Music, music, music

[kingandy]

Selected tracks from Murray Gold's Doctor Who soundtrack are excellent for going to sleep to, but don't forget about the orchestral burst at the start of The Impossible Planet or you'll find yourself wide awake wondering where the cello that thinks it's a viola is coming from.

In other music-related news: I am toying with the idea of playing a singer-type at Artificer, and am racking my brain for suitable songs. I'm looking for songs that (a) I know well enough to sing from memory, (b) sound good a capella, and (c) are nominally appropriate to the setting.^[1]

Point (a) is optional, though obviously preferable. The tricky one is (c). Blatantly modern lyrics can be reworked (though if it's a song I know well I'd rather not because I'm likely to forget I've changed it). Appropriateness is more nebulous than lyrics alone, though. There are questions of style and genre, and how popular does a song have to be before it becomes a game-breaking anachronism?

An example would be Your Song as used in Moulin Rouge; though the content of the lyrics is relatively neutral in terms of setting (and, indeed, quite suitable for a fantasy environment with its talk of 'potions' and 'travelling shows'), it's quite well-known and the language is very modern ('Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean...'). Would people start rolling their eyes if one were to break out into it at a LARP event?

(I suppose it would be acceptable, or at least overlookable, at a larger event like Maelstrom but Artificer is somewhat more intimate, and certainly more straight-faced.)

On the other hand - some of the questions of style could be amended in performance, by changing the tempo and emphasis and so forth. I've heard a very good soulful ballad rendition of Hit Me Baby One More Time, and Tori Amos' cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit is beautiful.

Songs under consideration include:

• 'Drinking Song' by Rob Dougan
• 'That Thing You Do' by the Wonders
• 'Songs of Love' by the Divine Comedy
• 'Come What May' from Moulin Rouge

How do you suppose the above would be recieved (be honest), and do you have any other suggestions that might be more palatable?

[1] Also, songs which I can sing when I'm as drunk as I'll need to be before I raise my voice in front of a crowd of friends and casual acquaintances.

Comments

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

now i am just imagining you singing songs from the Bard's Tale (the game) and being amused by these imaginings. there are some great songs in the game, mostly game specific sadly.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

The problem with recognisable songs is that people recognise them out of character. If you start singing 'Smells like Teen Spirit' then no matter how soulful you make it, it's me, John, who recognises it, and not whatever character I'm playing.

And that's very likely to drop me out of character, even if it's just long enough to think "I wish Andy hadn't sung that".

It's happened to me before - there was a group at the Gathering singing "Run to the hills" which has fantastically appropriate lyrics for any game where one group has mostly eradicated another, but in my head it's a heavy metal song, and as soon as I noticed it, it bugged me.

It's even worse if you change the tempo / style, because then the OOC bit of my brain treats it like a lyrics quiz.

You could have a look at http://www.jakob.rpgfans.com/collect.php?type=all - it's the Bard's Guild online library for the Gathering.

[kingandy]

This is, of course, exactly what I'm concerned about.

I've had a quick flip through the Bards' Guild library but half the songs seem quite system-referential and a lot of the others are popular songs re-written for the setting.

Actually - which is more aggravating, familiar words sung differently, or new words to a familiar tune?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Familiar words sung differently because of the lyric quiz effect.

Unless the familiar tune is one that's completely inappropriate - 'Over the Hills and far away' sounds 'fantasy-ish' pretty much whatever the words, whereas no matter your skills as a lyricist, you can't make the tune to 'Barbie Girl' sound good.

[kingandy]

Hee.

Anyway - I should probably add a (d) obscure enough not to be recognised by too many people. Which makes the call for suggestions somewhat obsolete. Hum.

[marcushill.livejournal.com]

It's actually quite difficult to find songs with no inappropriate cultural references. It's not just anachronisms and modern slang, it's also things like place names, names of months or days, religious references. There can be many seemingly harmless ideas that jar depending on the setting - for instance, anything referring to travelling in Artificer wouldn't work, since there's only really Lalenth and wilderness.

[kingandy]

I think rather than not working per se you have to consider that anything involving travelling gets cast in a very different light. You're never travelling from place to place, only engaged in brief sojourns out into dangerous territory. Take, for example, the Drinking Song lines:

I'm a traveller, with one last mile
My journey is complete

I see no reason that couldn't be written in Lalenth, it would simply carry with it a strongly underscored sense of relief and return to safety.

Note to self, must ask Abi about migratory birds.

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

'The Queen and the Soldier' by Suzanne Vega works pretty well. Oh, and Sting's 'Fields of Gold', but that's an ancient song anyway.

[areteus.livejournal.com]

The big problem with artificer and anything 'real world related' such as music is the different background. Sarah had the same problem looking for songs and stories for Nevernight - you often come across something entirely inappropriate such as a mention of a place or person that does not exist (one of the reasons why Over the Hills and Far Away is not right - it mentions Flanders, Portugal, Spain and King George) or some mythology that does not exist - the devil, angels, saints etc. You may be able to edit some of them, I suppose... but thats just, like, you know... work :)

[aardvarkoffnord.livejournal.com]

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

The Dead can Dance version gives me goosepimples every time I listen to it.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

If you're looking to justify the use of a song from our world in another setting, you could go with Ron Moore's justification of All Along The Watchtower in BSG:

"the idea was not that Bob Dylan necessarily exists in the characters' universe, but that an artist on one of the colonies may have recorded a song with the exact same melody and lyrics. Perhaps this unknown performer and Dylan pulled inspiration from a common, ethereal source. Therefore, I was told to make no musical references to any "Earthly" versions, Hendrix, Dylan or any others. The arrangement needed to sound like a pop song that belonged in the Galactica universe, not our own." from Bear McCreary's blog (http://www.bearmccreary.com/html/blog/blogmain.htm).

To be picky, McCreary's non-diegetic version actually had slightly different lyrics, but the version quoted by characters used Dylan's words.

The same Common Ethereal Source of Inspiration possibly also explains the similarities between Tyrol's New Caprica strike speech and "a real speech delivered in 1964 by American political activist Mario Savio". And is a fantastic excuse if you're ever accused of plagiarism.

--

Oh, and a song for a singer to sing?

The Clint Boon Experience! - Do What You Do (Earworm Song)

(You have rainy days, lonely men and nervous systems in that universe, right?)

[kingandy]

That's not justification, it's hand-waving. :) I'm not really after justifying it anyway - just trying not to break the game for everyone else.

And though we very likely have nervous systems, they're probably not known by that name...

[mistressp.livejournal.com]

I agree that anything that too many people recognise could be very bad and somewhat distracting. If you find it easier to convert modern songs then you could maybe choose more obscure album tracks that weren't released?

[kingandy]

That's what I'm shooting for, basically. I realise "suggest obscure songs" conflicts with "suggest songs I know".

Hmmm, wonder if I can shoehorn some Busted in there...

[ephrael.livejournal.com]

Aafter having (very) briefly considered this after the last artificer, the only song I could think of which contained no references to anything un-Lalenthy was teddy bears picnic.

And singing in front of an audience is always easier when drunk.