let's play song association!

[bedlamsbard]

Hey, who knew that in college you would have to do homework? Bear with me, I have to read 130 words of The Victorian World Picture for my 8:30 morning class tomorrow.

But just out of curiosity, though. Tell me why these songs are on my Dust and/or Last Battle AU playlist(s). (I have one of each. They are not the same.) This is not the entirety of either playlist.

Northwest Passage, Stan Rogers
Karma Slave, Splashdown
Wreck of the Day, Anna Nalick
Crescent City, Emmylou Harris
American Pie, Madonna (Don McLean cover)

Because I don't know.

Comments

[snacky]

Okay, as someone who makes playlists for characters and shows and books and movies all the time, can I just say, I LOVE THIS QUESTION.

I can see Northwest Passage for a couple of reasons - there's a lot about traveling/covering different parts of the land in there, and I think that's what's happening in Dust - you've got everyone all over the place.

These lines strike me as Narnian/Dust:

Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones,
And a long forgotten, lonely cairn of stones.

I dunno, that just says Arn Abedin to me.

And if should be I come again to loved ones left at home,
Put the journals on the mantle, shake the frost out of my bones,
Making memories of the passage, only memories after all,
And hardships there the hardest to recall.

And this seems like Jill or Eustace - thinking about going back to England, when all of it is over, and looking back.

Karma Slave seems to be very Peter and Edmund and maybe Susan too. With Narnia they've got no choice - they're just pulled there and they have to do what they have to do, and then they're sent away again, and they've got no choice in that either. Someone's pulling their strings and their lives are never ever their own:

But this time around I'm smiling
Keep me cautious, keep me safe, just in case there's a chance
I can leave this Wheel behind me.

They can always hope though.

Who's at the center of the Wheel
The inventor of the Wheel
or another spinning servant

Is that Aslan or someone/something else doing this to them?

I'm coming back, yeah, I'll be coming back
But for the last time.

They never thought they'd get to Narnia again. But this is it, they're either dying there, or they're done - somehow if they do this, they're free of being pulled between two places.

Wreck of the Day is hard! Susan, I think, maybe just before Dust. Especially this last bit:

Driving away from the wreck of the day
And it's finally quiet in my head
Driving alone, finally on my way home to the comfort of my bed
And if this is giving up, then I'm giving up
If this is giving up, then I'm giving up, giving up
On love, On love

She's denied Narnia for so long, she's alienated her brothers and sister and she's just...tired, and done, and she can't fight anymore.

Crescent City - I think you mentioned before that this is Cair Paravel to you? Cair Paravel as New Orleans. Despite these lines:

We used to dance the night away
Me and my sister me and my brother
We used to walk down by the river

which seem very Pevensies, it seems to me that it's more of a Tirian song - after all this Cair Paravel, and the city is more his than it ever was theirs.

American Pie, oh my god, how does THAT work? The beginning, I guess:

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they'd be happy for a while.

The Pevensies can still remember the Narnia they ruled, their people, and how they made a Golden Age.

And I think that this bit:

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn't play.

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.

fits in with them returning to Narnia, in PC and in Dust, and seeing what's happened to their country, finding out what went on while they were gone.

And then there's this:

"this'll be the day that I die."

Which, I think, ties back to Karma Slave and the determination that one way or another, this time is going to be the last time. Plus, man, they are IN DEEP all the time. It wouldn't be a surprising thought to have.

So, anyway, that's my take on it. I'm probably all wrong though! :D If you ever feel inclined, I'd love to see your entire playlists for this!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

There is no right or wrong answer! Except for how I know the ending, roughly. *grins* Some of these I really don't know why they're on either playlist -- "Wreck of the Day", "Karma Slave", and "Crescent City" are on the Dust playlist; "Wreck of the Day", "Karma Slave", "Northwest Passage", and "American Pie" are on the Last Battle AU playlist (which is substantially longer than the Dust playlist, and also has a different, if similar, tone -- it's closer to Sing the Sun to Flight, the Narnia/Stardust crossover, which is entirely different than Dust).

Besides the Emmylou Harris, the only songs that are on the Dust playlist that aren't on the LB AU playlist are Red (http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/e/elbow7320/red464020.html), which should actually probably be dropped since it's more of a Golden Age song than a Dust song, and a handful of instrumentals, as well as this (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/celticwoman/moghilemear.html) and this (http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/celtic_thunder/heartland.html), both of which were added more for feel than lyrics -- although looking at lyrics now, they both actually do fit. And "Heartland" is the first song on the playlist -- Dust Prologue, much? *grins*

(The other song that relates to Dust, but which I can't bring myself to add to the playlist unless I find a cover of it that isn't so, well...Abba (I have one cover, but it's not the right tone), is Mamma Mia (http://www.metrolyrics.com/mamma-mia-lyrics-meryl-streep.html). I know. *so ashamed*)

I am not actually going to say anything about your song association because that would be telling (although I love reading it!). *grins more*