PA, I have a particular and odd request for music and I'm wondering if anyone can help me out.
I'll start with this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHHwSFdfSXA
I like a lot about this song, but right now the aspect I'm focusing on is that the singer is telling a story about a fanciful character. The song is a painting of that character. I would like to know about other songs that do a similar thing. Not just songs that create a character, but songs that create a character that would appear in a fantasy setting, something or someone mythical, though (probably) humanoid.
Another one I would consider that is kinda-sorta what I'm looking for is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivq0HeLVI8M
Though this one is much more basic and doesn't create an entire story around the character as the first one does, it's just "person singing the song has a magic gift." Still it fits my basic request of mythological or fantasy character.
I realize both of these songs are TOTALLY 80s but shut up I still like them, I'm an 80s girl. Modern examples are fine, songs older than the 80s are also fine.
Anyone want to give me some other examples of songs like this?
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Posts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E52rxz2sjRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YHQgSd9fzk
Almost all of her songs are built on metaphor though, so while I think this whole album is really narrative and lives in the realm of fantasy, I'm not sure it technically will be what you're looking for (but it has symphony accompaniment composed by Van Dyke Parks that is extremely good):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ1yFhjRnNc
also she married Andy Samberg awhile ago, which still blows my mind for some reason, but there you go.
Hmm, not quite, I don't mean folk songs specifically. The examples I gave paint a picture of a character without saying positively, "this happened, then this happened", that's a little too literal for me. I like things to be more implied, like in the first song I posted, Belladonna. We don't really know who Belladonna is or what her place is in the story. We don't even really know if she's a villain or a savior.
I would call the language of that song more a figurative sketch of a certain type of relationship rather than a song-painting of a fantasy character. Still a good song, though.
I love Johanna Newsom, but she doesn't do the kind of character painting I'm looking for.
Sorry, I know my request is difficult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aQRq9hhekA
The entire album is one large story/rock opera about a boy raised by the Queen of the Forest (in the cold inhuman faery way)
They also have The Crane Wife album which is a Japanese folk tale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvw1CVOSmik&list=PLE892D9BB6F1BB0DE
But it loses its thread
Oh yes, this is what I'm looking for! Even if it's a bit more sci-fi than fantasy.
I still feel this is more of a "telling a story" or "setting a scene" than "Describing a character." A song describing a character is more what I'm looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpltQ5S4xxc
Also one of the most badass live performances Ive ever seen. Shara Worden WAS the queen when she sang. You could practically feel the entire audience's souls become hers.
Regardless, you might find that Genesis' "The Lamia" meets your criteria (being, roughly speaking, about an encounter with a Lamia):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09mTchpOPU
A more contemporary tune is "Or So He Sphinx" by The Speed of Sound in Seawater, though it's a bit more tenuous example of a "character description":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnJZKIzrAaM
I couldn't find a quality youtube of it, but you might want to look up Stateless' track "Ariel" of their album Matilda.
Um... the avant-garde "metal" group Kayo Dot has a lot of long-form songs that serve as very oblique character descriptions, like "Amaranth, the Peddler". And the lyrics to their album Coyote were written by their friend (the artist Yoko Sueta) while she was hospitalized for a terminal illness, and they generally function as hallucinatory character descriptions, as she was I guess dealing with out-of-body experiences as a consequence of medication and isolation.
This is "Calonyction Girl":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_2bdmzxWjE
https://youtu.be/i5P8lrgBtcU
Or what about
https://youtu.be/1dF_5PMTods
https://youtu.be/LHNueLZ5JZc
What if it's a full album?
https://youtu.be/euHW_edvhmI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25--ga6wjLE
It's super political, mind, but as an 80s person you will probably recognize the environment it came out of.
Also it is fairly metal, which you probably got from the unnecessary umlaut in the band name.
Hmm, you may be right. But I think lines like "Burnt and charred, this bride of scars", "In a halo of sharks and a skeleton mask" and even :Lost in the glare, all of us stare, The patterns of pain, scream out your name" are all pretty clearly meant to be in reference to "Belladonna", whoever she is. And the ambiguity is part of what I like.
Best one so far!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKY--qaHWSw
This one always reminds me of The Man In Black, from The Gunslinger series, which technically falls under the 'fantasy' label:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dt_8xXgqo
Each character is played by a different singer, and they often interact with each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeq8YMPBRCQ
(The Birthday Massacre - The Dream)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5tdrG42w40
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
also, check out Rush, they have a lot of Tolkein references and influences
Does this work?
I think I'm going to refine my request a little bit though, as I've listened to these song I've gotten a clearer picture in my head of what specifically I want. The thing about that Belladonna song (and I'm going to ignore the Roses song because I'm realizing more and more that it doesn't fit what I want either) is that the character is described both with poetic mystery that you can't quite put your finger on- "The patterns of pain, scream out your name" - as well as actual physical descriptions so that you draw a picture in your mind of what this person looks like - "Burnt and charred, this bride of scars." I'd like songs with both things in them. That Lamia song is still the best other example because it describes scales and three snakes and so forth.
I'd also like to avoid songs that describes things that already have super popular books and comic books about them. Yes, I know Lamias and Sirens have literature written about them, but because they are mythology the descriptions tend to be a lot more poetic and obscure. I don't need someone to describe what Superman looks like, I already know from cultural memory. I don't need someone to describe what Frodo looks like, I already know from cultural memory. Etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hlw_9ldThs
It's a good song, but see my last post - this song has no physical description of the Fool on the Hill, it's all about what he's doing and who he is. Are his shoulders slumped in defeat? is his hair the color of dirty straw and too long for someone his age? Etc.
ya aren't all of Coheed's albums like one long story about The Armory Wars?
https://youtu.be/IGNILpVcgz4
https://youtu.be/0e4Odk-v3oU
https://youtu.be/VeVjEg4znQk
https://youtu.be/SoBMhx_ap_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPZfFEW2G9A
perhaps also relevant
from the same album, this is a song about Raistlin Majere
(what i'm saying is i'm a nerd and have a deep pocket of nerdy music)
It's been a long time since I've listened to Ayreon, but I think the first Universal Migrator album does this as well (although that's more focused on specific periods of Earth history)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GaqjWIwj0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIdwb96CT6A
Steam: Feriluce
Battle.net: Feriluce#1995