When I was visiting my friend Pat Calkins in Fayetteville in the spring, he'd recently bought several DVDs. He had two copies of The Big Lebowski, and after I told him I'd been meaning to have the Pine Bluff library order a copy of that, he gave me one of his copies. I'd never seen it before (only parts of it) and have watched it several times now and also have discussed it in email with him. I like it a lot. Thanks again, PC!
Two of the songs featured in the soundtrack of that movie are on albums that are mentioned in A Serious Man. I've only seen a few of the Coen brothers' approximately 20 movies, but they seem to throw in fleeting references to previous movies of theirs. And there may be something strange about the way they do it. For instance, Inside Llewyn Davis, set in 1961, has the anachronism of the movie poster for The Incredible Journey, a 1963 release. Also, the Coens have their inside jokes, I'm guessing, and the name of that movie, The Incredible Journey, is likely a sort of signal to the audience that maybe there's also something incredible (meaning not credible) about Llewyn Davis's on-screen journey. I already said that in a previous post, probably.
The songs in The Big Lebowski that are on albums mentioned in A Serious Man are "Looking Out My Back Door," on CCR's Cosmo's Factory, and "Oye Como Va" on Santana's Abraxas album. Cosmo's Factory was released in July 1970 and Abraxas was released in September 1970. A Serious Man is set in 1967. At least I now see a reason for the Coen bros to throw in a reference to these two albums. Songs from them were featured in The Big Lebowski. That still leaves open the question of why Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun," from Band of Gypsys, also released in 1970, is part of the soundtrack of A Serious Man. Definitely something about the Coen m-m-movies that makes me want to study them like there's something to be figured out, besides the usual unknowns.
