So I’m going to launch the revival of Kabobbles Sing Along with a song just about everyone knows.
A while back, I was discussing how many things reference The Wizard of Oz with the cover artist aka my best friend. It’s been a while, so I don’t remember all of what I said, something to the effect that all scifi involving our world mentioned Oz. She pointed out that it was a very easy to relate to story. That it could be adapted to almost every situation but it was more than that, it was something people today got.
I know I’ve made some comments about Oz myself, but this most recent one happened with Quinn, Candelaria, Beacan, and Leah. It came in the form of song and finally gave me something to talk about for the Sunday Sing Along.
The song, of course, is very easy relate to, too. Most people know it. I happen to love it.
Many people have sung this song, but I think I still prefer the original.
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I?
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
I had the computer playing random music while I was working, and up popped this song, and I thought, that is them. That’s their story. Not entirely, no, but it was so close I had to find the song again, listen to it on repeat, write a scene or two…
Oh, call my name.
You know my name.
And in that sound, everything will change.
Tell me it won’t always be this hard.
I am nothing without you, but I don’t know who you are.
This part isn’t too far from their first meeting:
It’s the crowded room that breaks me: everybody looks so luminous, and strangely young.
It’s the crowded room that’s never heard.
No one here can say a word of my native tongue.
I can’t be among them anymore.
I fold myself away before it burns me numb.
This section got me back into working on it after a bit away from it:
It’s the quiet night that breaks me.
I cannot stand the sight of this familiar place.
It’s the quiet night that breaks me, like a dozen papercuts that only I can trace.
All my books are lying useless now.
All my maps will only show me how to lose my way.
I was able to write this scene after listening to the song on repeat.
I am nothing without you, but I don’t know who you are.
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
I had wanted to write something for this for a while, but the thing is, there’s only so much angst that I can handle writing, especially if I’m dealing with angst in my life. So I wasn’t going to touch this at all, but I came up with a short piece, Dancing This Waltz Alone, that uses some of the lyrics from this I love so much. It is angsty. Such is the nature of the lyrics.
Since the piece uses some of the other lyrics, I’ll share these ones:
I won’t bury you in the basement
As I’ve been known to do
I won’t bludgeon your memory
Leave you crying out for truth
There’s a song we sing together
The song of me and you
And I was hoping that we could fix it
At least just fiddle around with the tune
This, of course, is one of the strongest parts, at least the last line:
We were peaceful when we were sleeping
Or after we had a fight
We were civil when people were watching
We were worst when we were right
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
So, most of the time when I put something in Kabobbles Sing Along, it’s something that has inspired me in some way, not something I gave as a prompt to someone else.
I can’t say I didn’t think this song had a relevance to any of my characters or stories. It does.
This song reminds me pointedly of Alec Forsythe and Lady Stasia from The Lady in Black and Back in Black.
The first part of the song, of course, reminds me of Alec and the way he watched over her before she’d even acknowledge that he was helping her.
Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
This part, of course, is her:
Love isn’t lying
It’s loose in a lady who lingers
Saying she is lost
And choking on hello
However, part of the reason I wanted to post something about this song was that I took this section, here:
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams
He worries
and gave it as a prompt, leading to this piece from Liana Mir, Abyss Looking Back.
Of course, I do like the chorus, too.
They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
I always think of this when I see poetry or think of writing it:
I am not a poet, living is the poem
I am not a singer, I am in the song
And I’ve got a story that I cannot write down
And I’m with you but I’ll always be alone
I may not be right, but I don’t think I am wrong
And I just love this part:
I’ve found a tearful language that translates what I am
And I cried out loud, but they didn’t understand
I cried so hard I may never try again
I may never try, I may never try again
I couldn’t find a better quality video, unfortunately. This one does not do justice to the song.
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
So… I can’t help thinking of this song when I see/think about rumble seats. At least, I do when I see them on the antique cars.
Mackenna explains what a rumble seat is to Carson in the scene for today, but in case you’ve never seen one, this is a mother-in-law seat, aka a rumble seat, on the back of this car. (I believe it’s a 1907 Ford, but I can’t tell from this angle and don’t remember from when I took the picture.)
She also brings up the song.
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
So today I got crazy. Inheritance made me want to do a historical, and as I started playing around with the prompt words from Three Word Wednesday, I couldn’t help thinking of this song. Sure, the song doesn’t fit with historical fiction so much, but the sentiment is rather timeless and universal, I think.
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
So this bit today had plenty of influence from the song, despite the different time periods. I could probably post all the lyrics and use them in some way, but I’ll try and stick to only the ones that have the most significance to what I wrote, trying to put each lyric with a section of fic. We’ll see how that works for a change.
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful…
Love was reserved for those with beauty, and that was a lesson she’d learned years ago, when her childhood friends had married off around her, when the boy who’d always seemed destined to her said his heart belonged to another. She should have married at seventeen, as they had, but now she was twenty-four…
And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone…
…her siblings had already married and settled, and her sisters considered her a failure, accusing her of making up all her previous suitors to avoid the shame of being so plain, so completely undesirable to anyone.
“Pity, please, the ones who serve
‘Cause they only get what they deserve…”
That was the part that kept her stomach rolling—being bound over to a stranger for the rest of her life, being dependent upon him, being in the same position of service to him as her mother was to her father…
And the rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly…
“…Would you rather court scandal or spend your life in the service of your great aunt?”
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
When dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me
That was the way society worked at present, and perhaps someday some suffragette would change that, but she was not one of them.
We all play the game and when we dare
To cheat ourselves at solitaire
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
It’s inevitable that a road trip brings up this song.
It just is.
Of course, Luna made it worse by singing along. 😛
On the road again –
Just can’t wait to get on the road again.
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
So I was working on a bit of the alien’s story, and I swear, all I could hear was this song in my head.
Whenever you’re near
I hear a symphony
A tender melody
I used that part for the melody, but this part is kind of true for most couples, including Tynan and Luna, despite their making a hive for Alvin.
I’m lost in a world
Made for you and me
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
This song and the thoughts behind it came up a lot in the past week or so.
I was working on one story where the main character has a nickname of “the Machine” because he doesn’t feel. At one point in the story, I couldn’t resist adding in this part:
“You know, the Tin Man in Oz supposedly didn’t have a heart, but while he might have echoed, it never stopped him from feeling. Just because you’re the Machine doesn’t mean you can’t feel.”
“I see. Perhaps you had better hold onto that watch for me for a little while yet.”
And then Luna and Tynan were discussing memories and feelings, and he said he didn’t have a heart.
So… Of course, there had to be something about this song and that great character, the Tin Man.
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have
And Cause never was the reason for the evening
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad.
Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.
