Discworld Annotations - SOUL MUSIC - part 3

Concluded from last issue

- [p. 252/190] "'That's mexical, that is. They put the worm in to
show how strong it is.'"

A piece of typical Discworld lexical confusion here: the name of
the drink (and of the associated drug) is *mescal*, the country it
comes from is Mexico. And yes, mescal is the original drink that
has a worm at the bottom of the bottle.

- [p. 254/191] "'A-wrong-wrong-wrong-wrong, a-do-wrong- wrong,'
said the other two maids."

The maids' chorus and the beehives are like those of the girl
groups of the sixties; this quote itself is similar to the
background vocals in the Crystals' 'Da Doo Ron Ron'.


- [p. 258/194] "[...] someone who sat on a wall and required royal
assistance to be put together again."

Terry means Humpty Dumpty, from the famous children's rhyme ("All
the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put Humpty
together again."). From the description he gives it is clear that
he is specifically referring to Humpty as he was portrayed by
Tenniel in the illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Through The
Looking Glass.

- [p. 263/198] "'So you want to be Music With Rocks In stars, do
you?' 'Yes, sir!' 'Then listen here to what I say...'"

From The Byrds' 'So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star':
        So you want to be a rock and roll star?
        Then listen now to what I say.
        Just get an electric guitar
        Then take some time
        And learn how to play.
        And with your hair swung right,
        And your pants too tight
        It's gonna be all right.

- [p. 264/199] "'We're Certainly Dwarfs', said Dibbler. 'Yes, that
might work.'"

Terry is a fan of a fairly obscure band (in Europe at least -- in
America they are a bit better known) called They Might Be Giants
(he has mentioned on a.f.p. that their 'Where your Eyes don't Go'
is the scariest song he's ever heard -- not that scary is a word
I'd normally associate with TMBG, mind you, but then I don't know
that particular song).

Anyway, 'We're Certainly Dwarfs' appears to be the Discworld
answer to this group, or at least to their name, and it may be
amusing to know that the name was first suggested to Terry by
a.f.p. reader Mike Berzonsky, during an early discussion about
Discworld popular music.  Mike wrote, way back in february 1993:
"Totally off the subject, this came to me last night. Terry's
covered tons of stuff, but other than metamorphizing tapes in Good
Omens, little on Rock n Roll. Since he's a fan of TMBG, maybe a
dwarvish rock band, 'No, We Really Are Dwarves'. Since rock is so
central to dwarf life, it makes sense to me that they'd have a
band, although I understand that rich dwarves hire trolls to bang
on anvils, so maybe Detritus could be the percussion section.  And
Dibbler could be their manager.  No, better, Gaspode the Wonder
Dog. And finding the references to the last forty years of music
could be a blast. Just an idea."

Was this guy a prophet, or what? Terry replied:

"I've occasionally toyed with the Ankh music business. And I can
promise you that if it ever happens, there'll be a group called
'We Really Are Dwarfs' :-)" The rest is history.  The song
mentioned later on in the text, 'Something's gotten into my beard'
is not directly traceable to They Might Be Giants, or it would
have to be to the track 'Fingertips' on Apollo 18, which features
the line "Something grabbed a hold of my hand". Most people figure
it is simply a reference to an entirely different song: Gene
Pitney's 'Something's gotten hold of my Heart'.

- [p. 264/199] "'But you've got to spell it with a Z. Trollz."

In the sixties it was common for bands to get their names from
intentional misspellings of common words. The best-known examples
of this trend are probably the Byrds and Led Zeppelin.

- [p. 265/199] "'So now we're Suck,' said Crash."

Suck --> KISS.

- [p. 270/203] "[...] a name like JOE'S LIVERY STABLE, [...]"

So what we have here is the Discworld version of Joe's Garage,
another well-known rock 'n roll concept.

- [p. 270/204] "Buddy sighed. 'You had a great house there, I
expect?' said the troll. 'Just a shack,' said Buddy. 'Made of
earth and wood.  Well, mud and wood really.'"

'Johnny B. Goode' again. See the annotation for p. 14/11.

- [p. 272/204] "And the one they called the Duck Man had a duck on
his head."

In Daniel Pinkwater's book Lizard Music a major character is the
Chicken Man, an apparently homeless man who walks around with a
chicken perched on his head (under a hat). The Chicken Man is a
lot more together than The Duck Man -- he periodically does little
street shows featuring the chicken, who does tricks. According to
Pinkwater, the Chicken Man was based on a real person who lived in
Chicago.

- [p. 278/209] "'They follow actors and musicians around,' he
said, 'because of, you know, the glamour and everything --'"

While it is obvious that Buddy is talking about the phenomenon of
groupies, it is also interesting to note that the word 'glamour'
is sometimes used to mean magic spell or enchantment, making this

sentence tie in nicely with the wizard's earlier beliefs that
Music With Rocks In is somehow magical.

- [p. 282/212] "'The Surreptitious Fabric', said Jimbo."

The Discworld version of the legendary Velvet Underground.

- [p. 284/214] "'It's sort of deaf."

So, in effect they bought a Def Leppard, get it?

- [p. 285/214] More band names.

        The Whom = The Who
        The Blots = The Inkspots
        Lead Balloon = Led Zeppelin

- [p. 285/215] "'Yes, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, my
father says,' said Crash."

Notice how when the opportunity presents itself for the group to
pick one of the most influential rock 'n roll group names
imaginable, Crash and friends totally and utterly fail to see it.

- [p. 285/215] "THANK YOU, said the grateful Death."

A straightforward reference to the band The Grateful Dead. I
didn't really think this was worth annotating, but people kept
sending me mail about it, so...

- [p. 290/218] "'Nice curtains, by the way.'"

This is a reference to rock bands 'redecorating their hotel
rooms', i.e.  thrashing it beyond all recognition. Glod interprets
the phrase more literally.

- [p. 290/218] "'[...] I'm going to put my rock kit on my back and
take a long walk, and the first time someone says to me, "What are
dem things on your back?" dat's where I'm gonna settle down.'"

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus was told by the spirit of Tiresias
that if he ever made it back to Ithaca, he was to put one oar on
his shoulder and walk inland, until he reached a people who knew
nothing of sailing.  There, he was to offer a sacrifice to
Poseidon, after which he would be allowed to die after a happy old
age, far from the sea.

- [p. 298/225] "[...] somewhere where no one remembers your name."

Since Death has actually gone to the Mended Drum, it's not too
far-fetched to assume this is a nod to the theme song of Cheers,
the bar "where everybody knows your name".

- [p. 299/225] "He built me a swing, Susan remembered."

Death's attempts to build a swing for Susan are a Discworld
version of a cartoon that has been doing the rounds in offices all
over the world.  Usually the cartoon depicts 'swing-building' as
an increasingly complex series of 'logical' steps representing an
abstract process such as "the software life cycle". The finished
item, looking somewhat like Death's completed swing, is typically
followed by a final picture showing "what the customer wanted",
namely, a tire hanging from a branch by a single rope.

- [p. 300/226] "'In like Flint, eh?'"

"In like Flynn" is the normal expression, going back to Errol
Flynn's sexual transgressions -- at one point he was even charged
with statutory rape, arrested and brought to trial, then
acquitted.

- [p. 306/231] "I can feel it. Every day. It's getting closer..."

This is part of the lyrics to Buddy Holly's 'Everyday':

        "Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer,
        Goin' faster than a roller coaster,
        Love like yours will surely come my way, (hey hey hey)"

- [p. 306/231] More song names.

'There's A Great Deal Of Shaking Happening' is Jerry Lee Lewis'
'Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On'. 'Give Me That Music With Rocks
In' is Leiber and Stoller's 'Rock and Roll Music'.

- [p. 307/231] "'Hah. That'll be the day.'"

The title of one of Buddy Holly's greatest hits.

- [p. 307/232] "'I'd like a quarry,' said the troll. 'Yeah?'
'Yeah.  Heart-shaped.'"

A reference to the strange-shaped swimming pools rock and movie
stars are supposed to have built for themselves.

- [p. 313/236] "It was called Hide Park [...]"

A 'hide' is in fact an Old English measure of land. The definition
varies, but it is usually the amount considered adequate for the
support of one free family with its dependants, and at an earlier
time this in turn was defined as being as much land as could be
tilled with one plough in a year.

Hyde park is also the name of a largish open space in the centre
of London where, sometime around 1970, the Rolling Stones played a
massive free concert.

- [p. 314/237] "'Whoever heard of a serious musician with a
glove?'"

Part of Michael Jackson's image is his always wearing one glove on
stage.

- [p. 315/237] "'Dwarfs With Altitude'"

Reference to the gangster rap group Niggaz With Attitude (NWA),
and the general concept of "having an attitude".

- [p. 323/244] More band names.

        Boyz from the Wood = Boyz 'n the Hood
        (which is a movie, not a band, btw)
        &U = U2

- [p. 324/244] "'[...] proper music with real words... 'Summer is
icumen in, lewdly sing cuckoo,' that sort of thing.'"

One of the oldest (if not the oldest) known songs in the English
language is the 'Cuckoo Song': "Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing
cuccu".  'Lhude' means 'loud', not 'lewd'.

- [p. 324/244] "'Well, it's got a beat and you can dance to it,'
[...]"

This, usually followed by something like "I'll give it a 92", is a
cliche made famous by the TV music show American Bandstand, hosted
by Dick Clark in the 50s and 60s. American Bandstand was televised
daily in the afternoon (weekly, in later years) and helped
introduce such stars of the era as Chubby Checker, Paul Anka and
Frankie Avalon.

- [p. 326/245] "'I... won this,' said Buddy, in a small distant
world of his own. 'With a song. Sioni Bod Da, it was.'"

'Bod Da' is Welsh for 'be good'. Ergo, 'Sioni Bod Da' = 'Johnny B.
Goode'. See also the annotation for p. 270/204.

- [p. 327/244] "The right kind of name for musicians ought to be
something like Blondie and His Merry Troubadours."

'Blondie' was the name of the band fronted by Debbie Harry in the
late seventies and early eighties. Blondel was the name of the
troubadour who, according to legend, went around singing at
castles in search of King Richard Lionheart.

- [p. 327/247] "Anyone else fancy a hot dog? Hot dog? [...] Hot
dog? Right.  That's three hot d--"

Another replaying of a Blues Brothers scene, only they did it with
orange whip instead of hot dogs.

- [p. 330/249] "'Cwm on?'"

See the annotation for p. 117/89. 'Cwm' is Welsh for valley.
(Note that the Discworld has a Koom Valley...)

- [p. 340/256] "'We *could* do 'Anarchy in Ankh-Morpork',' said
Jimbo doubtfully."

Puns on the punk anthem 'Anarchy in the UK', by the Sex Pistols.

- [p. 348/263] "'It's a masterpiece,' said the Dean. 'A triumph!'"

Triumph is a British make of motorcycle, comparable in quality and
history to the Harley Davidson.

- [p. 350/264] "I NEED YOUR CLOTHES. [...] GIVE ME YOUR COAT."

Death is paraphrasing lines made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger
in his role as the Terminator. Interestingly enough, the music
accompanying the scene in question in Terminator II is the song
'Bad to the Bone'...

There is an even more subtle reference hidden here, however.
After this scene, Death will be riding towards the site of the
crash in "a coat he borrowed from [the] Dean", and that is another
line from Don McLean's 'American Pie' (see the annotation for p.
173/130). Terry has confirmed on a.f.p. that the reference is
indeed intentional.

- [p. 350/264] "The flower-bed erupted.'"

This is the written counterpart to Josh Kirby's cover painting,
and likewise a Discworld version of Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell,
both the album sleeve and the song.

- [p. 352/266] "'He... he had a rose in his teeth, sarge.'"

A reference to the Skull and Roses motifs used for many of the
Grateful Dead's album covers and concert posters.

- [p. 364/275] "A small fingerbone rolled across the stones until
it came up against another, slightly larger bone."

In light of the earlier Terminator references, most of my
correspondents think this scene replays the one in Terminator II
where the T- 1000 model Terminator, after having been frozen by
liquid nitrogen and then shattered, slowly starts to reassemble
itself.

- [p. 366/276] "'Please!' she shouted. 'Don't fade away!'"

'Not Fade Away' is the title of one of Buddy Holly's songs.

- [p. 376/284] "Gloria sighed. 'Sometimes it's hard to be a
woman,' she said."

The opening line from Tammy Wynette's torch song 'Stand By Your
Man'.

- [p. 376/284] "'I'd *swear* he's elvish.'"

This paragraph is the culmination of the Elvis running gag (see
the annotation for p. 30/22), but in order to appreciate it you
have to know that Kirsty MacColl had a big hit a decade or so ago
with a song called:  "There's a guy works down the chip shop
swears he's Elvis".

- [p. 378/285] "So you're a rebel, little Death? Against what?
Death thought about it. If there was a snappy answer, he couldn't
think of one."

See the annotation for p. 173/130.






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