Bob Dylan Scores My Own Love Song

Bob Dylan already has an Oscar, but it looks like he’s going for another one.

My Own Love Song, a new film from French director Olivier Dahan starring Renée Zellweger and Forest Whitaker, will feature 17 previously unheard tracks from Bob Dylan.  According to IMDB, the movie follows a wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend who embark on a road trip to Memphis.  Zellwegger sings a song in the film left over from Dylan’s last album, Together Through Life, called “Life Is Hard.” She also belts out a soulful rendition of “This Land Is My Land,” which you can watch a clip of below. As Jon Lovitz might say, it features plenty of “acting!”

The other 16 tracks are also outtakes from Together Through Life. Dahan, who’s last film was 2004’s Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse, says: [Dylan] composed the songs while I was shooting, I could not show him the footage, so I made him short clips. But I knew he understood what I wanted to tell from the beginning of the collaboration. We talked by phone about the film’s themes and aesthetics… His only requirement was to write one song with very specific content, that the character of Jane sings to her son she found after seven years of absence, entitled “Life is hard.” He wrote many more songs than necessary. He also composed instrumentals. The first time we met, he was very concerned about whether the music stuck with what I imagined. I was very lucky to work with this great artist.”

Dylan famously scored Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 western Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, and contributed several songs to the 2005’s North Country.

Bob Dylan songs appearing in My Own Love Song:

1. “Sweeping The Floor”
2. “Bumble Bee”
3. “Jane’s Lament”
4. “Joey’s Theme”
5. “Driving South”
6. “Back Alley”
7. “Snow Falling”
8. “Billie #30”
9. “Road Weary”
10. “Click Clack”
11. “Robbie Robert’s Lament”
12. “New Orleans Drums”
13. “Jane’s Step”
14. “Swingin’”
15. “Blues Club (Playback)”
16. “East Texas”

My Own Love Song – Extrait 2
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