1. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Every time I listen to the song Call Me Maybe, my mind resonates with “Tam Lin” because of the uncertainty that Jepsen creates through the song. An example of this trait of uncertainty is the line where Jepsen says, “Here’s my number, so call me maybe.” This line makes me feel uncertain of Jepsen’s future with the male figure she is talking about. This reminds me of Tam Lin because he is very uncertain throughout the book so far as well. An example of this is through the introduction of Tam Lin, he is said to be very friendly when El Patron is showcasing him to Matt. Afterwards, when Tam Lin finds a teacher for Matt, he is very impatient and easily tempered. This song relates to the unstable personality of Tam Lin. This song also relates to Tam Lin’s criminal past. On the line where Jepsen says, “All the other boys, try to chase me” relates to Tam Lin because in his native country, the police and military were trying to chase him down and punish him for his metabolically inappropriate heinous acts of terrorism.
2. Celtic Nature Music
I think Tam Lin would listen to nature music. I think this because Tam Lin always gives Matt nature books and just from that you can tell that Tam Lin loves nature. Even without the books you can find examples, such as Tam Lin not telling anyone except Matt about the secret oasis. He did this to make sure it would stay in its original beauty and not be used by the Alacrans. Also, when Matt finds the iron chest with the note inside it specifically says that he loves nature and wishes that Matt would love it as much as he does. This kind of music is meant to sooth people and transport them to the place that they love most, and I think that that would have been of use for Tam Lin, to escape reality for as long as he wanted or was allowed. Since there are no lyrics I think this is the only use that Tam Lin could have used this song, but to escape is feelings of the bombing and the 20 lives that he took.
3. Donald Where’s Your Trousers - The Irish Rovers
Since Tam Lin grew up immersed in Scottish heritage, “Donald Where’s Your Trousers” would remind him of his life back home and all the men around him wearing kilts. A particular verse in this song stands out to me, “Let the wind blow high and the wind blow low, through the streets in my kilt I go. ” I believe this line would really resonate with Tam Lin because it is very likely that he spent much of his childhood wandering the streets if not wearing a kilt, seeing many older men that Tam Lin looked up to, wearing this culturally-unique piece of apparel. Although Tam Lin never talked about his childhood, we can assume it was one of a typical Scottish boy.
4. Wasn’t That a Party - The Irish Rovers
4. Wasn’t That a Party - The Irish Rovers
I think that Tam Lin would enjoy listening to The Irish Rovers because of their unique, modern-day Irish sound. In spite of the fact that Tam Lin is Scottish not Irish, both countries have many similarities historically, geographically, and culturally. Although, Tam Lin has a depressing past, everyone needs an upbeat party song to keep them in good spirits. Not only does “Wasn’t That a Party” do that, it would also remind Tam Lin of his home and life before he came to work for El Patron in Opium. For Tam Lin, this song would be a pick-up song and fill him with memories of his lively days.
Tam Lin has a secret that he hates to tell people, a deep dark secret that he would easily consign to oblivion if he had the choice to. Tam Lin planted a bomb in front of Wall Street not meaning to kill any innocent citizens. When the exact opposite happened, the bomb blew up and killed 20 kids on a bus. The title says it all “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” showing that he never meant to kill those innocent kids. When John Lennon sings the line “I was dreaming of the past and my heart was beating fast I began to lose control.” It shows that Tam Lin goes back to the dreadful memory of killing those kids, remember that he is no better than the murders behind bars. Every time he goes back to these memories he is instantly sent into a deep and melancholy mood. Page 177 where Ralf says, “he is a bloody terrorist," it shows that to some people he is thought to be as bad as the people behind bars but in fact, he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.
6. Slow Poison - The Bravery
6. Slow Poison - The Bravery
This song shows that Tam Lin was strong. Tam Lin drank poison at the end knowing that he would die, even though he must have seen the skull with two bones at the bottom of the bottle indicating that the substance was poisonous, and extremely dangerous if inhaled or drank, he didn’t care. It was probably also pretty corrosive and inflammable but he didn’t use that to his advantage. In the song, the lyrics read “And All Of My Dreams Are Only Dreams And All Of My Schemes Are Only Schemes And If This Is My Punishment Then I Want My Card To Fit” This matches where Celia says on page 377 “why did he drink the poison?” “does he think that it would make up for everything that he did?” and that's exactly what Tam Lin must of thought, he took other peoples lives and didn't think that he should live himself and this would be his punishment.
7. You Found Me - The Fray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMlou7Q0GRE
Tam Lin would be listening to this song I think around the time he committed suicide. The lyrics, “who I am, who I'm not and who I wanna be”, relates to Tam Lin because he killed himself for doing something he regretted. He killed 20 school kids who were riding the school bus at the time. In the song it says “Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me”, this relates to Tam Lin because he kills himself once El Patron is dead and in the letter for Matt he writes, “El Patron says I have to go with him.” I think Tam Lin feels that El Patron was a big part of turning Tam Lin’s life around once Tam Lin had made bad choices in life. Once El Patron is dead I think Tam Lin felt like he was nothing without El Patron and so he went with him.
8. Cough Syrup - Young the Giant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhBuAkWKz6Q&feature=fvst
“Life’s too short to even care at all... these zombies in the park, they’re looking for my heart, a dark world aches for a splash of the sun.” I think that Tam Lin would relate to this verse, as it’s implying that people are searching for him and trying to bring him down (to prison). As well, this song really has a ‘dark days’ depressing theme and I believe that Tam Lin would listen to it in his darkest moments. Specifically, when he had suicidal thoughts and believed that he didn’t deserve to live after the 20 innocent lives he took. Tam Lin knew that El Patron had laced the bottle of wine with poison, yet he willingly drank it knowing that he couldn’t live with the thought of what he had done. Since this song is about drinking cough syrup to numb the pain, it closely relates to Tam Lin’s scenario.
9. Defender - Gabriella Cilmi
This song clearly describes Tam Lin’s relationship with Matt (the protagonist of the story) as it fits clearly with their relationship. An example of this is the line where she says, “So just remember I am your defender, I wont let you stand there on your own no matter what they tell ya.” Matt depended on Tam Lin’s protection in places such as Matt’s party where he would get shoved around yet with Tam Lin around, he was safe. Tam Lin also taught Matt all his survival skills and helped him survive by himself when Tam Lin was gone. Tam Lin and Matt’s relationship was a two way relationship because Matt treated him as a father-figure and Tam Lin loved him as a friend and protected him from all harm. Tam Lin can be treated as the “defender” of Matt because of his job as Matt’s bodyguard.
This song is almost a direct link to Tam Lin’s life, since recently Matt discovered Tam Lin was a terrorist making Matt see Tam Lin in a different light. But, when Matt has the courage to confront Tam Lin and tell him that he knows, Tam Lin goes in to a melancholy state because he took lives that he did not mean to take and he feels sorry about it. This song, I think would directly link to what Tam Lin is thinking and feeling. Changed is all about hoping that you can have a second chance in society and if not, if there is an after life you are allowed in a form as forgiveness. Just like in the song the singer says: As I sit here in this misery, I don’t think I'll ever see the sun from here. This lyric especially stood out to me and I think the away that Tam Lin would see it would be the singer is in exile as he once was and had no hope but just as the last reminisce of hope was leaving, El Patron came to his rescue and took him to a safe place, as a second chance, so he could change.
Nice job guys! I really like your musical choices for Tam Lin! You guys didn't go with more shallow idea of only picking hardcore metal songs and it has paid off. Your descriptions are very persuasive and powerful as well. But, I find that your guys' first song "Call Me Maybe" could have a bit more of a powerful link. While I understand Tam Lin is uncertain, I don't see much relation between the song and him. Some explanations lack direct quotes, but this is compensated by the excellent reasoning. Amazing job guys!
ReplyDelete