fanmix: when there's nothing left to burn (you have to set yourself on fire)
I've made another fanmix, since apparently I find that easier than fic of late? I don't know, guys, I have all these ideas and very little actual desire to write as steadily as I've been doing. I'm sure it'll shake soon - or I hope, at least :)
Anyway, to distract you! I've made a fanmix for the Robins. For those of you who know Robin only as "that kid in green panties following Batman around," well, yes. But also no. There have, over the course of the comics, been five Robins in the main continuity - the first and arguably most well-known one is Dick Grayson, he of green panties fame. Since then, the part of Robin has been filled by Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne. There is a lot of drama with this crowd for various and sundry reasons, which I'll gladly, gladly talk to you about if you want to hear me babble about my feelings about poor emotionally scarred boys, but will not elaborate upon here to save you all.
Anyway, this is a mix about Robins. It's music that reminds me of them more than music I'd think they'd listen to, but as the subject matter implies, it's somewhat angry and somewhat angsty and not terribly uplifting (except for the parts where it is).
Learn To Fly (Carbon Leaf) || Dick Grayson
To me, this song is about trying to look up to someone, to emulate that person, and feeling like you're always a little bit out of step. Such a huge part of Dick's identity is tied up in Batman - first in trying to be like him, then in trying to be anything but, and eventually taking up the identity himself for a while. Dick has had a tough road of it, and really, the training never ends.
Abel (The National) || Jason Todd
Jason is known wide and far as "the Robin that died." Not the sort-of-death that we sometimes see in comics; not the bullet-through-time schtick that has been pulled in every comic book ever. No, in the eighties, The Joker beat fifteen-year-old Jason nearly to death with a crowbar in an abandoned warehouse, then set a bomb to go off just as Batman was arriving to save the day. Jason for-real died, and it wasn't until very recently that he was brought back (by enemies of Batman), older and nutbar insane and full of fairly uncontrollable anger issues. Needless to say, Jason has a lot of issues, and he's really not quite all there for a while. This song... is that.
Heroes (John Gorka) || Damian Wayne
Damian's grandfather is one of the really bad guys in canon, and his mother test-tube-babied what she thought would be the perfect little assassin kid: his dad is Batman. Damian was raised knowing that he would have to be the perfect assassin, and he's cold and methodical and deadly... and ten years old when he shows up at his father's and ends up defecting to the side of (mostly) not evil. He's got a lot of confusion going on about his place in the Bat-clan, even though he tries to hide it, and in letting go of everything he'd been brought up to believe in order to join Batman's side, that only grows for him. Damian is kind of lost, kind of not-knowing who to believe in for a while, and this speaks to that sentiment.
Barricade (Stars) || Jason Todd
Everything about this song reminds me of Jason - the narration is perfect, the subject is perfect, the tone is perfect. There are a lot of Jason feelings wrapped up nicely in this song for me, from the implicit and explicit violence to the aching sound to the story it tells.
Dumb Luck (D'ntel) || Tim Drake
A thing that should be made explicitly clear: Tim Drake is an angsty guy. He has a lot of reason to be; he goes through a lot and loses a lot and is a very serious, incredibly emotionally repressed person to begin with, so it's my headcanon that he's sort of a closet basket case. (Fandom tends to agree with me, and at times, I'm pretty sure canon does, too. I can list canon examples, but won't, for brevity.) I see Tim as a guy who's always trying to do the right thing, only to have the right thing kick him in the teeth. It's enough to give anyone doubts, and this song... this song kind of is Tim for me, really, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Lullabye for a Stormy Night (Vienna Teng) || Dick Grayson
Seriously, how do you not grow up to have fantastic nightmares when your formative and teenage years are mostly spent with a guy whose idea of a good time is beating the shit out of people and teaching you how to do the same? Dick has been at this heroing thing for somewhere between fifteen and twenty years (depending on the retcon you choose), starting when he was really little, as in not-yet-a-teenager-no-matter-which-retcon little. Sometimes you just need to know it's going to be okay (even when that's kind of a total lie, which it often is for the Robins).
One More Night (Stars) || Jason Todd
...okay. This song is, apparently, a breakup song, and yes, that can apply to Jason - since his return to life, the Bat-clan has been less than enthusiastic about his methods and his goals and his refusal to accept their help when help means something other than assistance in taking people out. It's a breakup of sorts, right? Except, heh, in my head this is a song about a guy and a hooker he hires and falls in love with, someone screaming inside for just one more night with this person he needs, but who really doesn't need or want him back. And that's Jason exactly - he'd love to be able to go back, but there's no use for him as he is.
My Father's Father (The Civil Wars) || Stephanie Brown
Stephanie becomes Robin when Tim is forced to leave his role rather abruptly, and Batman really doesn't accept her as such. She tries and tries, though, keeps going and attempts riskier things each time, until she ends up trying to pull something that ends up getting her killed. (She comes back. It's comics.) This song is Stephanie trying so hard to find that acceptance.
My Skin (Natalie Merchant) || Stephanie Brown
Again, this song is about a need that drives you more than anything, about what you want and what you need, and it's about things that hurt. There's a dark kind of sadness in here that really made me think of Stephanie.
The Violet Hour (The Civil Wars) || Damian Wayne
Damian is cold and efficient and brutal, but he's also got a grace that's stunning to behold. He was raised by assassins to one day rule over them, so it's really no surprise. This song has always sounded like fluid motion to me, and that's why it sounds like Damian.
I Don't Believe You (P!nk) || Tim Drake
This is probably only a Tim song to me, really. Again, I'm pulling on his not-quite-stability at times, and his tendency to always be looking at shadows, waiting for everything to go horribly, horribly awry.
Heroes and Friends (Melissa Etheridge) || Robin
Because really, at the end of the day, that's what this is - heroes and friends (and, okay, not-quite-friends) doing their damndest to save a city that only sometimes wants saving and never thanks them for it. It's about Batman needing a Robin, someone to be the light to the Dark Knight, and it's about the kids who do their best to be that. They don't always do it well or right or as they should, but they're all in the fight, and they're all heroes in their own right.
|| download from mediafire || 87.64 MB || 12 songs || 51.9 minutes ||
And really, guys, if you want to talk about my feelings for the different Robins or Batman thoughts or something like that, ugh, go for it. I have a lot of feelings about these people, what they do, where they've come from, how their experiences have shaped who they are now, and many, many other things. Really a lot of feelings, okay.)
Anyway, to distract you! I've made a fanmix for the Robins. For those of you who know Robin only as "that kid in green panties following Batman around," well, yes. But also no. There have, over the course of the comics, been five Robins in the main continuity - the first and arguably most well-known one is Dick Grayson, he of green panties fame. Since then, the part of Robin has been filled by Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne. There is a lot of drama with this crowd for various and sundry reasons, which I'll gladly, gladly talk to you about if you want to hear me babble about my feelings about poor emotionally scarred boys, but will not elaborate upon here to save you all.
Anyway, this is a mix about Robins. It's music that reminds me of them more than music I'd think they'd listen to, but as the subject matter implies, it's somewhat angry and somewhat angsty and not terribly uplifting (except for the parts where it is).
Learn To Fly (Carbon Leaf) || Dick Grayson
To me, this song is about trying to look up to someone, to emulate that person, and feeling like you're always a little bit out of step. Such a huge part of Dick's identity is tied up in Batman - first in trying to be like him, then in trying to be anything but, and eventually taking up the identity himself for a while. Dick has had a tough road of it, and really, the training never ends.
Abel (The National) || Jason Todd
Jason is known wide and far as "the Robin that died." Not the sort-of-death that we sometimes see in comics; not the bullet-through-time schtick that has been pulled in every comic book ever. No, in the eighties, The Joker beat fifteen-year-old Jason nearly to death with a crowbar in an abandoned warehouse, then set a bomb to go off just as Batman was arriving to save the day. Jason for-real died, and it wasn't until very recently that he was brought back (by enemies of Batman), older and nutbar insane and full of fairly uncontrollable anger issues. Needless to say, Jason has a lot of issues, and he's really not quite all there for a while. This song... is that.
Heroes (John Gorka) || Damian Wayne
Damian's grandfather is one of the really bad guys in canon, and his mother test-tube-babied what she thought would be the perfect little assassin kid: his dad is Batman. Damian was raised knowing that he would have to be the perfect assassin, and he's cold and methodical and deadly... and ten years old when he shows up at his father's and ends up defecting to the side of (mostly) not evil. He's got a lot of confusion going on about his place in the Bat-clan, even though he tries to hide it, and in letting go of everything he'd been brought up to believe in order to join Batman's side, that only grows for him. Damian is kind of lost, kind of not-knowing who to believe in for a while, and this speaks to that sentiment.
Barricade (Stars) || Jason Todd
Everything about this song reminds me of Jason - the narration is perfect, the subject is perfect, the tone is perfect. There are a lot of Jason feelings wrapped up nicely in this song for me, from the implicit and explicit violence to the aching sound to the story it tells.
Dumb Luck (D'ntel) || Tim Drake
A thing that should be made explicitly clear: Tim Drake is an angsty guy. He has a lot of reason to be; he goes through a lot and loses a lot and is a very serious, incredibly emotionally repressed person to begin with, so it's my headcanon that he's sort of a closet basket case. (Fandom tends to agree with me, and at times, I'm pretty sure canon does, too. I can list canon examples, but won't, for brevity.) I see Tim as a guy who's always trying to do the right thing, only to have the right thing kick him in the teeth. It's enough to give anyone doubts, and this song... this song kind of is Tim for me, really, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Lullabye for a Stormy Night (Vienna Teng) || Dick Grayson
Seriously, how do you not grow up to have fantastic nightmares when your formative and teenage years are mostly spent with a guy whose idea of a good time is beating the shit out of people and teaching you how to do the same? Dick has been at this heroing thing for somewhere between fifteen and twenty years (depending on the retcon you choose), starting when he was really little, as in not-yet-a-teenager-no-matter-which-retcon little. Sometimes you just need to know it's going to be okay (even when that's kind of a total lie, which it often is for the Robins).
One More Night (Stars) || Jason Todd
...okay. This song is, apparently, a breakup song, and yes, that can apply to Jason - since his return to life, the Bat-clan has been less than enthusiastic about his methods and his goals and his refusal to accept their help when help means something other than assistance in taking people out. It's a breakup of sorts, right? Except, heh, in my head this is a song about a guy and a hooker he hires and falls in love with, someone screaming inside for just one more night with this person he needs, but who really doesn't need or want him back. And that's Jason exactly - he'd love to be able to go back, but there's no use for him as he is.
My Father's Father (The Civil Wars) || Stephanie Brown
Stephanie becomes Robin when Tim is forced to leave his role rather abruptly, and Batman really doesn't accept her as such. She tries and tries, though, keeps going and attempts riskier things each time, until she ends up trying to pull something that ends up getting her killed. (She comes back. It's comics.) This song is Stephanie trying so hard to find that acceptance.
My Skin (Natalie Merchant) || Stephanie Brown
Again, this song is about a need that drives you more than anything, about what you want and what you need, and it's about things that hurt. There's a dark kind of sadness in here that really made me think of Stephanie.
The Violet Hour (The Civil Wars) || Damian Wayne
Damian is cold and efficient and brutal, but he's also got a grace that's stunning to behold. He was raised by assassins to one day rule over them, so it's really no surprise. This song has always sounded like fluid motion to me, and that's why it sounds like Damian.
I Don't Believe You (P!nk) || Tim Drake
This is probably only a Tim song to me, really. Again, I'm pulling on his not-quite-stability at times, and his tendency to always be looking at shadows, waiting for everything to go horribly, horribly awry.
Heroes and Friends (Melissa Etheridge) || Robin
Because really, at the end of the day, that's what this is - heroes and friends (and, okay, not-quite-friends) doing their damndest to save a city that only sometimes wants saving and never thanks them for it. It's about Batman needing a Robin, someone to be the light to the Dark Knight, and it's about the kids who do their best to be that. They don't always do it well or right or as they should, but they're all in the fight, and they're all heroes in their own right.
|| download from mediafire || 87.64 MB || 12 songs || 51.9 minutes ||
And really, guys, if you want to talk about my feelings for the different Robins or Batman thoughts or something like that, ugh, go for it. I have a lot of feelings about these people, what they do, where they've come from, how their experiences have shaped who they are now, and many, many other things. Really a lot of feelings, okay.)