thevoid99's Full Review: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid by Original Soundtrack...
Following the release of 1970's New Morning, Bob Dylan went into a period of seclusion. With a rare appearance at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, Dylan took a break from the public eye in the early 1970s raising a family while belting out a few songs in 1971 for a second greatest hits album. Then in 1972, Dylan was approached by screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer to do music for Sam Peckinpah's revisionist western Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Dylan nabbed himself a role in the film as Billy the Kid's sidekick Alias where he threw knives. Around that time, Dylan jammed with members of Kris Kristofferson's band and Mexican musicians where he cut an album worth of material for the soundtrack album to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
The soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is a record that takes Dylan's love of country music mixed in with his folk influences to create a mood and feel for Sam Peckinpah's lyrical yet chaotic western. While the album is partially an instrumental album, there's songs of fragmented material where Dylan sings about Billy the Kid in a folk-ballad like style. One song in particular that would stand out is Knockin' On Heaven's Door that would become another classic by Dylan. Produced by Gordon Carroll and all the music and songs written by Bob Dylan. The soundtrack of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, though not a classic album by Dylan standards, is still a fascinating soundtrack to one of the most underrated westerns of all-time.
The album's opener in its main title track where it's essentially a six-minute instrumental performance with Dylan and several musicians including the Byrds' Roger McGuinn strumming their guitars along with plucks to convey a feel for the West in the late 1800s. Dylan, McGuinn, and several musicians play along with smooth melodies plucked to reference the tracks known as Billy. Working For The Law (Cantina Theme) is another instrumental piece with a smooth tone along with vibrant percussions and loud, acoustic strums with Dylan playing plucking melodies as the characters of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (played respectively by James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson) talk about changing times as Garrett has now become a sheriff with the Kid saying, "times are changing but I ain’t".
Billy 1 is the first of several themes about Billy the Kid and his own fate and demise. With a smooth, mid-tempo acoustic-driven accompaniment and Dylan's harmonica playing, it starts out as an instrumental until Dylan, in his warbling vocal style sings lyrics about the legend of Billy the Kid as he's on the run from Pat Garrett. Bunkhouse Theme is a wonderful instrumental where the Kid is at a bunkhouse with members of his gang in this plaintive yet chiming instrumental led by Dylan and a slew of musicians playing wonderful acoustic guitar music. River Theme is another instrumental with Dylan and musicians yelping out vocals to its rich, acoustic melodies in a scene where Garrett sees his ragged deputy Alamosa Bill (Jack Elam) on the river as it conveys the sense of changing times in the west where Garrett is aware that loyalty is becoming a thing of the past.
Turkey Chase is another score piece that involves Billy the Kid, Alias, and another gang member trying to go after turkeys in a comical scene where swift instrumentation in the banjo and violin accompanies the sense of innocence and humor that also conveys the free spirit of the kid. With Dylan on the acoustic guitar, he plays backup to the musicians that shine in this wonderful instrumental. The album's big standout is the classic song Knockin' On Heaven's Door that is led by the dreamy, electric guitar strums of Roger McGuinn and acoustic accompaniment including harrowing yet somber vocals. Dylan sings this amazing song filled with poignant lyrics about facing death as it nears. Notably in a particular scene where a fatally wounded sheriff (Slim Pickens) is watching the skyline as his wife (Katy Jurado) looks on somberly as what is to come. The song itself is classic as it has Dylan singing about coming up to the heavens with a wonderful chorus as he's joined by a wonderful backup group of vocalists. It's truly Dylan at his finest.
Final Theme is a wonderfully rich, evocative piece where its led by acoustic instruments and soothing vocals as a flute leads the charge. The song conveys the sense of what's to come in the aftermath as the track has a sense of melancholia through the drums of Jim Keltner. Billy 4 is another variation of the Billy songs that is more stripped down with Dylan playing the acoustic guitar just by himself as he sings about Billy's free-spirited personality and the conflict it brings to the world that is changing. Even as Dylan says that Pat Garrett is coming to him. The final track is Billy 7 is a slower yet melodic number mixed in with acoustic and electric guitar strums and pluck with Dylan singing in a growling vocal style. The song's lyrics conveys to Billy's sense of doom as it's a wonderful closing number with a full-on jam of acoustic and electric guitar strums as it fades out.
While the film went through a lot of trouble due to studio interference that led to a swift release of the film through poor box office and mixed reviews. Dylan's soundtrack album was a hit thanks in large part to the song Knockin' On Heaven's Door. Though the album itself wasn't a classic in comparison to Dylan's previous albums of the 1960s, the making of the album did get Dylan out of his reclusive state in New York City and write again where a year later, he recorded and released Planet Waves with the Band and toured with them. At the time the soundtrack came out, Dylan's contract with Columbia Records had expired and after a falling out with the label, went to Asylum to release the soundtrack before settling and rejoining the label in 1975 while his Asylum recordings were reissued by his old label.
Though the album isn't classic Dylan, the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is still an excellent album that shows Dylan's talents as well as a classic song in Knockin' On Heaven's Door that's been covered numerous times including Guns N' Roses and most recently, Antony & the Johnsons for the film soundtrack to the Dylan anti bio-pic I'm Not There. In the end, the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is still a highlight for Bob Dylan in the 1970s while serving as a wonderful accompaniment to Sam Peckinpah's underrated yet lyrical western.
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