The New Yorker on the Role of Music on "The Wire"

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Late last month, The New Yorker published an in-depth profile of the HBO series The Wire and its creator David Simon, covering everything from the inception of the show to a preview of its upcoming fifth season. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who has appeared on the show and is a friend of its creator, tells Talbot that Simon is "a music freak."

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Late last month, The New Yorker published an in-depth profile of the acclaimed HBO series The Wire and its creator David Simon. The article, written by Margaret Talbot, covers everything from the inception of the show to a preview of its upcoming fifth season. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who has appeared on the show and is a friend of its creator, tells Talbot that Simon is "a music freak." A fitting thing, because on January 8, 2008, Nonesuch will release the show’s first-ever soundtrack, as was announced yesterday.

In the article, Talbot explains the role Simon has given to music throughout the series:

For The Wire, Simon did not want music perpetually in the background; it had to come from something visible in a scene, like a boom box or a car with open windows. There were two exceptions: every season ends with a montage accompanied by a song, and the opening credits feature “Way Down in the Hole,” a twisted gospel song written by Tom Waits. Simon’s search for the right opening song was intense. He went through his record collection-which runs to Woody Guthrie, the Pogues, Muddy Waters, jazz, and R&B, including New Orleans groups like the Meters—looking for something that would imply “misplaced faith in the postmodern, post-industrial gods. Obviously, given that order, there was not a lot that worked.” Waits’s song fit this high-flown criterion, but Simon felt that his “white man’s growl” wasn’t right for the first season, which was so deeply rooted in black West Baltimore. So he decided to use a cover version by the Blind Boys of Alabama. For the next season, set at the port, where many of the main characters were white union guys, he returned to the Waits original, and then he decided to change the interpretation every season, to reflect the shifting focus of the show. The fourth season, with its schools story line, featured a version by a Baltimore boys’ choir. This year, it will be Steve Earle, whose bottomed-out voice suits the homeless theme.

You can hear "Way Down in the Hole" off the soundtrack, as performed by DoMaJe, from Season Four, on Nonesuch Radio. Click on the link on the top left of this page.

To read the complete New Yorker article, visit newyorker.com.

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  • Tuesday, November 13, 2007
    The New Yorker on the Role of Music on "The Wire"

    Late last month, The New Yorker published an in-depth profile of the acclaimed HBO series The Wire and its creator David Simon. The article, written by Margaret Talbot, covers everything from the inception of the show to a preview of its upcoming fifth season. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who has appeared on the show and is a friend of its creator, tells Talbot that Simon is "a music freak." A fitting thing, because on January 8, 2008, Nonesuch will release the show’s first-ever soundtrack, as was announced yesterday.

    In the article, Talbot explains the role Simon has given to music throughout the series:

    For The Wire, Simon did not want music perpetually in the background; it had to come from something visible in a scene, like a boom box or a car with open windows. There were two exceptions: every season ends with a montage accompanied by a song, and the opening credits feature “Way Down in the Hole,” a twisted gospel song written by Tom Waits. Simon’s search for the right opening song was intense. He went through his record collection-which runs to Woody Guthrie, the Pogues, Muddy Waters, jazz, and R&B, including New Orleans groups like the Meters—looking for something that would imply “misplaced faith in the postmodern, post-industrial gods. Obviously, given that order, there was not a lot that worked.” Waits’s song fit this high-flown criterion, but Simon felt that his “white man’s growl” wasn’t right for the first season, which was so deeply rooted in black West Baltimore. So he decided to use a cover version by the Blind Boys of Alabama. For the next season, set at the port, where many of the main characters were white union guys, he returned to the Waits original, and then he decided to change the interpretation every season, to reflect the shifting focus of the show. The fourth season, with its schools story line, featured a version by a Baltimore boys’ choir. This year, it will be Steve Earle, whose bottomed-out voice suits the homeless theme.

    You can hear "Way Down in the Hole" off the soundtrack, as performed by DoMaJe, from Season Four, on Nonesuch Radio. Click on the link on the top left of this page.

    To read the complete New Yorker article, visit newyorker.com.

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