Sometimes, when I write, music runs around in my head to the scene I am describing in raw, un-soundtrack-like fashion. Occasionally it is something I heard long ago, sometimes it is a recent memory. Other times it is even raw music I am composing in my head at the same time I am writing (although that usually results in my brain overloading).
Then, the opposite can occur: I hear a song, and I envision not a video, but a story in my mind. Consider the following example:
I recently heard this song again and immediately thought of a pixie, her human paladin lover, and his disapproving guardian. Why? I have been reading too much Pixie Warrior lately, I guess. But I think there is something else, something primitive about the way this song, contrasted by two singers, speaks about love, potential loss, and malevolence.
Stay
Lyrics by Shakespears Sister
~
If this world is wearing thin
And you’re thinking of escape
I’ll go anywhere with you
Just wrap me up in chains
But if you try to go out alone
Don’t think I’ll understand
Stay with me
Stay with me
In the silence of your room
In the darkness of your dreams
You must only think of me
There can be no in between
When your pride is on the floor
I’ll make you beg for more
Stay with me
Stay with me
You’d better hope and pray
That you make it safe
Back to your own world
You’d better hope and pray
That you’ll wake one day
In your own world
‘Cause when you sleep at night
They don’t hear your cries
In your own world
Only time will tell
If you can break the spell
Back in your own world
Stay with me
Stay with me
Stay, stay with me
Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay
Stay with me…