It's Chloë Sevigny's eyes that are blue. Her karaoke rendition of Restless Heart's 1988 country hit song "Bluest Eyes in Texas" in her role as Lana Tisdel in Kimberly Peirce's 1999 Oscar-winning film appears to articulate the instant romantic attraction that Hilary Swank's Brandon Teena experiences upon seeing her take center stage - as well as an unintended prophecy that their love affair will be tragically unrequited.
Melodic, poignant and effortlessly poetic in a realistic manner, the song's lyrics were inspired by Restless Heart bandmember Van Stephenson's youthful experience of heartbreak:
"We were about ready to give up for the day, when Van started telling us about an old girlfriend from high school, who he had bumped into recently. Van grew up in Nashville, and they had been dating when her family moved to Texas. He told us it had broke his heart. He hadn’t seen her in 10 or 12 years, but she was back in Nashville, was happy, had started a family, and all that. He said, “As we were sitting there talking, I’m looking at her thinking ‘Gosh, I had forgotten how blue her eyes were.'” Van then says, “I’ve got this idea for a song, ‘The Bluest Eyes in Texas,’ because that’s what I was thinking about while I was looking at her.” He knew when she got to Texas, [the people there] had to have been thinking she had the bluest eyes in Texas! [laughs]
We ended up writing the song with the title being about this girl. What we tried to do with the rest of the song was paint a picture that could be for anybody listening. She was the inspiration behind it, obviously, but we tried to write it in a way that everybody could relate to it."
Dave Robbins, The Boot
While the original song is a gem, A Camp's (Nina Persson and Nathan Larson) 1999 cover of the song features Persson's more fragile and youthful-sounding vocals, perfectly embodying the tragic and abrupt end of Teena and Tisdel's (fictionalized) transcendent relationship, which occurs when Teena is brutally murdered after her transgender identity is revealed. I can't imagine a more perfect track to score the harrowing biographical film, which film critic Roger Ebert described as "a romantic tragedy--a "Romeo and Juliet" set in a Nebraska trailer park ...a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame." Amidst the grief and questioning, Persson's crystal-clear voice offers solace, some hope for redemption, and the strength to carry on:
The bluest eyes in TexasAre haunting me tonight.Like the stars that fill the midnight skyHer memory fills my mind.Where did I go wrong?Did I wait too long?Or can I make it right?The bluest eyes in TexasAre haunting me tonight
Lyrics: Google Play
