomed him into the comforts of rock ‘n’ roll. Soon, he was also head over heels about Elton John. He singles out ‘Levon’ as another of his favourites. “Again, like ‘Eleanor Rigby’, it’s a story, but it’s non-linear in the way that Bernie Taupin writes these lyrics,” he said, showcasing his penchant for fiction that would eventually lead him towards a career in film. “It’s just one line and you’re – like rock n’ roll does – you’re just, you’re just into the world.”
Caught up in a frenzy of liberation, Kilmer went looking for tracks that could provide the same cold splash of water that The Beatles and Elton John had done. So, he looked back at their own hero, Bob Dylan, and once again he found inspiration. “What it did to me is it sort of broke the mould,” he said of ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ like Bob Dylan did with lots and lots of kinds of songs.”
The Heat star added: “A friend of mine, who was into first recordings, when Bob did his first record, was sitting in between him and Hammond and Paul Rothchild, who did the Doors records, and he said he never ever picked the best recorded song, never. It’s just not how he hears music. You know what we’re thinking of when I say ‘best’.”
With the classics accounted for, the only thing left for Kilmer to add to his rock ‘n’ roll arsenal was the exultation of a little bit of heaviness. He found that in Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Manic Depression’. It might be one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll songs ever written, but he doesn’t think it was written at all. “You’re just in a mood or you find out what’s really going on by just picking up an instrument and it just comes out through it,” Kilmer philosophically mused regarding its creation.
“So many, I would even say every great recording artist I’ve ever known, any great writer, they all say the exact same thing. They didn’t really write the song; they all say some version of, ‘I was a stenographer, I just wrote it down’,” he added. He also saw that same sense of divinity in the euphoric anthem ‘Stairway To Heaven’. It was this conduit to etherium that turned him onto Led Zeppelin.
Val Kilmer’s five favourite songs:
- 1. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ – The Beatles
- 2. ‘Levon’ – Elton John
- 3. ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ – Bob Dylan
- 4. ‘Manic Depression’ – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- 5. ‘Stairway To Heaven’ – Led Zeppelin
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