Now It's Dark
David Lynch (January 20, 1946 - January 16, 2025)
Jesus. Hard to know where even to begin, though I think Phillip Jeffries sums it all up for me:
(…and yeah, I’m trying hard not to fixate on how three of the four individuals in this clip are no longer with us, or how the early-January death of one presaged the horrors of 2016 just as the mid-January death of another certainly doesn’t bode well for 2025; best, instead, to ruminate on how two of them participated in the recording of Keith Moon’s one and only solo album. Hmm. Yeah. Ruminating’s fun. Moving on…)
What’s left to say about David Lynch, over two weeks after his death and eleven days past what would have been his 79th birthday (a day we wound up celebrating in the worst possible way)? Plenty, actually; one of the wonderful aspects of his body of work is how it encourages, nay insists upon potentially infinite interpretations - to attempt to get to the bottom of it would be as impossible as it would be unwise. (The delicious, slightly frustrating sensation that well-wrought ambiguity provides is its own reward.)1 There’s been loads of strong analysis of his life’s work in the past week, all from folks far more wise and articulate than I could hope to be, so I won’t try and compete. What I can provide, instead, is one of the things I seem to do best when confronted with the passing of a formidable2: cobble together a couple hours’ worth of radio in their honor.
I’ve been doing my weekly radio show, Wow & Flutter, for the past 18 1/2 years through the good offices of Coast Community Radio. It’s one of the small handful of things that’s kept me relatively sane and somewhat balanced during the various joys and horrors of my late-youth into mid-middle age. Whatever else is going on, I’m somehow able to carve out a two-hour hunk of broadcasting every single Wednesday night, maintain a pretty consistent quality, and do so without getting the slightest bit bored or untickled by the process. It’s gotten to the point that I basically don’t care that hardly anyone’s likely to be listening to the damn thing, given that it’s airing late at night in the middle of the work week on a medium that few people seem to bother with anymore3. My main demographic is, well, me. And I’m getting high marks in that demo, thank you very much.
But I digress. Some of the shows I’m especially proud of have been the ones put together in tribute to my various heroes when they pass on. Once word comes down that one or another has popped their proverbial clogs4, I’m on the case - putting together an aural collage from as many sources as I can muster, and doing so in whatever lead time there is between the death announcement and my 11 PM Wednesday start time.5 Of course, it helps if the deceased was a musician or worked extensively in one audio medium or another, as was the case with Lou Reed, David Bowie, Prince, Scott Walker, Scott Miller (for whom I did two tribute shows), the Firesign Theatre’s Peter Bergman and Phil Austin, Monty Python’s Terry Jones, a whole lot of National Lampoon people, etc. But heck, I pulled off a pretty decent one the week Peter Fonda died, and even once paid homage to the fortieth anniversary of the death of a certain jowly individual’s job.
With Lynch, a man for whom sound was always at least of equal importance to visuals, there was no small amount of riches to draw from - a plethora of musical projects on top of the soundtracks to his films, songs influenced directly by the man and his works, and the voice of the man himself via audiobook. Plus a few snippets snipped from his movies, planted judiciously throughout. I got a little creative with layering in spots and got to overuse some of my favorite Audacity effects6 to help extend the unsettling atmospheres he so excelled at. Anyway, I think it’s good enough that maybe a couple dozen more people than usual might take interest.
So I present the January 22, 2025 episode of Wow & Flutter in its entirety, dedicated not only to David Lynch but to the memories of the others herein represented who have also passed on - Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise, Peter Christopherson, Roy Orbison, Alan Splet, David Bowie, Jack Nance, Dennis Hopper, Robert Loggia, Lou Reed, Mort Shuman, Doc Pomus, Mark Linkous, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Farnsworth, and Peter Ivers. Fuck, that’s a lot of dead people. I hear the monkey who played Jack Cruz is still with us, though, so yay. Please to enjoy.
PART ONE:7
PART TWO:8
(In other words, stop trying to figure out what happened to Tony Soprano after the cut to black, for fuck’s sake.)
Can I do that? Turn “formidable” into a noun, I mean? Fuck it, I’m doing it. David would’ve wanted me to.
I, on the other hand, have revered radio and all that goes with it since I was very young, which might be worthy of a future piece on this very platform.
Haven’t the slightest idea what it means to “pop one’s clogs,” by the way - the only images that come to mind involve bursting wooden shoes, which for damn sure are amusing to contemplate, but statistically only prove fatal less than 30% of the time. Outside of Holland, of course.
I’m especially proud of how quickly I got my tribute to Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart together, finding out about his death halfway into an episode and managing to make the hairpin turn into a loud aural wake in near-record time.
If I were make an “OKAY, PAULSTRETCH!” joke here, would more than a dozen people worldwide get it? Yeah, thought as much.
00:00 – show intro
00:09 – advice – david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (:27)
00:33 – up in flames – julee cruise/angelo badalamenti (industrial symphony no. 1: the dream of the broken-hearted, 1990) (8:31)
09:00 – videodrones; questions – trent reznor (lost highway soundtrack, 1997) (:44)
09:44 – in dreams – roy orbison (in dreams, 1963) (2:52)
12:29 – 911 – blueBOB (blueBOB, 2001) (3:47)
16:14 – eraserhead side two (excerpt) – lynch/splet (eraserhead soundtrack, 1982) (1:02)
17:16 – gloria patri – jocelyn montgomery/david lynch (lux vivens [the music of hildegard von bingen], 1998) (2:32)
19:45 – wicked game – chris isaak (wild at heart soundtrack, 1990) (4:07)
23:48 – light of the self - david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (:49)
24:36 – no stars – rebekah del rio (twin peaks [music from the limited event series], 2017) (7:21)
31:53 – abstract mood (slow speed) – angelo badalamenti (twin peaks archive, 2011) (5:00)
36:51 – david lynch has a painting made of flies eyes – ssvu (7” single, 2022) (3:58)
40:47 – a garden at night - david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (1:29)
42:15 – i’ve told every little star – linda scott (mulholland dr. soundtrack, 2001) (2:16)
44:27 – angel star – chrysta bell (this train, 2011) (4:27)
48:50 – black lodge – anthrax (sound of white noise, 1993) (5:26)
54:11 – phillip jeffries interlude (:56)
55:15 – i’m deranged (reprise) – david bowie (lost highway soundtrack, 1997) (3:44)
59:00 – silencio
00:00 – main title – toto (dune soundtrack, 1984) (1:21)
00:11 – jack nance interlude (1:09)
01:15 – prophecy theme – brian eno (dune soundtrack, 1984) (4:21)
05:31 – pinky’s dream (feat. karen o) – david lynch (crazy clown time, 2011) (4:04)
09:22 – absurd encounter with fear – metavari (absurda – music reimagined in the short films of david lynch, 2019) (2:07)
11:12 – she’s gone away – the nine inch nails (twin peaks [music from the limited event series], 2017) (6:00)
17:09 – frank booth interlude (:27)
17:32 – mr. eddy’s theme 1 – barry adamson (lost highway soundtrack, 1997) (3:31)
21:03 – this magic moment – lou reed (lost highway soundtrack, 1997) (3:23)
24:24 – lost highway – david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (:47)
25:09 – david lynch moments – general elektriks (good city for dreamers, 2010) (3:03)
28:11 – woodcutters from fiery ships – thought gang (thought gang, 2018) (4:35)
32:44 – mysteries of love (part one) – julee cruise (floating into the night, 1989) (2:05)
34:43 – song to the siren – this mortal coil (it’ll end in tears, 1984) (3:30)
37:54 - mysteries of love (part two) – julee cruise (floating into the night, 1989) (2:35)
40:23 – star eyes (i can’t catch it) (feat. david lynch) – danger mouse & sparklehorse (dark night of the soul, 2010) (3:10)
43:28 – true love’s flame – david lynch w/jack cruz (the flame of love 7”, 2020) (1:47)
45:14 – i have a radio – dumb numbers w/david lynch (7” single, 2020) (5:26)
50:31 – iii (grey) – david lynch (the air is on fire, 2007) (3:09)
51:00 – turn on the light – david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (2:38)
53:39 – final miles – angelo badalamenti (the straight story soundtrack, 1999) (5:14)
56:19 – in closing – david lynch (catching the big fish – meditation, consciousness and creativity, 2006) (:41)
57:15 – in heaven (lady in the radiator song) – peter ivers/david lynch (eraserhead soundtrack, 1982) (1:38)
58:52 – the last word – david lynch (:08)
59:00 – end
A ton of info about Peter Ivers (with a little info about David Lynch) here: https://ifrqfm.substack.com/p/terminal-love