One of the highlights of this summer's Twin Peaks: The Return—or any David Lynch work, really—is its beautifully curated soundtrack. In the third season of Twin Peaks, specifically, almost every episode ended with a visit to the Bang Bang Bar, where a new musical guest would give a dazzling performance before and during the closing credits. These artists included Chromatics (who helped compose some of the original music), Sharon Van Etten, Nine Inch Nails, Eddie Vedder, and Julee Cruise (who often appeared in the original series).
And throughout this brilliant and bizarre new season of Twin Peaks, Lynch provided a surprising soundtrack that drove the conclusion of his beloved series. In one of the most touching scenes, which provided a rare conclusion for the people of Twin Peaks, Ed and Norma finally end up together in a triumphant proposal more than two decades in the making that's set to Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long." It's one of those moments that Lynch almost never gives—a happy ending the likes of which we definitely didn't see a lot of in this third season of Twin Peaks.
And there's a reason Lynch chose this specific Redding song for the scene, as he told Pitchfork:
It's the version from the Monterey Pop Festival. There was Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company doing "Ball and Chain," Jimi Hendrix's "Wild Thing," and there was Otis Redding. When I hear those three things, it just drives me crazy how great they are. With Otis Redding, we reach this place in him, and I just couldn't believe that version. It was so, so, so beautiful. So much feeling comes through that thing; it's one of my all-time favourites. I just go nuts. I start crying like a baby when I hear that thing.
Nothing in David Lynch's world is an accident—every little detail is included for a very specific purpose. Lynch connects with sounds and music the way he does with visuals, which is why he's credited as sound designer for this series and is appalled at the idea of people watching Twin Peaks: The Return on their phones.
