Customer Reviews

Dead Man

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have read through the other Amazon reviews, and I sympathize with the reviewers who were frustrated with this CD because they didn't like the dialogue sections or the sections during which Depp reads from William Blake. So if you buy this with the intent of experiencing Neil Young exclusively, you will be disappointed.

But I have to say that as a lover of Neil Young (I have more of his music in my collection than that of any other artist), a lover of DEAD MAN (I have seen it multiple times), and as a lover of the real poet William Blake, I couldn't be happier with this CD unless, of course, it was longer.

I can hardly imagine anything BETTER than hearing Johnny Depp (one of my favorite actors) read from William Blake!

I keep my music on my computer and also have a collection of audio poetry on my computer (yes, I am a University English Lecturer and poetry really turns me on). Depp's readings from Blake, with Young's haunting music in the background is mind blowing and more than I could ever ask for in my wildest English-Lecturer-dreams.

This CD will take you to a place in the deepest center of yourself where your dreams reside. William Blake believed in the supernatural and in the power of dreams. He also was a rebel. He was one of the most spiritual people ever to have existed. DEAD MAN is also about a spiritual quest, and that's why the marriage of Young's guitar and the dialogue/poetry readings from DEAD MAN really work!

Excellent to listen to in order to jumpstart your own creative life! Highly recommended.

I bought this wanting to re-experience the hypnotic guitar music of Dead Man. What is the trend lately with companies adding dialogue from the film onto soundtracks? Oh well, I can deal with that in this instance because the dialogue to Dead Man sufficiently blends with the resonating guitar, but what's the deal with the background noises? On the copy I got the feeling somebody had mastered the album with two boom boxes in their Dad's garage. There is the distinct sound of a motorcycle being gunned and several points in the album...weird. Thankfully the guitar is usually loud enough to overwhelm this.

Also, as pointed out elsewhere, that great methodic opening and closing theme is absent. Too bad. Young comes off in regards to this movie like a modern day Ennio Morricone - puncutating key moments in the film with discordant strikings of his guitar. This really is a fantastic soundtrack - but again, as said elsewhere, don't buy it without seeing the movie first.

As in the movie, the tracks on this soundtrack start clean and gradually turn into a grungeful and distorted piece of the same thing. And it sounds great! No other musician could pull off what Neil Young did here. This music reflects upon the premise of the movie: William Blake starts out in Cleveland in a suit and tie and slowly ends up an injured and wanted man, strugglisg to survive long enough to "Go back to where all spirits come from, and all spirits return" as put by Nobody.

This album is also a bit different from the movie, it has added sounds throughout. Maybe the sound of a vehicle driving along and stopping, with doors opening and shutting along the way, possibly to symbolize his journey? Or to add a bit of interesting background noise to give it more of a grunge feel? I'm still trying to figure it out...

And there is a lot of dialogue added to the soundtrack, most from the movie, and also some of William Blake's poetry read by Johnny Depp. If you listen closely, you can notice that some of the dialogue has been changed: "I've got some food here that even Nero couldn't command." "I've got some food here that even Goldilocks couldn't command." Which version came first would be interesting to know...

So overall it's one of the best soundtracks I've ever bought, if you're a fan of the movie it's a must have, and if you're not a fan of the movie...why are you reading this review?

I love Dead Man and I love the musical score, but this CD is hardly representative of the actual music from the actual film. The instrumental from the opening credit sequence of the movie was the highlight of Neil Young's score, but it's NOT HERE. Also, there was no poetry readings by Johnny Depp in the film, but there are on this so called "SOUNDTRACK". And what's with the idling truck engine and slamming car doors in the background? There were no motor vehicles in the film. If you're looking for the music from DEAD MAN, you just have to watch the film, you won't find it here.

It's always a mistake to overlap dialogue from a film with the soundtrack, if you must do it, put the dialogue on seperate tracks so we can skip over it. The most glaring and horrible mistake was placing the sound of car engines and highways over Neil Youngs amazing, raw score. Where William Blake and Nobody are having their adventures will soon be highways and cars. YEAH WE GET IT, AND THANKS FOR RUINING THE SCORE WITH YOUR HEAVY HANDED ARTISTIC SENSIBILITIES. Another pisser, the absolutely wonderful title intro wasn't even included!?!

One of the few movies that can really transport me to another time and place is Jarmusch's "Dead Man". It's partly the high-contrast, desolate, black-and-white visuals, but it's mostly the music. Some may say the soundtrack sounds like "a man repeatedly dropping his guitar", but after the movie I am completely unable to perceive even the most feedback-drenched moments as anything other than deliberately beautiful.

I don't own any other Neil Young albums, and I found the music in Jarmusch's Crazy Horse documentary to be, well, a little too dissonant. But "Dead Man"... the recurring melodies, the surreal monologues, the sense of open forests, and distant trains... lying in bed with a cold, walking alone in the morning fog, with a metal slug in your heart.

Talk about bummers. I dig Neil Young. I dig Dead Man. That soundtrack was perhaps the perfect marriage with cinema. It seems so much of the movie is just marinated in these sprawling guitar improvisations that swelled out of Young's awe-inspiring Dead Man theme. There's at least enough music in the movie to fill a CD. I rushed out to the store to buy the soundtrack right after seeing the movie.

I sold the soundtrack a month later, completely frustrated.

Most of the soundtrack isn't here, including the opening theme which gives us the straight-up version of the theme before Young begins tearing it down and messin' with it. I guess no one thought that important. Watch the film and check out all the places where gorgeous scenes are stretched out with minute upon minute of Young's music. Then try to find them on the CD. Not there either!

What we've got instead is half the disc filled with Depp reading William Blake. Wow, what a concept. The idea that instead of wanting to get the actual soundtrack I'd just want Depp reading poetry still blows my mind.

I think that if the REAL soundtrack to Dead Man was ever released it would rank among the best things by Young. Certainly one of his most important works. All the variations he creates upon this one theme. Turning one song into enough to fill up an hour easily. I still can't believe he did it. It's gotta be the best thing he's done since Zuma. Certainly one of his best works ever. Too bad you can't buy it.

Oh, and the DVD doesn't have an isolated soundtrack. So we can't win there either. If you absolutely need PART of the soundtrack on a CD, I guess you have no choice but to purchase the Dead Man soundtrack, but I bet you have better things you could spend your money on.

It's weird. I like it. when I was young I saw Neil play. I mostly went because Soundgarden was opening (I was young and angry, and this was during the height of grunge). I remember sticking around to see Neil because his unplugged album was huge at the time. I wasn't completely blown over, and from my narrow perspective at the time I barely knew who the guy was. All of that has changed of course. I've long since out grown the music of Soundgarden, and I probably listen to Neil Young more than anything that came out in the 90's (w/exception to Pavement). So if you've read this review to this point then you should really buy this album. The music is a psychadelic soap opera. It's the kind of stuff that you hear and you know it's coming from some place that few have thought of. It's just a loud guitar, with lots of echo, and of course a lot of heart. Neil Young to me is an antennae that draws from places unknown. When you hear this album you know that he can still challenge you, and take you some place strange. This is great lay down with the lights out and go to bed music.

Before I bought this album I had seen Dead Man twice and I owned Neil Young Unplugged on CD. You definitely need to have seen Dead Man to like this album, but you don't need to be at all familiar with Neil Young. The album puts you back into the movie and you feel like it's surrounding you. Definitely add this to your shopping cart: NOW! by the way, the limited edition is worthwhile.

Neil Young's playing is the perfect companion to an excellent movie. His playing communicates the stark, raw settings and encounters wonderfully. There are no songs, and only one real recognizable tune, but the emotion...

If you like the movie, you'll probably dig this album, otherwise go pick up a more conventional example of Mr Young's work.