MovieChat Forums > Midnight Cowboy (1969) Discussion > Lay, Lady, Lay and I Guess the Lord Must...

Lay, Lady, Lay and I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City in the film

posted 8 years ago by riddick-11114
2 replies | jump to latest

Bob Dylan wrote the song "Lay, Lady, Lay" for the film, but didn't complete it in time to be included in the soundtrack, this might have changed the dynamic of the movie though a bit, it was originally written for the soundtrack of the movie Midnight Cowboy, but wasn't submitted in time to be included in the finished film.

Here is the song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2jbER0wk0

Harry Nilsson's song I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City was also supposed to be used in Midnight Cowboy too according to the imdb.coms trivia page for the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064665/trivia?ref_=ttalt_sa_1

Here is the song on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swOlajJ-zU

According to music producer Phil Ramone, Harry Nilsson's version of " Everybody's Talkin'" was originally used as a placeholder on the early edits of the film while waiting for his composition, "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City" to be ready for slotting in to the final cuts. As often happens, the director and producer got so used to hearing the filler song they ultimately stuck with it. Both have similar rhythms and melody lines.

Harry Nilsson wrote the song "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City" specifically for this film, but John Schlesinger preferred a Fred Neil song, "Everybody's Talkin'", which Nilsson had previously recorded. Other songs considered for the movie were Randy Newman's "Cowboy", and Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay"

[–] Matthew7819 8 years ago

Interesting, those are great songs and i love them both, but Everybodys Talking At Me hits a chord in the movie, because Joe Buck embodies the song, he doesnt hear a word that anyone is saying because it is his life and fantasy world, Lay,Lady,Lay and I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City are great song songs but they dont quite fit in the content of the movie, but they are great songs anyway.

I never knew that I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City was written for the film Midnight Cowboy, actually it might fit as the song for Ratso Rizzo because he was from New York City most specifically The Bronx, so the song fits for Ratso as a character but not for Joe Buck, because there was nothing Holy or Christian about his Hustler lifestyle choice or what happened to him in the movie, but by contrast his growth as Human Being and character happened in New York City so maybe the song does fit because it was his Baptism By Fire and he became a more complete and whole person, so the song fits in that respect.

I just found another new layer of this movie in your post and it makes me love the movie even more :)

[–] Degree7 7 years ago

Interesting. I agree with the above poster that Everybody's Talking (truly a masterful song in its own right) just fits so well, goes to show how much fate and timing end up creating such perfect synergy.

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