Nick Cave scores Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
While I don’t recommend reading the entire book in one rainy night alone, as I did, The Road by Cormac McCarthy is certainly a riveting, visceral work from one of my favorite authors. My friend Ben started reading it on a Kindle on our drive back from SXSW, and we lost him for the rest of the trip (with a headlamp after dark, even). It is a formidable book, all-absorbing and astounding.
I am quite curious for whatever I can learn about the upcoming film adaptation, featuring Viggo Mortenson and directed by Australian John Hillcoat. The musical score for The Road is being written by one of my other favorite Aussies, Nick Cave.
The two previously worked together on a few features — from Cave contributing writing and acting in Hillcoat’s 1989 movie Ghosts of the Civil Dead, to Hillcoat directing the 2003 music video feature for Nick’s song “Babe I’m On Fire.” Cave also wrote the screenplay and soundtrack for Hillcoat’s 2005 film The Proposition.
The recent 4-minute BBC clip below unveils some of Nick Cave’s musical score for The Road for the first time – elegiac and stirring piano, which is an interesting choice. In my mind, the story in the book is accompanied by a deafeningly vacant amount of pure silence.
BBC Featurette – Nick Cave and Cormac McCarthy
Even though some of my favorite moments from Nick Cave are of the rocking variety, he undeniably does the pretty stuff so well — evocative and sad. Check this live video of “Into My Arms,” also from the BBC:
I don’t believe in an interventionist god
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Oh, not to touch a hair on your head
Leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms…
God I love that man.
Name: Heather Browne
This is bound to be a really intense film. That book is still nested in my brain. Thanks for the info!
Anna — May 8, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
Not sure what the deal with the movie is, it keeps getting pushed back. Best guess is it comes out at Oscar season in 2009. Still The Proposition is so good because of Hillcoat and Cave. I hope they work together a few more times.
James — May 8, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
Don’t forget Warren Ellis who wrote it with him too and is in fact, a far-more accomplished musician
ThePlaylist — May 9, 2009 @ 8:36 am
THANK YOU for directing me to this on the BBC site. I listen to BBC Radio 2 and have done so for some years but didn’t know about this.
I love Nick Cave, too and especially this song.
Jette K — May 10, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
I also read The Road in one night. Had no intention of doing so at all, i guess things happen that way. Thanks for the post, love your blog.
Steven Dupree — May 11, 2009 @ 6:49 am
heather-
this is so weird…i just finished reading this book last week….i love that viggo is the dad, and charlize theron is the wife…the book itself isn’t meant to be read by yourself, nor at 3:30 AM on sleepless nights…i know after reading this book i am not prepared to endure a nuclear holocaust living off of scraps and wild flowers….it’s beyond me why they keep on pushing the release date back further and further…hope all is well…
julio — May 11, 2009 @ 7:30 am
[...] film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s On the Road comes from the always excellent music blog I am Fuel,You Are Friends. Heather notes that Nick Cave has been tapped to provide the score for the movie. The post [...]
Baby Got Books » On the Road Watch — May 11, 2009 @ 7:59 am
While I’m a huge fan of both Nick Cave and Cormac McCarthy, I’m really disappointed and upset that an adaptation of this book has been made. Since the initial completion of this film last year for an intended November ’08 release, it apparently needed to be repaired because of the cinematic disaster it yielded.
Alex Glass — May 11, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Couldn’t help but think of Neil Diamond from this video. I like how the BBC audio gauge goes to ’11′. Looking forward to the movie with some reservations about its needing to be made.
Aron — June 13, 2009 @ 11:09 am