{"id":2146,"date":"2012-09-03T22:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T22:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2023-07-07T22:44:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T02:44:19","slug":"your-favorite-genre-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2012\/09\/03\/your-favorite-genre-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Favorite Genre Song?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The forthcoming publication of Rock On: the Greatest Hits of Science Fiction and Fantasy<\/em><\/a> has me contemplating some of the great rock \u2018n roll genre songs. There certainly is a ton of them.<\/p>\n

Science fiction? How about David Bowie\u2019s \u201cSpace Oddity,\u201d Genesis\u2019s \u201cThe Return of the Giant Hogweed,\u201d or Mastadon\u2019s album-length epic Crack the Skye<\/em>? (Great stuff!)<\/p>\n

Fantasy? \u00a0Let\u2019s see . . . there\u2019s King Crimson\u2019s \u201cIn the Court of the Crimson King,\u201d The Moody Blues \u201cHouse of Four Doors,\u201d and of course Uriah Heep\u2019s Demons & Wizards<\/em>. You can’t go wrong with any of those.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Horror? Yeah, there\u2019s plenty, everything from Dickey Lee\u2019s sappy ghost story \u201cStrange Things Happen\u201d (OK . . . it’s not really horror, but I recall it giving me a chill when I heard it as a kid) to anything by your favorite death metal band. And we might as well toss in a lot of the songs of Bruce Springsteen, whose work inspired the horror anthology Darkness on the Edge<\/em><\/a> a few years back.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not trying to be definitive here, just free associating \u2013 rattling off a few titles that come instantly to mind. The point is, if you\u2019re a fan of genre fiction, you\u2019ve probably got a personal rock \u2018n roll playlist of greatest hits. And you almost certainly have a favorite.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the moment, my favorite is \u201cRoland the Headless Thompson Gunner<\/a>,\u201d by\u00a0 Warren Zevon and David Lindell. It\u2019s a complete horror story in a three minute song, delivered with equal doses of irony, political commentary, and literary awareness that leads all the way back to the medieval \u00a0epic Rolandskvadet <\/a>(The Lay of Roland). <\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be playing that song this coming Saturday (September 8), when I return to Riley\u2019s Pour House<\/a> for a night of American and Irish music . . . and later this month when I perform my \u201cSongs of the Horror Writer\u201d show at Horror Realm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hope to see you there.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, consider using the comment box below (or Facebook <\/a>or email) to tell me your favorite genre song(s). I\u2019m always looking for new material.<\/p>\n

Rock on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forthcoming publication of Rock On: the Greatest Hits of Science Fiction and Fantasy has me contemplating some of the great rock \u2018n roll genre songs. There certainly is a ton of them. Science fiction? How about David Bowie\u2019s \u201cSpace Oddity,\u201d Genesis\u2019s \u201cThe Return of the Giant Hogweed,\u201d or Mastadon\u2019s album-length epic Crack the Skye? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-cat-21st-centuryscop","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[310,322,314,321,309,320,6,311,8,221,318,316,315,119,313,317,282,312,260,303,302,323,7,326,52,325,319,324],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-centuryscop","tag-space-oddity","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-crack-the-skye","tag-darkness-on-the-edge","tag-david-bowie","tag-demons-wizards","tag-fantasy","tag-genesis","tag-horror","tag-horror-realm","tag-house-of-four-doors","tag-in-the-court-of-the-crimson-king","tag-king-crimson","tag-lawrence-c-connolly","tag-mastadon","tag-moody-blues","tag-paula-guran","tag-return-of-the-giant-hogweed","tag-rileys-pour-house","tag-rock-n-roll","tag-rock-on-the-greatest-science-fiction-fantasy-hits","tag-roland-the-headless-thompson-gunner","tag-science-fiction","tag-songs-of-the-horror-writer","tag-stories","tag-the-law-of-roland","tag-uriah-keep","tag-warren-zevon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t