David Lynch Remembered in Music
David Lynch – KIEV, UKRAINE – Nov. 18, 2017
We lost a giant of the modern cultural world last week. Film and TV producer David Lynch left the planet at 78 years old. He was born on January 20, 1946 in Missoula Montana, and left for the White Lodge on January 15, 2025. In between, he created a body of film and TV work that has been called visionary and enigmatic. He came to renown with the cult classic Eraserhead and followed up with the brilliant bio pic, Elephant Man. Then came Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive. We won’t talk about his Dune movie, even if it did have a Brian Eno track in it. But most impactfully, he’s known for his TV series Twin Peaks. Brilliant, surreal, dark, funny and disturbing, it still resonates 35 years after its debut. Another thing that resonates is its soundtrack, written by Angelo Badalamenti, who died in 2022. A mix of 50s slow rock, dark blues and psychedelic overtones, it is still influencing generations of musicians, from Moby to SUSS. All of Lynch’s soundtracks were brilliant mixes of original music and songs that could go from 60s crooners like actor Connie Stevens to Nine Inch Nails. Tonight we’ll hear a set that will include music from Twin Peaks, his album Lux Vivens with Jocelyn Montgomery adapting the 11th century hymns of Abbess Hildegard Von Bingen, and tracks from Mulholland Drive and Wild at Heart.
I was fortunate to interview Lynch at his Los Angeles home when the Lux Vivens album came out in 1998. We got a live performance there with singer Jocelyn Montgomery, who is now Jocelyn West. He was eloquent, thoughtful and a bit enigmatic. My only regret is the interview centered entirely on the album and we didn’t talk at all about his films or soundtracks, but we sure got into religion. However, I did get a photo taken in his studio/theater. I’m top left. Jocelyn Montgomery/West is to my left, and audio engineer John Neff is at the bottom right. I can’t remember who the other people were, except of course, David Lynch, who is front and center with a carton of American Spirit cigarettes next to him, which ultimately killed him.