Sam Peckinpah when making the deeply flawed but often beautiful companion film, tottered on the abyss. The film may have marked his falling off the precipice, but Bob Dylan's brilliant fusing of folk, country and western and rock provided a sonic union rarely found in soundtracks. This album serves as a funeral dirge not only for the mythic Billy The Kid, but for Sam Peckinpah also. In fact, Dylan's score makes the film work far better that it perhaps deserves to.

Granted, like the film it echoes, this album does often sound redundant. But when it hits as it does with the brilliant opening theme "Billy" (Wes Anderson resurrects it most magnificently in "Royal Tennenbaums") and of course the classic "Knocking On Heaven's Door". Dylan even pulls off a comical Kris Kristofferson impersonation in one cut. Much of this album contains arguably some of Dlyan's finest instrumental and acoustic work. The sheer sound of the music evokes strong images of southwestern sunsets and small rivers rolling lazily by sandy dunes. It evokes images of time passing and figures holding passionately to the ephemeral. To quote the film:

"It feels like times have changed"

"Times maybe. . . but not me."

Like Ry Cooder's equally excellent score for "The Long Riders", Dylan transcended time and space and created a great album that made a film work.


Tulerosa Valley   January 10, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

The reknown southwestern writer, C.L. Sonnichsen, opens his book, "Tulerosa", with the venable paragraph: "The Tulerosa country is a parched desert where everything, from cactus to cowman, carries a weapon of some sort, and the only creatures who sleep with both eyes closed are dead."

The Dylan soundtrack album, "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid", embodies the soul of this region of New Mexico where both men from the title lived, and died. I don't know if Bob Dylan ever came here to do any type of research, to absorb the essence of our people, but even if not, he captured it in the music played in this album. Billy was many things to many people. Essentially, he was a bright, loyal young man who loved the "gente" of New Mexico. My maternal ancestors scratched out an existance in the Pecos River valley of Puerta de Luna near Ft. Sumner where Billy was slain by Pat Garrett. Dylan's music became a regular play item in my cassette deck as I trudged the back roads of this area in my Jeep CJ in the 70's and 80's. It became popular, too, with many other hispanics who have listened to it. I don't know how many copies were made at request of "viejos" who also detected the spirit of that time period.

If you are looking for Dylan who has tapped into yet another reservoir of the human quintessence, listen to this album...listen to the melody and the words.


Outlaw Bob to the Max   May 7, 2005
Zachary Hackett (Reno, Nevada)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is the soundtrack to a terrific movie, Sam Peckinpah's last western. The film starred Kris Kristoferson, Jason Robards, James Coburn, Rita Coolidge, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam and Bob Dylan, who in my opinion as the outlaw Alias stole the show. There are only three vocals on this LP, but they are good ones, though you can get "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" on about a zillion compilation albums done over the years. The other two vocals are different versions of the outlaw narrative, "Billy", a super cowboy song that ya just gotta love. The instrumental stuff isn't bad either, but I have to say I took the two versions of "Billy" and put `em with "Blood on the Tracks" on my iPod.