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Dear Jukebox DJ 2015
Dear DJ:
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and write fic about it, or both? (Yeah, I have just gone ahead and requested fic and only fic for everything. I really want to know the stories behind these songs!) In any case, I’m really looking forward to reading what you come up with.
A few things that apply to all of the songs, before I get to individual prompts:
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song suggests a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the song in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
I like stories with speculative elements best. I’m a big fan of the power of science fiction and fantasy to concretize metaphors, so if you’re listening to the song and wondering, “Is this line meant literally or figuratively? Figuratively, right?” you will make me very happy by going for the literal interpretation.
Most of these songs are kind of dark to one degree or another. I expect and welcome dark fic--including character death, violence, consent issues sexual or otherwise, bleak dystopias, and trauma of all kinds--although if your muse takes you to a warm and fluffy place instead, I wouldn’t complain.
Just because most of these songs are sung by men doesn’t mean I interpret or expect you to interpret the narrators as men! Go with what you think would make a more interesting story, not with what the singer’s voice sounds like. (Although I happen to like all the singers’ voices a lot. Yes, even Leonard Cohen.)
Did You Sleep Well - Crooked Still
YouTube with lyrics
Things I want to know include: why did the narrator spend all night in the hall, rather than either leaving or coming in? Is she a ghost? What’s the significance of the picture of the forest through the dimly lit smoke? What were the two voices talking about?
Please write me anything about these three (four?) people(?), their complex relationship, and their strange magical powers/natures.
The Future - Leonard Cohen
YouTube with lyrics
So this seems to be a dystopian science fiction story about someone whose precognitive abilities have unmoored them in time? Is there a specific murder they’ve foreseen--is it their own murder, or one they’re going to commit? Who said repent, and what did they mean? In general, please explain to me what this song is about, ideally while preserving as much of the weirdness as possible.
Gintlemen's Club - The Dreadnoughts
YouTube | lyrics
Okay, so I realize this song is actually about drowning one’s sorrows in gin. But it could be about a secret society in a gritty, steampunky London which serves a goddess or other lady with supernatural powers? Some of the turns of phrase are so sharp and evocative--the juniper and water will lead you from the slaughter or when you'll all be nipping at your cages--I’d love to see what you make of them.
Kingdom of Gold - Mark Knopfler
YouTube | lyrics
Is the High Priest of Money heroic or paranoid (or both?) Does he vanquish the pack of dog jackals and the rabble of ravens with the power of economic analysis? Is the Kingdom of Gold a nice place to live? Tell me more.
Lawyers Guns & Money - Warren Zevon
YouTube with lyrics
I want the story of the waitress who is also a Russian agent! What’s her mission? Is the narrator really as innocent a dupe as they claim? (Yes is a perfectly acceptable answer.) Does she manage to make her escape and leave the narrator in the soup; does she also wind up in trouble that she needs her ingenuity to get out of; or does she come back to rescue the narrator when their dad’s lawyers, guns, and money can’t? Or some other possibility I haven’t thought of?
Pressed Rat and Warthog - Cream
YouTube | lyrics
Please explain to me what this song is about, because I got nothing. Who are Pressed Rat and Warthog? What sort of customers do they have who are interested in the peculiar set of products they sell in their shop? Why does Bad Captain Madman want to shut them down, and where does he get the power to do so? I just don’t know!
I hope you find something that inspires you in this letter, but if these songs take you in a completely different direction, I’d be thrilled to read that too. Thank you, happy writing, and I hope you get a lovely story as well!
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and write fic about it, or both? (Yeah, I have just gone ahead and requested fic and only fic for everything. I really want to know the stories behind these songs!) In any case, I’m really looking forward to reading what you come up with.
A few things that apply to all of the songs, before I get to individual prompts:
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song suggests a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the song in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
I like stories with speculative elements best. I’m a big fan of the power of science fiction and fantasy to concretize metaphors, so if you’re listening to the song and wondering, “Is this line meant literally or figuratively? Figuratively, right?” you will make me very happy by going for the literal interpretation.
Most of these songs are kind of dark to one degree or another. I expect and welcome dark fic--including character death, violence, consent issues sexual or otherwise, bleak dystopias, and trauma of all kinds--although if your muse takes you to a warm and fluffy place instead, I wouldn’t complain.
Just because most of these songs are sung by men doesn’t mean I interpret or expect you to interpret the narrators as men! Go with what you think would make a more interesting story, not with what the singer’s voice sounds like. (Although I happen to like all the singers’ voices a lot. Yes, even Leonard Cohen.)
Did You Sleep Well - Crooked Still
YouTube with lyrics
Things I want to know include: why did the narrator spend all night in the hall, rather than either leaving or coming in? Is she a ghost? What’s the significance of the picture of the forest through the dimly lit smoke? What were the two voices talking about?
Please write me anything about these three (four?) people(?), their complex relationship, and their strange magical powers/natures.
The Future - Leonard Cohen
YouTube with lyrics
So this seems to be a dystopian science fiction story about someone whose precognitive abilities have unmoored them in time? Is there a specific murder they’ve foreseen--is it their own murder, or one they’re going to commit? Who said repent, and what did they mean? In general, please explain to me what this song is about, ideally while preserving as much of the weirdness as possible.
Gintlemen's Club - The Dreadnoughts
YouTube | lyrics
Okay, so I realize this song is actually about drowning one’s sorrows in gin. But it could be about a secret society in a gritty, steampunky London which serves a goddess or other lady with supernatural powers? Some of the turns of phrase are so sharp and evocative--the juniper and water will lead you from the slaughter or when you'll all be nipping at your cages--I’d love to see what you make of them.
Kingdom of Gold - Mark Knopfler
YouTube | lyrics
Is the High Priest of Money heroic or paranoid (or both?) Does he vanquish the pack of dog jackals and the rabble of ravens with the power of economic analysis? Is the Kingdom of Gold a nice place to live? Tell me more.
Lawyers Guns & Money - Warren Zevon
YouTube with lyrics
I want the story of the waitress who is also a Russian agent! What’s her mission? Is the narrator really as innocent a dupe as they claim? (Yes is a perfectly acceptable answer.) Does she manage to make her escape and leave the narrator in the soup; does she also wind up in trouble that she needs her ingenuity to get out of; or does she come back to rescue the narrator when their dad’s lawyers, guns, and money can’t? Or some other possibility I haven’t thought of?
Pressed Rat and Warthog - Cream
YouTube | lyrics
Please explain to me what this song is about, because I got nothing. Who are Pressed Rat and Warthog? What sort of customers do they have who are interested in the peculiar set of products they sell in their shop? Why does Bad Captain Madman want to shut them down, and where does he get the power to do so? I just don’t know!
I hope you find something that inspires you in this letter, but if these songs take you in a completely different direction, I’d be thrilled to read that too. Thank you, happy writing, and I hope you get a lovely story as well!