Bow to the masters . . .
Fanmixing has once again eaten my brain, so here we go:
Title: A Couple of Degenerates
Fandom: Wrestling
Pairing: Shawn Michaels/Triple H (D-Generation-X)
Tracks: 14
Okay, so I’ve loved wrestling for a good long while, ever since I was eleven. My father is a fan. My grandfather was a fan. And I’ve still got a ways to go before I learn everything they’ve forgotten about it. While my father is responsible for getting me to sit down and watch pro wrestling, Shawn and Hunter are the reasons I kept tuning back in. I saw the “DX State of the Union” parody, and fell instantly in love with these sassy two guys who told it like it was. I giggled my way through the jokes, but the satire made me think. It also doesn’t hurt that they were (and still ARE) ridiculously slashy and felt the need to alternately strip and make out on national television. And I MARK LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS every time they're on TV.
This mix is probably more Shawn-centric than anything, seeing as I’ve always liked him best. Don’t get me wrong, Hunter’s still my boy, but Shawn’s my main man. It also deals mainly with the DX-to-present timeline of their friendship, because if I tried putting songs that remind me of the Kliq on there, we'd be here all damn night. So here we go: Shawn Michaels/Triple H. D-Generation-X.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Kevin and I were sitting in the back at Wrestlemania 11, when an unfamiliar face walked up to us. ‘I don’t want to interfere’ he said, ‘but my name is Paul Levesque. I talked to Terry Taylor down in WCW, and he said you are the guys to hang out with. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to hang and travel with you.’ And that’s how I met one of my best friends, Triple H, or Hunter as most people call him. I thought it took guts to introduce yourself to the two guys who were in the main event at Wrestlemania.” - Shawn, in “Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story”.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. “Break it Down” - The D-Generation-X Theme (Self-explanatory - DX itself)
“It was so new, so groundbreaking. There were a lot of imitations, but it was the first time we were saying things that people just didn’t say anywhere but backstage. It was in-your-face, shooting from the hip. We were going out there on live TV and just doing it. That was something that really resonated with people.” *
(Are you ready?/Yeah, you think you can tell us what to do?/Think you can tell us what to wear?/Think that you’re better?/Well, you better get ready to bow to the masters)
2. “Bad Reputation” - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (Shawn and Hunter, circa 1997-1998)
“As we approached the street, we saw a large crowd gathered in front of the hotel. We put our heads down and ran through the mob. They were shouting obscenities at us, and one woman punched Hunter in the face. The lobby was jammed with people, so we sprinted all the way to the elevator. We were safe now, and we went to my room to try and settle down. I looked at Hunter, he looked at me, and I said ‘We did it, didn’t we?’. ‘You did what you had to do, Shawn.’” **
(I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation/I've never been afraid of any deviation/And I don't really care if you think I'm strange/I ain't gonna change/And I'm never gonna care 'bout my bad reputation)
3. “Every You Every Me” - Placebo (Shawn's back injury and WM 14)
“I was looking for a pat on the back, some acknowledgement that I was doing something courageous for the company, but none came. I felt neglected - it hadn’t been that long ago when everything was about me, and I was resentful. My way of getting back at the situation was to make life as difficult as possible for everyone. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but I was immature, and that’s how I handled it.” **
(Like the naked leads the blind/I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind/Sucker love I always find/someone to bruise and leave behind/All alone in space and time/There's nothing here but what here's mine)
4. “King of My World” - Saliva (Hunter's rise to singles fame)
“ . . . a fair portion of the fans will get behind you on the way up, and then when you get there, they turn on you. They did it to me, and they did the same thing to Hunter a few years later. When he was chasing the title, they loved him - said he was the greatest thing in the world. Once he got on top, they tried to destroy him. All of a sudden he ‘couldn’t work’ anymore, and the only reason he was champion and main-eventing Pay-Per-Views was because he married Stephanie McMahon. That’s b.s.”**
(I’ll never see any side of heaven/I walked for miles through a blazing hell/It doesn’t matter what you think I’m supposed to be/Cause I myself know all too well/I’m the king - I’ll open your eyes and make you see/I’m the king of my world, and I’ll break down the walls around you now)
5. “Evenflow” - Pearl Jam (Shawn, stuck at home)
“I thought as long as I was the best, as long as I could steal the show every night, I would be happy and everything else would melt away. At times I was happy, but it never lasted. So I’d throw myself further and further into my work, but nothing changed . . . To alleviate my pain, I took the pills. This only ended up confusing me more. Was I a bad person because I did drugs? Or did I do drugs because I was a bad person?” **
(Kneeling, looking through the paper, though he doesn't know to read/Oh, praying, now to something that has never showed him anything/Oh, feeling, understands the weather of the winter’s on its way/Oh, ceilings, few and far between all the legal halls of shame)
6. “We Used to Be Friends” - the Dandy Warhols (Hunter and Shawn, not speaking for a few years)
“On the way out, I saw Hunter, and really laid into him. ‘You no-good, backstabbing SOB, after everything I’ve done for you . . .’ I went off for a few minutes on him, then stormed out of the arena. I didn’t talk to Hunter for another year or so, and nearly ruined a friendship with one of the most decent and caring individuals I’ve ever had the privilege to call my friend.” **
(A long time ago, we used to be friends/But I haven’t thought of you lately at all/If ever again, a greeting I send to you/Short and sweet to the soul is all I intend/Come on now, sugar, bring it on, bring it on now/Just remember me when)
7. “Woke Up this Morning” - Alabama 3 (Rebecca's wake-up call to Shawn in 2000)
“‘Shawn, I love you’, she said, ‘but I have to protect this child, and if I have to leave, I will. It’s not going to be long before he can notice what’s going on with you.’ Rebecca might have been only twenty-three years old, but she’d grasped the seriousness of raising a child, even if I, at thirty-three, couldn’t.” **
(You woke up this morning, all your love had gone/Papa never told you about right and wrong/But you’re one in a million, I believe that you’re feeling fine/Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes)
8. “I Am the Highway” - Audioslave (Shawn figuring things out in 2001)
“I was lying on the couch as I normally did after taking my pills, and I decided to call Kevin Nash. He could tell that I wasn’t right, and he asked me if I’d taken any pills. I told him just a few . . . He told me I had a wife and son, and I needed to stop. He was pretty firm about it. Then he asked me how long it had been since Hunter and I had talked. I told him about a year. ‘That’s bullshit’ he said, ‘We were in San Antonio, and you guys didn’t talk’. He went on this rant about how close we used to be.” **
(Friends and liars don’t wait for me/cause I’ll get on all by myself/I put millions of miles under my heels/but still too close to you I feel/And I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway/I am not your carpet ride, I am the sky/I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning)
9. “Wonderwall” - Oasis (Shawn's return and feud with Hunter in 2002)
“Shawn, if you think you could do the match with me, could you do it with Triple H?”
“Yeah, but I really didn’t see that as an option. He’s the top guy. What’s Hunter think?”
“He’s all over it. He’s the one that offered. He told me ‘if he’s going to do it with you, why can’t he do it with me? I’m better than you are, Vince’”
“I just didn’t think I could be in the main event.”
“Your coming back is going to be big, so let’s get everything we can out of it. We’ll change the storyline, obviously. We’ll go with the DX story about you being the guy that brought Hunter up, and he’s the ungrateful star.” **
(Backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out/I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, but you never really had to doubt/I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now/Cause all the roads we need to walk are winding/And all the lights that lead us there are blinding)
10. “Better Days” - Goo Goo Dolls (The Street Fight at Summerslam 2002)
“Hunter deserves a lot of credit - he was unbelievable. Hunter is different from Kevin, Kid, and Scott, in that those moments of transparent intimacy and bonding and friendship are there, but not as often with him as with the others. He’s more reserved. The only way to get it from him is to look into his eyes. I saw it in his eyes after our match - ‘you don’t need me to take care of you out there’.” **
(And you ask me what I want this year/And I try to make it kind and clear/Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days/And I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings/Or desire the love of empty things . . . Cause everyone is forgiven now/And tonight’s the night the world begins again)
11. “Young Grow Old” - Creed (Shawn now, with his faith and friendships intact)
“By Wrestlemania XX, the Showstopper was back. I was coming off a great match against Hunter in San Antonio, and felt I was as good as I had ever been. More importantly, I was enjoying this ride. My peers liked me. They wanted to work with me not only because I would bring out their best, but also because I was a much better person to deal with.” **
(Embodied youth was his distinction/Now inhibition's in demand/So driven by his fear of weakness/Well, that's his key to understand . . . Trading places in the circle/Turn the glass, spill the sand/They say that time can make the difference/But age doesn't make you a man)
12. “Real Life” - tick, tick, BOOM (Shawn's focus on family, and Hunter's impending fatherhood)
“Cheyenne’s birth was different from Cameron’s in that we didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I was hoping for a girl . . . We were a little more confident the second time around. When we brought her home, we put her in her room right away. I still got up out of bed every night, though. I just wanted to look at her and watch her sleep.”**
(Heartbeat of your children, asleep in the next room/Trust, so still - can you hear it?/What more can you want?/Is this real life? Is this real life?/Why do we seek out ecstasy in all the wrong places?/Why is it hard to see that heaven can have simpler faces?)
13. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” - Stephen Kellogg (Hunter and Shawn re-forming DX)
“A lot of people are under the impression that I refuse to do things [in WWE] because of my faith. That’s partially true, but it’s also the fact that it just isn’t going to work, because I’m not that guy anymore . . . There was a part of DX that was crude. That part I personally will stay away from. But I think the majority of what people loved about DX, the sarcasm and the humor and the outrageousness, will still be there.” *
(And I went down to the demonstration/To get my fair share of abuse/Singing, "we're gonna vent our frustration/If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse"/You can't always get what you want/But if you try sometimes, well you just might find/You get what you need)
14. “Across the Nation” - Union Underground (Nine years later, they've still got it)
“From both Hunter’s and my perspective, this is not something we want to wear out. We are both dead-set on doing it in just a ‘one last dance’ way. We want the original DX to stand on its own . . . But there are so many people that want this to happen. When I first came back four years ago, we hinted at the reunion, and Hunter turned on me. The response to just that little tease was overwhelming. There are some feel-good things that people will get behind, and this is definitely one of them. But we’re very aware of the fact that you can’t overdo it.”*
(Forget the lies, the money, we’re in this together/And through it all, they said that nothing’s forever/And they refuse to see the change in me/Why won’t they wake up?/Come on, come on, come on - let’s get it on!)
* From the Brian Solomon interview "Getting the Band Back Together: DX Breaks it Down One More Time" in the July '06 issue of Raw magazine.
** From the HBK autobiography "Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story".
Tracks are on YSI, and there is no possible way to get a zip file, seeing as it took long enough with my dial-up for the individual tracks. Anyone who wants to throw up mirrors is more than welcome to do so. Just let me know, and I'll update the links accordingly.
Title: A Couple of Degenerates
Fandom: Wrestling
Pairing: Shawn Michaels/Triple H (D-Generation-X)
Tracks: 14
Okay, so I’ve loved wrestling for a good long while, ever since I was eleven. My father is a fan. My grandfather was a fan. And I’ve still got a ways to go before I learn everything they’ve forgotten about it. While my father is responsible for getting me to sit down and watch pro wrestling, Shawn and Hunter are the reasons I kept tuning back in. I saw the “DX State of the Union” parody, and fell instantly in love with these sassy two guys who told it like it was. I giggled my way through the jokes, but the satire made me think. It also doesn’t hurt that they were (and still ARE) ridiculously slashy and felt the need to alternately strip and make out on national television. And I MARK LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS every time they're on TV.
This mix is probably more Shawn-centric than anything, seeing as I’ve always liked him best. Don’t get me wrong, Hunter’s still my boy, but Shawn’s my main man. It also deals mainly with the DX-to-present timeline of their friendship, because if I tried putting songs that remind me of the Kliq on there, we'd be here all damn night. So here we go: Shawn Michaels/Triple H. D-Generation-X.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Kevin and I were sitting in the back at Wrestlemania 11, when an unfamiliar face walked up to us. ‘I don’t want to interfere’ he said, ‘but my name is Paul Levesque. I talked to Terry Taylor down in WCW, and he said you are the guys to hang out with. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to hang and travel with you.’ And that’s how I met one of my best friends, Triple H, or Hunter as most people call him. I thought it took guts to introduce yourself to the two guys who were in the main event at Wrestlemania.” - Shawn, in “Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story”.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. “Break it Down” - The D-Generation-X Theme (Self-explanatory - DX itself)
“It was so new, so groundbreaking. There were a lot of imitations, but it was the first time we were saying things that people just didn’t say anywhere but backstage. It was in-your-face, shooting from the hip. We were going out there on live TV and just doing it. That was something that really resonated with people.” *
(Are you ready?/Yeah, you think you can tell us what to do?/Think you can tell us what to wear?/Think that you’re better?/Well, you better get ready to bow to the masters)
2. “Bad Reputation” - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (Shawn and Hunter, circa 1997-1998)
“As we approached the street, we saw a large crowd gathered in front of the hotel. We put our heads down and ran through the mob. They were shouting obscenities at us, and one woman punched Hunter in the face. The lobby was jammed with people, so we sprinted all the way to the elevator. We were safe now, and we went to my room to try and settle down. I looked at Hunter, he looked at me, and I said ‘We did it, didn’t we?’. ‘You did what you had to do, Shawn.’” **
(I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation/I've never been afraid of any deviation/And I don't really care if you think I'm strange/I ain't gonna change/And I'm never gonna care 'bout my bad reputation)
3. “Every You Every Me” - Placebo (Shawn's back injury and WM 14)
“I was looking for a pat on the back, some acknowledgement that I was doing something courageous for the company, but none came. I felt neglected - it hadn’t been that long ago when everything was about me, and I was resentful. My way of getting back at the situation was to make life as difficult as possible for everyone. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but I was immature, and that’s how I handled it.” **
(Like the naked leads the blind/I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind/Sucker love I always find/someone to bruise and leave behind/All alone in space and time/There's nothing here but what here's mine)
4. “King of My World” - Saliva (Hunter's rise to singles fame)
“ . . . a fair portion of the fans will get behind you on the way up, and then when you get there, they turn on you. They did it to me, and they did the same thing to Hunter a few years later. When he was chasing the title, they loved him - said he was the greatest thing in the world. Once he got on top, they tried to destroy him. All of a sudden he ‘couldn’t work’ anymore, and the only reason he was champion and main-eventing Pay-Per-Views was because he married Stephanie McMahon. That’s b.s.”**
(I’ll never see any side of heaven/I walked for miles through a blazing hell/It doesn’t matter what you think I’m supposed to be/Cause I myself know all too well/I’m the king - I’ll open your eyes and make you see/I’m the king of my world, and I’ll break down the walls around you now)
5. “Evenflow” - Pearl Jam (Shawn, stuck at home)
“I thought as long as I was the best, as long as I could steal the show every night, I would be happy and everything else would melt away. At times I was happy, but it never lasted. So I’d throw myself further and further into my work, but nothing changed . . . To alleviate my pain, I took the pills. This only ended up confusing me more. Was I a bad person because I did drugs? Or did I do drugs because I was a bad person?” **
(Kneeling, looking through the paper, though he doesn't know to read/Oh, praying, now to something that has never showed him anything/Oh, feeling, understands the weather of the winter’s on its way/Oh, ceilings, few and far between all the legal halls of shame)
6. “We Used to Be Friends” - the Dandy Warhols (Hunter and Shawn, not speaking for a few years)
“On the way out, I saw Hunter, and really laid into him. ‘You no-good, backstabbing SOB, after everything I’ve done for you . . .’ I went off for a few minutes on him, then stormed out of the arena. I didn’t talk to Hunter for another year or so, and nearly ruined a friendship with one of the most decent and caring individuals I’ve ever had the privilege to call my friend.” **
(A long time ago, we used to be friends/But I haven’t thought of you lately at all/If ever again, a greeting I send to you/Short and sweet to the soul is all I intend/Come on now, sugar, bring it on, bring it on now/Just remember me when)
7. “Woke Up this Morning” - Alabama 3 (Rebecca's wake-up call to Shawn in 2000)
“‘Shawn, I love you’, she said, ‘but I have to protect this child, and if I have to leave, I will. It’s not going to be long before he can notice what’s going on with you.’ Rebecca might have been only twenty-three years old, but she’d grasped the seriousness of raising a child, even if I, at thirty-three, couldn’t.” **
(You woke up this morning, all your love had gone/Papa never told you about right and wrong/But you’re one in a million, I believe that you’re feeling fine/Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes)
8. “I Am the Highway” - Audioslave (Shawn figuring things out in 2001)
“I was lying on the couch as I normally did after taking my pills, and I decided to call Kevin Nash. He could tell that I wasn’t right, and he asked me if I’d taken any pills. I told him just a few . . . He told me I had a wife and son, and I needed to stop. He was pretty firm about it. Then he asked me how long it had been since Hunter and I had talked. I told him about a year. ‘That’s bullshit’ he said, ‘We were in San Antonio, and you guys didn’t talk’. He went on this rant about how close we used to be.” **
(Friends and liars don’t wait for me/cause I’ll get on all by myself/I put millions of miles under my heels/but still too close to you I feel/And I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway/I am not your carpet ride, I am the sky/I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning)
9. “Wonderwall” - Oasis (Shawn's return and feud with Hunter in 2002)
“Shawn, if you think you could do the match with me, could you do it with Triple H?”
“Yeah, but I really didn’t see that as an option. He’s the top guy. What’s Hunter think?”
“He’s all over it. He’s the one that offered. He told me ‘if he’s going to do it with you, why can’t he do it with me? I’m better than you are, Vince’”
“I just didn’t think I could be in the main event.”
“Your coming back is going to be big, so let’s get everything we can out of it. We’ll change the storyline, obviously. We’ll go with the DX story about you being the guy that brought Hunter up, and he’s the ungrateful star.” **
(Backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out/I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, but you never really had to doubt/I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now/Cause all the roads we need to walk are winding/And all the lights that lead us there are blinding)
10. “Better Days” - Goo Goo Dolls (The Street Fight at Summerslam 2002)
“Hunter deserves a lot of credit - he was unbelievable. Hunter is different from Kevin, Kid, and Scott, in that those moments of transparent intimacy and bonding and friendship are there, but not as often with him as with the others. He’s more reserved. The only way to get it from him is to look into his eyes. I saw it in his eyes after our match - ‘you don’t need me to take care of you out there’.” **
(And you ask me what I want this year/And I try to make it kind and clear/Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days/And I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings/Or desire the love of empty things . . . Cause everyone is forgiven now/And tonight’s the night the world begins again)
11. “Young Grow Old” - Creed (Shawn now, with his faith and friendships intact)
“By Wrestlemania XX, the Showstopper was back. I was coming off a great match against Hunter in San Antonio, and felt I was as good as I had ever been. More importantly, I was enjoying this ride. My peers liked me. They wanted to work with me not only because I would bring out their best, but also because I was a much better person to deal with.” **
(Embodied youth was his distinction/Now inhibition's in demand/So driven by his fear of weakness/Well, that's his key to understand . . . Trading places in the circle/Turn the glass, spill the sand/They say that time can make the difference/But age doesn't make you a man)
12. “Real Life” - tick, tick, BOOM (Shawn's focus on family, and Hunter's impending fatherhood)
“Cheyenne’s birth was different from Cameron’s in that we didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I was hoping for a girl . . . We were a little more confident the second time around. When we brought her home, we put her in her room right away. I still got up out of bed every night, though. I just wanted to look at her and watch her sleep.”**
(Heartbeat of your children, asleep in the next room/Trust, so still - can you hear it?/What more can you want?/Is this real life? Is this real life?/Why do we seek out ecstasy in all the wrong places?/Why is it hard to see that heaven can have simpler faces?)
13. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” - Stephen Kellogg (Hunter and Shawn re-forming DX)
“A lot of people are under the impression that I refuse to do things [in WWE] because of my faith. That’s partially true, but it’s also the fact that it just isn’t going to work, because I’m not that guy anymore . . . There was a part of DX that was crude. That part I personally will stay away from. But I think the majority of what people loved about DX, the sarcasm and the humor and the outrageousness, will still be there.” *
(And I went down to the demonstration/To get my fair share of abuse/Singing, "we're gonna vent our frustration/If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse"/You can't always get what you want/But if you try sometimes, well you just might find/You get what you need)
14. “Across the Nation” - Union Underground (Nine years later, they've still got it)
“From both Hunter’s and my perspective, this is not something we want to wear out. We are both dead-set on doing it in just a ‘one last dance’ way. We want the original DX to stand on its own . . . But there are so many people that want this to happen. When I first came back four years ago, we hinted at the reunion, and Hunter turned on me. The response to just that little tease was overwhelming. There are some feel-good things that people will get behind, and this is definitely one of them. But we’re very aware of the fact that you can’t overdo it.”*
(Forget the lies, the money, we’re in this together/And through it all, they said that nothing’s forever/And they refuse to see the change in me/Why won’t they wake up?/Come on, come on, come on - let’s get it on!)
* From the Brian Solomon interview "Getting the Band Back Together: DX Breaks it Down One More Time" in the July '06 issue of Raw magazine.
** From the HBK autobiography "Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story".
Tracks are on YSI, and there is no possible way to get a zip file, seeing as it took long enough with my dial-up for the individual tracks. Anyone who wants to throw up mirrors is more than welcome to do so. Just let me know, and I'll update the links accordingly.