Brokeback Mountain Forum @ ennisjack.com
The Movie & Story => AP Short Story & Screenplay => Topic started by: proulxfan on Apr 06, 2006, 10:04 AM
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This is the music that Ms. Proulx says she listened to repeatedly when working on the difficult paragraph depicting Jack's "flashback", and says that to this day she cannot hear it without Ennis and Jack coming back to haunt her again. Upon hearing it, my first reaction was muted, but later I kept hearing it in my head, so it has that eerie parallel with the movie. Later I saw that it was written by Josh Haden, Charlie's son, and had lyrics-their version is instrumental as is the whole album-and when I saw the lyrics, OMG, major PBS! All I could think of was Jack's last moments on this earth. :'( :'( :'( Definitely recommended for hard-core Brokies though.
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Yes, a friend who loved this scene did not like 'Spiritual'. My initial reaction was also muted, BUT I AGREE PERFECTLY with you that there IS A PARALLEL with the scene. It is hard to explain. You have to listen to it many times...
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Yes, a friend who loved this scene did not like 'Spiritual'. My initial reaction was also muted, BUT I AGREE PERFECTLY with you that there IS A PARALLEL with the scene. It is hard to explain. You have to listen to it many times...
Agreed, it gets better with repeated listening. I love the dotted notes on guitar and cymbal, as if the music (and the memory?) is travelling across a vast span of space and/or time. Yup, now I got another thing to make me bawl; just what I needed!
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Agreed, it gets better with repeated listening. I love the dotted notes on guitar and cymbal, as if the music (and the memory?) is travelling across a vast span of space and/or time. Yup, now I got another thing to make me bawl; just what I needed!
Yes, you DO get the feeling of the traversing a vast span. Again, hard to describe to someone who has not yet heard it.
proulxfan, don't think I'm strange. I listened to this (the last track in the CD, correct?) many times while reading the passage over and over again.
I even tried to write the passage on my own just to try to see how it felt like.
I know, I can be a bit obsessed...
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tpe,
Yep, that's the track. And what position am I in to be judgemental about anyone else's obsession(s)?? I'm curious, how did it feel?
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tpe,
What position am I in to be judgemental about anyone else's obsession(s)?? And I'm curious, how did it feel?
It felt like you were Ennis and Jack in the flashback scene. The effect is quite different with the Santaolalla score. The latter was more intense and very moving (it brings tears to your eyes). The former was so peaceful and contented (it makes you smile with them).
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Interesting, as I have had both reactions while listening to that music, sometimes beautifully relaxed and blissful, other times, like I said, bawling like a baby. And did you ever connect the printed lyrics to Jack's death? Just wondering. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but his mom was a Pentecostal, and he might have said these words in his heart at the end. When I got that image, that's when I broke down.
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Interesting, as I have had both reactions while listening to that music, sometimes beautifully relaxed and blissful, other times, like I said, bawling like a baby. And did you ever connect the printed lyrics to Jack's death? Just wondering. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but his mom was a Pentecostal, and he might have said these words in his heart at the end. When I got that image, that's when I broke down.
proulxfan, the above comments moved me quite a lot. I have not really thought about it this way. That is certainly enough to make me cry...
That is quite a moving viewpoint, I must say.
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The most difficult scene was the paragraph where, on the mountain, Ennis holds Jack and rocks back and forth, humming, the moment mixed with childhood loss and his refusal to admit he was holding a man. This paragraph took forever to get right, and I played Charlie Haden's and Pat Metheny's Spiritual, from their album Beyond the Missouri Sky (short stories) uncountable times, trying to get the words. I was trying to write the inchoate feelings of Jack and Ennis, the sad impossibility of their liaison, which for me was expressed in that music. To this day, I cannot hear that track without Jack and Ennis appearing before me.
Annie Proulx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6i8bfwV-w&search=brokeback%20mountain
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The most difficult scene was the paragraph where, on the mountain, Ennis holds Jack and rocks back and forth, humming, the moment mixed with childhood loss and his refusal to admit he was holding a man. This paragraph took forever to get right, and I played Charlie Haden's and Pat Metheny's Spiritual, from their album Beyond the Missouri Sky (short stories) uncountable times, trying to get the words. I was trying to write the inchoate feelings of Jack and Ennis, the sad impossibility of their liaison, which for me was expressed in that music. To this day, I cannot hear that track without Jack and Ennis appearing before me.[/u][/b]
Annie Proulx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6i8bfwV-w&search=brokeback%20mountain
She is writing wordless poetry here.
Thanks frances.
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Later I saw that it was written by Josh Haden, Charlie's son, and had lyrics-their version is instrumental as is the whole album-and when I saw the lyrics, OMG, major PBS! All I could think of was Jack's last moments on this earth.
Here are the lyrics referenced above:
Jesus, I don't want to die alone
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone
My love wasn't true
Now all I have is you
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone
Jesus, if you hear my last breath
Don't leave me here
Left to die a lonely death
I know I have sinned
But Lord I'm suffering
Jesus, oh Jesus, if you hear
My last breath.
All my troubles
All my pain
Will leave me
Once again
Once again
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Thanks, Frances, for that wonderful link! That is quite beautifully done.
Thank you also, Glacier 1, for correcting my omission. As I said above the combination of the lyrics with the music had a powerful emotional impact for me, almost too much so, and I wasn't sure how they would come across in the absence of the music, but now with the addition of the link above, everyone here can have access to both.
PS: I also link the lyrics in my mind to the image of Matthew Shephard, alone, beaten and tied to that lonely Wyoming fence in the middle of nowhere... It's why I can't dwell on this music too long...
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Thanks, Frances, for that wonderful link! That is quite beautifully done.
Thank you also, Glacier 1, for correcting my omission. As I said above the combination of the lyrics with the music had a powerful emotional impact for me, almost too much so, and I wasn't sure how they would come across in the absence of the music, but now with the addition of the link above, everyone here can have access to both.
PS: I also link the lyrics in my mind to the image of Matthew Shephard, alone, beaten and tied to that lonely Wyoming fence in the middle of nowhere... It's why I can't dwell on this music too long...
I say thank to you all.
The lyrics do give a more forceful impact.
proulxfan, your association of the lyrics with Matthew Shephard is powerful.
Crucifixus...
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I am a Pat Metheny fan and I never realized that he had his hand in this creation! I read a few weeks ago the comment by AP with regard to the moment reflected by Jack of him and Ennis.
"Spiritual" is a great title for the piece but the lyrics to the piece are difficult to read through without shedding a tear or 2...
:'(
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An old thread but one worth revisiting. The connection here is so strong. I listen to “Spiritual” almost everyday just to hear Ennis’s watch -
They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis's pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. . . . .
You can hear Ennis’s watch in the music. Listen, and at about 1:22 into the song (or at about 15 sec into the YouTube video link) it comes in, can't miss it. You'll hear what Annie heard, what must have helped inspire her words here.
This video grabs me every time and every time I hear this music I see Ennis & Jack standing there holding on for dear life - as time ticks away.
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi139.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fq313%2Fjackster545%2FDozySite.jpg&hash=01d8d91bc37e1ddc67ad66e8728c341fb51c5028)
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Hi
New here, first post.
This is Spiritual with the words from the story over the frames...talk about sad. But very beautiful
Brokeback Mountain (flashback) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxW0npSi9U0#lq-hq)
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butlersfantasy, welcome and thanks so much for the video.
My heart aches just from watching it. "...Let be...let be." :_(
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Here are the lyrics referenced above:
Jesus, I don't want to die alone
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone
My love wasn't true
Now all I have is you
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone
Jesus, if you hear my last breath
Don't leave me here
Left to die a lonely death
I know I have sinned
But Lord I'm suffering
Jesus, oh Jesus, if you hear
My last breath.
All my troubles
All my pain
Will leave me
Once again
Once again
Poor Jack, alone when he died, and poor Ennis too in this song. But maybe Jack is waiting for him...
Do the one we love and are gone before us, waiting for us in heaven? That scares me, will they be there or did they already leave somewhere else? Should I have gone with them immediately rather than wait and be separated forever? I did not have the balls, too late now! Jesus is certainly really nice but he never answers. I still love him.
Thank to you all for song, lyric and videos.
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Poor Jack, alone when he died, and poor Ennis too in this song. But maybe Jack is waiting for him...
Do the one we love and are gone before us, waiting for us in heaven? That scares me, will they be there or did they already leave somewhere else? Should I have gone with them immediately rather than wait and be separated forever? I did not have the balls, too late now! Jesus is certainly really nice but he never answers. I still love him.
Thank to you all for song, lyric and videos.
Maybe the answers are inside us and we must look for them ourselves...Anyhow,I love the way you have expressed it ˇ.And I love the song too; very BBM and,for this same reason,very sad... :_(
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Anyhow,I love the way you have expressed it ˇ.
Thank you! You know it's hard for me to express what is on my mind and what I'ld like to say. Not enough english words and I don't understand all subtlesties of the Brokies posts. So it's hard for me to share in all topics of this forum .
very BBM and,for this same reason,very sad... :_(
How a love story can becom a sad story? Spiritua
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Sorry, I have touched a bad touch!
Spiritual means God and God means Love. And I'm angry that the humans who believe in God, let a love story be a sad story. ^*)
Thank you MPJ to understand what I mean. :^^) ^f^