Friday Songs ~ Inside Llewyn Davis

For today, this is going to be Sunday Songs on a Friday, since it's been a pretty sparse postin' week.  Also, Sunday is Mother's day, and I wanted to post something about my mom :)


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My friend Jessica was visiting from Baltimore this week.  We stayed up late, chatted up a storm, and watched the movie Inside Llewyn Davis.  I had to see it because, first of all... the Cohen Brothers! And secondly... the 1960's NYC folk scene!  A fascinating subject, for sure.

Where could this blissful pairing go wrong??


...Well sadly, somehow I couldn't make myself love this movie.  It was terrifically moody, but didn't have much in the way of a plot.  And I found the main character wholly unlikable.  Even though I have an understanding of the struggles he faces as a musician, the choices he made were almost all bad.

Anyway... this isn't a movie review, so I'll get to the redeeming part, which was the gorgeous music.  "Fare Thee Well" was a highlight for sure, and it's tune has stuck with me ever since.  Is an old folk song, sung here by Oscar Isaac (the main actor) and Marcus Mumford.

It's brilliant.






Honorable mention goes to the ridiculous "Please Mr. Kennedy," because it's a novelty and hilarious.

Actually, the studio session scene was one of my favorite film moments.  I think it's interesting to see 60's a live-recording situation played out... much different than most music we hear nowadays, which is built up track-by-track.  The type of environment shown includes several players, people learning parts on-the-spot, and perfectly clean instrumental and vocal takes- there can be basically no mistakes made.

Say whatever about the song, but you gotta respect these types of musicians (who actually do things like this in real life, not as characters in movies.)  They're no joke!


Oh and, bonus... Adam Driver!  I love that weirdo :P

(Also, I didn't even notice that Justin Timberlake was in the movie until this scene.)







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