Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Songs I Wish Were Books

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Welcome back loves to another edition of "Danielle didn't get a review done, better do TTT so Jessie doesn't hit me with the whip again." Kidding, of course. This was a hard list for me though, because while I like to listen to music, I'm not really passionate about it. So while ten songs that would make good book plots sounded like it should be easy, once I started writing, I realized it isn't! I listened to a lot of different playlists across all of my favorite genres in order to bring you something that isn't just the first act of Hamilton. So without further ado, ten songs I wish were books.


Sunrise - Chris Jackson and Mandy Gonzalez


Amame
     Love me
Perhaps I do-
     Well, how do you say kiss me?
Besame
     And how do you say hold me?
Abrazame
Al amanecer. At sunrise

After a night together, a young woman torn between her past in a poor neighborhood - and the boy she left there - and her Ivy League future, teaches her lover a few words of Spanish. They grapple with cultural differences, her family's disapproval, and if they're to be separated again at summer's end. This would be the New Adult Romance of the year.

Perhaps it's cheating a bit to start with a musical, as Quiara Alegría Hudes already wrote the book, (in this case referring to dialog/character development/story structure in the overall play,) but I'm counting it because we never get a real resolution to Nina and Benny's story. (I prefer Mandy's idea that she, her law degree, and Benny are all in the hood making a difference. I'm ignoring Chris.)


Seven Devils - Florence and the Machine

Holy water cannot help you now
A thousand armies couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I have to burn your kingdom down

Oh my god. "See I was dead when I woke up this morning | I'll be dead before the day is done" Opening line to an epic fantasy. Add in the seven deadly sin imagery and a heroine who looks like Florence Welch. My new favorite book.

Knights of Cydonia - Muse

Come ride with me
Through the veins of history
I'll show you why God
Falls asleep on the job

And how can we win,
When fools can be kings
Don't waste your time
Or time will waste you

Cydonia. Either a region of Mars or an ancient Crete city state. You and I fighting to survive. A foolish king and absent God. This is either a powerful historical, in the vein of Gladiator and Sparticus or the coolest sci-fi space battle since Ender. Either way, I'm in.

Fembot - Robyn

I got a lotta automatic booty applications
Got a CPU maxed out sensation
Looking for a joy to man my station
Rock the nation

I've got some news for you
Fembots have feelings too
You split my heart in two
Now what you gonna do?

A robot developing human emotions is already a great sci-fi premise, but what if that robot was a fembot? Designed for (male) sexual pleasure but unexpectedly falls in love? With a woman? Right? Basically more lesbians/less evil robots in sci-fi 2k16.


Brandenburg Gate - Anti-Flag



Somewhere in the in between
Where the east and the west meet
In the 30 year war where I came clean
That's where you will find me.

So I'll wait, I'll wait.

I will wait at the Brandenburg Gate
At the Brandenburg Gate I'll wait

OK, so there's some weird imagery going on in this song, (in a punk song? Never.) but for all the historical fiction I've read, I haven't seen any taking place in Cold War Berlin, and the idea of lovers separated by the Berlin Wall, waiting 30 years to be reunited at the Bradenburg Gate? I'm already crying.

Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

I'm a thousand miles away
But, girl, tonight you look so pretty
Yes, you do
Times Square can't shine as bright as you

I actually hate this song? But I love epistolary romances, and the story of a college girl and the boy in the band could be an excellent one.


80s Mercedes - Maren Morris


Pop the top down like a summer dream
She's my teenage time machine
Just keeps getting sweeter with age
She's classic through any decade

Feel like a hard-to-get starlet when I'm driving
Turning every head hell I ain't even trying
Got them Ray-Ban shades pretty in pink

There've been a couple YA books about girls who love cars, but I can't think of one that combines loving cars with the femininity of feeling like a starlet in your pink Ray Bans. I can see this as a finding yourself contemporary about embracing all of your interests, or a wrong side of the tracks romance. (I like kissing books, sue me.)


Ex's and Oh's - Elle King

So the hearts keep breaking and the heads just roll
You know, that's how the story goes

1-2-3 they're gonna run back to me
Cause I'm the best baby that can never got to keep

LEAVE THOSE MEN, ELLE. LET THEM CURSE YOUR NAME.

How often do we get a sexually powerful and unrepentant woman in fiction? I would read the shit out of a book where a heroine fucks her way across the US. Romance? Coming of age? Paranormal vampire slayer? WHATEVER.


Viva La Vida - Coldplay

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listened as the crowd would sing
Now the old king is dead long live the king
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

This song is a fantasy novel. Puppet kings, a middle ages setting, revolution. And just listen to the music, like I want to go fuck up a corrupt Pope right now. This is probably the biggest no brainer on the list. Listen to Coldplay, write the next Game of Thrones.

Satisfied - Renée Elise Goldsberry

As I romanticize what might
Have been if I hadn't sized him
Up so quickly
At least my dear Eliza's his wife;
At least I keep his eyes in my life...

To the groom!

Leave me here to die.



So that's my list, muffins! Ten songs that I (mostly) like that I think could make pretty awesome book plots. I'm probably missing something so obvious. (My first thought was like six Coheed and Cambria songs, but since they actually did turn those albums into a graphic novel, I decided they didn't count.) If you did a list, link up in the comments, or just make fun of my taste in music.

4 comments:

  1. All excellent picks! I didn't fit any Muse on mine... I had too many!

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    Replies
    1. oooh, Muse is another good band for this kinda of idea. Dani knows more of their music than me but I can see it.

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  2. OMG I freaking am in love with that Florence + the Machine song. I suppose I am going to have to admit I am a fan.

    And Viva la Vida is one of Coldplay's best. And YES that would make for such a great song. always think of Sanderson's work when I hear it. I don't know why.

    Lovely list, my dear.

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    Replies
    1. PLEASE tell me that you have heard Queen of Peace and Breath of Life and Howl by Florence and the Machine. It is important to me that you have. Those songs are PERFECTION and also would make the most bad ass fantasy novels. I want it like whoa now. This was an evil TTT.

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