Songs that remind of you of SW but have nothing to do with SW

[lazypadawan]

SW has its grand, sweeping, and memorable scores by the brilliant John Williams. What's magical about them is whenever you hear the music, you can picture in your head the moments in the films that correspond with that music.

Thanks to the post-MTV age (for not even MTV actually shows videos anymore), we also have a funny way of connecting songs that aren't in the movies with our favorite characters or scenes. I'm convinced Evanescence's 2003 album "Fallen" is the official Anakin/Padmé angstfest soundtrack (never mind those knuckleheads who think it's about Buffy/Spike or Harry/Draco or whatever...we know the truth!) and that old Moody Blues chestnut "The Voice" is an early SW-inspired piece cleverly disguised as a love song. This is why we have fan mixes and the fanvid, which was once long ago the song tape. We've also derived many a filk from pop/country/whatever music.

But there are the songs that aren't part of Williams' repertoire, nor are their lyrics reminiscent of some aspect of the saga. These are songs that were really popular as SW was rocking the box office and the stuff was everywhere, so they became part of the SW experience by default. I reflected upon this the other day as I heard Smash Mouth's "All Star." It was EVERYWHERE the spring/summer of 1999, as ubiquitous as TPM merchandise. If "All Star" was on the radio, chances were I was on my way to or from yet another viewing of TPM, eating at Taco Hell so I could get more TPM premiums, or buying more collectibles at some store. So that song is irrevocably tied to the TPM era for me, even if it was in that movie "Shrek" two years later. Ditto could be said for another ubiquitous song the same time, Len's "Steal My Sunshine." So what if it was originally in the movie "Go," which came out the same year? I've never seen "Go" while I've seen TPM a zillion times.

Whenever I hear Korn's "Here To Stay," Vanessa Carlton's "Thousand Miles," or anything off of Michelle Branch's "Spirit Room" album, I start flashbacking to the AOTC era. Okay, so I guess "Everywhere" or especially "All You Wanted" could remind one of A/P. That was especially true for The Corrs' cover of "When The Stars Go Blue." When Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" or The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" come on, it's the summer of Sith all over again.

Because I am old, this is not just a PT phenomenon. Nope, I hear The Prodigy's "Firestarter" or Sneaker Pimps' "Six Underground" and I'm having Special Edition flashbacks. "Don't Stop Believing" doesn't remind me of the final "Sopranos" episode, it reminds me of the time ROTJ was out. Same for anything off of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (and you thought you couldn't get away from Smash Mouth...sheesh) or Duran Duran's "Rio" or Culture Club's first album. Anything from Blondie circa 1980-81, Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall," and whatever else was popular at the local roller rink remind me of the summer of 1980. Even the slow R&B slobberfests popular on the radio in Miami back in the day remind me of that time, stuff like Billy Preston and Serena's "Born Again." But few things really bring back the summer of 1977 like Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," which was the ANH of the recording world for most of that year. Until the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack came out and disco took over everything.

I'm telling you, it's all like a bad episode of Cold Case! I can't possibly be the only person who experiences this. Please share...

Comments

[nic]

No Doubt's first album takes me back to 97 and the re-releases, because I had that CD on endless replay in my car.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Well, you already know I think of Anakin and Padmé meeting each other in TPM when I hear "Blue-eyed boy/ Meets a brown-eyed girl" from U2's "The Sweetest Thing." I suppose one could also associate it with Luke first meeting Leia in ANH, although that makes it icky.

Lessee...I definitely agree about Evanescence's album "Fallen" being the perfect A/P soundtrack for angstpuppies; "Bring Me to Life" was written before ROTS came out, but even so, it might as well be A/P's ROTS theme. Buffy/Spike? Harry/Draco? Oh, please. It was used in "Daredevil," aka the movie which paired future spouses Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, but IMO it doesn't really fit the movie that well -- it's better as a ROTS song.

Lifehouse's "You and Me" always reminds me of A/P in AOTC.

Mac Davis's song, "Hard to be Humble" was clearly meant as a joke, but it still makes me think a bit of Han Solo circa ANH, and maybe the beginning of ESB when he goads Leia during the hallway argument scene, and the scene in Luke's medbay room, prior to the yuck-o L/L liplock.

Aeryn is going to haaaaaaaaaaaaate me for this one -- she'll probably sic Oz on me -- but The Fray's "How to Save a Life" makes me think of Obi Wan in ROTS after Padmé dies.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Michelle Branch's "If You Want To" makes me think of Padmé in ROTS, especially when she's pleading with Anakin on Mustafar.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Aeryn is going to haaaaaaaaaaaaate me for this one

Eh? Okay, I'm lost on that one.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I didn't realize I was being cryptic. I recall you having some pretty harsh words for Obi Wan in -- well, in general, but specifically how he just left Padmé alone after Anakin had ripped her heart out. I was kind of jokingly saying that you'd be ticked at me saying that "How to Save a Life" made me think of Obi Wan after Padmé dies.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I'm still pissed at Obi for pretty much everything about his conduct to Padme - and Anakin, to an extent - in the latter half of RotS, yes, but I've got some distance between myself and that rage now. (Though that may be just because I haven't watched RotS all the way through for at least a year or so.) I can actually see the lyrics fitting, even if I don't think Obi wound up being much of a friend to her.

The song does kind of annoy me, but only because I got sick of hearing it during Grey's Anatomy previews, nothing SW-related. ;)

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I'm still pissed at Obi for pretty much everything about his conduct to Padme - and Anakin, to an extent - in the latter half of RotS, yes, but I've got some distance between myself and that rage now. (Though that may be just because I haven't watched RotS all the way through for at least a year or so.) I can actually see the lyrics fitting, even if I don't think Obi wound up being much of a friend to her.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. The song's lyrics include "I lost a friend," and I gathered that you thought Obi Wan to be a piss-poor example of a friend to Padmé, and Anakin.

(Aside: I like Obi Wan, but I admit, your arguments have gotten me to see him in a different light -- a lot of SW fans regard him as saintly, but IMO that has less to do with any actual saintliness on his part, and more with the fact that, when we [meaning the fans whose first exposure to SW was the OT] meet him, he's an old man, and looks kind and wise. It's easier to think of old men as saintly than young men, and I can't help but wonder if SW fan perspective on him will change as more people see the films in chronological order, and first meet Obi Wan as a young man.)

I can see why the song would irritate you because of overexposure during "Grey's Anatomy" previews. I don't watch the show myself, but I remember getting sick to death of Enya's "Only Time" being played in promos for the "Friends" episode where Rachel and Ross's baby is born; and the only song on Evanescence's "Fallen" album that I really can't listen to anymore is "My Immortal," because it was played ad nauseam in promos for the series finale of "Friends."

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

ITA on the tunes used on Friends. Bleah.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch the show much either, but these promos were all over ABC for a while. Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" was another one I couldn't stand for a while because of that show.

Obi-Wan was never exactly saintly to me - a man who even after his death is still willingly keeping a boy in the dark about his heritage to groom him to kill his father doesn't fit that to me - so I guess it wasn't as hard for me to become disillusioned with him. ;) (That, and I found him way whinier/arrogant in TPM than Anakin ever was in AotC.)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Grey's Anatomy killed any and all interest in that Snow Patrol song.

[skywalker-child.livejournal.com]

"Machine Head" by Bush...just saying. :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Heh heh.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

My own first thought was that I just don't listen to enough music (or, for that matter, watch enough "fan music videos") to connect particular songs to Star Wars... and then I remembered something from my childhood that seems to have a tangential connection to the saga, as much as I fear it'll reveal a terrible taste in music. Back in 1985, I was drawing a comic for my own personal amusement that was sort of a crossover/fusion/parody/ripoff involving Star Wars, and the top-40 station my family tuned its radio to had the Canadian version of the "famine relief" songs, "Tears Are Not Enough," playing in heavy rotation. I wound up sort of imagining the song playing during a "musical interlude" in the comic's story...

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

At least it's not "We Are The World."

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I guess there's always a good side to things. In any case, I wouldn't say the song wound up associated with Star Wars itself to me...

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Shoot, I have an entire playlist on my iTunes called "A/P." It's over 3 1/2 hours long if I listen to it all the way through. ;) I started it when I realized how much Sting's "Fields of Gold" was a perfect reminisce of the AotC picnic scene, and it just snowballed from there - Evanescence, Michelle Branch, it's all there too.

Plenty of songs out there I find myself often editing music videos to in my head - not just for SW, but sometimes HP too. Sometimes I'll even start liking a song I didn't like before because it reminds me of a character/ship, or someone did an awesome YouTube fanvid of it.

On a slightly different tack, the Buffy musical soundtrack will always remind me of Celebration III, because that's what my friend and I sang along to on the road there. :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Wow, a whole playlist! Dang!

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Part of it was fic inspiration background music, part of it was songs people had suggested for TMOI's soundtrack section... like I said, it all kinda snowballed together. ;)

[patientalien.livejournal.com]

On a slightly different tack, the Buffy musical soundtrack will always remind me of Celebration III, because that's what my friend and I sang along to on the road there. :)

I actually associate "Standing" with Obi-Wan, and have a whole storyline in my head interweaving the Buffy musical songs with a SW plot.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've also pondered "Standing" as an Obi song, and "Walk Through The Fire" as a late-RotS Anakin song.

But oh God, your comment brings up a completely different set of SW/Buffy associations this friend and I also have. We would sometimes semi-seriously ponder SW/Buffy parallels (and other inter-fandom parallels), and one time it got particularly ridiculous: long story short, if Buffy was Anakin, that made Giles Obi-Wan. Not just because both were British with good singing voices, but they both liked their liquor too... and we gradually devolved into narrating a cracked-out version of Episode III with Buffy dialogue, with Obi-Wan going to Anakin before the duel, paraphrasing drunk!Giles in "The Yoko Factor" episode: "You don't train with me anymore, I'm going to kick your ass!" Totally ridiculous, but we were giggling like mad -- and no, amazingly, we weren't drunk ourselves. ;)

[patientalien.livejournal.com]

Like, every song. Right now "Hot 'N Cold" by Katy Perry, a lot of Three Days Grace stuff ("Animal I Have Become", specifically). "Two Princes" for some damn reason involving Courtship of Princess Leia. "Beautiful Disaster", "Weapon" by Matthew Good, and "Brand New Day" from the Dr. Horrible soundtrack.

Plus basically every other song on my iPod.