People fanmix automatically - they can't help it. Music ties you straight to places, times, people, links with the strangest ideas without knowing why. I can't really handle other people's, because their associations are different - and due to my random, eclectic music taste, other people probably couldn't handle mine. I'm also too much of a canon nazi to make full CDs for most of these things - to go out and find songs, instead of picking them up instinctively over a long period of time.
So instead, here's a list of single songs which always remind me very strongly of particular fictional things. And I gift these ideas to anyone making a CD, who needs to make up the gaps.
All the songs I could find, which were mentioned, as a Spotify playlist:
http://open.spotify.com/user/theunmutual/playlist/7jKF8nrqWHZ0Gpbi7qjlYT
1. Doctor Who ~ "The Wonder is All Around Us" by RIAA
This song is actually remixed from Vangelis' "Alpha", Ken Nordine's "Satellite" and bits of radio interview, and isn't one you'd ever have heard except for me mentioning it here. It is a favourite song, however, because it's so uplifting. It deserves a video of happy-Doctors, excited-companions and all the fantastic, magic Doctor Who scenes. Also, at the end it strongly resembles the music from Last of the Timelords. I'm sorta surprised I've never found ANY other songs which would fit a Doctor or "isn't space-time-travel fantastic" CD, but there you go.
You can download it here: http://www.m-1.us/spaceset.html
2. the Master ~ "Almost Sorry", Scissor Sisters; "Clockwork Creep" ~ 10CC; "Tomorrow Never Dies" ~ Sheryl Crow
I've already made a Master-mix which the character might listen to, to inspire me and put me into his headspace for working on the comic. These are the offcuts: songs about him, but which he wouldn't listen to. "Almost Sorry" is a bonus track from Ta-Dah, another I-hate-you-but-am-obsessed-with-you song - but the angstiness of the lyrics are balanced out by the cold, quirky delivery. "Clockwork Creep" is an off-kilter rattle, sung from the point of view of a bomb hidden on a plane, and has always screamed "SimmMaster!" at me. And finally, the most tenuous pick. I was just singing "Tomorrow Never Dies" one day, presumably while angsting about Planet of Fire, and the two just linked in my mind. Now I look at the words again, I can't quite see where I was coming from, but the original impression remains. It also has the problem of being a bit Bond-y.
Watch Clockwork Creep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipm2wm5Exik
3. Torchwood ~ "Mrs O", Dresden Dolls
As per usual, when I say Torchwood, I technically mean Children of Earth. Another one of those instances where I sung-it-while-the-other-was-on-my-mind, but I still think this one means something. Less because of the "children" line which caught my attention, than the paranoia, coverups and despair. It's also so good that I want to find another suitable four songs to do a mini-mix. This would be Day Five.
4. Lost ~ "Not about Us", Genesis
My sister is a huge Jack/Kate shipper, so some of that background noise must have filtered through when listening to this, the only decent song from Genesis' worst album. The idea of a personal relationship being knowingly sacrificed for some sort of Greater Cause fits particularly bits of S1 or 2.
5. Random Flame songs
"Lady Moonlight", All About Eve
"Bluebells", Patrick Wolf
"Sad Eyes", Bat for Lashes
"Like a Woman", Bob Dylan
"How Can I?", Steve Hackett
"Creep", Radiohead (Yes. I know. And that's why I haven't actually made this yet)
"I can't decide", Scissor Sisters
"Death Shall Have No Dominion" and "We Don't Have to Think Like That Anymore", Cliff Martinez, purely for the gorgeous titles.
7. Emily
Is this egotistical ? Probably. I've always wanted to do people mixes for presents, made up only of songs with their name, but I've always been derailed by the lack of songs about Bethany, or in particular, Anne. Anne just must not scan pleasingly - there's Barbara Anne, Mary Anne, Lou Anne, but no plain Anne. So I tried doing joint ones, for groups of people, and the only thing it proved was what a singable name "Emily" is. Good number of syllables, and presumably pleasant associations. Some particular favourites are:
"See Emily Play" - Pink Floyd
"Emily" - Joanna Newsom
"A Rose for Emily" - The Zombies
"Like Emily" - All About Eve
"Emily Kane" - Art Brut
and another 200-and-something according to Spotify...
8. Watchmen ~ "Warriors", Hawkwind
In retrospect, this one is very tenuous. But I can still see what I was driving at when I picked it - some of the insanity reminds me of Rorschach's brain; some of the "we are the only bastions of Earth defence" reminds me in turns of Nite Owl, and of Ozymandeus; some of the ash and paranoia reminds me of the Cold War. We are the betrayed. WE ARE THE BETRAYEAYEAYED!
9. Lord of the Rings ~ "My Last Breath", Evanescence; "Stagnation", Genesis
At the time, "My Last Breath" took on Aragorn-Arwen associations, though I haven't listened to the album in years. "Stagnation" I've always thought was about Gollum - and what with it being a prog album, could even be correct. "The ice cold knife has come to decorate the dead" also reminds me of the Barrow Downs.
So. What random-association songs do you guys have?
So instead, here's a list of single songs which always remind me very strongly of particular fictional things. And I gift these ideas to anyone making a CD, who needs to make up the gaps.
All the songs I could find, which were mentioned, as a Spotify playlist:
http://open.spotify.com/user/theunmutual/playlist/7jKF8nrqWHZ0Gpbi7qjlYT
1. Doctor Who ~ "The Wonder is All Around Us" by RIAA
This song is actually remixed from Vangelis' "Alpha", Ken Nordine's "Satellite" and bits of radio interview, and isn't one you'd ever have heard except for me mentioning it here. It is a favourite song, however, because it's so uplifting. It deserves a video of happy-Doctors, excited-companions and all the fantastic, magic Doctor Who scenes. Also, at the end it strongly resembles the music from Last of the Timelords. I'm sorta surprised I've never found ANY other songs which would fit a Doctor or "isn't space-time-travel fantastic" CD, but there you go.
You can download it here: http://www.m-1.us/spaceset.html
2. the Master ~ "Almost Sorry", Scissor Sisters; "Clockwork Creep" ~ 10CC; "Tomorrow Never Dies" ~ Sheryl Crow
I've already made a Master-mix which the character might listen to, to inspire me and put me into his headspace for working on the comic. These are the offcuts: songs about him, but which he wouldn't listen to. "Almost Sorry" is a bonus track from Ta-Dah, another I-hate-you-but-am-obsessed-with-you song - but the angstiness of the lyrics are balanced out by the cold, quirky delivery. "Clockwork Creep" is an off-kilter rattle, sung from the point of view of a bomb hidden on a plane, and has always screamed "SimmMaster!" at me. And finally, the most tenuous pick. I was just singing "Tomorrow Never Dies" one day, presumably while angsting about Planet of Fire, and the two just linked in my mind. Now I look at the words again, I can't quite see where I was coming from, but the original impression remains. It also has the problem of being a bit Bond-y.
Watch Clockwork Creep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipm2wm5Exik
3. Torchwood ~ "Mrs O", Dresden Dolls
As per usual, when I say Torchwood, I technically mean Children of Earth. Another one of those instances where I sung-it-while-the-other-was-on-my-mind, but I still think this one means something. Less because of the "children" line which caught my attention, than the paranoia, coverups and despair. It's also so good that I want to find another suitable four songs to do a mini-mix. This would be Day Five.
4. Lost ~ "Not about Us", Genesis
My sister is a huge Jack/Kate shipper, so some of that background noise must have filtered through when listening to this, the only decent song from Genesis' worst album. The idea of a personal relationship being knowingly sacrificed for some sort of Greater Cause fits particularly bits of S1 or 2.
5. Random Flame songs
"Lady Moonlight", All About Eve
"Bluebells", Patrick Wolf
"Sad Eyes", Bat for Lashes
"Like a Woman", Bob Dylan
"How Can I?", Steve Hackett
"Creep", Radiohead (Yes. I know. And that's why I haven't actually made this yet)
"I can't decide", Scissor Sisters
"Death Shall Have No Dominion" and "We Don't Have to Think Like That Anymore", Cliff Martinez, purely for the gorgeous titles.
7. Emily
Is this egotistical ? Probably. I've always wanted to do people mixes for presents, made up only of songs with their name, but I've always been derailed by the lack of songs about Bethany, or in particular, Anne. Anne just must not scan pleasingly - there's Barbara Anne, Mary Anne, Lou Anne, but no plain Anne. So I tried doing joint ones, for groups of people, and the only thing it proved was what a singable name "Emily" is. Good number of syllables, and presumably pleasant associations. Some particular favourites are:
"See Emily Play" - Pink Floyd
"Emily" - Joanna Newsom
"A Rose for Emily" - The Zombies
"Like Emily" - All About Eve
"Emily Kane" - Art Brut
and another 200-and-something according to Spotify...
8. Watchmen ~ "Warriors", Hawkwind
In retrospect, this one is very tenuous. But I can still see what I was driving at when I picked it - some of the insanity reminds me of Rorschach's brain; some of the "we are the only bastions of Earth defence" reminds me in turns of Nite Owl, and of Ozymandeus; some of the ash and paranoia reminds me of the Cold War. We are the betrayed. WE ARE THE BETRAYEAYEAYED!
9. Lord of the Rings ~ "My Last Breath", Evanescence; "Stagnation", Genesis
At the time, "My Last Breath" took on Aragorn-Arwen associations, though I haven't listened to the album in years. "Stagnation" I've always thought was about Gollum - and what with it being a prog album, could even be correct. "The ice cold knife has come to decorate the dead" also reminds me of the Barrow Downs.
So. What random-association songs do you guys have?
Comments (2)
Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American album is intimately associated with The Amber Spyglass. Hear You Me is about angels (sort of), whilst The Middle is about growing up, and I had a mad image of The Authority dancing to Authority Song. I played that album pretty much on loop when I read it first time.
(Oh and Lyra looks exactly like the first girl I ever kissed, and almost nothing like how she's described in the book. Will looks like me.)
Thank you :)
I love how awesomely ideosyncratic music becomes. It's like no other artform I know.