"Dragging a Dead Priest”

'Night on Earth' soundtrack, 1991

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"Dragging a Dead Priest” is an all-time-great Tom Waits song title. It’s too bad he didn’t write a proper song to go with it.

What we have is another instrumental from the 1992 Night on Earth soundtrack. And whereas the three of those we’ve heard already—“Baby I'm Not a Baby Anymore (Beatrice Theme),” “Carnival (Brunella Del Montalcino),” “Carnival Bob's Confession”—at least had actual melodies and rhythms, "Dragging a Dead Priest” is really just ambient noise. It’s more “atmospherics” than “composition.” Clark Suprynowicz, who played bass on the soundtrack, called it “five minutes of really spooky, meandering music.”

The memorable title is literal, it turns out. In the movie, a cabbie played by Tom’s Down By Law buddy Roberto Benigni drags a dead priest onto a park bench after the priest has a heart attack in the back of his taxi. Strangely, though, barely any of this music is used in a scene. I think you can hear it in the very distant background, underneath all the dragging noises. It’s near the end of this clip:

It’s a cool soundscape for a scene in the movie, but did it really need to be on the soundtrack album?