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mark_asphodelMusic is a funny thing.
The associations that lyrics and tunes create for us are so strong that the music that clicks for us becomes something very personal-- in a good way, but also in the divisive, tribal, ideology-defining way. Admitting you like the "wrong" music in some circles is about as bad as admitting you've joined an alien comet cult or have a secret hobby as a serial killer. I'll confess to seeing other people talk about the music they associate with this character or that character and feeling that visceral "oh god no" pang in my gut, and I suspect my musical tastes (overwhelmingly slanted toward older white guys with guitars) probably make other people the same way.
So, while using lyric quotes as epigrams or titles in 'fic is common enough, publishing an actual fandom-themed playlist to the world is akin to getting naked before the f-list. It invites judgment. So here I go, sharing my primary Jugdral playlist with you all. :)
Not all the playlist, mind. Some stuff is just inexplicably personal... like this cover version of Sharon Van Etten and Jonathan Meiburg doing "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" that affects me in ways the original never did. And some "OMG perfect" songs interfere with the construction of a coherent playlist. I mean, Bob Dylan's career is such that over time he's made the perfect song for just about every conceivable situation, but I don't want Bob Dylan's voice speaking out of turn, in a sense. And voice matters. Some of these selections are more about vibe, songs that summon to my mind a character or a situation or just an atmosphere, but I've found the distinct voices of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan-- self-aware, weary, angry, often smutty, and often distinctly Jewish and grappling with issues of faith and identity-- to be a really good fit for Levin. But maybe I'm just weird.
Songs that I find especially perfect are starred. Likewise, I excluded a lot of songs with one or two perfect lines in an otherwise inexplicable contest. I also jettisoned one of my absolute favorites, Dylan's "Workingman's Blues," because Old Bob was speaking out of turn.
[I do not recommend watching the images in the videos; they're distracting]
Overture:
"Who by Fire?" (Leonard Cohen). And who shall I say is calling?
Gen 1 (Into the Void):
"Born To" (Jesca Hoop) Watch her play her part in a long fixed fable
"Breaking the Yearlings" (Shearwater) We are yearlings / now watching the tide run out
"Courage" (The Tragically Hip) There's no simple explanation for anything important any of us do
"Anytime" (Neil Finn) Although you're still a mystery, I'm so glad I'm not alone
"Century Eyes" (Shearwater) With our backs to the arch and the wreck of our kind
"I Want Tomorrow" (Enya) Your face before me, though I don't know why
Interlude:
"The Partisan" (Leonard Cohen) Through the graves the wind is blowing, freedom soon will come. Then we'll come from the shadows...
"Cherokee" (Cat Power) Never knew a love like this / the wind, the moon, the earth, the sky
"Johnny Viola" (Shearwater) If you could bang the world like a drum / it would only show it was hollow inside
"Abandoned Love" (Bob Dylan)* My patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
"If I Had a Rocket Launcher" (Bruce Cockburn)* How many kids they've murdered, only God can say
"If It Be Your Will" (Leonard Cohen)* All your children here, in their rags of light...
Gen 2 (And End This Night):
"Youth Without Youth" (Metric) Youth without youth, born without time...
"Ruin" (Cat Power) What are we doing? We're sitting on a ruin
"About This Map" (The Tragically Hip) About this map, it's a bit out of date / territories shifted and things get renamed
"In the Dark Places" (PJ Harvey)* We got up early, washed our faces, walked the fields, put up crosses...
"Black Eyes" (Shearwater) Give life to the dimming days that run in an endless stream now
"I Feel You" (Sam Roberts Band) All or nothing, love is war, remember who you're fighting for
"Tonight and the Rest of My Life" (Nina Gordon) And the sky might catch on fire and burn the axis of the world
"PS" (James)* My son says, dear father, what did you do when the world turned over
Aftermath:
"Port of Morrow" (The Shins) But now I recognize that you were there, and so was I...
I welcome commentary on this. Seriously. Even if it's "WTF, Mark."
The associations that lyrics and tunes create for us are so strong that the music that clicks for us becomes something very personal-- in a good way, but also in the divisive, tribal, ideology-defining way. Admitting you like the "wrong" music in some circles is about as bad as admitting you've joined an alien comet cult or have a secret hobby as a serial killer. I'll confess to seeing other people talk about the music they associate with this character or that character and feeling that visceral "oh god no" pang in my gut, and I suspect my musical tastes (overwhelmingly slanted toward older white guys with guitars) probably make other people the same way.
So, while using lyric quotes as epigrams or titles in 'fic is common enough, publishing an actual fandom-themed playlist to the world is akin to getting naked before the f-list. It invites judgment. So here I go, sharing my primary Jugdral playlist with you all. :)
Not all the playlist, mind. Some stuff is just inexplicably personal... like this cover version of Sharon Van Etten and Jonathan Meiburg doing "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" that affects me in ways the original never did. And some "OMG perfect" songs interfere with the construction of a coherent playlist. I mean, Bob Dylan's career is such that over time he's made the perfect song for just about every conceivable situation, but I don't want Bob Dylan's voice speaking out of turn, in a sense. And voice matters. Some of these selections are more about vibe, songs that summon to my mind a character or a situation or just an atmosphere, but I've found the distinct voices of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan-- self-aware, weary, angry, often smutty, and often distinctly Jewish and grappling with issues of faith and identity-- to be a really good fit for Levin. But maybe I'm just weird.
Songs that I find especially perfect are starred. Likewise, I excluded a lot of songs with one or two perfect lines in an otherwise inexplicable contest. I also jettisoned one of my absolute favorites, Dylan's "Workingman's Blues," because Old Bob was speaking out of turn.
[I do not recommend watching the images in the videos; they're distracting]
Overture:
"Who by Fire?" (Leonard Cohen). And who shall I say is calling?
Gen 1 (Into the Void):
"Born To" (Jesca Hoop) Watch her play her part in a long fixed fable
"Breaking the Yearlings" (Shearwater) We are yearlings / now watching the tide run out
"Courage" (The Tragically Hip) There's no simple explanation for anything important any of us do
"Anytime" (Neil Finn) Although you're still a mystery, I'm so glad I'm not alone
"Century Eyes" (Shearwater) With our backs to the arch and the wreck of our kind
"I Want Tomorrow" (Enya) Your face before me, though I don't know why
Interlude:
"The Partisan" (Leonard Cohen) Through the graves the wind is blowing, freedom soon will come. Then we'll come from the shadows...
"Cherokee" (Cat Power) Never knew a love like this / the wind, the moon, the earth, the sky
"Johnny Viola" (Shearwater) If you could bang the world like a drum / it would only show it was hollow inside
"Abandoned Love" (Bob Dylan)* My patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
"If I Had a Rocket Launcher" (Bruce Cockburn)* How many kids they've murdered, only God can say
"If It Be Your Will" (Leonard Cohen)* All your children here, in their rags of light...
Gen 2 (And End This Night):
"Youth Without Youth" (Metric) Youth without youth, born without time...
"Ruin" (Cat Power) What are we doing? We're sitting on a ruin
"About This Map" (The Tragically Hip) About this map, it's a bit out of date / territories shifted and things get renamed
"In the Dark Places" (PJ Harvey)* We got up early, washed our faces, walked the fields, put up crosses...
"Black Eyes" (Shearwater) Give life to the dimming days that run in an endless stream now
"I Feel You" (Sam Roberts Band) All or nothing, love is war, remember who you're fighting for
"Tonight and the Rest of My Life" (Nina Gordon) And the sky might catch on fire and burn the axis of the world
"PS" (James)* My son says, dear father, what did you do when the world turned over
Aftermath:
"Port of Morrow" (The Shins) But now I recognize that you were there, and so was I...
I welcome commentary on this. Seriously. Even if it's "WTF, Mark."
