Sons of Anarchy It’s one of those TV series that you have to watch at least once in your life. Created by Kurt Sutter and broadcast from 2008 to 2014 by FX, now available on Disney+. The setting is Charming, an imaginary town in California, and the protagonists are SAMCRO, a group of motorcyclists dedicated to activities that are not exactly legal. Plus there’s also Charlie Hunnam, which is saying something.
Sons of Anarchy it is a series in which every detail is meticulously cared for. The characters are beautifully written, in a modern take on theHamlet by William Shakespeare. One of the strengths of the series Tort Sutter is undoubtedly the soundtrackstarting from the initials.
Today I have chosen, in random order, 5 musical moments from Sons of Anarchy that gave me the creeps, both for the choice of the song itself and for the scene in the background.
1. The House of The Rising Sun – The White Buffalo
I’m sure that in the choice of these 5 musical moments mine also partly influences personal musical taste, but I challenge you to remain impassive in front of the finale of the fourth season of Sons of Anarchy.
The House of The Rising Sun is a great classic that we’ve heard countless covers of over the years. It is an immortal song that derives from the folk tradition of the 1800s and, to date, the real author is unknown. The most famous version is that of the rock group The Animalswhich they expertly mixed the folk note with the grit of rock.
As I have already said, in Sons of Anarchy Nothing is left to chance. THE The White Buffalo they give us a wonderful version of the song adapting it specifically for the TV series by Kurt Sutter.
There is a house in Charming town, they call the Rising Sun.
On the other hand, the imaginary house in Charming town is not so different from the one imagined by the anonymous artist who first wrote this piece. The house of the rising sun was a place of perditionprobably a brothel frequented by drunkards and people addicted to vice and depravity.
Go tell my baby sister, never do what I’ve done / You tell my little sister never to do what I did.
In the vicious circle of life everyone tends to fall and fall back into their mistakes. The piece takes possession of the scene while the director shows us fragments of characters drowned in their solitude. These lonely and vicious souls reunite in the usual place, in the usual House of the Rising Sun. They unite theirs destinies marked in bloodwhile there are those who make the mistakes of the past again, in a parallelism that they smack us in the face with disarming crudeness.
2. The Passenger – Iggy Pop
If you can listen The Passenger by Iggy Pop without the irrepressible desire to dance then you have some problems (or maybe I have more than a few). The song itself is engaging, if you then associate it with SAMCRO riding their motorcycles we reach the climax.
Jax would like a quiet night with Tara, would like to leave all the problems behind and switch off at least for a few hours. But in the world of Sons of Anarchy craving a pinch of normality is a difficult request to grant.
The Passenger in itself is a story of friendship, narrates the beauty of traveling the world and getting to know it thoroughly. The world that Jax and his club see from the windows of an imaginary train is very different. Friendship becomes a gamble on trust, you never know if whoever is close to you is your friend or if they are just trying to manipulate you, just as you are never sure that the other deserves your trust.
3. Bohemian Rhapsody – The White Buffalo ft. The Forest Rangers
Bohemian Rhapsody it is a masterpiece, there is no rain on this. The famous song by Queen is a piece of music history and, also in this case, the song changes shape and it fits perfectly a Sons of Anarchy.
We are at the end of the first episode of the seventh season. The text of Bohemian Rhapsody it is a liquid text, which lends itself to a thousand interpretations without ever identifying one correct. Likewise assumes different meanings depending on the character of Sons of Anarchy on which we bet the bull’s eye.
On the one hand we have Gemma Teller: the bloody queen of SAMCRO, the woman willing to do anything to keep the crown firmly on her head. In this scene of hers her tears stream down her face as she continues to shamelessly lie. Jax vents his blind rage on what he believes to be guilty of the death of his beloved, while that blood inevitably pours on Gemma herself, who dragged someone to a gallows intended for her.
The lyrical progress of the piece enters our bones, just as the raw representation of an unjust execution. We’d like to yell at Jax to stop, but we can’t and we watch as helplessly as his clubmates.
Jax yells, sprinkles salt on the wounds, coats him in smoke, and then drops his own ax to end it all, while the lyrics of the song keep repeating that nothing really matters. Nothing really matters, because that blind rage, that blood, those screams will never be able to soothe the pains of too deep a pain.
4. Hey Hey, My My – Battleme
Hey Hey, My My. Rock and roll can never die.
The iconic song by Neil Young, reinterpreted by Battleme accompanies us in one of the most important moments of Sons of Anarchy. Yes, again let’s talk about a final but it’s hardly my fault that Kurt Sutter knows how to wrap things up in style.
How many things happen while i Battleme rock us with this melody: Opie carries out his revenge, Wayne Unser sells his soul to SAMCRO for good, Jax smiles heartily with his brothers for having once again flouted justice, Gemma enjoys the sparkle of her crown and Tara meets John Teller for the first time.
The prince becomes king, the wicked witch is defeated, blood claims its inheritance. Neil Young, inspired by Elvis’ death, writes a hymn to Rock n’ Roll, a genre that feeds on its essence and for this reason can never die. The King is gone but he is not forgotten.
The King has left us but let us not forget him. Also John Teller he died, he left a heavy legacy and among the letters hidden at the bottom of Jax’s backpack we get to know him better too. This was not what he wanted, Destiny almost makes him pay too high a price for his sins, while the unaware Jax smiles and looks more and more like his father.
5. Come Join The Murder – The White Buffalo
Roar of engines, then the police siren. You know all the rest well and I know it well too who, a little masochistI decided to watch the final scene again before writing this paragraph.
Come Join the Murder it’s kind of the symbol of Sons of Anarchy, the Sons of Anarchy find their reason for being in this final sequence. Jax runs free as a flock of blaring sirens follow him unable to keep up. The look on his face is serene, finally meets his fate aware that he has written a much better one for his children.
He embraces his motorcycle as if it were literally part of himself, and spreads his wings towards a new flight that, this time, has really the taste of freedom. A freedom that brings with it the metallic taste of blood, and the screams of a past that cannot be erased, but what does it matter.
Come join the murder
Come fly with black
We’ll give you freedom
From the human trap
Come join the murder
Soar on my wings
You’ll touch the hand of God
And He’ll make you king
And He’ll make you king
