Soundtracks: how and why do I pick songs?

[matt_doyle]

Some of this soundtrack applies to Knight Of The Star, some to Sir Dinadan's Tale, and some to Knight of the Star, Book II and parts of the story yet unwritten. No spoilers for anything yet unwritten, but I do talk about parts of the finished stories. Several of the songs listed are covers, in which case I list the cover artist rather than the original artist, because man would that change the way this all sounded.

And if people find this interesting, I could just as easily do it for Running In Her Veins, A Stain Upon His Hands, or Hellion Prince.  Not that this was exactly easy, but...

 

 

All Purpose Folk Song – Flash Girls

And somewhere around this point in the song someone normally gets transformed into a loathly worm.

This both gets me in the mindset of folk tales in general and in Dinadan's irreverent attitude in particular.

 

My Medea – Vienna Teng

For it's my thoughts that bind me here
It's this love that I most fear

Mood music. Fairy tales can be grim, melancholy things.

 

A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton

'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight

Being in love with someone far away (who you cannot have) sucks. And since I generally tend to be an uptempo electric guitar guy in my soundtracks, and this soundtrack is deliberately a contrast, to go along with the writing style and narrative voice, there's a certain amount of piano music and soft rock that's basically filler, keeping the playlist long enough that it doesn't get repetitive to listen to.

 

When You're Evil – Voltaire

I'm the fly in your soup
I'm the pebble in your shoe
I'm the pea beneath your bed
I'm a bump on every head

Dinadan's not evil, but he is supposed to be caustic, witty, and scornful.

 

The Instigators – The Weasel King

We’re the instigators
It’s just trouble, it’s not unforgivable

More Dinadan mood music. Yes, this is about Fred and George Weasley.

 

Man of Constant Sorrow – Soggy Bottom Boys

For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.

Gawain in the Wilds of Wirral. Well, sort of. It's a little lighthearted for that.

 

I'm Your Man – Leonard Cohen

If you want a partner, take my hand

Or if you want to strike me down in anger, here I stand

I'm your man.

For both Dinadan and Gawain, stepping up to challenges despite a certain reluctance.

 

Change Your Mind – All-American Rejects

Sit down, you're sinking,
there's no one to watch you.
Skip town, you're thinking,
there's no one to stop you.

Both Gawain and Dinadan end up alone and desperate, and presented with temptations that could save their lives.

 

I Won't Back Down – Tom Petty

You could stand me at the gates of Hell

But I won't back down.

Gawain is determined to discharge his obligations courteously, whether or not it costs his life. Dinadan is irate and stubborn and proud, and trying to prove a point. Either way.

 

Blackbird – Sarah McLachlan

Black bird singing in the dead of night

I have a lot of excuses for this one. Sort of apropos for Dinadan's Tale, melancholy mood music, the slow pace is in keeping with most of this soundtrack... I just really love this song and it makes me want to write.

 

Kiss From A Rose – Seal

There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.

A beautiful, mystical love song. It sounds right for a fairy tale. More a KOTS thing, but again, this song is just inspiring to me.

 

Secret Smile – Semisonic

Nobody knows it, but you've got a secret smile

And you use it only for me.

Beryl does a lot of smiling at Gawain, whether it's in the feasting hall with her husband next to her, or in his bedroom in the mornings.

 

Grazed Knees – Snow Patrol

I'm trying not to stare, it's too late
The blankets over there, if you like
I'm broken and I'm colder than hell
I should've said I'd not come back here

Beryl sneaking into Gawain's bedroom. My God, there's not a single lyric in this entire song that doesn't work for those scenes.

 

As I Lay Me Down – Sophie B. Hawkins

As I lay me down to sleep
This I pray
That you will hold me dear
Though I'm far away

Gawain and Beryl after Knight of the Star. With or without a token to remember the other by. I didn't mean, in writing that story, to write a love story that really struck a chord with me, but it affected me much more deeply than expected.

 

Be My Escape – Relient K

because I know to live you must give your life away

Thematically appropriate both for Gawain and in general for any Arthurian story, where devout Christianity is a part of pretty much everyone's character.

 

Rainbow Connection – Me First And The Gimme Gimmes

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.

Again, it's a fairy tale song. And it's an amazing song. Whether sung by Muppets or by punks.

 

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For – Rockapella

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I think this would be a great song for any quest story.

 

Stepping Razor – Peter Tosh

If you are a bully
Treat me good

A little weird, I know, but for me it works for Dinadan, and how he mouths off every time someone threatens him.

 

The Lady of Shallott – Loreena McKennitt

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.

How anyone could possibly write an Arthurian story without this song on their soundtrack? I'm sure I don't know.

 

Lancelot – David Carter & Tracy Grammer

Lancelot rode on a swayback mare
he won in a card game up north somewhere
He was bottom-out lonely, he was too tired to care,
staying one step ahead of the rain.

This song has absolutely nothing to do with either of these stories. But how could I possibly write an Arthurian story without it? If this song does not amuse you, you have no soul.

 

Mordred's Lullaby – Heather Dale

And you won't understand the cause of your grief

But you'll always follow the voices beneath.

Fucking creepy, son. I keep getting complimented on how atmospheric my stories are – if so, the music I use to set that atmosphere is a huge part of it. And it demonstrates how far Arthur's half-sisters will go to get their way. And I couldn't write an Arthurian story without it. And it's a gorgeous song. Listen to if if you haven't. Right now.

 

Highwayman – Johnny Cash

The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

Johnny Cash wrote my favorite science fiction short story, and this is it. Again, fairy tale mood music and personal inspiration more than any specific connection.

 

Prince Charming Comes – Flash Girls

For into darkness my prince comes... on a bony horse called Death.

See: creepy, atmospheric, fairy tale music.

 

The Partisan – Leonard Cohen

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;

Um, this one has to do with some of the unwritten stuff later in Knight of the Star, Book II.

 

The Mummer's Dance – Loreena McKennitt

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair.
KOTS, Book II has a sort of preoccupation with seasons and holidays, and humanity's interaction with nature, that this song plays right into.

 

Stolen Child – Loreena McKennitt

Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand

Fairies. Creepy. Atmospheric. And just as Sir Dinadan's Tale has more fairies than the first bit of KOTS, Book II has... a lot more.

 

I Will Still Remember You – Aeone

The turning tide
Breathes all the mystery of you...

A song from the Mists of Avalon soundtrack that incorporates seasonal imagery and talks about a far-off love. Dude.

 

Hungry Like The Wolf – Duran Duran

Straddle the line in discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt I'm after you.
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf

What other song could I use for Raven Eater? Except, of course, for this next song.

 

Werewolf – Cat Powers

I saw the werewolf, and the werewolf was crying
Cryin nobody knows, nobody knows, body knows
How I loved the man, as I teared off his clothes.

Yeah. I'm not sure to what extent the homoerotic undertones I was thinking about all through Sir Dinadan's Tale made it into the text as opposed to being totally subtextual and invisible. But man were they there. And goddamned if annotating this soundtrack hasn't given me a lot of ideas for how to go back an edit the story, for that matter.

 

Landslide – Dixie Chicks

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Seasonal and atmospheric and fits the sound and tempo of the rest of the music.

 

One Last Breath – Creed

I'm looking down now that it's over
Reflecting on all of my mistakes
I thought I found the road to somewhere

Gawain at the end of Book I and the start of Book II, confused and grieving and regretful.

 

The Leaving Song – AFI

Turned away in disgrace,
felt the chill upon my face cooling from within.

Don't really know about this one. It doesn't really seem to fit anywhere that I can see, but something about the sound kept me from cutting it every time I pruned this list.

 

Maybe – Alison Krauss

Maybe I can stand alone
Maybe I'm strong as stone

More Gawain than Dinadan. Doubt and reversals of fate.

 

Unsaid – The Fray

And we are leaving some things unsaid
And we are breathing deeper instead

Gawain knows that silence is sometimes courtesy. Dinadan knows that there are things he doesn't want to share.