I figured since they have a new video, album and tour coming up it was time for that Part 2.
They cool thing about Maiden having new material out is the number of people that I have seen excited about it. The cross-over with the people that I know who are all old-school gamers is both a little expected and cool at the same time.
Plus I am planning on some Amazing Adventures this weekend and Iron Maiden IS the official band of Amazing Adventures. Ok, not really. But they should be.
Let's start off with their newest "Speed of Light". The video is an homage to all sorts of video games and styles from the last 4 decades. Even if you don't like Maiden this is a cool video.
"Run to the Hills" is one of my favorite Maiden songs. Another great from Maiden's golden age of Number of the Beast. I have not seen this particular video for it before.
"Holy Smoke" is a fun video. Plus it is a great message that rang pretty clear to a young atheist. From No Prayer for the Dying.
1984. We played D&D while outside the world inched closer and closer to nuclear armageddon. Maiden knew this even while tried to ignore it. "2 Minutes to Midnight" from Powerslave reminded us everytime we played it.
Ever play a fighter? Ever play one in 1983? I bet this song came up at least one or twice. "The Trooper" from Piece of Mind.
I mentioned it last time but "Wasted Years" is one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs. So imagine my delight when I find an all girl cover band The Iron Maidens doing a killer cover of Wasted Years.
Irons Up ladies, cause you fucking rock!
I have always had this reoccurring nightmare of haunted house.
I love horror of course but this dream was quite the horror story.
Over the years I come to call it my "Very Haunted House".
Of course I had to turn it into adventure. So I am running it for the first time tomorrow!
Here are some musical inspiration for the adventure. No. I am not going to play Ghostbusters or Thriller.
I have mentioned many times about how much I enjoy the music of Eric Burdon and the Animals. "House of the Rising Sun" is top of my list of not just Animals songs, but all songs. I have featured it many times in many adventures.
Back in High School and College Genesis was a big deal. Not the Peter Gabriel version, but the later pop friendly Phil Collins version. "Home By the Sea" is about a house full of ghosts. It maid it's way into "Ghosts of Albion: Blight" and now in my new adventure too.
Growing up in the midwest in the 80s it was not possible to turn on the radio and not hear the Eagles. "Hotel California" is not their best song. It's not even a great song. But it is ubiquitous and it is evocative of Hell. Thus it always stuck with me.
Too Much Joy was the ultimate College band when I was in Grad School. They are fun, they sing about things that college guys like, namely drinking, girls, drugs and girls. "Sort of Haunted House" is not a song about a real haunted house. It's about a breakup, but when I was having this nightmare this was the song that was always on. BTW I am sure the nightmare was stress related due to defending my thesis, breaking up with my crazy ex girl friend, moving up with my new girlfriend. So in a way it fits. Plus like my haunted house this one has a "ghost in every room". One of many great hits of the critically ignored Munity.
I don't have a lot to say about Rockwell. His "Somebody's Watching Me" makes for a crazy paranoid one hit wonder. Notable because Michael Jackson sang backup on the track. But the video is properly creepy and that's a plus.
"Shadows of the Night" by Pat Benatar from her wildly popular Get Nervous album is not about ghosts. But don't tell that to my 12 year old self listening to it while rereading the Cook/Marsh Expert book. Shadows of the night were real shadows, as in the monster that could be turned in AD&D but not in D&D. For years I have always wanted to use this song. So this adventure reintroduces a similar monster, the Memento Mori.
Another song that featured prominently in Ghosts of Albion: Blight is the ethereal voice of Loreena McKennitt. "The Old Ways" features a woman and her evening spent with a ghost, or maybe it was an old druid. Either way a gulf of time separates them. From the haunting The Visit.
Whenever I put on music to either get my creativity flowing for writing or game or just just mind in the right spot, I usually have themes. Typically this is things like metal or Iron Maiden for D&D. Classic rock or newer hiphop for modern supernatural games. 70s hard rock for other games and so on.
But one performer/band comes through for me for nearly everything. That is Carlos Santana.
Santana, either as a solo act, part of the Santana Brothers or with his band Santana, always has such a sound. Yeah it is latin, but it also classic rock and 80s and new millennium ... well for a lack of better word, groove. Listening to Santana is like driving at night, the world is familiar, but also very, very different. Santana has had nearly 50 year career, I am going to focus on the songs that most people know...and the ones that have videoes of course.
Let's get into it!
"Evil Ways" was one of Santana's earliest hits. From his self titled album Santana, it's about what all good Santana songs are about, a woman. Here is his career making turn at Woodstock.
Abraxas, Santana's 2nd album, might be one of the best albums ever recorded. Certainly in my own top 25. If I want to write about magic and just get into the right mood then I put on Abraxas. This album gave us the hits "Black Magic Woman" and one of my favorites "Oye Como Va".
The bulk of his 70s catalog is very jazz-inspired and cool, but not what I need when I want a little darkness. The next album of Santana's I really enjoyed was the double album Moonflower. In truth this is where I first heard Black Magic Woman as a live song. But the stand out song for me was a cover of an old Zombies song "She's Not There". Again, Santana is at his best when playing or singing about a woman.
Shangó is another one of those career changing albums for Santana. I listened to this album so many times in Jr. High. In fact it was playing around the exact time I was first playing D&D. "Hold On" is another song about a woman, but also about a particular time and place. This song always reminds me that "Now" will never happen again.
Supernatural became Santana's next biggest album and one of the biggest of his career. It was also one of the albums I had playing on constant rotation while working on the d20 version of the my Witch book and then later Buffy and Angel. "Smooth" was just one of those songs that pulls you right in. Plus it features a then somewhat unknown actress Rosario Dawson.
"Put Your Lights On" written by and featuring Everlast was actually the first song I heard from the album. I was a big fan of House of Pain in college so this was a nice a little treat.
So my family and I binge watched Supernatural this past summer. And by binge watched I mean just that. Nine Season on DVD/Blu-Ray all summer long.
I watched the show when it first came out but it freaked my wife out. I kept up with it on my own for a bit, but that is hard to sustain really. I followed the fandom more than the show itself after that. Had the RPG, sold it for something like $100 later on. Wish I had kept it though.
So my sister is really into the show and she let us borrow her season DVDs. Well the rest was history. My youngest loves it. Around Season 3 my wife REALLY got into it. Around Season 5 my oldest did too. IT became our Summer Friday nights really. Order pizza, watch Supernatural till past 11. We only stopped for Gen Con.
Of course one of the best features of Supernatural is not just the good writing and characters that are likable and relatable, but also the music.
Sam: ...I swear man; you gotta update your cassette tape collection. Dean: Why? Sam: Well for one they are cassette tapes, and two— (Pulls out a few cassette tapes) Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It’s the greatest hits of mullet rock. Dean: (Grabs a cassette from Sam and pops it in the player) House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.
I can totally relate. Growing up on a steady diet of metal and classic rock it was what growing up in the midwest meant. I know my wife and kids don't get that part like I do, but that is fine. Besides my kids love the music.
The best thing? The music of Supernatural already plays like my "Greatest Hits" anyway!
If I ever get around running Chill again each adventure/episode is going to be named for a different classic rock song and I'll play it before we play. Cheesy? Maybe. But I like cheese.
AC/DC are pretty much the go-to band when one mentions classic rock, Supernatural and even gaming. Back in the 80s when D&D was getting a bad rap, AC/DC was right there with us.
"Back in Black" was featured in the pilot episode and is appropriate for the storyline. From the album of the same name it debuted in 1980 and was the first to feature new lead singer Brian Johnson. In fact can usually tell the age of an AC/DC fan by whether or not they still refer to Brian Johnson as "new".
Rush has enough street cred with gamers that there is little need anymore for me to give my reasons for posting this. But "Fly By Night" also from an album of the same name, has a little bit more than average. It was featured in the Episode 2 of Season 1 of Supernatural. Ok. It was featured in episode 2 of the Dead Alewives skit on D&D with an elf singing "Fly by Night" while carrying Mt. Dew.
Flyby Night was also the song I was listening too in the weekend I had my very first overnight D&D session in 8th grade. I also listened to it when I wrote the very first draft of the witch.
Another group that barely need justification is Blue Öyster Cult. Many songs from BÖC have been a part of Supernatural, my gaming and geekdom in general. I could go on and on about the level of importance that "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" has had to my games, but that song has not been in the show yet. One song though stands out both in terms of Supernatural and in my gaming life.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was one of the first songs I ever heard from BÖC and band I associated with D&D from the earliest days. It was also featured in Supernatural as a "theme" song for the Reapers, Angels of Death and psychopomps for souls.
CCR might not come to mind right away when thinking about RPGs or D&D but they are a staple of classic rock. "Bad Moon Rising" has been used by me in any game that has a werewolf in it and I am certain I am not alone. This song bridged Season 1 to Season 2.
"Hammer of the Gods...Valhalla I am coming..." Was there ever a more D&D song than this? Well...maybe "No Quarter", but either way it is Led Zeppelin. "Immigrant Song" has been played here before, buy like I said, just like the original Friday Night Videos, there will be repeats.
There are a lot of reason why Def Leppard needs to be included in this rather august group. First, "Rock of Ages" was played in a very pivotal scene in Season 5 (and also in season 1). Also Def Leppard was ALWAYS on MTV back in the days where we played D&D with MTV on in the background, hopping to get that one Iron Maiden song. But also, and lets be honest. Watch the video. It's obvious they had no clue what the hell they were doing but who cares. Big swords. Big hair. Filmed in dungeon. Hooded cultists. A maiden playing chess with death. This might not be the most 80s video out there. But it is up there.
I don't recall if a Motörhead song actually appeared in the show or not. I know Dean (or maybe Sam) used the alias of "Lemmy Kilmister" but fuck it. Here is "Ace Of Spades".
"Carry on Wayward Son". This song has been with me for so long. I mentioned before I first heard it when I saw the movie Heroes, the Henry Winkler and Sally Field one. Supernatural has really made this song their own. This will feature in the season finale of what ever supernatural-like game I run.
Have not seen Season 10 yet. Waiting for the Blu-Rays.
Today is the birthday of writer and producer Paul Dini!
If you spend anytime here at the Other Side you know I am a fan of Paul's work going all the way back to his days on "Masters of the Universe".
This week also saw the birthday of TSR Uber-artist Larry Elmore. The man has made a career on drawing dark haired witchy women. He even talks about it here; "I've sort of been plagued with the image of a dark-haired, woodsy kind of woman - a witchy woman. She's always been on my mind, starting when I was about 22 or something. That's why I do a lot of witchy looking women"
So to celebrate the birthdays of the only people I know who likes magic girls and witches more than me.
We learn in Power Girl #23 that Zatanna's ring tone is "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by the Police. Quite appropriate I think. Especially since the very first Zatanna I ever did was titled "Zatanna, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic". This is one of my favorite songs from Ghost in the Machine.
Steve Miller's "Abracadbra" is one of those songs that remind me of witches in general, but Zee in particular. I can't help but think that this song plays when Paul is writing or Larry is painting.
Zatanna meet Santana. No relation. But I am sure "Black Magic Woman" is not directed at you. Interesting note, this song was actually an early Fleetwood Mac song. This song appears on Santana's album Abraxas; the demon of magic and where we get the word Abrabcadbra.
Speaking of Witchy Women, no one describes them better than The Eagles. Raven hair, Ruby lips. Sparks fly from her finger tips? Yeah. That's my girl. Or Paul's. Or Larry's.
America is like the least Goth band on the planet. Maybe only the Beach Boys are less dark.
But I love "You Can Do Magic". Yet another song about a witchy woman.
No one really remembers Classic IV, but I do and their "Spooky". Love a spooky girl..
Paul Dinin is not just known for his magic girls. In fact his biggest contribution to DC comics might be Harley Quinn. I could go on about her, but here is a video featuring Arleen Sorkin, the voice of Harley and the genesis of Harley Quinn.
Right about now I should be knee deep in killing zombies.
Or at least running a group through Castle Ravenloft.
The thing I like best about Gen Con isn't just the games, or the hall to buy new games, it's meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Basically these are my people.
Professor Elemental has been featured here before. "All In Together" is an ode to being with your tribe.
One of my kids' favorite songs is Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". They pretty much demand this song every time we play D&D and drive to Gen Con.
Another song that reminds me of drive to Gen Con is Fastball's "The Way". Seemed like I listened to this song a dozen times on my first drive to Gen Con.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Vacation / Gen Con edition.
Tonight the songs are less overtly about gaming or my relationship with gaming and more about my vacation in Gen Con.
Summer meant a lot of thing to me over the years. Going out with friends, picnics, drinking, teaching while in college, working two jobs for college! But for a shinning moment there for a while in the early 80s before discovering girls, beer, or the crushing responsibility of being an adult(!). Summer was also about vacations and playing some RPGs.
So here is my ode to that time and to Gen Con next week.
The Go-Gos. Was there ever a band LESS like D&D? Who cares. This is a fun song.
While I followed Stevie Nick's solo career with the obsessiveness than only a teenage can manage, I never was that interested in Lindsay Buckingham's. I did want this album at one point I recall.
Wednesday was my 20th Wedding Anniversary. We got married in Jamaica and you could not go twn minutes and not hear Shaggy. This whole album is a ton of summer time vacation fun. This song NEVER fails to put me into mood.
Let's get to some more D&D/RPG-ish songs. Going to California by Led Zeppelin is another great one. Why? Because no one has written a "Going to Indiana" song.
Ok. Let's pay homage to Indiana's favorite son, John Mellencamp. I know a lot of my audience might not get this, but John "Cougar" Mellencamp is a pretty big deal here in the midwest. And nothing captured the feel of living in the Midwest in the 80s better than his 1985 album Scarecrow. Believe it or not but it was a huge influence on my gaming. I wanted my Chill games to capture the same feeling of hopelessness as "Rain on the Scarecrow" and joy as "Lonely Ol' Night" (yeah, listen to the song it is an ode to summer nights in the midwest where everyone feels like they are on their own). I may live in the Chicago greater area now, but I did grow up in a small town.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Urban Horror edition.
D&D is metal. But the gritty Urban Horror I enjoy is Rap with Metal. Two great tastes that go great together.
Make sense to me really. I was getting into more urban horror in the 90s when rap and hip hop were huge and nu Metal was on the rise.
Personally I believe that Metal and Rap/Hip-Hop have far more in common than they differ.
So how about we start where it started. More or less.
Anthrax and Public Enemy are as about as different as you can imagine. That is till you dig beneath the surface and realize they are saying the same things to their audiences. Public Enemy is more politically charged than Anthrax is.
Judgement Night. Not just a sub-par Emilio Estevez film, it is also a great urban battle song. Personally I always felt this was a better soundtrack for an apocalyptic battle scene between humans and demons.
Ozzy + Trick Daddy. Ok, Ozzy is only sampled in this. But this was one of the songs I had on repeat when working on the Ghosts of Albion game. My understanding is that Ozzy rather liked this.
I won't lie. I listened to Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" on pretty much repeat all throughout my time working the Buffy game. When I began work on Ghosts of Albion I switched over to "Meteora".
Linkin Park is pretty much the archetypical Nu-Metal band. An alchemy of rock, rap with bits of punk and grunge. Absolutely part of my soundtrack of the Apocalypse.
For shear oddness you can't beat the Gorillaz. One part Blur, one part LSD trip and a bunch of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. This doesn't really fit in the "hard rock" mode, but the trippy video is pure "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" crossed over with "Terra Primate".
Tonight we do a little self-celebrating and mark 2,000,000 hits to the Other Side blog. Yeah I know, a little self-aggrandizing, but hey. I pay the bills here.
I have talked about the history of this place before, so no real need to do that again. Let's just get to the videos.
I am not 100% sure, but it is likely that the name "The Other Side" came from this Moody Blues song. I had a newspaper article in my school newspaper back in 86-87 named "The Other Side of Life". My first web site was then called The Other Side. Kinda anti-climatic isn't it. But still I like the Blues and this was a good album for 1986.
Like the song, thought the video was a little lame.
Interestingly enough the next Other Side, my website, came out a little after this Areosmith song did. It was from 1994, the same year I moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D.
I have been a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since "Mother's Milk". The Otherside came out at a very, very weird time for me. I might talk about it sometime. or not. Have not decided yet.
Here is a new one for me. Sirenia. I know nothing about Norwegian symphonic metal, but I like the sound of this. It certainly has all the elements of things I like. This video is kinda cool.
If I had to be honest. Really honest. Well then I would have to stick with the Moody Blues story above. But I was rewriting my personal story then this is the song that really motivated me to name my lexical outlet to the world then I would have to choose The Doors and "Break on Through (to the Other Side)". Total cheat on the title too.
Red Sun Rising is another new band for me. They have this Alice in Chains feel about them that I really enjoy. I heard this one on the radio the other day when trying to come up with tonight's theme.
Hope you are all with me for the next 1,000,000 hits.
It is my pleasure to bring you another Guest VJ. Tonight we are honored to have Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams. He will be playing videos that relate to his newest RPG book "Leagues of Gothic Horror".
So here is Wiggy.
--
Hi! My name’s Wiggy (also known as Paul Wade-Williams) and I’m the creative director and a partner at Triple Ace Games. Tim has invited me to guest VJ and talk a little about the music I listened to while designing and writing LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR, which launched on Kickstarter this week.
Truth be told, I’ve mainly been watching movies and listening to Gothic audio dramas while pounding away at the keyboard and watching the shadows for werewolves and vampires, but there is always time for music in the creative process. Maybe I’m a little anal, but I often create a playlist to match the product I’m working on, rather than accept whatever random tune my player throws up. Here are some of the tracks in that list.
Blue Oyster Cult — Magna of Illusion
This track is from my all-time favourite album—Imaginos. The lyrics are laden with layers of hidden meaning and weird significance—ancient prophecies, magic mirrors, alchemy, astrology, witches, magical ships! I’ve always had an interest in the occult(not to be confused with Satanism) and the entire album was essential listening—I never tire of listening to it! I love it so much there are references to it scattered throughout LEAGUES OF GOTHIC HORROR.
Sheelanigig — Lost in Transitvania
My music tastes are quite eclectic. Most of my playlist is heavy metal or rock, but nestled among the albums are 80s pop, folk, movie soundtracks, and Mongolian throat-singing. I came across this band at the Shetland Folk Festival only a few months ago and immediately fell in love with their stuff. Writing can be a boring process, even if you love what you write, and this song gave me an excuse to chair dance while absorbing the Eastern European folk vibe that transported me at least part way to Transylvania.
Ozzy Osbourne — Bark at the Moon
It’s Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness himself! This song met all the criteria when writing a book on Gothic Horror—the heavy metal I love and an atmospheric (if occasionally camp) video replete with elements of the genre. I’ve listened to Ozzy for many years, and regardless of my mood there’s always a song to suit.
The Unguided — Deathwalker
Remember I said my tastes were eclectic? Well, here’s some Swedish melodic death metal for you! I admit I am not without bias in choosing this track—the band based it on my Hellfrost fantasy setting and I was lucky enough to collaborate on the lyrics. Despite its fantasy origin, the track concerns the rising of a powerful lich and his gathering support from the undead, an apt enough topic for Gothic Horror.
Iron Maiden — The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden, the first heavy metal I ever listened to. This track, from their third album, always reminds me of one of my favorite horror film—The Devil Rides Out. The beat is fast, hardly fitting for the creeping terror of Gothic Horror, but the content, Satanism, was perfect for writing the magic section. The track also reminds me of school (I was 12 when it came out), especially since 1982 was the date The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published, the book that got me into gaming.
Dalibor Krigovský — Moriens Spiritum
Conveying mood to the reader is an essential part of writing. Gothic Horror isn’t slash and gore. It’s dark and moody. It reeks of decadence and decay. Capturing that unique flavour so GMs can convey it to their players in words was essential. Often I can get into the right mood without much thought—it is part of the job being a full-time author working on varied projects—but there are times when I need a boost. This track is heavy and brooding, perfect for immersing myself in Gothic atmosphere.
J. S. Bach — Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
More mood music! I’ve always loved this piece of music. Maybe I’m odd, but it immediately conjures up images of the lonely figure of Dracula (or Strahd von Zarovich) seated in front of an organ in his desolate castle or the Phantom of the Opera. It’s a very powerful and emotive piece that ebbs and flows, never failing to drag my mood along as it does so.
Tonight I want to focus on just one band, but one that I really identify with the entire OSR and nostalgia D&D movement.
The Sword hit my awareness in 2008 or so with their album "Gods of this Earth". Right around the same time this blog got going.
Like the retro-D&D/OSR/Nostalgia movement The Sword was a new thing that sounded like an old thing from the 70s. In this case a band that had a similar vibe to Slayer to sound like Black Sabbath. In any case it worked.
Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians was the first single from "Gods of the Earth". It sounds old school and the video is something right out of Ralph Bakshi. The biggest influence is obviously Bakshi's Wizards. Confession time. I am not a fan of Wizards. Never saw the appeal. I also don't care for rotoscoping.
If any song captures this retro-feel of The Sword the best it's How Heavy This Axe. The video even looks like something filmed the same day Black Sabbath filmed Paranoid or Iron Man. Plus this was also the theme song to +Zak Smith and gang's "I Hit it with My Axe". That gives it OSR street cred right there. Or it gave them cred. Not sure which.
What can I honestly say about Maiden Mother Crone?
Well for starters it is easily my favorite song from The Sword. Plus there are great allusions to Pagan myths and witchcraft. In true heavy metal cliche fashion it has a "mystical orb" at the end (3:30 mark). I am sure that was done completely tongue in cheek. But still it's pretty awesome.
I listened to this a lot when working on The Witch.
Tres Brujas or "Three Witches" came along later. It mixes in elements of Westerns, sci-fi, witchcraft (again) and Kung-fu (the TV show). So yeah...sounds a bit like the AD&D DMG.
Veil of Isis is a newer song. The video reminds me a bit of some of the videos of the later 80s, before Grunge took over. Still it's a pretty cool song.
You can find The Sword on the web at http://theswordofficial.com/
Ah Summer. When you are a kid there is nothing better.
I remember spending my summers playing outside, running around and of course playing D&D on the weekends all night long.
It was an innocent time really before we all discovered girls, drinking (drugs) and other ways to pass the time. I don't regret and would not change a single moment of those times.
Let's start this right with Rush's "Time Stand Still" I think it sums up what I want to say rather well.
Plus "Solstice" means "Sun stand still" so yeah. Perfect song.
And Aimee Mann was damn cute here.
Let's keep going with Rush for a bit. They are afterall the most "D&D" band I know.
"Subdivisions" spoke to everyone in my gaming group in a why that is difficult to quantify really. I didn't grow up in the suburbs (though I live there now) but the feelings are the same. Replace the video games in this video with RPGs and the message is the same.
Ok. So Canada in the Winter does not invoke images of Summer, but the video aside no song reminds me of playing D&D quite as much as Rush's "Tom Sawyer". This was my DM's favorite song. I think I have heard it 1000 times. One more time would be good too.
Ok I lied. "Fly By Night" reminds me of D&D maybe just a little bit more than Tom Sawyer. I remember one of the first big "D&D Parties" we had in Jr. High. My friend and DM Jon put a copy of Rush's Fly By Night into my hands and told me I had to listen to it. He did that a lot. It did change my life.
"Freewill" came to me at a very interesting time in my life. The song was something of an anthem for me, but not one I could shout out loud. 1980, I was 10 and just learning to play D&D. I was also becoming what I would later know to be called an atheist. D&D was my way to explore religious spaces; which is why I tend to play clerics, paladins and witches.
Fast forward to a little over 10 years later Rush releases a new album, Roll the Bones. I remember that some of the hard core Rush fans in college didn't care for it, but I loved it. I know some people hated the rapping in the song, but fuck them.
Isn't that what we do? Roll the Bones.
It's the night before my birthday!
So tonight I want to focus on one artist and what his music has done for my gaming.
Interesting tidbit. I have never bought a Rob Zombie or White Zombie album or CD. I have always gotten them for my birthday.
Weird I know, but hey there must be something to that.
I was introduced to White Zombie while in college but I didn't really get into them till after grad school when I dug up a copy of La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One that had gotten for my birthday back in 94 or so. I listened to Thunder Kiss '65 and wrote the first version of Halfway.
I have mentioned this one before, but the original FNV used to show repeats too. More Human Than Human and it's album Astro Creep: 2000 was a huge influence on all the material I wrote for the Buffy RPG and the games I was playing at the time. I think I even had an adventure called More Human Than Human at one point.
Hellbilly Deluxe ranks as one of my favorite albums of all time. Rob Zombie's first solo album he described it as an homage to the feel of the horror movies of the 70s. So it's not really a surprise I like it so much. Dragula is an ode to the car from the TV show The Munsters. But it is also a great song.
Like More Human than Human, Living Dead Girl was practically a soundtrack to my Buffy/WitchCraft games. Listening to it now I can't help wanting to pull out my Unisystem books and getting back to some old friends. ...What are you thinking about?...
Hell on Earth...This is the song that always gets me pumped up and psyched. Strawberry Switchblade is the bastard daughter of this song.
One of my favorite movies and books (for different reasons) is "A Clockwork Orange". The are a lot of reasons I like it. The commentary on violence and how society treats youths. Stanley Kibrick's direction. But mostly I think it is the performance of Malcolm McDowell who also has a birthday tomorrow. So in honor of that here is another favorite Rob Zombie song, Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy).
One of a couple of songs that came out while I was working on the early drafts of The Witch. The American Witch is one of my favorite songs period. There are two versions of the video, but this one is the animated version by David Hartman. This song's videos fits in with the "mythos" you see in a lot of Rob Zombie's work, that the monsters are the heroes. Look for the guest appearance of the Living Dead Girl.
Lords of Salem is the "prequel" song and video to American Witch. There is a solid Solomon Kane feel to this. But like American Witch, the humans are the real monsters here. Our heroine the American Witch appears here, but is captured. The Lords of Salem went on to inspire my own "Lord Salem", the Big Bad for Season 2 of the Hex Girls.
Tonight I want to welcome guest VJ Chrys Fey!
Chrys is the author a number of books including the her most recent The Witch of Death and the Ghost of Death.
I asked Chrys to come by tonight and share some songs whe was listening too or were inspiring while she worked on her books.
So without further ado, take it away Chrys. Witchy Woman by Eagles
This song was done ten years (1972) before Liberty Sawyer was born, but it could be about her: “raven hair and ruby lips, sparks fly from her fingertips-” Although there’s the mention of the devil, which Libby doesn’t like, she can’t help but dance to this fun song in her living room.
Jillian (I’d Give My Heart) by Within Temptation
This is the song that really gets me, my muse, and Libby pumped up. Ever since we stumbled across it ten years ago, Within Temptation has been our favorite band. They are a Dutch rock/metal band. The combination of Sharon Den Adel’s angelic voice and the dark, beautiful music is spellbinding. And if you’re a fan of Serenity/Firefly, you’ll enjoy the video.
A Witches Song by Ordo Funebris
The odd thing about this song is that no one can find lyrics to it but because it’s so beautiful, eerie, and mysterious, Libby loves it. On top of that, the video features work by her favorite artist Victoria Francis.
Detective Reid Sanders doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but when he’s faced with a crime scene that defies the laws of nature, he has no other choice but to start believing. And solving a magical murder involves working with a witch.
Liberty Sawyer embodies the look of your classic evil witch, so, it’s no surprise when she uncovers the murderer is a witch that she becomes Reid’s number one suspect. If she can’t convince him otherwise, more people could lose their lives to dark magic, including her.
Jolie Montgomery, a twenty-one-year-old woman, wakes up in an alley next to her corpse. She has no memories of her murder or the night she died. She didn’t even see the killer’s face before he or she took her life. Wanting justice, Jolie seeks answers in the only way a ghost can...by stalking the lead detective on the case.
Avrianna Heavenborn is determined to find the person responsible for a young woman’s death. She gets closer to the killer’s identity with every clue she uncovers, and Jolie is with her every step of the way.
But if they don’t solve her murder soon, Jolie will be an earth-bound spirit forever.
Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes and 30 Seconds. She is currently working on the sequel to Hurricane Crimes that’ll serve as book two in the Disaster Crimes series.
When Fey was six years old, she realized her dream of being a writer by watching her mother pursue publication. At the age of twelve, she started writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later rewrote at seventeen. Fey lives in Florida where she is waiting for the next hurricane to come her way.
You can connect with her on Facebook and her blog, Write with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers!
Tonight I want to pay homage to the years that really got me going D&D wise. 1980, 1981 and 1982!
So this morning I was reading Arlee Bird's blog Tossing it Out.
Lee is the brains behind so many great blog challenges including the April A to Z challenge.
This morning he was talking about music and it's relationship to people. For me though music has always been about the times it was in or what was going on when I heard it. The cue for me to switch gears tonight and focus on 1982 was his use of the fantastic Alan Parson's Project, Eye in the Sky. The meaning of the song of the same name is debated; is it about 1984, security cameras or something else. For me this song will ALWAYS be about the module B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. The "Eye in the Sky" in this case is the evil creature/god Arik and his ruby eye. This song was on constant rotation the entire time I bought and first ran this adventure.
From the same album is a song my younger brother and I loved, "Psychobable". To me the song was more about horror and nightmares and that certainly had a huge effect on the style of game I ran even back then. This was only compounded when I got my first copy of Chill.
This video is an odd one but I really like it. The creator re-edited an old Orson Welles student film to go with the song. For me it just fits.
Few albums are more "D&D" than Blue Öyster Cult's Fire of Unkown Origin and few songs more so than "Veteran of the Psychic Wars". Let's look at the song's pedigree for a moment. It was co-written by Micheal Moorcock, author of the Eternal Champion series. It is about the greatest, or at least the most popular of all the Eternal Champions Elric of Melniboné. The song also appeared in the movie Heavy Metal. On the releases I saw this was during the Taarna sequences. The song is an ode to any D&D character ever. It is practically a Grognard anthem. I would revisit the imagery myself during the years I was running my "Willow & Tara" game, Episode 5: Veteran of the Psychic Wars.
Last week I talked about how much Stevie Nicks influenced, well, pretty much everything I have ever written. "Leather and Lace" was another song from Bella Donna that I loved. This one I also connect to B3. In particular the love story of the Princess and the White Drake. In the original version of the adventure (written by Jean Welles) he was the bad guy. In the revised version (by Tom Moldvay, the hero of 1981!) they became lovers instead. I have to admit I like his version better than hers.
In the opposite direction of the sentiment of Leather and Lace we have Greg Kihn, whom I always associate with the start of the "video age". "The Breakup Song" was from Kihn's album Rockihnroll. The truth is, just like the song says, they just don't write 'em like that anymore.
This is one is kind of a cheat. I loved this song back in the day, but never associated it with gaming till much, much later. Donnie Iris' "Ah! Leah!" from Back on the Streets. Though it was out in 1980 I am sure I never heard it till 81. Like Veteran of the Psychic Wars this song became part of the "soundtrack" of music I listened to when working on the Buffy RPG and then later Ghosts of Albion. "Leah" was immortalized in my game universe as the name of the woman that married Tara's brother Donny in "Strange Sort of Homecoming" (which itself is named for a Sting song).
"Let me be the one to say when I've had enough..."
Sum songs capture an age perfectly. Others only capture the feeling, and in retrospect are perfect. Santana's "Hold On" is that sort of song. It's too Latin sounding to be really part of the early 80s. But yet here we are and this song is perfect at describing the time. The first track released from 1981's Shangó.
Got to concentrate, file away Every last detail Don't want to lose what's going down I want to remember everything I'm feeling Should time try fading or stealing something away.
What are your favorite memories from 1981 and 1982?
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos, where we wish a happy birthday to the White Witch herself, Stevie Nicks!
You don't have to know a lot about me to know that I LOVE Stevie Nicks. Tuesday May 26 is her birthday and we are going to celebrate here this weekend.
Whether with Fleetwood Mac or on her own no single artist has ever influenced my writing more. To this day if I am going to write something new about witches I put Stevie and let the words flow.
We first hear of Stevie Nicks in the 1975 self title Fleetwood Mac album. Stevie and then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham had joined the band bringing Rhianon with them. Stevie had heard the story of Rhianon from a book, and only later heard of the Welsh Goddess. She would often introduce the song as "This is a song about an old Welsh witch..."
Stevie went on to record her first solo album. The enchanting Bella Donna. While many of us were already in love with her from Rumours and Tusk, this solidified her hold as the Queen of Rock.
"The Edge of Seventeen" came about because Stevie could not understand Tom Petty's wife's thick southern accent. Either way it gave us one of the enduring Stevie Nicks images, the White Winged Dove.
Fleetwood Mac was at their height when 1982's Mirage was released. The album had a number of hits but the most Stevie of all the songs was "Gypsy". Mirage my have been the swan song of the Fleetwood Mac that was, but Stevie never rose higher.
Shortly after the Mirage tour came to an end Stevie threw herself right into the recording of what would become, in my humble opinion, her greatest album to date. This is the album I had playing on cassette when I wrote the first draft of the witch class. This is the album I listened to on CD when I made my 2nd Ed. Netbook. And this is the album I listened to on MP3 when I wrote The Witch. The Wild Heart is one of the best albums ever. My memory of this album is I got it for my 13th birthday just as soon as it was out.
Featuring keyboards by none other than the Purple One himself, Prince, "Stand Back" is not very witchy, but I love it all the same.
"Nightbird" the song that launched a 100 characters. I wanted my witch character to be as awesome as this song and to look like Stevie. It was 1983, but it is still just as true today 32 years later.
This version from "Solid Gold" is still one of my favorites. In an age when artists were just lip-syncing their own songs Stevie was singing hers. She is joined here by her longtime back up singer, best friend and sister-in-law Lori Nicks singing the parts that Stevie over-dubbed on the album.
Stevie has spent years trying to escape the image of the "Witchy Woman" only to embrace it full on in season 3 of "American Horror Story". The finale for "Coven" was an episode featuring what can only be called a Stevie Nicks video. The song and the episode was called "The Seven Wonders". The album was Tango in the Night from 1987. The last Fleetwood Mac album I ever bought on tape. Yeah. We used to buy tapes.
You can watch the American Horror Story: Coven version below.
There are so many more of course. But that is good for tonight.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos and tonight we celebrate the best of what happens when Wisconsin and Scotland get together. Garbage!
Garbage is like the penultimate 90s band really. And perfect for the games I was planning and playing at the time.
I have mentioned before that by the mid 90s I was really burned out on D&D and wanted something new. That new ended up being various World of Darkness games like Vampire and Mage, but most of all WitchCraft. I made more than one witch that looked like Shirley Manson.
"I'm Only Happy When Rains" is exactly the sort of song that I had in mind when I was playing then. Alternative, hard, and a great lead singer. From their debut self titled album.
"Stupid Girl" showed that this band was no one hit wonder.
"#1 Crush" appeared on the Romeo + Juliet Soundrack, but that is not where I know it best. It would go on to later be the theme music to the British witchcraft serial "HƎX". I still consider it a "witch" song.
Garbage 2.0 was another breakthrough album for the band. Getting them quite a bit of critical acclaim and giving them their high chart topping songs in the UK.
"Push It" adds more electronica than their previous outings. The video has a nice homage to Village of the Damned.
"I Think I'm Paranoid" is pretty much the theme song for any Mage game I have ever played.
What is better than hearing your favorite band? Hearing your favorite band cover a great song.
"Because the Night" has been covered and recovered by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith (they wrote it), 10,000 Manics and Garbage with Screaming Females. The song is a passionate ode not just to a love but to the night itself. As a nyctophiliac myself, I can relate.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Sci-Fi Edition.
All week I have talking about Sci-Fi games and sci-fi themes. All of this has sent me back to the late 70s / early 80s when I was hard core into scifi and playing Traveller.
I had so many ideas back then for games. Most I'd never use or even admit to today. But back then they were awesome. You just have to take my word on that!
Again. This time was ripe for ideas in gaming. Anything seemed possible. I was already associating D&D and Star Wars together so when the 80s dawned, I threw MTV into the mix.
No one (except one other artist on my list tonight) looked more like a futuristic alien than Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls. "Space Age Love Song" was a lesser know, or at least lesser charting, song from their self titled album. But I always thought it was a great ode for the classic space age hero like Flash Gordon or John Carter.
Who was my idea of a Space Hero? It varied, but I knew his name. Major Tom.
Here is the other Alien artist on my list, David Bowie, in his Ziggy Stardust best, singing about our hero Major Tom in his "Space Oddity". This song appeared on his 1969 album of the same name. It was written as an homage to both Apollo 11 and 2001 A Space Oddity.
German born artist Peter Schilling heard "tell my wife I love her very much" and took his own stab at the story of Major Tom in "Major Tom (Coming Home)".
Major Tom finally made it into my games, but not till much, much later and as a riff on the movie "Lifeforce". Major Tom comes home but he is carrying a virus that starts a zombie plague in All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
You can also here/watch the original German version, Völlig Losgelöst and the really-cool-even-though-it-is-a-commercial version by Shiny Toy Guns.
Back to Bowie for bit. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars just BEGS to have a game made from it. Ziggy played guitar...
Call me crazy. But I always wanted to write a game called "Space Truckers". It would be the unholy fusion of late 70s sci-fi and late 70s "trucker chic". It has not been an easy sell. Regardless of how the game comes out in needs to play like Deep Purple sounds.
Few rock acts can speak credibly on matters of scifi, let alone science. Few acts are Queen.
Brian May, the lead guitarist, writer and sometimes singer of Queen is also Dr. Brian May. He has a Ph.D. is astrophysics. "'39" from 1975's A Night at the Opera is song that grabbed me from the first time I ever heard it. The story of the song is that a man and 19 other astronauts leave on a spaceship to discover a new world. They return with good news of a new world. For them it's only been one year, for the Earth and his family it has been much longer. His wife is dead, his daughter is an old woman and his own grand children are there to meet him. "Ne'er look back, never fear and never cry."
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos! Supers Edition.
I have been thinking a lot about supers this last week or so. I have a big "deep dive" I want to do this summer with supers and of course the Summer movie season starts tonight with The Avengers.
This got me thinking about 2003-2005 (well that and a post at Age of Ravens that I will get too later) when I was working on a big Supers/Supernatural crossover. Not Supernatural the show, but rather a world, or two worlds, that were "light" and "dark". The dark world was my regular WitchCraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion game. The light world was a world populated by Super Heroes. Characters in one world had a counterpart in the other.
It is from this effort that I began working up a number of different versions of Willow and Tara and it gave birth to Justice. Of course I had a soundtrack.
"Heroes" was not just the centerpiece of this time period, it became the name of the first adventure. Honestly, there is very, very little about David Bowie's singing and song writing that doesn't inspire me.
Heroes always reminds me of the 1977 movie "Heroes" that starred Henry Winkler, Sally Field and Harrison Ford. The movie was not about supers, but about a soldier from Vietnam and the loss of his dream. I remember seeing this movie dozens of times. But what always, always got me in the end was when the credits closed in on a broken Henry Winkler (he came to the reality that his friend was dead) and a crying Sally Field was "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas from their prog-rock classic Leftoverture. I put this in my top 20 of all time favorite songs. Like the movie I always felt that this song was what the characters and situations I were working on were about; Noble, but deeply flawed heroes. The fact that it is use every year for Supernatural only cements it's credibility for my games.
What I wanted to say about my next song was "Fuck you P!nk is my jam!" but you all deserve much better and more than that. P!nk is freaking fantastic. I bought Missundaztood for my wife and I promptly left it in my car where I listened to it everyday. "Just Like A Pill" is not about supers. But it did give me an idea on an old comic/cartoon trope, the drug-addiction episode. Plus if I am going to mix supernaturals with supers then drugs seem like a no brainer.
What became something of a theme song to my later Buffy games, this also captured something I wanted to capture in my own games. These characters, these supers are as removed from humanity as the monsters they fight. I wanted to capture what is was to be human.
Rob Zombie may not have the answer, but in "More Human than Human" from White Zombie's Astro-Creep: 2000 he knows what question to ask.
It's a wicked world we live in. It's cruel and unforgiving. No one raps it better than The Transplants in "Diamonds and Guns".
If you need a theme song for an end of the world Armageddon event then you can do worse than Disturbed and their cover of Genesis' "Land of Confusion" from Ten Thousand Fists. The video was animated by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, so it also has "street cred". If I need to write an adventure about destroying the world I put Disturbed on first.
Mixing Supers and Supernaturals is the Reese's Peanut Buttercup of campaigns for me; mixing two different things together to get something that is better than either on their own. Or at least something new and exciting.
EXACTLY like "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy and Anthrax. Rap meets speed metal. This gets me pumped. Just like Chuck D says "these lines are dope".
In truth I could do an entire night of rock/rap crossovers and talk about how they influenced my horror writing.
Welcome back to Friday Night Videos as we continue the Vampire theme for Vampire Month here at the Other Side.
For this last FNV of Vampire Month I wanted to do something special.
Rarely does a movie come around that captures the feeling of the times quite like 1987's. My DM had moved to Chicago, I was in the middle of my world changing campaign that would later become part of The Dragon and The Phoenix and I was getting ready for college. I came up to visit and we went and saw this film. It was full of cool vampires, great music and fantastic ride of a movie. Yes it was taking advantage of the Anne Rice craze of the time, but it did more than that. It took the stock 80s teen movie and turned it into something else.
Given I was on the edge of my Ravenloft years this was the final push I needed.
The soundtrack to this movie fueled many nights of my early college days. To this day it still holds a special place in my heart. No one song is fantastic, but as a collective they are more than the sum of their parts.
The movie opens up with the Echo and the Bunnymen covering the Doors "People are Strange". I like this version and it is a worthy version, but you just can't beat the original in my mind.
Another song that helped make this soundtrack so iconic was Roger Daltery's cover of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". I have a confession. I don't care for Elton John much, but I have always liked this song. Hearing it sung by one of my favorite front men made it an entirely new song. Is it better than Elton's version? Probably not. But I can't hear this song and not flashback to a time between 1987 and 1991, holding a beer and watching the sun set.
"I Still Believe" by Tim Cappello is an interesting choice. I am not really a fan of the song per se, only the memories it brings up. Though it is also the only song where the performer appears in the movie. Tim Cappello was known at the time for being a really big and cut guy. So oil him up and stick him into the movie.
Looking back nearly 30 years later, "Cry Little Sister" is not a great song. It's even a touch melodramaic, overwrought and a little over produced. So the perfect theme for 1987.
