The Music of Twin Peaks

We at Post-Punk.com are huge Twin Peaks fans, and could not be more excited about Twin Peaks returning to television via Showtime.  I myself will having many a slice of cherry pie and some damn good black coffee in celebration of it’s return!

One undeniably integral aspect of  mood of Twin Peaks is the music composed by Angelo Badalamenti, and sung by Julee Cruise.  Lynch started working with Badalamenti and Cruise during of production of Blue Velvet, which resulted in the song “Mysteries of Love”

Initially, the plan was to have The Cocteau Twins performing their contribution to the project This Mortal Coil, a cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”, but a deal sadly could not be made (a decade later, “Song to the Siren” did finally appear on the Lost Highway soundtrack, and was a key element to certain plot points).  Recently—I  spoke to Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins about the planned appearance in Blue Velvet.

PP: I heard that David Lynch tried to get the rights for Blue Velvet to use This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren”…

RG: Yes, there’s actually more to it than that – he actually asked me and Liz to be in the film. We were going to be standing on stage in the background performing it, so that makes the story even better. But it all got blown up because Ivo at 4AD, I guess he was in control of the This Mortal Coil project and he just asked for way too much money. And I’m, you know, I regret that because that would have been really cool to be in a David Lynch film, wouldn’t it! You know, that would have been quite a thing to tell your grandchildren.

PP: Maybe instead of Julee Cruise you could have been in Twin Peaks, you could have been the band in the Road House.

RG: Ah well, there you go.

Besides the intro song “Falling”, Lynch, Cruise, and Badalamenti composed two other songs for the soundtrack to Twin Peaks, often performed on stage during scenes at the Roadhouse.

Into the Night

The Nightingale

Hmmm, What wonderful and strange music will be in store for the upcoming 9 episodes of Twin Peaks remains to be seen, as it is not clear if Baladamenti and Cruise shall be returning to compose any new music, whether their will be a new collaborators, or that Lynch and Frost will just stick to the old score.  Either way, 2016 can’t come sooner!