Lacuna Rambles/Thoughts/Gif Reacts #3: Origins of the Song 🎶
Added 2023-06-24 12:30:01 +0000 UTC"~The sun to my moon, the dusk to my dawn… He is my… and I am his…~"
"~…Why do the waves rush to shore? Why do the trees keep on swaying…? Why do…? When my love is… and gone?~"
All of you will recognize these lyrics from the very start of Book One! I feel like the ??? would want to debate about what constitutes the official first line of the story, but this is what the TFS Returning Visitor encounters before the story starts getting into their arrival in Fernweh and all that follows. 🌲 I recently had a patron, LJ, pose a question about the song's inspiration. I liked how LJ described it as 'hauntingly beautiful' since that is the vibe I was aiming for with its introduction and lyrics. 👀
This song can be gradually pieced together throughout Book One by you replaying the game to collect more of its lyrics. Each romance route receives a special lyric that holds some deeper meaning while also fitting the theme of the overall song about lost love. Many of you will also have read how it creeps up during Book Two as well.
So, much like the TFS Returning Visitor, the song isn't going anywhere. 😉
LJ asked if there is a song that the one in TFS is based on. The inspiration is:
"The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis
Listen on Youtube: here | Listen on Spotify: here.
It was released in 1962! If there are any Fallout fans here, then you will likely have heard it while roaming around the wastelands in the video game. That's where I first heard Skeeter's voice. How she can sound so devastated over a heartbreak always stood out to me along with how there are only the barest hints of resignation creeping in, but she mostly sounds so committed to mourning what's been lost. After listening to the song, you will notice that the lyrics in TFS continue the trend of making grand comparisons to the moon, mountains, snow, etc. It's very clear that for the singer, the world stopped, so she doesn't understand (or can't comprehend) why everything else around her seems the same. There's a sad disconnect that I like.
I can't say too much due to spoilers; however, this song is important along with the lyrics I placed within the story. 👀 Thank you to LJ for asking this great question.
Comments
I love how the song acted like an auditory cue/trigger for you that helped to evoke the drive into Fernweh. I'm 🥰 over it. The start and the end of Book One were always very vividly clear in my mind, so I'm pleased that readers find this song so fitting. It helped to shape things! I agree about the melody too--that faint whistling (?) noise ups the creep factor. 👀
Aelsa Trevelyan
2023-06-27 17:27:44 +0000 UTCoh wow I just went to listen and I immediately pictured the drive into Fernweh, it fits so perfectly! Hearing the melody really adds to that layer of eerie tranquility I imagine right before everything starts going south
Annabelle
2023-06-27 05:09:54 +0000 UTCI relate to you so much on this! 😌 I sometimes just hear it over and over while writing. XD
Aelsa Trevelyan
2023-06-26 11:57:01 +0000 UTCHi LJ! 💐🥰 I'm so happy that you enjoyed learning more about the inspiration behind TFS's song. I enjoyed getting to write more about it, especially since you are curious about the characters and their world. I hope that listening to the original/muse of it might add to your theories about the eerie town. 'She sounds genuinely heart-broken' <-- I strongly agree with this; I love that you sensed that depth of emotion from her as well. That's why I was always so taken with it because I feel like it would be hard for a singer to sometimes get out of that 'performing mode' while recording, and yet, she does it incredibly well. Oh, I saw the name Kate Bush, and I then instantly smiled. (I have a cover of one of her songs on J's playlist. I just realized that I should probably share the playlists on here? I have the character playlists linked on Discord, but it might be a good idea to have them here as well.) I will be looking into those songs for sure! 😁 You have likely just added two new tracks to my personal TFS playlist I listen to before settling in to write. I'm intrigued by the atmospheric line about the wind whistling through the house. Your 'nerding out' made my day; I'm touched that you're thinking of TFS while listening to music! 💚
Aelsa Trevelyan
2023-06-26 11:56:07 +0000 UTCOh, that's gonna get stuck in my head all day.
OpheliaMars
2023-06-24 16:18:34 +0000 UTCI'm thrilled over this! Thank you so much for the in-depth answer. I obviously had to listen to the song right away and I'm shook! It's so beautiful. It's really calm and tranquil, and the singer's voice is just so... numb. It's not dramatic or flashy, she sounds genuinely heart-broken. It truly is so, so lovely. Thanks for showing me an instant favorite! Gonna listen to this on repeat whenever I replay TFS now. Also, if I may throw in my own two cents, "Close to you" by the Carpenters and "King of the mountain" by Kate Bush REALLY give me TFS vibes as well. I always imagine the burnt out ruins of the returning visitor's childhood house when that line "the wind is whistling through the house" in King of the mountain comes up. Anyways, thank you so much for letting me nerd out!!
LJ
2023-06-24 16:10:13 +0000 UTC
