Top ten songs about films
1. Song: The Seventh Seal by Scott Walker
Film: The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957)
“Anybody seen a knight pass this way?
I saw him playing chess with Death, yesterday”
2. Song: Debaser by The Pixies
Film: Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel/Dali, 1929)
“Got me a movie
I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs
I want you to know”
3. Song: Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen*
Film: Badlands (Malick, 1973)
“I saw her standin’ on her front lawn just twirlin’ her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died”
4. Song: 2HB by Roxy Music
Film: Casablanca (Curtiz, 1943)
“Oh I was moved by your screen dream
Celluloid pictures of living
Your death could not kill our love for you
Take two people, romantic
Smoky nightclub situation
Your cigarette traces a ladder
Here’s looking at you kid”
5. Song: Brownsville Girl by Bob Dylan**
Film: The Gunfighter (King, 1950)
“Well, there was this movie I seen one time
About a man riding ‘cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck
He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself
The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck”
6. Song: E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite
Films: Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, the Man Who Fell to Earth and Insignificance, all directed by Nic Roeg.
“Man dies first reel, people ask, What’s the deal?
This ain’t how it’s supposed to be; Don’t like no Aborigine” [Walkabout]
“Took a trip in Powis Square, pop star dyed his hair” [Performance]
“Met a dwarf that was no good, dressed like little Red Riding Hood
Bad habit taking life, her calling card a six-inch knife” [Don’t Look Now]
“Space guy fell from the sky, scratched my head and wondered why” [The Man Who Fell to Earth]
“The King of brains, Queen of the sack; executives have heart attack
It’s assault course celluloid the money makers would avoid
Sometimes notions get reversed – centre of the universe”
[Insignificance]
7. Song: Like Dylan in the Movies by Belle and Sebastian
Film: Dont Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967)
“Don’t look back
Like Dylan in the movies”
8. Song: Lyla by Coco Rosie
Film: Lilya 4-ever (Moodysson, 2002)
“It reminded me
Of a movie I just saw
About a little girl
From Yugoslavia
She got sent away
They made her prostitute
She ate McDonald’s all day
And never had a chance to play
Lyla”
9. Song: The Union Forever by The White Stripes
Film: Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
“Sure I’m C.F.K.
But you gotta love me
The cost no man can say
But you gotta love me”
10. Song: Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Deep Blue Something
Films: Roman Holiday (Wyler, 1953); Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Edwards, 1961)
“And I said ‘What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?’
She said, ‘I think I remember that film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it.’”
*Springsteen also wrote a song called Badlands which has nothing to do with the classic Malick flick of the same name.
**Film references and dialogue litter the songs of Bob Dylan, most frequently on his 1985 effort, Empire Burlesque. One keen Bobcat has found references to 61 films in Dylan songs.