Vale Angelo...

Friday is fun because it's music. Playlists galore. Bittersweet today, I guess. As we farewell a favourite. But thank you Mr. Badalamenti for all of that wonderful music.

I was so sad to hear of the passing of Angelo Badalamenti. For many, his is the sound of David Lynch. Theirs was a collaboration stretching across four decades, and changing the way we heard and viewed both TV and cinema. Lynch might not have meant as much without Badalamenti. And though Angelo has several other key credits as part of his legacy there were none more important than his work with – and for – David Lynch.

They’d sit at the keyboard together and make music. But more than that, they’d make David’s mind-images come to life; they’d take music as a starting point for scenes and characters, or place ideas from films into a new context via the music.

But the best of Badalamenti’s music – with and without Lynch – stands up as music on its own; doesn’t always need the filmed images for which it was composed.

You’ll know from your own listening, and viewing, that this is no mean feat.

You’ll know, too, from reading any of my music-based newsletters here, that I am obsessed with movie music. Right now, my favourite ‘genre’ is movie scores. They are my tonic. I start the day with a score or two, usually on CD, sometimes on vinyl, sometimes just firing up Spotify, Bandcamp or YouTube. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, it’s what happens when I’m hearing it. This is my classical music. This is my jazz. This is my soundtrack for how I start the day.

And then throughout the day I’m listening to film scores, sometimes that’s all I play. For hours.

I have my favourites. And I’m always trying new things. I have even got over the idea that you need to see the film – some of my favourite film scores now are for movies I’ll likely never see.

But the best of Angelo Badalementi’s contributions to the film scoring world will always be right up there among my very favourites.

Not a week goes by when I don’t listen to something he created.

It's usually Twin Peaks – which I own on vinyl and CD. It’s sometimes Blue Velvet too. And then there’s Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, and I’m just naming the Lynch stuff.

But the one that hits me hardest, the one I love the most, and play most often, is the music for The Straight Story.

That film sits with me still. Forever. And I’ve only seen it once. I keep thinking about how it’s probably a great time in my life to rewatch it, and to own it even – it’s actually a rare commodity on DVD at this time, if you can believe that – and yet I also love the memory of having just seen the film one time, and forever carrying that.

The music helps to bring the film back to me. But it also offers its own calm, its own balm. It is just a part of my life now – somehow also completely separate from the film.

And the other score I love almost equally is Badalamenti’s work for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

I would have loved this without knowing who Angelo Badalamenti was. I would have heard this before I heard any of his other work. This film is probably the single most important horror film in my life, and certainly one of the ones I’ve seen the most. I think of it not even as a horror film. To me it’s just one of the very best movies I’ve ever seen; such was its impact at a formative time. And I’ve watched it several times as an adult and it still hits.

So, for those two scores alone, the lost off Badalamenti would have been enormous enough. But then there’s the other Lynch projects I’ve mentioned – and maybe I’ve listened to Twin Peaks more than I ever have in the last two years. Then there’s his work with Jane Campion, Joel Schumacher, Paul Schrader and many others. Heck, I even got to Norman Mailer’s bizarre, bonkers, kinda-brilliant autobiographical-vehicle, Tough Guys Don’t Dance (it’s actually based on a novel, but it’s Mailer’s novel, and somehow he decided that made him a filmmaker) because Badalamenti created the music.

So it’s such an enormous contribution.

His interview sequence where he explains his process with David Lynch is so compelling, he is so beautifully intense and warm and so filled with creative spirit. It’s a heartening clip that I frequently rewatch.

And then, Nicolas Jaar made it the intro to his brilliant Essential Mix – which I know I’ve shared with you before, but if you’ve never heard it, let this be how you end your week, or start your weekend…

So, a bit of Angelo love to end the week.

And also I’m on holiday!

Sending you this from a whistlestop in Auckland. I’ll be back home in Wellington, I’ll head to Hawke’s Bay for Christmas, I’ll be in the Wairarapa for a bit too, then Wellington again, a month of drifting. But I’ll keep writing to you – and for you – if you keep reading. So check the app, or your inbox…and we can carry this on.

I’ve also made a playlist that has absolutely nothing to do with Angelo Badalamenti, but everything to do with giving you some more music that might trigger film memories, and should help with easing you into your weekend. This is the 95th playlist in the ongoing series.

Vale Angelo.

And a happy weekend to you all.