Few Dylan fans know of the music that Dylan wrote and performed for the Pat Garrett movie. The instrumental Main Title Theme (Billy) which opens this soundtrack album ‘Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid‘ is my favourite track from the record. Most people will be familiar with the second song on side 2 of the album – Knocking on Heaven’s Door which is renowned as one of Bob Dylan’s greatest songs, however I have always been more drawn to listen to the Main Title Theme (Billy) and it’s off-shoots Billy 1, Billy 4, and Billy 7.
I go way back with Main Title Theme (Billy). I was so attached to it that I wrote my own lyrics to it as a teenager. Even when I hear the song now, I still sing the words I wrote for it which I will not relay here to avoid inevitable embarrassment. I also learnt to play part of this on guitar. I adore this album and like the Sam Peckinpah film a lot.
When Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid was released, it received mixed reviews, but in later years after critical re-evaluation the film has led many to regard it as one of Peckinpah’s finest achievements. Bob Dylan makes a brief appearance in the film, and you can watch it here.
Wikipedia: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is the twelfth studio album and first soundtrack album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 13, 1973 by Columbia Records for the Sam Peckinpah film, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid reached No. 16 US and No. 29 UK.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid scriptwriter Rudy Wurlitzer was a previous acquaintance of Dylan’s, and asked him to provide a couple of songs for the movie. Dylan performed “Billy” for director Peckinpah, who found the performance very moving and offered Dylan an acting part on the spot…..Dylan and his family moved to Durango, Mexico, where filming took place.
At Untold Dylan:
The Main Title Theme is an instrumental which relies on an acoustic guitar and a melody improvised by a second acoustic. Plus, although there are only three chords used, there is variation which, after the first minute when the second guitar begins to play a more fulsome melody, gives a deeper sense of the music having a meaning of its own.
Later a bass guitar enters and instead of just emphasising the chord sequence takes on a melodic line of its own. It is played by Booker T Jones – of Booker T and the MGs. It’s worth hearing just for that; there ain’t many people who could do what Booker T does.
I have seen comments about Main Title Theme ranging from talk about having had it played while walking down the aisle at a wedding to being the music played over and over again after a tragic death. Somehow despite the fact that it is clearly improvised and very simple it seems to have a deep, deep impact. Even if you never listen to anything else from this album, do take in this song in peace and quiet. Just play it, sit there and close your eyes. The work demands nothing less.
References:
1. Billy 1 4 and 7 and the Main Title theme from Pat Garrett. Forgotten moments of genius. – Untold Dylan
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I like the movie and the soundtrack. He did a great job on it…I bought the soundtrack before I watched the movie and liked it but I could relate to it more after seeing the movie.
Yeh, it’s all understated in the Dylan community as Untold Dylan wrote. I think the Main Title Theme is in my favourite 30 Dylan songs. I can’t get enough of it, ever since I heard it. When I tried to learn and play it, my regard for it only rose because it did my head in. Knocking on Heaven’s Door would be lucky to make my top 80, despite all its love. And I get that.
I do like Knocking on Heavens Door…still. We played it and I wrote…very much like you…a 3rd verse so it would make it a little longer.
I do like the theme also…
Connie keeps sending the Guns and Roses version and it drives me insane haha.
Oh I hate hate hate that version…also their awful version of Live And Let Die…
Haha. That doesn’t surprise me.
For me, the only keeper from them is ‘Civil War’. The rest of what I have heard from them I would gladly pack away. lol
I do like Patience and Paradise City…that’s about it! I’m not a huge fan of those either…but…they did serve a good purpose. In the 80s they helped stomp out hair bands…and then Nirvana finished it off.
I liked them at first but now I can’t stand them. Those two songs and that fkn November Rain, I don’t ever want to hear again haha. If I had to choose just one band whose songs haven’t aged well. They would be it. And Maybe Air Supply. lol
I don’t go out of my way to hear them lol. I don’t ever hear them anymore…I guess that is why I still like those couple of songs.
I was probably a bit too disparaging of them. Connie did send me a clip of the concert she went to and they sounded good.
This is music:
It does sound really good
I think if I had to go to just one song that demonstrated how masterful is Leonard Cohen is, it would probably be ‘Alexandra Leaving’ which Sharon Robinson in the video co produced and cowrote. These words and melody are just out of this world and Sharon’s interpretation is one for the ages in my estimation.