Bob Dylan was so inspired by Durango during the filming of the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid that he wrote these two iconic songs that you probably know
Durango had the power to make one of the most prolific and influential figures of the 21st century fall deeply in love: Bob Dylan. The musician was trapped by the desert settings, by the Tepehuanes, the Huichols, the Rarámuris, the desolation, the nostalgia and it left him inside to send everything to hell.
It all started when Bob Dylan and his wife Sara Lownds arrived in Durango in 1972 for him to act in the western film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The composer and poet Dylan would play the character of Alias for the film.
Bob Dylan is summoned to perform and then to compose
But Sam Peckinpah wanted to make more of his talent, so he asked him to compose the music for a violent scene. So Dylan took his guitar, wrote the lyrics, made the necessary arrangements, and thus gave rise to the legendary song Knockin on heaven’s door, which years later would help to popularize Guns N’ Roses even more.
But the musician would not only write that future hit in Mexico, he also created another piece in which he captured everything that the country and the Durango desert were transmitting to him, it is Romance in Durango.
Romance in Durango by Bob Dylan
In the melody Bob Dylan fantasizes a little, he dreams of a life outside the law, as a stranger, accompanied by a woman named Magdalena, whom he takes with him on an adventure to Durango, but who on the way face difficulties such as lack of money, but with the confidence that God always takes care of them.
The musician composed the entire Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack in Mexico. the first soundtrack he would make in his already very long career. In fact, this material was so well done that in 1974, it was nominated for a BAFTA award for best soundtrack.
Durango has something that enchants filmmakers and actors to continue filming there, some 300 films filmed there over 70 years are proof of this.
Source: mexicodesconocido
