Celebrity Jukebox #71: Robert Duvall

If you appeared in The Godfather, even if it was a relatively small role, chances are that'll take top billing in your obituary. For me though, when I think of Robert Duvall, I think of the man who loved the smell of Napalm in the morning. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore from Apocalypse Now.

And taking us back to a story I wrote about a couple of weeks back, Bob Duvall also played one of the most famous fictional characters to give his name to a 90s indie band in the 1962 adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird.

And in case you're wondering (as I did), he was no relation to Shelly Duvall from The Shining (although her Dad was called Robert). But he did star in the TV adaptation of Larry McMurtry's western Lonesome Dove... and that gives me an excuse to play another tune by Larry's son, James. And if they ever made a movie out of the song below, Robert Duvall would have been the perfect casting...

James McMurtry - South Texas Lawman

Here are a couple of eclectic lyrical references...

At the Hotel Nikko, Robert Duvall suite

My people's eyes through the peep hole

I'm loving you down freak

Jay Z - Only A Customer

CNN with no bad news, 

Stevie Ray playing the blues, 

Robert Duvall in any role, 

John 3:16 to a troubled soul.

Heartland - You

And then, the main event. Because Robert Duvall could turn his hand to music at times. 

Here he is in 1983, in the movie Tender Mercies, in which he played down and out country singer, Mac Sledge...

Robert Duvall - If You'll Hold The Ladder (I'll Climb To The Top)

Here he is with Emmylou Harris, from the soundtrack of the movie The Apostle in 1997...

Emmylou Harris & Robert Duvall - I Love to Tell The Story

And here he is, a cappella, in the soundtrack to the excellent 2009 Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart...

Rest in peace, Bob.

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #97: Live Forever

When you're young, you think you'll live forever. At some point, you realise that's not the case and the end is approaching faster than you'd like. I guess this realisation hits us all at some point, but clearly it's hit me very hard since turning 50 and losing my dad. This blog has become my therapist's couch. It's not answers I'm hoping for, it's acceptance. 

Immortality is craved by many, but I don't think I ever wanted to live forever. I'm already sick of the selfish, self-destructive tendencies of the human race, so the idea of sticking around and watching folk devise new ways to screw up society does not appeal at all. In fact, I'd readily welcome the apocalypse... were it not that I have a son. Sam is my reason for not giving up on the world, or wishing it to end. Because I'd like him to have a good life, to grow old without too much strife, to do his bit to keep the dance alive. That's the immortality I crave right now.

I'm Gonna Live Forever was written by country artist Billy Joe Shaver, with his son Eddy, who recorded together as the eponymous group Shaver back in the 90s. Clearly, Billy Joe sought immortality through art...

Nobody here will ever find me
But I will always be around
Just like the songs I leave behind me
I'm gonna live forever now

Eddy Shaver died of a heroin overdose in the year 2000. Billy Joe lived another 20 years, but I'm guessing with a broken heart.

You fathers and you mothers
Be good to one another
Please try to raise your children right
Don't let the darkness take 'em
Don't make 'em feel forsakеn
Just lead them safely to thе light

I'm Gonna Live Forever was also performed by Robert Duvall in the excellent movie Crazy Heart. And last year, it was covered by Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams on a Billy Joe Shaver tribute album. So that's a kind of immortality right there.