One of the most celebrated American actors of his time, Harry Dean Stanton spent decades playing small character roles before he became an unlikely star in the 1980s, with his craggy, understated naturalism informing roles in cult favorites like Repo Man, Paris, Texas, and Wild at Heart as well as blockbusters such as Alien, Pretty in Pink, and The Green Mile. While best known as an actor, Stanton was also a musician and vocalist, and his life in music was as idiosyncratic as his history in acting. Disinterested in generic labels, his musical interests had more to do with what...