The Big Lebowski (soundtrack)

The original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a veteran of all the Coen Brothers' films. While the Coens were writing the screenplay they had Kenny Rogers' "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", the Gipsy Kings' cover of "Hotel California", and several Creedence Clearwater Revival songs in mind.^[1] They asked T Bone Burnett (who would later work with the Coens on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Inside Llewyn Davis) to pick songs for the soundtrack of the film.^[2] They knew that they wanted different genres of music from different times but, as Joel remembers, "T Bone even came up with some far-out Henry Mancini and Yma Sumac.^[3] Burnett was able to secure songs by Kenny Rogers and the Gipsy Kings and also added tracks by Captain Beefheart, Moondog and Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me".^[1] However, he had a tough time securing the rights to Townes Van Zandt's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers", which plays over the film's closing credits. Former Stones manager Allen Klein owned the rights to the song and wanted $150,000 for it. Burnett convinced Klein to watch an early cut of the film and remembers, "It got to the part where the Dude says, 'I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!' Klein stands up and says, 'That's it, you can have the song!' That was beautiful."^[1][4][5] Burnett was going to be credited on the film as "Music Supervisor", but asked his credit to be "Music Archivist" because he "hated the notion of being a supervisor; I wouldn't want anyone to think of me as management".^[3]

For Joel, "the original music, as with other elements of the movie, had to echo the retro sounds of the Sixties and early Seventies".^[6]: 156 Music defines each character. For example, Bob Nolan's "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" was chosen for the Stranger at the time the Coens wrote the screenplay, as was Henry Mancini's "Lujon" for Jackie Treehorn. "The German nihilists are accompanied by techno-pop and Jeff Bridges by Creedence. So there's a musical signature for each of them", remarked Ethan in an interview.^[6]: 156 The character Uli Kunkel was in the German electronic band Autobahn, an homage to the band Kraftwerk. The album cover of their record Nagelbett (bed of nails) is a parody of the Kraftwerk album cover for The Man-Machine and the group name Autobahn shares the name of a Kraftwerk song and album. In the lyrics the phrase "We believe in nothing" is repeated with electronic distortion. This is a reference to Autobahn's nihilism in the film.^[7]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote "The collection makes more sense if you've seen the film, but there are enough good songs and quirky humor to make it an enjoyable listen on its own terms."^[8] Tom Taylor of Far Out wrote "In most cases, the alchemical magic of pairing songs with the perfect moment is rousing enough. However, when it comes to The Big Lebowski, the fact that each song also seems fine-tuned with a contextual overture is a truly astounding feat [...] You can dive into the soundtrack and never live to see the bottom, or you can simply float on the surface and listen to the pins fall, any which way, this soundtrack abides."^[9] Keith Moerer of Salon.com wrote "The Big Lebowski soundtrack is as strange as a Midwestern landscape populated by lovers, loners, losers and creeps. Sounds like a great movie—or an even better soundtrack—to me."^[10]

Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald gave three-and-a-half out of five and wrote "The Coen brothers' Big Lebowski provides more eclecticism and humour, with an excerpt from a Gluck opera and Bob Dylan on the bill. It veers from the brilliant (Nina Simone's I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good) to the spookily exotic (Yma Sumac's Ataypura) then abominable (Gipsy Kings' Hotel California), with a few laughs thrown in, such as the faux psych of First Edition's Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In and the breathy oddness of Meredith Monk's Walking Song."^[11] Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant wrote "The soundtrack full of breezy blues tunes and chill rock ‘n’ roll hits is a big part of the relaxed, easygoing mood of the Coens’ uniquely zany neo-noir."^[12]