The Flaming Lips offer their own unique spin on George Jones’ signature song, “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” for the new film Arkansas. A dark-comedy tale about drug trafficking in the South, the movie stars Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth, and Clark Duke, and premieres May 5th on Apple, Amazon, On Demand platforms, and Blu-Ray and DVD.
The Lips’ version of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” arrives with the band performing the song onstage in a scene from the movie, with singer Wayne Coyne — in an eye patch — diving headlong into Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman’s lyrics. While Jones sang them with his syrupy drawl, Coyne offers an equal parts yearning and raspy take, with multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd handling the song’s spoken-word interlude (“You know, she came to see him one last time…”). Last month marked the seventh anniversary of Jones’ death.
Arkansas, directed and co-written by Duke, stars Hemsworth and Clark as two park rangers who moonlight as drug runners for Vaughn’s kingpin Frog. Vivica A. Fox and John Malkovich costar.
The Flaming Lips celebrated the 20th anniversary of their landmark album The Soft Bulletin last year. In March, Coyne and Drozd teamed up with L.A. duo Deap Vally to release a record as Deap Lips, which includes a cover of Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher.”
