Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid [Soundtrack]

Bob Dylan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: SBME SPECIAL MKTS.
• ASIN: B0012IWHDW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,664 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title Theme (Billy)

2. Cantina Theme (Workin' for the Law)

3. Billy 1

4. Bunkhouse Theme

5. River Theme

6. Turkey Chase

7. Knockin' on Heaven's Door

8. Final Theme

9. Billy 4

10. Billy 7

Editorial Reviews

Out of print in the U.S.! Bob Dylan's mostly instrumental soundtrack to the surreal Western from director Sam Peckinpah. Of the few vocal tracks on the album, the stunning now-classic (and often covered) 'Knocking On Heaven's Door' made it's debut on this release. 10 tracks. Sony. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relive the Chase..Dylan Style, November 26, 2002

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Audio CD)

If you have seen the film Directed by Sam Peckinpah, or if you love Dylan, or even if you just love Westerns and the thematic musical scores from them, this album is for you. You can relive the chase as Pat Garrett hounds Billy the Kid from start to finish across the old west.

There are 10 tracks, music by Bob Dylan, accompanied by Booker T on Bass, Carl Fortina on Harmonium, and Russ Kunkle on Tambourine among other various artists, that capture the story. Four variations of Billy's theme, one recoreded in Mexico City with Terry Paul, tell his story.There is some great foot stompin music "Turkey Chase" and it also includes "Knockin on Heaven's Door", the sad lament of knowing the end is near.For a complete list, see buyer's info.

All the sound is distinctive and clear. It's a great album to pass the time with at home or in the car. also If you have not seen this film and you are a western or Dylan fan you might want to check it out also. Dylan has a supporting role as "Alias", Billy's friend, and he is quite good.

relax and enjoy.....Laurie

also recommended:

The Greatest Western Themes

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tulerosa Valley, January 10, 2000

By 

"sgt145" (Las Cruces, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Audio CD)

The reknown southwestern writer, C.L. Sonnichsen, opens his book, "Tulerosa", with the venable paragraph: "The Tulerosa country is a parched desert where everything, from cactus to cowman, carries a weapon of some sort, and the only creatures who sleep with both eyes closed are dead."

The Dylan soundtrack album, "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid", embodies the soul of this region of New Mexico where both men from the title lived, and died. I don't know if Bob Dylan ever came here to do any type of research, to absorb the essence of our people, but even if not, he captured it in the music played in this album. Billy was many things to many people. Essentially, he was a bright, loyal young man who loved the "gente" of New Mexico. My maternal ancestors scratched out an existance in the Pecos River valley of Puerta de Luna near Ft. Sumner where Billy was slain by Pat Garrett. Dylan's music became a regular play item in my cassette deck as I trudged the back roads of this area in my Jeep CJ in the 70's and 80's. It became popular, too, with many other hispanics who have listened to it. I don't know how many copies were made at request of "viejos" who also detected the spirit of that time period.

If you are looking for Dylan who has tapped into yet another reservoir of the human quintessence, listen to this album...listen to the melody and the words.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Made the film work, March 17, 2003

By 

J. Remington "John Remington" (Adams, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Audio CD)

Bob Dylan gathered together a cracker jack group of musicians to record this excellent soundtrack, a romantic and mythic ode to a west that could only have existed in a collaboration between two artists walking the desperate line between sentimentality and mourning.

Sam Peckinpah when making the deeply flawed but often beautiful companion film, tottered on the abyss. The film may have marked his falling off the precipice, but Bob Dylan's brilliant fusing of folk, country and western and rock provided a sonic union rarely found in soundtracks. This album serves as a funeral dirge not only for the mythic Billy The Kid, but for Sam Peckinpah also. In fact, Dylan's score makes the film work far better that it perhaps deserves to.

Granted, like the film it echoes, this album does often sound redundant. But when it hits as it does with the brilliant opening theme "Billy" (Wes Anderson resurrects it most magnificently in "Royal Tennenbaums") and of course the classic "Knocking On Heaven's Door". Dylan even pulls off a comical Kris Kristofferson impersonation in one cut. Much of this album contains arguably some of Dlyan's finest instrumental and acoustic work. The sheer sound of the music evokes strong images of southwestern sunsets and small rivers rolling lazily by sandy dunes. It evokes images of time passing and figures holding passionately to the ephemeral. To quote the film:

"It feels like times have changed"

"Times maybe. . . but not me."

Like Ry Cooder's equally excellent score for "The Long Riders", Dylan transcended time and space and created a great album that made a film work.