Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid released: July 13, 1973 BUY

In November 1972 Dylan accepted an invitation to travel to Mexico to write music for the Sam Peckinpah western Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, and, as it turned out, to appear in it as well, as the enigmatic character Alias, alongside actors Kris Kristofferson, James Coburn, and Jason Robards. The score produced a truly fine song in “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” still one of Dylan’s most popular, and also three fascinatingly different takes on a Dylan ballad about Billy the Kid. “Billy 1,” “Billy 4,” and “Billy 7” are sung in completely different voices (yet all unmistakably and characteristically Dylan) and evoke very different moods as well as containing different verses about the doomed, lone, romantic figure at the heart of the story. Billy (Main Title Theme) | listen | Cantina Theme (Workin' for the Law) | listen | Billy 1 | listen | Bunkhouse Theme | listen | River Theme | listen | Turkey Chase | listen | Knockin' on Heaven's Door | listen | Final Theme | listen | Billy 4 | listen | Billy 7 | listen |