Friday, May 6, 2011

Sounds of the City


A soundtrack sampling for the City and the Strange New World:

Bright Lights & The City: "Sing Sing Sing" by the Benny Goodman Orchestra

A dust-up in a gin-joint: "Odd Ones" by the Seatbelts (Cowboy Bebop)

Magic-usin' dames is always trouble: "I Put A Spell On You" by Nina Simone

Foreboding in the Dustlands: "Ben Searches the Junkyard" By Jeff Beal

Here they come--get ready: "Tiger Tank" By Lalo Schifrin

A cheerful traditional in the Smaragdines: "O Death" by Ralph Stanley

Nothing ever happens out in the sticks: "Murder in the Red Barn" by Tom Waits

Entering a mound in Freedonia: "White Lightning" by Charles Bernstein

There's an old preacher who they say can perform resurrections: "Ain't No Grave" by Johnny Cash.

I guess we all knew it would come down to this: "The Verdict (Dopo la Condanna)" by Ennio Morricone


Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Canageek who nominated my blog for Stuffer Shack's "Rpg Site of the Year" contest.  It was an honor to have even be nominated in the company of a number of great sites.

And--while I'm at it--thanks to everyone else for following, commenting, and reading.

20 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

Good musis especially Tiger Tank and O Death, congratulations on a well deserved award.

Trey said...

Lalo Schifrin does some great stuff! And Thanks--though, of course, I didn't win--I just got Canageek's endorsement for it. :)

commissarmoody said...

WOW! these are some great songs to wake up to.

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite elements of The City is your emphasis on music; it's few folk in this field who can so thoroughly envision all the sensory elements of a world.

Trey said...

@Cmmissarmoody - Glad I could be of service.

Egopoisoning - Thanks. I think it makes it easier working with a more "modern" setting, where popular music is an established (and recognized) phenomena. Maybe I should be thinking about gustatory sense and write a food related piece, though...

Aarneus said...

It seems that the Tiger Tank and The Verdict are the same link?

Great blog, btw. :) Can't wait for Weird Adventures.

Pierce said...

Yeah, the link for Tiger Tank goes to the verdict. I'm going to go watch Kellys Heroes now.

Sean Robson said...

Thanks for sharing, Trey, I spent the morning grooving to the tunes. I always try to create a soundtrack for my campaign settings, and I love to listen to it while I create adventures. Nothing sets the mood and stirs the imagination as much as the right music.

Congratulations on the nomination; Sorcerer's Skull certainly rates as one my very favourite blogs.

Martin R. Thomas said...

You get super extra bonus points for putting a Nina Simone song on there!

So few people any more even listen to music like that. It's a shame - there's a lot of great old jazz and blues songs that deserve to be "re-discovered."

Trey said...

Oops. The links should be fixed now. Thanks Arneus and Pierce for poiting it it. And Pierce, enjoy Kelly's Heroes. ;)

@Sean - I like to do that to. This was sort of a "first draft" I imagine I'll refine and expand it over time. Thanks for the kind words.

@Martin - You're right about that. I had to find some way to include Simone. :)

Von said...

Man, you had me at Johnny Cash and Tom Waits. Excellent stuff. I shall have to listen to them all.

Trey said...

Thanks, Von. Enjoy.

Wymarc said...

Great eclectic music list you have there. Some I have not heard before and will have to check them out. Any list that includes Nina Simone, Johnny Cash and Benny Goodman has to be going in the right direction!

Needles said...

Nice selection of stuff. I've also imagined that the soundtrack to the television show Peter Gun fit "The City" as well. Not the opening music but some of the other pieces. Anyways just a thought.

Trey said...

Thanks Wymarc!

@Needles - Oh, the Peter Gunn soundtrack absolutely--("Blues for Mother's," "Spook!" etc.). I couldn't find any of those online.

Anthony said...

Very nice selection Trey, and a couple of artists I'd not heard of before, thanks for expanding my musical horizons by a bit more.

Trey said...

You're welcome. Glad you liked them. :)

Canageek said...

Arrrgggg. Blogger has eaten not one, but TWO of the posts I've written to respond to this.

First off: This was the current post when my reading finally caught up to your writing. Thank you for the mention! On a related note, I think you need an aware for most prolific RPG blogger, as I've not seen any single person write as much as you.

Next point: I'm surprised that Tank! and Rain (Female Vocal Version) from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack didn't make your list: Tank! struck me as a very good song to start off a fight or a mission in The City with ("It's time to get everybody and his stuff together, 3,2,1, let's go!")
Rain.... It strikes me that at any given moment there are probably at least 100 events tragic and romantic enough to have Rain as the background happening in the City.
Which got me thinking: I could see the whole of Spike's plotline being transposed to The City: am I the only one?

Now, this better POST this time!
--Canageek

Trey said...

Canageek, I think you deserve some award for reading my entire back catalog of posts up to this point!

"Tank!" and "Rain" are good songs. "Tank!" didn't make my list because its a bit too recognizable, and a bit too modern (more 60s/70s jazz-ish in sound) for the post. In actual play, I might very well use it. "Rain" I just didn't think of at the time, but a few soundtrack pieces aside, I was concentrating on authentic "pulp era" pieces.

Canageek said...

I will admit that I skipped Warlord Wednesday posts after a certain point, as I found without being able to read the comic they were not that interesting. It has also taken me..um, since you put up that post about the Grand Canyon, whenever that was... November I think? To catch up.