NOTE: This commentary is a companion piece to The Drums of Heaven.
Duo: This chapter we're doing something a little different. Rather than focus on the story – which we'll get to in the next commentary – we're going to start cataloging the quotes Zefyr is using.
Relena: So this really is one big songfic!
Quatre: I don't like songfics.
Trowa: And here I thought you were a romantic.
Quatre: Hunh?
Duo: First up, is the quote from chapter one. It's from Blood of Eden, from the Us album, by Peter Gabriel.
Heero: I preferred Gabriel when he was with Genesis.
Trowa: I don't like Genesis.
Heero: Not anymore. Haven't you heard the old stuff?
Trowa: No. Do you have it on CD?
Heero: Yeah.
Duo: Sure, come up and see my CDs. Wait. Wait a minute... Tro, you'd better not be---
Trowa: Maybe. *smirk*
Quatre: What? What?
Trowa: Nothing.
Heero: Nothing.
Duo: Grrr.
Relena: The second quote, from chapter two, is... by John Mellencamp, is from a song called Eden is Burning. I like his stuff.
Quatre: What's the album?
Relena: Uh... I can't read Zef's notes. *squint* This is horrible handwriting.
Zefyr: Hey! No it isn't!
Wufei: Zef, you study medicine? Your handwriting looks like Sally's.
Trowa: Where have you been?
Wufei: Checking out Zef's LP collection. You know our author has a bunch of Keith Jarrett? Very cool.
Zefyr: I find any scratches on those, and you're toast.
Wufei: I would never!
Quatre: Well? The album?
Relena: I think it says... Oh, I get it. It's a self-titled album, John Mellencamp.
Duo: The next one's from Richard Thompson. Oh, I like this album. Mock Tudor. Song's called Cooksferry Queen. He was in Fairport Convention. One of the guitar players, I think, and then he played for a long time with his wife, Linda Thompson. Then they broke up, and the albums they released during the divorce. Man, talk about working out some issues---
Heero: Quatre, move it along or we'll never finish this.
Quatre: Right. Chapter 4 uses a quote by Jalaluddin Rumi, one of the greatest poets of our world.
Trowa: In your humble opinion.
Quatre: Something like that. There's a number of different translations but Coleman Barks is considered one of the best.
Wufei: I think his eyes are glazing over.
Trowa: Strange, he usually only gets that... *cough*
Duo: Too much information! Chapter 5 has a quote from Heather Nova. She's cute. Great lyricist, just released another album, but this quote's from Truth and Bone, on her Oyster album. I've got all her stuff. She's been on this whole angel hang-up, but it's not nearly as sappy as you might ---
Heero: Duo, shut up!
Duo: What? I'm just helping.
Wufei: Chapter 6 is a quote by Emmy Lou Harris, from the Red Dirt Girl album. I think it's her most recent one. Very bluesy, warm vocals. For a woman three times our age, she's not bad.
Quatre: Not bad?
Relena: I loved her work in Trio, with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton.
Heero: Linda Ronstadt. Sheesh.
Trowa: Don't get me started.
Relena: Oh, and the song is Pearl. I was voting for something from Michelangelo.
Zefyr: Maybe in an upcoming chapter.
Relena: Goodie!
Zefyr: But I'm trying to pick what fits the chapter, so...
Relena: Meanie.
Quatre: No abusing the author, or you might not get another cameo.
Relena: Oh. Right. Sorry, Zef.
Duo: Chapter 7 is from Fiona Apple's first album, Tidal. The song's called Sleep to Dream. I do like that album better than the one with the name that's so damn long no one can ever remember it because it keeps going on and on ---
Wufei: A lot like our braided idiot-friend.
Heero: He means When the Pawn...
Trowa: How do you know?
Heero: I just, uh, remember these things.
Duo: He owns it.
Heero: Duo. Shut up.
Duo: It's not going to ruin your rep to admit you have some chick albums, you know. It won't kill you.
Heero: Not if I kill you first.
Quatre: Next!
Wufei: From Boingo. The song's called Change. Don't like that album much, except for the line about 'a million years of evolution and we ended up Danny Quayle."
Relena: Who?
Duo: You're a politician, and you don't know? He's---
Quatre: Never mind.
Heero: Mark Knopfler. Song is Brother in Arms, from the album Brothers in Arms.
Trowa: That was easy.
Heero: Actually, I really like Knopfler. He just stands there, doing these sixty-second notes flying off the guitar, and he doesn't even flinch. He just looks cool as a cucumber, ripping up and down until you're expecting to see strings flying out. Just incredible speed, control and---
Quatre: Heero?
Heero: Hunh?
Quatre: I think you've been hanging out with Duo for too long.
Duo: What?
Trowa: Chapter 10 uses a quote from Tom Waits, from his song Tango Til They're Sore. From Rain Dogs, although my favorite is still Nighthawks at the Diner. Some really great lines in there.
Quatre: Chapter 11 is an excerpt from a poem by Imamu Amiri Baraka. The poem's called Twenty Volume Preface to a Suicide Note. Phenomenal poet.
Trowa: As good as Rumi?
Quatre: Well, almost. Gutsier and more thought-provoking than William Carlos Williams, although a similar style, in a superficial way.
Relena: Riiiiiiiiiight. Poetry. Anyway. Chapter 12 is Jackson Browne, the fourth and fifth lines from Tender is the Night. That's on several albums, but I think the one Zef has is a sort-of best, called The Next Sound You Hear.
Zefyr: It was a gift. I normally don't like best-ofs.
Duo: Sure. I've seen---
Zefyr: Shut up, Duo.
Wufei: Michael Timmins is the lyricist for Cowboy Junkies. Chapter 13 is from Speaking Confidentially, from Lay It Down. Another smooth, bluesy laid-back kind of sound.
Duo: They always sound half-stoned.
Wufei: Philistine.
Duo: Plebian!
Relena: Alright! Chapter 14 is, uh, Cyndi Lauper, from Sisters of Avalon. Fearless.
Heero: Eleventh track.
Duo: Yeah, no rep worries here.
Heero: What? Oh. Uh...
Wufei: Chapter 15 uses a quote from William Blake, an 18th century poet and mystic from England. I think this particular quote is from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
Zefyr: Oops. Forgot to write it down.
Wufei: Good thing I'm a scholar.
Duo: Or something.
Wufei: Maxwell, I'm going to tell you for the last time ---
Quatre: Almost done, folks! Hold off the bloodshed until the recording light goes off, okay?
Trowa: Spoilsport.
Heero: Chapter 16 is from Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly, from the Momentary Lapse of Reason. Also on The Delicate Sound of Thunder. And chapter 17 uses a quote from Live, from the song I Alone, on the album Throwing Copper.
Relena: That's it, so far.
Wufei: We're done?
Relena: Yup.
Duo: Uh-oh...
Wufei: Your ass is mine, Maxwell!
Relena: Hey, watch the ---
End Part 10
(:./sol/behind10)
