Movie Music Monday: Covering the main title theme of Twin Peaks (& Fire Walk with Me)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 29 is day that me and my fellow 20-year-plus-and-counting obsessive fans of David Lynch and Mark Frost's seminal 1990-1991 television serial Twin Peaks have been waiting for: the release of CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution's exhaustively comprehensive Blu-ray set, which also includes Lynch's 1992 feature film prequel Fire Walk with Me. Reinforcing the ongoing influence of a series that ran a mere 30 episodes on network television and spawned a movie that was a commercial failure and, at the time, a critical one as well (though the ensuing years has brought on a fair amount of reassessment and appreciation), Angelo Badalamenti's Grammy-winning theme song for the television series, "Falling," has been covered a multitude of times and in a multitude of ways; even its far lesser known film counterpart, "Theme from Twin Peaks--Fire Walk with Me"/"She Would Die for Love", has also received the cover treatment. Here are a few of my favorites.

Max Lilja plays a stunningly impassioned rendition on his cello (with nicely produced video to match):

Jason Torbert, a.k.a. Goddamn Electric Bill, recorded a faithful yet uniquely dreamy take:

Mr. Piano Solo plays the tune on a keyboard directly from the Black Lodge, also segueing into "Laura Palmer's Theme":

A lovely version on the flute:

Rod Thomas, a.k.a. Bright Light Bright Light, does a rare male vocal cover (though he gets a lyric wrong; it should be "Then your touch so warm"):

An unconventional cover by Lex Land and Gavin Caselton (even if the lyrics in the final verse are wrong; it should be "Are we falling in love"):

Fantômas recorded and released this incredibly intense version of the Fire Walk with Me title tune on their 2001 album The Director's Cut, with an appropriately ghoulish official video that gives new meaning to "She Would Die for Love":

Finally, the Danish DJ project going by the name of (yes) One-Eyed Jacks recorded this version of the "Falling" for the clubs in 1991. Even more, shall we say, interesting than the brief rap interlude is the track's official video:

The Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery Blu-ray set will be released tomorrow, Tuesday, July 29, 2014 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution.

Buy the Twin Peaks television soundtrack here.
Buy the Twin Peaks--Fire Walk with Me motion picture soundtrack here.
Buy the Twin Peaks: Season Two Music and More television soundtrack here.
Buy the Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery Blu-ray set here.

Movie Music Monday: Laura Palmer would die for love

With the long-awaited release of the comprehensive Blu-ray set announced by CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution last Thursday, May 15 -- my birthday, appropriately enough -- I've had my favorite television series of all time, David Lynch and Mark Frost's still-influential 1990-1991 ABC serial drama Twin Peaks, on the forefront of my mind the last few days--largely in the form of music. Anyone who has any vague familiarity with the series and its 1992 feature film prequel, Fire Walk with Me, knows that its ever-enduring legacy owes as much to Angelo Badalamenti's spectacular score as it does Lynch's abstract auteurism. The unique way Badalamenti's ever-hypnotic melodies can evoke both intense joy and crippling dread, often simultaneously, is most famously embodied by the series' Grammy-winning title theme, which many are aware is actually the instrumental version of Julee Cruise's vocal track "Falling", originally featured on Cruise's album Floating into the Night, with the singer breathily, ethereally whisper-crooning deceptively simple but incredibly evocative lyrics penned by Lynch himself.

What many people aren't aware of, however, is that the moodier, jazzier main title theme for Fire Walk with Me is itself an instrumental version of a Cruise track that appears only on her follow-up album, The Voice of Love. Even the song's very title points up the most distinct tonal contrast between the more balanced and (its own eccentric way) romantic television series and the far grimmer feature film. "Falling" refers to falling in love, while the proper title of the Fire Walk with Me theme is... "She Would Die for Love." Lynch's somber lyrics and Cruise's matching delivery not only reflects the overall downbeat vibe of Badalamenti's tune but also the incredibly tragic plight of the film and series' ill-fated central figure, Laura Palmer. In fact, the lyrics themselves more or less summarize the helplessness and defeat of those final days of Laura's existence--a desperate cri-de-coeur for a release, not only for herself but her own tormentor from their respective demons, both literal and figurative. Listen and read on...

She said she wouldn't stay
She said she couldn't say
She told me she would die for love

She said she would go someday
She said she would go away
She told me she would die for love

Don't you think he knows?
Don't you think he cares?
Don't you think he dreams?
Don't you think he cries?

She said she would run away
She said she would fly away
She told me she would die for love

Don't you think he knows?
Don't you think he cares?
Don't you think he dreams?
Don't you think he cries?

The Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery Blu-ray set hits shelves on July 29, 2014 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution.

Buy the Twin Peaks--Fire Walk with Me motion picture soundtrack here.
Buy Julee Cruise's The Voice of Love album here.
Pre-order Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery Blu-ray set here.