Representations of Joe Buck through Fred Neil's Everybody’s Talkin’ in Midnight Cowboy.

The use of Everybody’s Talkin’ in Midnight Cowboy accompanies the film’s protagonist Joe Buck (John Voight) throughout the film. The song is used to add an additional layer to Joe’s characterisation, commenting on his displacement in a new environment; the cowboy in the city, established through their mutual country styling to juxtapose the city environment in which they occur. There is no physical interaction between Joe and the song, which remains non-diagetic throughout the film suggesting a psychological, rather than physical, association between music and image.

Perhaps the most notable use of the song occurs while Joe explores New York City for the first time, in search of a rich lady to hustle. Joe’s movement throughout the sequence is mismatched with the tempo of the song, which, reinforced by the films editing structure, which repeatedly cuts out of sync with the song, deliberately creates a rhythmic disjunction between music and image. Diagetic interjections of ‘city noise’ in the form of car horns serve as a comment on the nature of Joe’s place in the city.

The film’s thematic concerns revolve around the dissolution of Joe’s American dream and the consuming nature of the big city, anonymously absorbing its inhabitants and their dreams. Everybody’s Talkin’ comments on Joe’s character and the foreignness of his new city environment. The nature of Joe’s off-centre position on screen results in a lack of formal attention towards the films protagonist and provides a filmic structure to support the musical motifs to create an audio-visual commentary on Joe Buck in New York City.