Songs & Lyrics as Campaign Inspiration

[crimhthanthegreat]

A thread by this title is posted elsewhere, but I was wondering what songs and lyrics, you consider inspirational for an OD&D campaign.

For instance here are a couple that I think of(using a quick & dirty reference search):

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The overture to the opera William Tell, especially its high-energy finale, is a very familiar work composed by Gioachino Rossini. There has been repeated use (and sometimes parody) of this overture in the popular media, most famously for being the theme music for the Lone Ranger media property, and it is quoted by Dmitri Shostakovich in his Symphony No. 15. William Tell was the last and most enduringly famous of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music, and secular vocal music.

The overture is written in four parts, each segueing into the next:

* Prelude - a slow passage with low-pitch instruments such as cello and bass
* Storm - dynamic section played by full orchestra
* Ranz des vaches (call to the dairy cows) - featuring the English horn
* Finale - ultra-dynamic "cavalry charge" galop heralded by trumpets and played by full orchestra. T


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the Hall of the Mountain King (Norwegian: I Dovregubbens hall) is a piece of orchestral music, Opus 23, composed by Edvard Grieg for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which premiered in Oslo on February 24, 1876. (It was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46.) Although a performance of the full piece runs to only two minutes, it has attained iconic status in popular culture and is easily recognized, though not, perhaps, by name.


These are two of my favorite pieces of music.

[thorswulf]

Hey, great topic! I suppose we all love Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner, but I prefer the Sigfried's Death and Funeral music from The Ring myself. It's the heavy piece played throughout the movie Excalibur. I like Night on Bald Mountain by Musorgski- I proabably just butchered the name, but I never had to spell it before!. And leave us not forget every cool Irish and Scottish instrumental ever written!

[coffee]

Not sure if this counts, because I didn't actually run anything for it, but I was working on an extended scenario which used as a background Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower'. Some nice imagery in there, I thought.

[jdrakeh]

The entire Krull score by James Horner, though I admit it conjures up images from the film (much as Grieg's Peer Gynt conjures up images of the associated play). A lot of cheesy 80s death metal (particularly Manowar and ACDC conjure up images appropriate for a Warhammer-ish game).

[Rhuvein]

coffee said:

Not sure if this counts, because I didn't actually run anything for it, but I was working on an extended scenario which used as a background Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower'. Some nice imagery in there, I thought.

Can l assume you mean Jimi's version?

I'm a Dylan fan, but Jimi made this song his own.

;D

[Rhuvein]

For campaign planning I like to have classical music going and we'll occasionally have it on during our games.

And agreeing with the above choices, there is some great stuff out there that seems to lend itself to the whole D&D gaming atmosphere. I started to make a list a while back, I'll have to did that up.

[coffee]

rhuvein said:

coffee said:

Not sure if this counts, because I didn't actually run anything for it, but I was working on an extended scenario which used as a background Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower'. Some nice imagery in there, I thought.

Can l assume you mean Jimi's version?

I'm a Dylan fan, but Jimi made this song his own.

;D

Absolutely. I was exposed to Jimi's version first. I didn't even know that Dylan had written it until many, many years later. I like them both, mind, but I prefer listening to Jimi.

At any rate, the imagery just leapt out at me and made me want to write an adventure (or dungeon, if you prefer) based on it. The only clues the party would have would be in the song.

[Deleted]

Not what you were looking for at all, but there's a great song in one of the old Dragon magazines. "There was a hero in the dungeon, and his name was Will Gold..." Something about "Don't slay that mother Balrog." I forget the details but we loved it.

Not THAT's a gaming song!

[coffee]

Speaking of Balrog's, there was a filk song about a Balrog and a Paladin, to the tune of Jim Croce's "Don't Mess Around With Jim" in the old Alarums and Excursions fanzine. I've always liked that one.

[crimhthanthegreat]

coffee said:

Speaking of Balrog's, there was a filk song about a Balrog and a Paladin, to the tune of Jim Croce's "Don't Mess Around With Jim" in the old Alarums and Excursions fanzine. I've always liked that one.

If anyone has the lyrics to that I would love to see them!

[coffee]

crimhthanthegreat said:

coffee said:

Speaking of Balrog's, there was a filk song about a Balrog and a Paladin, to the tune of Jim Croce's "Don't Mess Around With Jim" in the old Alarums and Excursions fanzine. I've always liked that one.

If anyone has the lyrics to that I would love to see them!

This is from memory, so it might not be exact, but it's close enough.


You Don't Mess Around With Jim
(I don't remember who the author was, and I apologize for any infringement.)
to the tune by Jim Croce

Town it got it's Thieves' Guild
The Wilderness they got some bums
Deep in the dungeon they got big Jimmy Balrog
He's an immolatin's son of a gun

Yeah he's big and dumb as a demon can come
But he stronger then a storm gi-ant
And when the Chaotics meet in the dungeon so deep
You know they don't tell Jim he can't

And they say you don't tug on Saruman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the tusk of a Type Four demon
And you don't mess around with Jim

Well from the south of the kingdom come a country boy
He said I'm looking for that Balrog, Jim
I am a sword-swinging boy, my name is Willie McCoy
But they call me a Paladin

Yeah I'm looking for the king of the dungeon
He's wielding a plus one whip and sword
Last week he took out my castle and for that little hassle
Well I'm gonna see the demon gored

And everybody said hey, lord! Doncha know:

You don't tug on Saruman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the tusk of a Type Four demon
And you don't mess around with Jim

Well a hush fell over the dungeon as Jimmy come flyin' in on the wing
And when the cuttin' was done the only thing they couldn't talk about
Was how that holy sword could sing

Yeah he was cut in a hundred places
And he was missing a couple more
And you better believe there come a different kind of story
When Big Jim hit the floor, uh huh.

Now they say:

You don't tug on Saruman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the tusk of a Type Four demon
And you don't mess with Paladins.

[tgamemaster1975]

Great song!! Thanks for that post. I love song parodies anyway and I love Jim Croce so that it just too cool. This thread was making me think about the old Bugs Bunny cartoons and the way that they blended classical music into the cartoons and how there was just so much music that when really well with, action, chases, sneaky furtive movement, etc. With just classical music, with current technology so you can switch from piece to piece quickly and easily you could really keep the mood music going through out a game. Trying to sneak out of a dungeon, when you can\'t afford a fight and the music calling the tension to a peak.

[Deleted]

We were digging through some old boxes today & I found a really old tape of Gheorghe Zamfir (the Pan Flute guy who sold albums on T.V. back in the '70's & '80's). The missus & I put it on (out of sheer curiosity & humor), & it was really good. It's just Pan-Flute music, nothing else. I think I might dub it to CD & use it in my next game; it has a really etheral quality that lends itself well to dungeon crawls. ;D

[serendipity]

There is often have music playing in the background when we game at my DM's house, so I didn't think much about it during one game until I was translating an encrypted scroll. I decoded aloud, "If I could turn back time..." and suddenly realized the Cher song of that title (one of his wife's favorites) was playing. The next instant our party was whisked back in time.

[crimhthanthegreat]

serendipity said:

There is often have music playing in the background when we game at my DM's house, so I didn't think much about it during one game until I was translating an encrypted scroll. I decoded aloud, "If I could turn back time..." and suddenly realized the Cher song of that title (one of his wife's favorites) was playing. The next instant our party was whisked back in time.

Heh! ;D Ya gotta love it!

And coffee thank you for those lyrics!