RIP Angelo Badalamenti
Tuesday, December 13, 2022 at 6:00PM “Today, no music.”
Those were the words of David Lynch this morning following the announcement that composer and lyricist—and Lynch’s longtime friend and collaborator across a variety of mediums—had died at age 85. The death of Angelo Badalamenti is another heartbreaking loss for those like myself for whom Twin Peaks is something like a religion. Coupled with the 2022 deaths of Julee Cruise, Al Strobel, Kenneth Walsh and Lenny Von Dohlen, it’s been a tough year...
Badalamenti’s work quickly became synonymous with mood and atmosphere that so permeated the works of David Lynch. He won a Grammy and was nominated for three Emmys for Twin Peaks alone. His score to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me won an Independent Spirit Award as well as a Brit Award for Best Soundtrack. He was nominated for multiple César and Golden Globe awards. He was a genius, the soundtrack to my years of insomnia and a captivating storyteller through song.
Strangely, Badalamenti wrote the exact type of mournful, sorrowful music that pairs tragically well with his own passing. Here are ten great film and TV moments to commemorate (but do also check out the work he did for the likes of Nina Simone, David Bowie and the legacy revered by Moby, Xiu Xiu, Johnny Jewel and Chromatics).
Blue Velvet
It all started here, really. Without this 1986 film, the first collaboration between Badalamenti and Lynch, we wouldn’t have the astounding career that followed. I can only imagine what this would have sounded like upon release—something wonderful and strange, to quote Lynch’s own words. The film’s original song, “Mysteries of Love” is a fantastic jumping off point for the work that all three would continue to do for years to come.
The City of Lost Children
It makes total sense that Badalamenti would collaborate with French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet. He is, after all, bred from a similar cloth to Lynch in many ways. His work on 2004’s A Very Long Engagement was very impressive and was probably the closest the composer ever came to an Academy Award nomination. 1995’s surrealist fantasy The City of Lost Children, however, granted us the impeccable “Who Will Take My Dreams Away”, sung by the legendary Marianne Faithfull.
Dark Water
My choice for the most underrated work in Badalamenti’s career is this marvellous score to an otherwise forgotten Jennifer Connelly remake of an Asian horror movie. He was always able to add class to anything he worked on, and tracks such as “A Ghost in the Machine” prove how artistic he could be.
Inside the Actors Studio
Many will know the music that Badalamenti composed for James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio (formerly of Bravo, now Ovation). Performed here by the Brussels Philharmonic, this suite of music is just divine.
Julee Cruise
Badalamenti, Lynch and Cruise were a perfect match. The three helped push an entire genre of music (dream pop) into the mainstream with their unique brand that blended new age, jazz, shoegaze, alt-rock, ambiance, psychedelia and ‘50s girl groups, all featuring Cruise’s breathy layered vocals. “Mysteries of Love” from Blue Velvet, “Nightingale” and “Falling” from Twin Peaks, “Questions in a World of Blue” from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” are all genius. But their finest moment is surely “The World Spins”, which (along with the jauntier “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart”) punctuates the saddest and most horrific episode in the entirety of the Twin Peaks saga. It perfectly captured the autumnal smalltown sadness of this northwestern passage where everything is ever so slightly off and melancholy can’t help but permeate the air. A dictionary definition for ‘ethereal’.
Mulholland Drive
One of my favourite music scores of all time, is this one for Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece. Jumping from the frenetic “Jitterbug” to the haunting “Mulholland Drive” main title theme is a bit whiplash inducing, but that’s probably the point. It’s truly miraculous what he can do with a synthesizer and this entire score is full of arrangements that unfold with layer after layer.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
It’s not surprising that the most artistically minded of the Elm Street franchise (at least until Wes Craven’s ‘90s return) had early work from Angelo Badalamenti. “Nursery Theme” in particular so perfectly melds the franchise’s sleepy atmospherics with the composer’s trademark rumbling, grumbling synth work.
The Straight Story
David Lynch’s 1999 G-rated Disney drama wasn’t just a change of pace for the notoriously dark and violent director, but for Angelo Badalamenti, too. Using more location-specific string instruments, no better is his Golden Globe-nominated work highlighted than in the track “Laurens Walking”. It’s lovely and sweet, but with the exact right amount of heart-tugging sadness. As a piece of film music, it gently guides the viewer through a mass of emotions with its fiddle and plucked guitar. It’s a score that recalls Gustavo Santaolalla’s Brokeback Mountain and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some inspiration in there. The liner notes tell us, “tenderness can be just as abstract as insanity” and ain’t that the truth.
Twin Peaks
There are so many compositions from Lynch’s original two seasons of Twin Peaks from the start of the 1990s that it is all but impossible to select just one. There have been multiple releases (plus bootlegs!) of Badalamenti’s music from the series for the very reason that it is just so evocative, and so beautiful. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is an obvious highlight, repeated throughout the entire life of Lynch’s series. “The Bookhouse Boys” a personal favourite. And, of course, the instantly iconic opening credits theme. He always found a way to make synthesisers, high hats and jazzy wind instruments sound at once menacing and light as air.
It’s so rare for music to be so intrinsic to a show that characters literally have to get up and sway about to it and it then becomes a defining character trait. That’s how Angelo Badalamenti’s music worked in Twin Peaks.
— Glenn Charlie Dunks (@glenndunks) December 13, 2022
pic.twitter.com/MjYECb5X5r
My favourite moment, however, would likely be “Audrey’s Dance” from the 1990 pilot—and returning in the most unexpectedly wonderful way in the 25-years-later reboot.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Lynch’s altogether much, much darker cinematic prequel meant that Badalamenti also had to go darker. And while “The Voice of Love” was for many years a perfect musical coda on the world of Laura Palmer and Special Agent Dale Cooper, it was the grubby and grimy “The Pink Room” sequence that made his work here so good.
Reader Comments (4)
This death bums me out as I love his score work. I own a couple of them in Lost Highway (well, if you were a NIN fan back in the 90s. Who didn't own a copy?) and Secretary as the latter I think has some of his best music outside of his work with David Lynch. I've been watching Lynch's daily weather reports as I noticed he was off yesterday but now I know why and I don't blame him for being sad.
Grazie Angelo.
Great article. I'm always introducing people to "Who Will Take My Dreams Away." Marianne Faithfull's 1995 album "A Secret Life," also produced by Badalamenti, is a really good listen as well.
Got so mad when he missed the nom for Straight Story. Nyman also missed that year.
I believe the Twin Peaks soundtrack was -at least- Top 5 in half of Europe. It was massive.
I love the main Twin Peaks themes that are played over and over in the original show. In fact, one of the many infuriating things about Twin Peaks: The Return was that they didn’t use them, like almost at all!! Angelo’s music was one of the main characters of that original, brilliant show.