The Musical Score

[crcj]

I have not found the lyrics anywhere on-line.  But I wanted to share the lyrics to "Don't Want to Say Goodbye" with a friend, so I captured them myself.  I think the song is more powerful with the music.  ("A Love That Will Never Grow Old" is beautiful either way.)  Here they are:

I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye

I don’t want to say goodbye,
Let the stars shine through.
I don’t want to say goodbye,
All I want to do is live with you.

Just like the light of the morning,
After the darkness has gone.
Shadow of my love is falling,
On a place where the sun always shone.
Don’t you know that’s where our hearts both belong?

Cause, I don’t want to say goodbye,
Let the stars shine through.
No, I don’t want to say goodbye,
All I want to do is live with you.

Together our two hearts are strong,
Don’t you know that’s where our hearts both belong?

Cause, I don’t want to say goodbye,
Let the stars shine through.
I don’t want to say goodbye,
All I want to do is live with you.
All I want to do is live with you.

[rickpouch]

THANKS CRCJ !

I'm still searching the web for the others.

Rich (Chicago)

[Delmar]

wow...just come back from my 6th viewing of the film. The song "A love that will never grow old" won a golden globe yet can only be heard very very briefly when Jack is driving away from Ennis after enni's divorce. Such a shame and waste of a good song. In my opinion it would have best been played during the shirt scene at the end.

[sylvia]

As a musician by profession, I am always intrigued with the musical score when watching a film.  The impact of this score almost goes unnoticed ... it's there to enhance but not get in the way.  Gustavo Santaolalla has done this beautifully in BBM.  The music he used in the bar/restaurant scenes is obvious country fair and fits the atmosphere well.  What I am most intrigued with is the rest of the score .  There is not much in the way of lush orchestration. He uses it sparingly, mainly to enhance large scenic shots. Otherwise, the music itself is almost minimalistic in nature.  Simple is the word ... and fits the simplicity of the way of  life in rural Wyoming.  In these moments, the music is sparse .... often only a guitar .... two or three voices intertwined with each other.  The timing and entry of the music is so subtle that one almost doesn't even realize it's there.  If you listen carefully enough, Santaolalla foreshadows emotionally pivotal moments in the story.  One that comes to mind is the scene near the end of the movie when Ennis is about to discover the shirts in Jack's closet.  As Ennis is kneeling in the closet and is about to discover them, there is a single note ... plucked on the guitar. It's as though at that very moment, Ennis sees the shirts, and the realization of their meaning all comes together.  There are moments like this sprinkled throughout the movie. 

In an interview of Santaolalla that I read, he stated that the scoring of most movies is done after the entire film has been shot.  He is sent the first cut of the film ... watches it and then starts composing.  BBM was different.  He and Ang Lee met before the film was shot ... he read the screenplay and talked with Lee about what he wanted to convey ... scene by scene.  It was after this conversation that Santaolalla set pen to paper.  Next time you see BBM, listen carefully to the score .... to the sparseness of the writing and the exquisite timing.  It's truly amazing writing.

There is so much more to the music that I could talk about but I'll spare you all .... at least for the moment.

I totally agree. The theme on the mountain creates a feeling of the open, the freedom which they feel together. And when the rfrain is repeated after their reunion as they head back up to the mountains I felt the relief they felt at being back together, because the music added to that feeling.

[M. Alexander]

Jim,

Please don't apologize. You are not rambling - you are illuminating. Your observations are right on the money and it is wonderful to hear your insights. I love the way GS progresses through the three different Brokeback Mountain themes. Each one more complex, building on the idyllic Eden-like simplicity of the 1st theme. I also love the final chords of each of these themes. In the movie when we hear that first final note of the 1st theme it has been edited to coincide precisely after the shot of Jack looking down at Ennis in camp in the darkness. The harmonic "ping" sounds just as the sun rises on the next day. A new beginning, a quivering note... hope? The second theme comes in when time has passed and immediately we know more complexity and more texture has colored the relationship because more instrumental voices - strings - surround our lonely boys theme. Their world has become more difficult and more sad. Any hopefulness that might have existed has been replaced with a more somber character which the orchestration fully displays. The final chord? This time the solitary "ping" seems to be two chords, blended, sadly.. The final theme is much like the 2nd but even more muted and somber. Almost a dirge. The final notes - three. The cycle has come to a close. Amazing, truthful music applied perfectly to the story we have just witnessed. When have we heard insights from a composer like this in a movie?? I can't recall..

How I hope this score is honored at the Academy Awards, but whether it is or not does not diminish it's incredible power.

[andrew]

Here's the link to an NPR interview with Gustavo Santaolalla

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5044116

He talks about a lot of things, including composing the music first so that it could be an inspiration to Ang in the creation of the film.

[peteinportland]

To answer an earlier question, I did notice a Musical Supervisor credited.

OK, all you sleuths. Does anyone know what song is playing on the radio while Jack and Lureen are making out?

Jim,thanks for your insights. Andrew, thanks for the link.

[sandyday]

i can't seem to find this out.

did rufus write his song specifically for brokeback, like, after reading the script, or did he already have the song written and it was included?

this would really shed some illumination on the song--and his process on making it.

also--the willie nelson song was already written a long time, ago, right? a bob dylan song?

does anyone know if emmylou watched the movie first before she sang the song that gustavo & bernie wrote? anyone know if any of the songs were written *after* the songwriters/singers *watched* a rough cut or read story or screenplay? it's just that rufus' song is so heartbreaking, i can't help but feel he knew jack n ennis.

[michelle]

Listening to the soundtrack, all this week, and seeing the movie again last night, I was blown away by the way Ang repeatedly uses the songs  to create the emotional subtext of a scene. Four that come to mind:

I will never let you go (just the music, not the lyrics) is playing in the background at the bar, when Lureen comes over and comes on to Jack, asking him what he's waiting for, "a mating call?" (lol!) 

No one's gonna love you like me is the song Lureen and Jack first danse to, and Jack is all smiles, except for the final frame of the scene, when we see his face (and the back of Lureen's head), and an indescribable sadness comes into his eyes as the singer wails the words "so sad and lonely"... We know in that instant that Jack is missing Ennis.

King of the Road is playing on the car radio and Jack sings along, mad with joy as he "redlines" toward Ennis, after the divorce. That song begins with "Trailers for sale or rent..." Jack is thinking they'll go away, even live in a trailer, it doesn't matter, as long as they are together, which makes the ending, with Ennis alone in his sad, run-down trailer, all the more tragic.

A love that will never grow old is playing on the car radio as Jack heads back toTexas, in tears and reeling from having been turned away by Ennis. He is in agony, but his love overwhelms him, unlike the older Jack, who has become so embittered  that he can't even cry any longer.

I don't want to say goodbye is the song that is playing when Jack danses with Randall's wife, so once again we know his thoughts are far away, that he is brooding over Ennis ("I don't want to say goodbye, I just want to live with you...")

[lyle]

Does anyone know why Water Walking Jesus isn't on the OST CD? It was written for the film so surely it couldn't be a matter of not clearing copyright. I'm interested coz it's the only song in the film with lyrics by Annie Proulx.

By the way I'm writing this from Australia, and today, believe or not, is opening day of the film. Been kinda exhilarating and frustrating at the same time reading this forum. But my buddies and I are seeing it this afternoon. I'll be all caught up then!

Lyle

[sandyday]

hey guys n gals,

you know that awesome BBM disco remix that dave has linked on the music section of this site? it's not playing the remix anymore, it's some other song now. and on the original website it's not playing anymore. i really wanted to listen to it again, but couldn't see if it was downloadable.... anyone?

[chaya]

And Jim, please talk about it all you want to - I'd love to hear the insights of a musical professional about this score.

ok folks ... by all means, let me know if I'm getting to technical or boring you! .....

OK ... gosh, I feel as though I've really rambled here. Sorry if I've been too technical. I guess you can tell I'm pretty passionate about this! ... and of course, there's more from where all of this came from ... but once again, I'll spare you for the moment.

Thanks so much for your insights, it wasn't at all technical or boring! It's an amazing score that so completely embraces, moves the story. There's nothing "background" about the music, it's an organic part of the story and the telling of it. It will really bug me if BBM doesn't win an Oscar for best musical score. I mean John Williams, come on, he's got a bunch of Oscars already...

[BillyBobcat]

I'm really disappointed that the song "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" was not included on the soundtrack CD.  It is such a poignant  distillation of what is happening at that moment as Jack seeks relief in the Mexican night:

"Quizas, Quizas, Quizas"

English lyrics:

You won't admit you love me and so
How am I ever to know
You only tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

A million times I ask you and then
I ask you over again
You only answer
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

The songs that weave themselves into the fabric of the film are the words that Jack and Ennis might have said to each if they could have found the words.  This one scores a bullseye and should have been included on the CD.  (If choices had to be made, perhaps it could have replaced "It's So Easy"?)

[Ross:Broken]

I'm really disappointed that the song "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" was not included on the soundtrack CD.  It is such a poignant  distillation of what is happening at that moment as Jack seeks relief in the Mexican night:

"Quizas, Quizas, Quizas"

English lyrics:

You won't admit you love me and so
How am I ever to know
You only tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

A million times I ask you and then
I ask you over again
You only answer
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

The songs that weave themselves into the fabric of the film are the words that Jack and Ennis might have said to each if they could have found the words.  This one scores a bullseye and should have been included on the CD.  (If choices had to be made, perhaps it could have replaced "It's So Easy"?)

I agree..."It's So Easy" feels so incongruous with the rest of the soundtrack...with that dreamy, emotional score and all those torch songs and heartbreakers, what is that song doing there?

[Scoutjr]

Gnash was kind enought to post these lyrics in the Ennis and Cassie thread, and I think they belong here as well. They are the lyrics to the song "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers. This is the song Ennis plays on the jukebox in the scene with him, Cassie, and Alma Jr. The lyrics spooked the hell out of me (still do) as they speak to the entire movie.

Wow, you're good.