Two More for The Sound Track

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Two more songs for the sound track.

Some observations:

1- Prodigal is of course the chapter in which Skip is visited by his father’s ghost, and let’s all be very grateful he just decides to become a diplomat instead of going Hamlet-murdery. Very sensible of him. (I can’t believe I’m posting THAT.)

I realize the chapter being 2 songs is weird, but I thought the feel was very different and for narrative (also boppy) reasons New London New London was needed.

Prodigal is a very weird song, but I’m a very weird writer and let’s not talk about my character’s weirdness, if you please.

The one who spots the Odyssey allusion gets a Britannia flag sticker as soon as I have them made.

2- I have no idea why my subconconscious decided a song about attempts to murder the singer should be boppy and happy. It just IS.

However, rendering pictures was a problem. So I went with silly. Notice the venomous toad is wearing a snazzy jacket please.

Midje lacks the concept of bear traps, alas.

In case you missed the previous songs, this is the link to the playlist.

21 thoughts on “Two More for The Sound Track”

      1. Sorry to ruin your contest so quickly, but it was a challenge I couldn’t resist. Ulysses has always been an obsession of mine. Reading The Iliad and The Odyssey was the start, but Tennyson’s poem absolutely cemented him as a recurring theme in my head.

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        1. I am very pleased at the quality of my commenters, once more.
          Dad read me the Odyssey and the Iliad when I was very young. I first read it for myself at eight. It’s kind of in my brain at the back of it all. :D
          Younger son read it in Greek and translated it at 12… (He’s not a well boy!)

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          1. I’m in awe of the education some people have. The little Greek I know is scattered, random pieces, mostly from the liturgy (kyrie eleison, und so weiter). I can’t even reliably read the Greek alphabet (and definitely not cyrillic) just sigma, pi, delta and whatever else cropped up in math (or a farkakta fraternity). I occasionally research the Greek (and sometimes even the Hebrew) for passages in the Bible, but my translation skills lie only in German, and limited there as well. I mostly rely on Deepl’s AI translator and only intervene when I detect an idiom or I need to replace the German with a more American-sounding translation of the obvious meaning.

            So hats off to Marshall.

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  3. You’re right, that is one nattily dressed toad. You can’t totally condemn an assassin with a sense of style. 😛

    The decanter is not nearly full enough to be pouring liquor at that angle.

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  5. “Royal Escape” has a very anime ring to the music, which is perfectly appropriate for a song about people trying to murder the protagonist. :side-eyes most of anime she’s seen or watched advertised: Gets the blood pumping, which helps with the running!

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  6. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Much turkey was consumed yesterday.

    Car show at Ruthven Park today, on the banks of the Grand River. I will be there representing the motorcycle “Menace to Society” contingent.

    This is the proper Thanksgiving we have in Canada, by the way. Not the far-too-late American version. ~:D

    Nice clankers, Sarah. [thumbs-up emoji!]

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    1. Ah, these silly Canadians. Having Thanksgiving when the autumn work is well underway, when all civilized people know T-day should be celebrated when the leaves are picked up and burned*, and the snows of winter haven’t yet stuck around.

      (Glances over shoulder, making sure British Columbia-born $SPOUSE is still asleep and doesn’t see me typing this.)

      [Removes tongue from cheek, and perhaps foot from mouth.]

      (*) It’s traditional, you know. Leaves in dumpsters are so, so urban. Besides, I have 30 piles of pine needles, cones, and slash to deal with. Ain’t gonna pay those dump fees.

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      1. I would assume Canada celebrates sooner, since farther north, leaves turn sooner, crops must be gotten in sooner, etc. But I may just be trying for too much logic.

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        1. Nah, it’s more the US just celebrates its harvest festival late. Very few people are still bringing in the harvest in late November.

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      2. The Little Pickle has convinced us to burn stuff like that. This is so weird to us, and sends her Colorado born and bred husband (younger son) into panic attacks.
        Heck it took me till my third year here to stop packing everything and getting the cats in carriers when I smelled smoke in the air. Which was stupid, since neighbor has a burn barrel….

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  7. Boppy, happy, lilting songs about grim subjects are a firmly-established tradition. Look at the words to “Soldier’s Joy”*, or all the ballads about m_rder set to a jaunty tune.

    *For those unfamiliar:
    “Gimme some o’ that Soldiers’ Joy,
    “You know what I mean.
    “I don’t wanna hurt no more,
    “My leg is turnin’ green…”

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    1. I kept getting reminded of Weird Al Yankovic’s “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, though the Clanker song is a lot more entertaining than Al’s.

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