The music of BSG was (and always will be) one of my favorite things about the show. We got something extremely special from the relationship between Battlestar and Bear McCreary, something that isn't often seen in television. While I can think of a few other shows that ended up with beautiful scores, by and large, most television shows are completely lacking in that department. So instead of talking just about Kara and Lee, we're talking specifically about Kara and Lee and music. Hold on tight, because this one's kind of a multi-parter.

What non-soundtrack songs make you think of our two pilots?
Do you have 'go-to' songs when writing/reading certain types of fics?
For the writers, have any songs/albums inspired scenes/parts/whole fics?
What pieces from the soundtracks remind you specifically of Kara and Lee? Why?

What non-soundtrack songs make you think of our two pilots?
Do you have 'go-to' songs when writing/reading certain types of fics?
For the writers, have any songs/albums inspired scenes/parts/whole fics?
Other thoughts: When did you first notice the music in the show? Most bad-ass music + Kara and/or Lee moment? Favorite BSG clip video set to music on youtube? Any time the music fell short for you? On a scale of 1 to Kara Thrace, how awesome was Bear McCreary's All Along the Watchtower cover? Does anyone want to start that Kara Thrace & Her Special Destiny cover band with me?
And yes, this post totally requires the heavy use of youtube. Link/embed away!
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Date: 2012-02-17 02:59 pm (UTC)I've made a few fanmixes in my time, and I have a great many pilots songs in my head. Working on this has made me realize I've only done three Kara/Lee vids to any of them!
No Light, No Light by Florence and the Machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvTtEbaMdn4)
No light, no light in your bright blue eyes
Who ever knew daylight could be so violent?
A revelation in the light of day
You can't choose what stays and what fades away
And I'd do anything to make you stay
No light, no light
Tell me what you want me to say
Bulletproof Heart by My Chemical Romance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcpLfKK3noE)
Gravity don't mean to much to me
I'm who I've got to be
These pigs are after me, after you
Run away, like it was yesterday
And we could run away
Run away from here
...actually that entire MCR album (Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys) is one big BSG video in my head.
(and kind of Quad of Doomy)
Mr. Brightside by the Killers (http://vidders.net/video/mr-brightside-4)
Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies
Choking on your alibis
But it's just the price I pay
Destiny is calling me
Open up my eager eyes
Cause I'm Mr Brightside
And just some songs.... not fanvids
One Week by Barenaked Ladies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRiF_THZTYI)
The verses are... bizarre but the choruses are so... THEM.
It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"
Five days since you laughed at me saying
"Get that together come back and see me"
Three days since the living room
I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry
On Any Given Day by Carbon Leaf (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8n7PfsoJf4)
I woke, I broke free drove a long time
It didn't purge you from my mind
Hang up the halo, maybe you're right
Chalk it up to a starry night
To be set free, to live and learn
Did we pass or fail the term?
You wrote a note with chalk on my door
A message I'd known long before:
On any given day, you'll find me gone
Also, no matter how sad this song seems, the ending is so HAPPY.
Antebellum by Vienna Teng (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYb-cNOxe8w)
I know the border lines we drew between us
Keep the weapons down,
Keep the wounded safe;
I know our antebellum innocence
Was never meant to see the light of our armistice.
But how much would I give to have it back again?
How much did we lose
To live this way?
ANGSTY as hell... but beautiful. I frickin' love Vienna Teng. Possibly my favorite musician ever.
OKAY. I've spammed the hell out of this. *Sneaks away*
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Date: 2012-02-17 03:01 pm (UTC)I don't listen to music while I write (too distracting and/or unnecessary --if I'm in the zone, I don't even hear it) but of course I have pilots songs like everyone else. My tops:
1) Anything by Lifehouse (But especially You and Me which always always always makes me think of pilots eyefrakking--and I used the lyric "this clock never seemed so alive" as a fic title once.)
2) Gravity (live) by Sara Bereilles -- the lyrics on this one just slay me--all about pilots' unbreakable and angsty connection/hold on each other.
3) The Special Two by Missy Higgins -- again about their unique connection and the lyrics "we'll bleed together" make me think of unfinished business
4) My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson -- the lyrics aren't an exact fic but the chorus makes me think of the two of them in the mutiny raising their guns together
5) all the songs I've ever vidded to them:
Shine by Anna Nalick
Declaration by David Cook
I'm a Believer by Smashmouth
Single Ladies by Beyonce (Lee mainly)
Keeps Getting Better by Christina Aguilera (Kara -- "sometimes I'm a super bitch up to my old tricks/sometimes I'm a super girl out to save the world")
I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter (Kara-centric)
Come On Get Higher by Matt Nathanson
So What by Pink (Pink songs in general make me think of Kara...see my icon)
My Medea by Vienna Teng (Kara-centric)
Crush by Jennifer Paige
All We Are by Matt Nathanson (still in progress...)
6) all my fave pilot vid songs by other people, esp. Speed Racer mix, Run by Matt Nathanson, Romeo & Juliet by Indigo Girls, When You Say Nothing at All by Keith or Allison Krauss, Pink's If God is a DJ, Trouble, and I'm Not Dead, as well as Please Don't Leave Me, Bootylicious by Destiny's Child, etc. etc.
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Date: 2012-02-17 03:13 pm (UTC)*sigh*
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Date: 2012-02-17 04:12 pm (UTC)I wanna love you, but you can't stand still.
I wanna hold you, but I notice that I never will.
I wanna love you, but you can't stand still.
I wanna hold you, but I notice that I never will.
So, baby, go where you wanna go, but don't leave me here lonely on my own.
Baby, though, if you ever go, then I'll leave a key right below the door.
I'll let you do what you wanna do
if the things you want include me and you.
Oh baby, though, I'll be on my own
if you're running from the people you used to call home.
Sad-ish lyrics, but the song itself is pretty perky, so it catches (for me) the fun aspects of pilots too.
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Date: 2012-02-17 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-02-17 05:05 pm (UTC)The Soundtrack
Date: 2012-02-17 05:20 pm (UTC)I can hardly bear to listen to any of Bear's pieces for BSG, and especially Kara and Lee, now (especially if Violence and Variations or Under The Wing turn up in my shuffle, I have to skip them before two bars are out because they make me ugly cry from ALL THE FEELINGS and I can't have that in public). Same goes for the Adama family theme, no matter where it turns up. And Lee and Kara's individual themes, across the pieces they appear in.
Other pieces off the soundtrack that always makes me think of pilots are Passacaglia (Violence and Variations does borrow from that) and One Year Later, which I can never listen to without being reminded of just how horrible and awful I felt realising that pilots were no longer friends. (I could take them being married to other people, but destroying their friendship? ALL MY TEARS, I felt wretched for weeks afterwards and still do every time I watch that tbh.)
For me, the ultimate pilots song will always be Violence and Variations (and the iteration of their theme found in Under The Wing), because it is just as fittingly epic, hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking (and SWOON-INDUCINGLY ROMANTIC) as pilots themselves. Non-BSG song recs for pilots in the next comment...
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Date: 2012-02-17 05:26 pm (UTC)In the mean time, Kara & Lee!!!
First and foremost, I've Loved You Before by Melissa Etheridge
This song, you guys! THIS SONG!!!!!
The Music! (from outside sources, this time)
Date: 2012-02-17 05:46 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWj95T75Yh0
Kissing In The Rain, by Patrick Doyle (from the original score of Great Expectations). This is the first non-BSG song in my heart for pilots, because it captures the romance and yearning of pilots so well, and is hauntingly beautiful - I loved it for almost a decade before I discovered pilots, but it's astonishing how well it works for them in my head (and it's from another story about a beautiful blonde girl who runs away from the love of her life because she doesn't know how to love him/is too freaked out, so perfection that way).
2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HoudtauRs0
Duncan Sheik - Wishful Thinking (same ost, with lyrics this time but I think it works as a Lee-pov on Kara)
3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ei6YQchGZg
Oasis - Slide Away (I love Britpop, and I think this song fits a Lee-pov of pilots' euphoria after finally admitting they love each other in Unfinished Business. Also, another one with lyrics!)
4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XmuKtEh2so
Portishead - Roads (again, it has lyrics, but oddly, it works to perfection as a Kara-pov on Lee. I love how moody and sad and sexy it is).
5. ALTERNATE KARA THEME HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qsgBF7ZIsk
Gheorghe Zamfir - The Lonely Shepherd (OST: Kill Bill: Volume 1)
Considering it was in the movie as a sort of lament to another iconic blonde who'd been broken by life but survived all the shit thrown at her, this is perfect as an alternate instrumental Kara-theme. It's sad, celebratory and heroic all at once - perfect for a survivor like our girl, and it just makes me have a LOT OF FEELINGS. If you listen to nothing else I rec, listen to this one!)
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Date: 2012-02-17 05:48 pm (UTC)A few samples:
1. In These Arms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PonavQsRK3M)
Maybe I was born to hold you in these arms
(I can't even deal with this song, you just have to listen to it)
2. I Have Loved You Wrong (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCUJav54NU)
Forgive me lover for I have sinned
for I have done you wrong
for I have hurt beyond repair
and when tears occurred no I didn’t care
forgive me lover for I have sinned
for I have loved you wrong
3. Feeling the Pull (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aTL8nWNn3w) (this one's all Kara)
And I'm feeling the pull
Dragging me off again
And I'm feeling so small
Against the big sky tonight
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Date: 2012-02-17 05:49 pm (UTC)That whole Florence record is so, so, so good. I wrote probably the last ten or so chapters of my hugely long fic while listening to that album on repeat and the tempos/moods of songs very much influenced what I ended up writing down.
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Date: 2012-02-17 06:05 pm (UTC)There's a rawness and a fury here that absolutely works for her.
And one last instrumental for pilots - Irene's Theme, from Sherlock:
(forgive the video, the ost is unreleased so this is what we have to make do with)
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Date: 2012-02-17 06:18 pm (UTC)So whenever I have to write anything sad about Kara, including of course maelstrom-ish things, my go-to song is Sia's Breathe Me. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSH7fblcGWM)
My sort of melancholy-but-sort-of-in-love song has been Skinny Love by Bon Iver. (http://youtu.be/WhJ0OKB3Lmc) For my longfic, I probably played this thirty times while writing a chapter of my long!fic that had Kara and Lee finally getting their shit together officially.
I'm also pretty unimaginative when it comes to naming my fic, so I end up swiping song titles that sort of fit what I'm going for. We Used to Wait comes from Arcade Fire, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqyakRmPNM8) On Our Way from Lana Del Rey (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiNIGJ2wEX0), to name a few.
LDR's Born to Die also reminds me of pilots a ton and I've been doing some current writing to it and the rest of her album as well:
And on the note of Bear McCreary, I think he's an absolute genius. I could go on...but it would be boring. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, he recently did the music to a video of timelapse photos of space. It's very beautiful: Temporal Distortion (http://vimeo.com/36684976) (Sorry, embed is giving me complications).
Re: The Music! (from outside sources, this time)
Date: 2012-02-17 06:22 pm (UTC)Re: The Soundtrack
Date: 2012-02-17 06:26 pm (UTC)And yes, much like you, this is me listening to BSG OSTs:
Re: The Soundtrack
Date: 2012-02-17 06:35 pm (UTC)It is so weird, I love all pilot themes and BSG music so much, but listening to them is so hard on the heart.
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Date: 2012-02-17 06:47 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VdJA6BCww
Everything But The Girl - Missing (Original Mix - especially this line:
You're long gone
And I can't move on
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Date: 2012-02-17 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-17 06:49 pm (UTC)Re: The Music! (from outside sources, this time)
Date: 2012-02-17 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-17 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-17 08:02 pm (UTC)Thank you for the link to Temporal Distortion. I haven't seen that before and the music is lovely.
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Date: 2012-02-17 08:25 pm (UTC)Hmmm... I guess that means I shouldn't post lyrics that might give things away when I do my own music-themed post, but I will say "yes!" to Lifehouse, Pink, and Gravity. (So pretty much everything everyone has already said.)
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Date: 2012-02-17 08:40 pm (UTC)Give Me Strength – Snow Patrol (one of my favorite songs in rl)
This song just screams Kara and Lee.
Please Don’t Go- Barcelona
I see this song from Lee’s POV. I think I might vid the pilots to this song . . . eventually.
Dare You to Move – Switchfoot
I see this song as Kara waiting for Lee to finally step up and say what he wants.
I Got You- Leona Lewis
This is the only upbeat song I have on my Kara and Lee playlist. I know the lyrics are more than a bit corny but I think this song works for the pilots.
The Mess I Made- Parachute
This song does the best job of describing Kara and Lee’s relationship and whose fault it is that it didn’t work out (other than the writers :P ). I only heard this song a few weeks ago (yes, I am aware it’s been out for a while) and as soon as I heard it I knew I had to do a video for it.
-Bear’s Music-
I am a huge Epica (the genre not the group) fan and some of Bear’s music is in that playlist of mine. I think what really impressed me with the show was how amazing the music was and how well it could bring out emotions for me.
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Date: 2012-02-17 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-17 09:47 pm (UTC)And Barcelona! I forgot I had that album until I saw this post. The song definitely fits them well.
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Date: 2012-02-17 10:42 pm (UTC)Re: The Music! (from outside sources, this time)
Date: 2012-02-18 09:08 am (UTC)Pink Raise Your Glass
Date: 2012-02-18 10:56 pm (UTC)Can't stop coming in hot (Kara)
Don't be fancy, just get dancy
why so serious?
(Kara talking to Lee)
on a separate note the lyric from Pictures of You by the Last Goodnight
We are the boxers in the ring
always reminds me of the "dance" (boxing scene)