THE UNFORTUNATE LAD

For this instalment of Song of the Week we return to the Coen Brothers.

This time we visit 2018’s Anthology Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which is a film that has a great number of brilliant musical sequences . Realistically I could have chosen any one of them, however my choice this week is The Unfortunate Lad, taken from the films final story The Mortal Remains.

The Unfortunate Lad is an adaption of traditional folk ballad The Unfortunate Rake, of which there have been numerous version over the years, and numerous arguments as to it’s origin - some sources date it back to the 16th Century - and meaning - it has been argued that it is the most beautiful song ever written about a sexually transmitted disease.

But I digress.

In The Mortal Remains we are introduced to a number of disparate characters, brought together on their journey a destination which is never explicitly stated. As the group begin to converse their differences a laid bare, and before long Tyne Daly’s Mrs Betjemen, Saul Rubinek’s René, and Chelcie Ross’ Trapper descend into rage fuelled argument.

And then, Brendan Gleeson’s Clarence begins to sing…

“As I was a-walking, down by the loch…”

The carriage instantly falls silent, and here The Unfortunate Lad tells its own story. Our journeymen transfixed, they are able, in this moment, to get clarity on their situation and, crucially, their destination.

“Oh, had she but told me, when she disordered me

Had she but told me of it at the time

I might have got salts, or pills of white mercury

But now I’m cut down in the height of my prime”

As Clarence sings the camera focusses on each of our passengers as they realise where they are going, and consider where they have been. The look of tortured resignation in the face of Mrs Betjemen telling as much of a story as the song itself.

“Get six pretty maidens to carry my coffin

And six pretty maidens to bear up my pall

And give to each of them bunches of roses

So they may not smell me as they go along”

Well, we might be hard pressed to describe Brendan Gleeson as a pretty maiden, but I am sure he will do the job gladly all the same.

Directed by: Joel Coen; Ethan Coen

Starring: Tyne Daly; Brendan Gleeson; Jonjo O’Neill; Saul Rubinek; Chelcie Ross

UK Release Date: 9th November 2018