Bob Dylan and the Western

 As a big western film fan, today there aren't many westerns made and one has a limited choice of really good westerns made in recent times 3:10 To Yuma, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, The Proposition, Unforgiven.  Quite a few of my favourite westerns are from the golden era of film making - High Noon, A Fistful Of Dollars, Rio Bravo.  There is something about the western that has always stuck with me and as a music lover as well as a film fan, they came together perfectly for my latest video editing project.

My Dad and I are big Bob Dylan fans and in 2006, he brought out an album called Modern Times which was another classic folk rock album.  The album ends with a 9 minute minor key folk song called 'Ain't Talkin' which is very similar to the circumstances of Bob Dylan's closing song Highlands on the 1997 album Time Out Of Mind.  Ain't Talkin' is a beautiful lone rider type song which instantly evoked thoughts from all of my favourite westerns.

Along with a healthy dose of viola, guitar and bass, the lyrics really pop out as a man navigating his world and feeling he doesn't belong, which is a very common theme amongst westerns - see Kirk Douglas in Lonely Are The Brave.

During early times of Covid, I happened to listen to the song on a walk, just after I'd finished watching Pat Garret & Billy The Kid and the thought popped into my mind that westerns and 'Ain't Talkin' are intrinsically linked. So I slowly began editing together parts from my favourite westerns to the song and quickly realised that the images and audio just sat together perfectly, forming a 'thinking mans music video'.

Rarely when one starts a new project does an edit comes together as nicely as this one did and ended up being a total joy of an edit to undertake. Once the main edit was almost completed, a random late night chance viewing of Pale Rider spawned the idea of a perfect intro for the music video.

The only composition work was mainly done for the Blu-Ray menu which involved stretching out an iconic shot from Once Upon A Time In The West. Masking and looping were used to keep the cowboys stood stood still but affected by the wind and stretching out of the edges of the shots to allow for a super-wide shot. Here is the Blu-Ray menu I created for the music video, utilising another of my favourite westerns - Once Upon A Time In The West.

And finally, without further verbage, here is the completed music video for Bob Dylan's Ain't Talkin' - Tribute To A Western. To finish, here is the completed music video for Bob Dylan's Ain't Talkin'.

Please feel free to leave any comment on my Youtube channel, or check out my other works. Our main services include VHS to DVD transfers, VHS to digital transfers, MiniDV to digital transfers, Video8 to digital transfers, Cine Film to digital transfers.

"As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden. On a hot summer day, a hot summer lawn. Excuse me, ma'am, I beg your pardon. There's no one here, the gardener is gone."