Snape lyrics.

[valis2]

Something a lot of people do: imagine pictures alongside music. I usually daydream at work or while driving, and sometimes I amass quite a few songs that I will string together to form a narrative of a particular plot/set of characters. I have a tape I made years ago of music that really seemed to me to be about Ardeth Bay from the Mummy. I also have a few CDs full of music that inspires different Superspy daydreams.

During my many hours spent driving in the last few weeks I've become aware of several songs or bits of lyrics that really express something Severus-like to me...thought I'd share a few. I'd love to hear which lyrics you've heard that seem to be connected to Snape in your head.

----
"Firefly", Breaking Benjamin (album: We Are Not Alone)
Bring me your enemies, lay them before me, and walk away...walk away..."

I love this line. I have, over the years, put together a few different Snapes in my head, and one of my favorite Snapes is the dark, brooding, possessive, full Death Eater Snape. I mean full as in loyal Death Eater, out there with the others, not back doing "potions research" in a bunker/lab. I can imagine him consumed with someone, fully and totally obsessed, and willing to do anything for them, willing to crush anyone who gets in their way.
---
"Pyramid Song", Radiohead (album: Amnesiac)

Jumped in the river, what did I see
Black-eyed angel swam with me...
---
"The Noose", A Perfect Circle (album: Thirteenth Step)

But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about making your amends
To the dead.

I can see Severus asking Lucius this...or anyone asking Severus this...
---
"Bones & Joints", Fingereleven (album: The Greyest of Blue Skies)

Cloud my eyes and tell me what to see/I'm falling
Every way I turn the same disease/But I like it
Brace myself and hit the wall with ease/Colliding
I'm not minding the pain
I've been down here before
All my bones and joints are sore

I always think of the Cruciatus Curse here, and spying on Voldemort..."Cloud my eyes and tell me what to see" reminds me so much of his use of Occlumency to thwart Voldemort's Leglimency.

Find my way out of the wreck again
I've been down here before
Lost myself and so much more
Find my way out of the game again
Open up my head and take it in
Just like always...

This reminds me of Dumbledore, perhaps pulling Snape's thoughts out (from a willing Snape)...Snape has been spying before, this is his second round, and he's still looking for a way "out of the game".

What you need the most from me is yours
I'll continue to deceive you my friend
You lost what made you you
Or maybe I never knew
I can't stay here anymore
Give it all or you're on your own
I will leave you

This last set, to me, is Snape talking to Lucius...
---
"The Life & Death of Mr. Bad Mouth", P J Harvey (album: Uh Huh Her)

Baby, you got a bad bad mouth
Everything is poison that's coming out...

No kind words are coming out of your mouth
Plenty goes in but nothing good comes out
Badmouth, sad mouth, you were an unhappy child
That doesn't make your lying tongue alright...

Cos everything is poison
You'll be the unhappy one
Your lips taste of poison
You're gonna be left alone

Wash it out, wash it out, wash it out

The image of Snape spewing poison is quite forceful. I find myself thinking about him and his lying tongue, his lips that taste like poison...
---
"Intoxicate", Disturbed (album: Believe)

Now are you feeling
Enough, to villify what I love
To sanctify all I hate
Endowed with the need
To carry over the life I lead

I always imagine this to be the thoughts of a Snape who must armor himself against Voldemort (villifying what he loves, sanctifying what he hates) to spy for the Order. This is from the viewpoint of a Snape who has firmly planted himself in the world of Light, which I'm not certain he has, but I sometimes don't mind bending his character like that a bit in my head, especially if it fits with the song...hee!
---
"Let You Down", Three Days Grace, (album: Three Days Grace)

Trust me
There's no need to fear
Everyone's here
Waiting for you to finally be one of us
Come down
You may be full of fear
But you'll be safe here
When you finally trust me
Finally believe in me
I will let you down
I'll let you down...

This I imagine as the Death Eaters waiting expectantly for Severus to become one of them in a little ritual where they apply the Dark Mark. "You may be full of fear/But you'll be safe here" is exactly the kind of comfort he's looking for, after facing his childhood and his school years, I think. And of course, when he finally trusts them, something presumably goes wrong, I think, because here he is, working for Dumbledore.
---
"Never Let Me Down", Depeche Mode (album: Music for the Masses)

I’m taking a ride
With my best friend
I hope he never lets me down again
He knows where he’s taking me
Taking me where I want to be
I’m taking a ride
With my best friend

We’re flying high
We’re watching the world pass us by
Never want to come down
Never want to put my feet back down
On the ground...

Never let me down

I always imagine this as a Severus/Lucius song...I always imagine a complex set of loyalties between the two, or at least from Severus.
---

And now, just for fun...a couple of Snape & Sarah songs...these are for those who have read tLS, otherwise it won't make much sense. :)

---
"You Come Through", P J Harvey (album: Uh Huh Her)

We are waiting
For the summer
The sun will bring back
Treasures for us...

You come through for me
You come true for me
You be well for me
You come through for me
---
"Citizen Erased", Muse (album: Hullabaloo)

Wash me away
Clean your body of me
Erase all the memories
They will only bring us pain
And I've seen, all I'll ever need
---
"Song of Solomon", Kate Bush (album: The Red Shoes)

The Song of Solomon
The song of everyone
Who walks the path
Of the solitary heart

For them both, naturally.
---
Dātura, Tori Amos (album: To Venus and Back)

Is there room in my heart
For you to follow your heart
And not need more blood
From the tip of your star

Sarah wondering about Severus.
---

Comments

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

I was innocently driving around somewhere one day when Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here came on the radio and this line jumped out at me:

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?

It immediately got me wondering about Snape's part in "the war" on whatever side he is/was on.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, another good lyric! Very true, too. And what a cage it is, too, complete with insane warden and bloodthirsty inmates...

And I have always wondered what he had to do during the first "war"; especially when faced with members of the Order. Did he help the Order members surreptitiously, or did he just go for the gusto?

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

And what a cage it is, too, complete with insane warden and bloodthirsty inmates...

You got it!
Dungeon--cage--it seems pretty cut and dried to me.

[snapesforte.livejournal.com]

This is really good. I am always on the lookout for Snape-songs, and like you, I like my Snape dark and brooding, with a bad mouth. ;)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Mmm, bad mouth, with poison flowing from it...oh, yeah. Delicious.

[blackletter]

I mean full as in loyal Death Eater, out there with the others, not back doing "potions research" in a bunker/lab.

Yes! I, personally, think that Snape is firmly on the side of Light *now*, but I think that *then* he was a complete Death Eater. He cast Unforgivables. He killed Muggle-lovers and Mudbloods. Saying that he was a Death Eater that never killed because he was just a researcher always seemed to me to be a cop out for the squeamish.

The image of Snape spewing poison is quite forceful. I find myself thinking about him and his lying tongue, his lips that taste like poison...

For some reason this suddenly gave me a very "Lady Macbeth" sort of image, only instead of washing non-exsistant blood off his hands, he's washing non-exsistant poison out of his mouth.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes! I, personally, think that Snape is firmly on the side of Light *now*, but I think that *then* he was a complete Death Eater. He cast Unforgivables. He killed Muggle-lovers and Mudbloods. Saying that he was a Death Eater that never killed because he was just a researcher always seemed to me to be a cop out for the squeamish.

*wriggles in delight* YES!! Exactly how I feel! I always read stories like that and sigh. They often start with Severus not having any clue at all what the Death Eaters do or are, or sometimes he knows but doesn't really think about it, or sometimes his only link is the patronage through Lucius.

I think Severus was a true Death Eater, one who did some nasty things, and then had some flash of insight, or got sickened by one killing too many, or just did the Slytherin thing and wanted to keep a foot on each side of the fence.

[rickfan37.livejournal.com]

For my own personal vision of Snape as he appears in my stories, I am inspired by a Spock's Beard album called Snow. There's one song called Solitary Soul that I love...

So many people they don't give a damn
They look away when they see what I am
I've been like half a man but I could be whole
Won't you befriend this solitary soul

Got a lot of breezes left to blow
Where I'm going I don't know
Got a lot of heartache got a show
What it's like you'll never know
To be the solitary soul

Then there's the way the heroine sees him, in Carie...

Won't you come and save me, I am of the earth
But you are like a church with one hand in the sky
And a face that answers why
Won't you please just hear me

Everywhere I hear you - Everywhere you call
Everyday I feel the need to fall into you
I need to be behind your castle walls

And I'm Dying, to me, sums up his bitterness...
As the sun burns my eyes
I am pierced to the core
Everyday I feel dead
Nothing feels like before

When my friends come to play
I won't answer the door
When they come in the night
I won't be here no more

Help me I'm dying
My soul is crying
Help me I'm dying now

Hear the shots in the night
And I don't care what for
I had mustard today
I can't eat it no more

When death walks in my house
I will speak my desire
Let the storm take me out
With unquenchable fire

Help me I'm dying
My soul is crying
Help me I'm dying now

[valis2.livejournal.com]

So many people they don't give a damn
They look away when they see what I am
I've been like half a man but I could be whole

Oh, that is just perfect! I love that it touches on the fact that so many people (Moody, etc.) are distrustful of him.

Everyday I feel dead
Nothing feels like before

Thank you so much for sharing these lyrics! They are really interesting.

[sylvadin.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... I think my age is showing. I don't recognize any of the artists/groups mentioned. (Either that or my taste in music is far restricting than I had realized.)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Aw! But surely you have SS/RH lyrics...*grins*

Even Depeche Mode is unfamiliar? And Tori Amos?