Tag Archives: songs

Song Lyric Stories – Spin

by Revis Edgewater

This episode of SLS is based on the suggestion of my brother Twindaddy. The lyrics he gave me come from the song Spin by my namesake, the band Revis. Spin is one of my favorite songs of theirs, so I want to do this story justice. Hopefully, I succeed.

“I’m a space god in the rain.” Spin – Revis

“This is not the warmest welcome I have ever received,” I remarked.

A fist came flying at me. It’s been a long time since someone tried to punch me. Back then, it didn’t go too well for the being who tried it. The being who tried it this time met with equal failure. His fist hit the chin of my physical manifestation and shattered. Not just his fist, but all the way up to his shoulder too. He cradled his ruined arm with his other and backed slowly away.

“I am impressed that you were able to hide this place for as long as you did,” I said as if nothing happened. “But did you really think that you could create an entire planet within my space and I would never find out about it?”

“I’ll kill you,” he raged, his eyes burning with hatred and anger.

I laughed. “That threat would scare the pitiful creatures who worship you here, but I remain unafraid. You created a planet. You also created life on it, so you do have some power to you. Next to me, however, your power is nothing.” Gesturing up to the night sky, I continued, “Look at it all. Every star, every heavenly body, even every speck of dust floating in my beautiful vast blackness is doing so because that is how I want it.”

Just then, the sky overhead filled with dark clouds. Lightning and thunder filled the area as rain began to fall. “I don’t see any of that,” the puny godling laughed at me.

“You know, I was going to let your creatures continue to live and worship me. It has been a long time, after all, since I have let anything live long enough to do so.” My mood suddenly shifted from lighthearted to something a little more menacing. “Because you wanted to be difficult, however, I think that I will now destroy every living thing on this planet in front of your eyes. Then, when I have finished with that, I will destroy you.”

“No!”

With nothing more than a thought, I pinned the godling to the ground and proceeded to do as I told him I would. Every living thing on his planet floated before his eyes only to be unmade in a grisly, painful fashion. As it happened, more rain began to fall. I reveled in it, basking in the tears of a lesser god.

It ended far too quickly for my taste, so I made him replay it in his mind a few times. I do not know how long it took. It could have been mere moments. It could have been many centuries. Either way, his torture eventually stopped being fun. I took one last pause to bathe in the drops falling upon my physical manifestation before putting him out of his misery. With a few well placed blows I destroyed his body. Then I used my powers to erase the rest of him from reality.

Bored, I surveyed the rest of my quadrant of the galaxy, looking for something to do.

Song Lyric Stories – Wish You Were Here

by Revis Edgewater

This episode of SLS features the first song that’s been suggested that I actually like. Not that I’ve hated any of the other songs. I just wouldn’t listen to them without being prompted to. It’s the song Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but I do like some of their stuff.

“Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?”

He knelt on the cold pavement with tears running down his cheeks. His arms cradled the man who had saved his life. It was the same man who had spent years cradling him. The same man who had picked him up and brushed him off whenever he fell down. The same man who had helped give him life.

Footsteps echoed on the street behind him. He didn’t turn to see who it was. He knew who they belonged to. The man who killed his father now stood at his back. With a gun. And it was pointed at his head. Even if he had eyes in the back of his head, he couldn’t see it any clearer.

“I wasn’t aiming for him,” the shooter informed him.

“I know,” he sobbed.

As much as he wanted to blame the man who pulled the trigger, he knew he had nobody to blame except himself. It was his fault this happened. He was the one who ignored his dad and started hanging out with the wrong people. He was the one who talked trash about the wrong people. He was the one who stole from the wrong people.

The cold metal of the gun barrel pressed against the back of his head. He waited for the trigger pull. It never came. Instead, he heard the man chuckle. “Normally, I’d kill anyone stupid enough to steal from me, but I think I like this punishment better.”

Through his tears, he saw movement off to the side. He turned his head slightly and saw his father standing on the sidewalk. The impossibility of it slapped him across the face. His father lay dead in his arms. There was no way he could be standing anywhere else. He took a closer look and noticed that he could see through the image of his father. Either he was hallucinating or he was seeing his father’s ghost. Either way, he was expecting to see anger or disappointment on his father’s face. That wasn’t what he saw.

His father’s face wore a smile that almost broke him in two. The expression of happiness told him exactly how much his father loved him. It told him that, provided he changed his ways, his father would still be there with him and everything would be all right.

“But if I ever see you again,” the shooter threatened as the barrel was pushed harder against his skull, “I will put a bullet in your brain.”

With one last look at his father’s ghost, he took a deep breath to steady his voice. “Don’t worry,” he said with as much conviction as he could muster. “You’ll never see me again.”

Song Lyric Stories: I’m On Fire

by Revis Edgewater

Another suggestion by my writing partner Matticus, this episode of SLS is based on lyrics from the Bruce Springsteen song I’m On Fire. Like the last song he suggested, I’m not a big fan of this one either. Maybe it’s because (to me, at least) there are times in this song where he sounds more like Elvis than he does Bruce Springsteen.

“At night I wake up with my sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through my head.” Springsteen – I’m On Fire

It happened again. I was on the tracks, frozen, while the train was bearing down on me. I stood there as the light kept getting closer and closer. The roar of the engine getting louder and louder. Then, just before it hit me, I tried to dive out of the way. But it was too late.

I fought to catch my breath after screaming myself awake. The darkness of my room did nothing to alleviate the panic which made it feel like my heart was pounding its way out of my chest. The lamp on my nightstand burst into life when I hit the switch and I took a big gulp from the water cup sitting next to it. My hands shook while I put the glass back down. This was the tenth night in a row that I’d had the same exact dream. You’d think going through it that many times would make it easier to deal with, but you’d be wrong. It actually makes it worse.

The clock on my phone said it was midnight. I’d only been asleep for around an hour before the dream assaulted me. I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, but it didn’t do much for the sweat I had running down toward my eyes. Running my hands over it, I found that my pillow, sheets, and blanket were all damp. It felt like I had showered, then jumped into bed without drying off first.

I took my shirt off and wiped my arms and face with it. After tossing the wet garment into the laundry basket, I sat up and turned the television on. I knew I needed to sleep, but I didn’t want to. If I fell back asleep, the dream would haunt me again. It always did. So, I looked through my various streaming services until I found a movie to watch. Halfway through, I felt my eyelids becoming heavy. I tried to fight it, but the fatigue I was feeling was just too much. My eyes closed and I drifted off to sleep.

I heard it first. The unmistakable sound of a train approaching. Engine churning. Horn blaring. My head turned to see it round the corner and continue racing down the tracks toward me. I had been walking away, but the sight of the train’s light froze me again. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move. The fear was paralyzing, which always confused me. There was plenty of time for me to step off the tracks and it’s not like the train could veer off to hit me. Although, this was a dream, so maybe it could.

The horn blared again, loud enough to hurt my ears. None of the other dreams had a horn that loud. Then again, the sky was lighter than it had been in any of my previous dreams. It was almost dawn. Did that mean something? Did that mean that I was closing in on the end of these dreams?

Another loud horn. The train was only ten feet away. Normally, this was where I would wake up, but I still couldn’t move. Sparks were flying from the train hitting the brakes. That was another first. Something about this didn’t feel right. Then the breeze brushed my face and I knew.

I knew that this time it wasn’t a dream.

Song Lyric Stories – Love Minus Zero

by Revis Edgewater

On this “episode” of Song Lyric Stories, I’m going to tackle the first suggestion made by my writing partner, Matticus. Unlike the first story suggestion, I hadn’t heard this particular song before getting the quote. After listening to the song, I wish I could go back in time to when I’d never heard it before. Sorry, Matticus, but it’s not my cup of tea… mostly because I don’t drink tea. Tea is gross.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, right. Here’s the Song Lyric Story for the line from Bob Dylan’s Love Minus Zero.

“My love, she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence.”

He sat in his chair, watching her work. Each piece was carefully placed. It wasn’t always in the right spot at first, but she was quick to fix it. He helped when she got stuck, though he let her do most of it herself. She wouldn’t learn, wouldn’t get better, if he did it all for her.

She smiled when she figured out a particularly challenging piece. He smiled right along with her. He thought she’d stop and say something to him, but she went right to work on the next part. It was tempting to call it quits for the day. They’d been working on it for a while now and his back was starting to hurt from sitting in that chair for so long. One look at her smiling face told him that he was going to be sitting in the chair for a little longer.

The sound of their work filled the room as they continued what they were doing. Neither said anything. They didn’t need to. Her hands moved the pieces about as he continued to watch her. She was quickening her rhythm as she got closer to the end. Pretty soon, there were only two pieces left. He waited for her to place them in their spots, but instead she picked them up. She placed one of them in his hand and nodded. They placed their pieces down at the same time.

They stood up and looked down at the puzzle they just completed, then back at each other. She jumped at him with a giggle. He caught her in his arms and brought her up to his eye level. Her arms wrapped around his neck. “I love it when we play, Daddy,” she whispered.

“I love it too,” he replied and kissed her on the cheek. “I love it too.”