Customer Reviews

Dead Man Walking: Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The songs for Dead Man Walking not only accompany the movie, they also haunt it. All the tracks are meaningful and well worth the listen but the highlights of the album are the tracks "The Face of Love" and "The Long Road" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder which alone are worth the purchase of the entire album. I remember some radio DJ saying that it was impossible to play "The Long Road" on radio because no dj could skillfully follow up a song that powerful with the usual radio airplay. Whether you've seen the movie or not, pick up this soundtrack. It's really a rare collection of superb music.

The Dead Man Walking Soundtrack is piled to the rafters with talent: Bruce Springsteen, Lyle Lovett, Michelle Shocked, Eddie Vedder (from Pearl Jam), etc...This album is so emotionally powerful at times that I will listen to some songs over and over (i.e. Ellis Unit One or Promises by Lyle Lovett). Johnny Cash's tune is one of the weaker songs on the album (I say this as a Johnny Cash fan). Cash covers Nick Cave's song "The Mercy Seat" on his Solitary Man album--a song about a man heading for the chair--which is worth checking out. Steve Earle has been involved in anti-death penelty work for years. For those of you interested, you can check out "Billy Austin" on the Hard Way and "Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)" on transcendental blues. If you like Springsteen's title track, you will love his album Ghost of Tom Joad. The rest of the album is very strong. I applaud the decision of the "powers that be" that two albums were put out for this movie: this soundtrack, and the background score. Good music with a challenging message.

A collection of simple emotional songs, unforgettable for those who saw the movie, and also for those who did not. The two titles from Eddie Vedder & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan are extraordinary.

Truth is I was so transfixed by the visuals that the soundtrack to the movie didn't enter my consciousness. It was the superlative Vedder/Nasrat Fateh Ali Khan duets on radio that drew me to this fabulous compilation. Truth is also that while knowing of Pearl Jam, I'd never given Eddie more than glancing attention. Ali Khan I'd heard since the mid 1980s. Their singing on this CD is compelling. Then there was the challenge set for the song champs by Tim Robbins to write their impressions from a roughcut of the film. The dividends aren't quite so great. Springsteen, Michelle Shocked, Susan Vega, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and my favourite here, Lyle Lovett, all returned wonderful material. Lovett's pure diction & phrasing ensures the enunciating of failed promises,and failed words, cuts deep. Springsteen sets the mood with a fairly literal condensing of the film's narrative. I consider it stronger than anything on,'Tom Joad'. And as Springsteen's voice assembles Sean Penn's screen face for me, so does Carpenter's erect Susan Saradons'. The star cast emerge collectively with absorbing material, though none quite match Vedder(who later at Bob Dylan's CBS bash, stole the show with 'Masters of War)and Ali Khans'.

Along with the soundtrack from Julian Schnabel's Basquiat, Dead Man Walking's album stands out as pivotal in my musichood, as both were from films I loved and introduced me to artists that I have since followed and admired. In that way the medium of the soundtrack is vital, as it works best when it provides a variety of voices and styles to make a pastiche that evokes and supports the story of the film.
While Basquiat captures the early 80's of New York, the New Wave, Hip Hop and progressive rock of the time and it's themes, Dead Man Walking captures the Americana of the story; rural and working class culture and paralysis, the cycles of violence and cruelty of the justice system, the power of devotion and faith and the transcendance of love and forgiveness-no matter the crime. After all few can evoke the struggles and triumphs of the common man and woman better than Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle. Before I saw this film and acquired the album I didn't know who Steve Earle was, and if nothing else, this disc will always stand out for that. There is much beauty here, particularly Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's songs, and Michelle Shocked's elegant The Quality of Mercy-channeling Shakespeare himself.
A great album.

This is one of my favorite albums of all time. I just want to keep listening to it all the time! In fact I like it so much that I also bought the other version of this soundtrack, i.e. "Dead Man Waliking, The Score". This album have the extended versions of my two favorites tracks "The Face of Love" and "The Long Road" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder. These two tracks alone are worth the purchase of the "Score".

Buy this and the "The Score" and you will not regret it.

Loved the movie, love the CD. Intense songs by all artists. The Nusrat Fateh, Ali Khan songs take some getting used to, but after a few listens they start working their way into your mind, they sound just perfect. The only song I don't like is the Michelle Shocked tune, it continues to be abrasive and irritating to the ears after many listens! I love most of her songs, so don't know why this one is hits me that way. Everyone else on the CD is great.

I must admit that I have had this album lying on my shelf for almost 4 months before today, when I seem to have rediscovered it as I sit listening to it and writing this review.
The reason; I watched the movie yesterday...
There are two kinds of soundtracks...the first that exist in isolation and are great independent of the movie (Amadeus, English Patient, Straight Story...), the other that are so intimately entwined with the visuals and message of the movie that without these, they lack something very basic.
Dead Man Walking, is of the latter category. Of course the movie itself is so touchingly powerful that anything that evokes memories of it would be an experience in itself. However this album goes beyond this...I think what makes this album trully good is that it carries you beyond the movie (the way only music can).
I have given it four out of five stars primarily because sometimes the album becomes too much of itself! Even though the Eddie Vedder and Fateh Ali's "Face of love" appeals instantly the vocals quickly grow too saccharine and simplistic (specially if you can understand the urdu lyrics).
"The long road" on the other hand stands out as a trully moving musical experience. The beats of the tabla along with Vedder's spiritual rendition seem to bring us close to the 'life force' that the movie tries to depict in its entirety.
Admitedly I have to listen to this album a lot more before I begint to trully grow into it...I have a feeling that its one of those rare albums that will grow on me. Revealing more as time and life goes by...

When I bought this CD, I didn't know what I was getting, apart from it having something to do with the movie Dead Man Walking. What I found was a meditation in music about the film by an extraordinarily diverse group of songwriters - from Johnny cash and Lyle Lovett, Suzanne Vega and Mary Chapin Carpenter to Nusrat Faten Ali Khan. It's powerful, dark, and beautiful.

I play this CD in the morning, I play it during the day and I play it at night. Every song is special and beautiful and the way the songs flow from one to another creates an atmosphere and a mood that is indescribable. It is truly a fantastic compilation. 5/5