Shak(e)y being Neil Young’s nickname, here’s his theme to Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. Like Miles Davis with Lift to the Scaffold, he composed the core by improvising along to rushes of the film. This is the Main Theme, as played over the end credits. Weirdly, it was left off the soundtrack album so is only available on bootlegs or YouTube.

I love its repetition, its spareness, the reverb. I can’t imagine the film and William Blake’s final journey without it. Also it gives me a chance here to natter about the film, which is my favourite Jarmusch, even better than Down by Law or Stranger Than Paradise or Only Lovers Left Alive. It’s violent, absurd, hallucinatory and in the end very moving. It stars Jonny Depp, Robert Mitchum, John Hurt, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Iggy Pop and the fantastic Gary Farmer, who guides Depp to and through his death. It’s shot in a deep monochrome which is very beautiful. Best film of the 90s for me.
PS I was actually thinking of going for Shaking Stevens, just on the basis of reminding people about his left-wing credentials. He’s from a Welsh mining background. Pre-fame in the late 70s he played benefits for the Young Communist League and then did fundraisers during the miner’s strike. Even in the last few years he’s released an anti-global banking song. His heart’s in the right place, whatever you think of his music