My FF7 Fan Soundtrack

[megpie71]

Warning: this is long.

This is a selection of songs from my music collection which ring "right" for Final Fantasy VII for me. So, in alphabetical order (and with section cuts alphabetically):

"Accident Waiting to Happen (Red Stars Version)" - Billy Bragg
Keyword: Scarlet

Because she's definitely a "dedicated swallower of fascism" in the game. And yes, she's the type of girl who would be getting both supper and breakfast out of the one song, and who has something of a chip on her shoulder.

"Accidentally Kelly Street" - Frente
Keyword: Edge

A bright, upbeat song which speaks of a place where "friends and strangers sometimes meet". It's a song which sort of resonates in the part of my Australian soul which is so much about picking up after a disaster and carrying on. It's about what a home can be, and what it can mean, and it's about hope. I think that's a lot of what Edge is about.

"Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" - Divinyls
Keywords: Elena; Nesa Conway

Both Elena of the Turks, and my fan character Nesa Conway give me the impression of women who have loved not wisely, but too well for their own comfort. This song, with its lyrics which are so much about not being hooked into chasing after someone who isn't good for them, is very much for the stage in their lives when they've come to the conclusion they deserve better.

"Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" - The Doors
Keyword: Turks

This is one of the drinking songs of the Turks, particularly Reno. I can just see the lot of them sitting there swigging down alcohol at high volume while this plays on a jukebox in the background. I suspect if Reno's drunk enough, he sings along with the chorus. The version by the Doors is the one which seems appropriate, with its heavily marked oompah tempo gives the somewhat dissolute Weimar Germany feel to the song (not surprising, since it's Brecht/Weil in origin), and it suits the Turks.

"Alive and Brilliant" - Deborah Conway
Keyword: Nesa Conway

"One step forward, two steps backward/I won't wrestle, you won't talk back/three deep breaths, I'm still alive and brilliant" This song really does sum up Nesa for me (and would you believe I hadn't actually realised that the singer of the song and the character it represents for me have the same surname until right now?) with the way her life has screwed up around her, and the way she basically fights back and makes the best of things despite it all. Still alive and brilliant, despite everything.

"All For Me Grog" - The Dubliners
Keywords: SOLDIER; Turks; AVALANCHE

This is one of the drinking songs which made it onto the lists of the three different gangs. I can see Zack and Kunsel singing it (probably with as many other younger SOLDIERs as they can muster for the drinking expedition). Of course Reno's going to be crooning it when he's two or three sheets to the wind, and the AVALANCHE crew (particularly Cid and Barrett) are going to be singing it at a slightly slower tempo, and a more generous estimate of the tune, whenever they get a moment to stop and reminisce.

"Always Something There To Remind Me" - Naked Eyes
Keywords: Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart

This isn't the version of the song I'd prefer to use in this list, but it's the one I have. It resonates down the relationship between Cloud and Tifa, since each of them appears to be using the other as the thing which is always there to remind them of their shared childhood in Nibelheim. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on the day, and who's being reminded of what.

"Another World" - Hoodoo Gurus
Keyword: Sephiroth

A song about someone who appears to be an alien in human form - it fits Sephiroth in a lot of ways. "Another world is calling you". "What I would call human in me, for you would be perversion" is another line which resonates.

"At First Sight" - The Stems
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

"Just say the word and I would die for you" - this to me sums up a lot of Vincent's attitude toward Lucrecia Crescent, and he has the decided advantage of having actually done so. I do think he fell for her "at first sight", and I sometimes wonder whether any relationship between the two of them would have survived a longer period. I suspect in order for it to do so, Lucrecia would have had to be a stronger, braver person than she was.

"An Audience With The Pope" - Elbow
Keyword: Zack Fair

"I have an audience with the pope, and I'm saving the world at eight; but if she says she needs me, she says she needs me - everybody's gonna have to wait". I figure this pretty much sums up how Zack feels about Aerith. The notion that he's trying to come back to her even after five years in a mako tank is a pretty good indicator that he'd put off saving the world for her.

"Auld Plan Syne" - The Shiny Bum Singers
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

The Shiny Bum Singers are a group of Australian public servants who perform "the work songs of the public service" for folk events in Canberra. As you might imagine, there's a lot of them which sling off at the idiocies of bureaucracy (particularly as seen from the perspective of the bureaucrats). This makes them ideal for the sort of bureaucratic nonsense which comes about in any large hierachies, such as the Shinra Corporation.

"Back Door Man" - The Doors
Keyword: Reno

I think this one goes well with fandom Reno, and all the speculation about his particular sexual preferences regarding to gender, appearance, and/or species. Reno in particular, and the Turks in general go nicely with the stuff from the Doors, complete with the slight air of dissolute degeneracy which accompanies Jim Morrison's voice.

"Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Keyword: Nanaki

Okay, it's the classic werewolf song, so it's a bit trite associating it with the talking wolf-cat Nanaki, but then again, it works for him too. The lyrics suit him, and I figure he wouldn't mind it too much.

"Bad To The Bone" - George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Keyword: Turks

Who else? The song is the sort of thing I can hear playing in the background as a group of them walk down the mean streets of Edge, or Midgar, or Junon. Reno is grinning like a maniac, Rude has his shades on, Tseng and Elena are looking serious, and Vincent Valentine is ghosting along the rooftops behind them. Would you want to argue with them about whether they have a claim to the song? The Turks montage song, I think.

"Baker Street" - Gerry Rafferty
Keywords: Vincent Valentine; Midgar City

This song has a very melancholy feel to it, and the wailing saxophone riff is gorgeous. It's the sort of song which really belongs as a backdrop to a view of the various slum areas in Midgar, and certainly the lyrics of the first verse are appropriate for someone who came to the big city to make it big, and didn't succeed. It's also a song where the lyrics seem to resonate with Vincent Valentine's life - there's the same sort of "you know he's gonna keep moving, he's never gonna stop moving, 'cause he's rolling, he's a rolling stone" about the two of them.

"Barrett's Privateers (Live)" - Weddings Parties Anything
Keyword: AVALANCHE

This one is definitely an AVALANCHE drinking song, sung with a certain amount of drunkenly mischievous glee by Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Cid, Reeve (as Cait Sith - if he's there as himself, he's going to be too busy laughing at Barret's discomfort to join in coherently) and possibly Vincent during the occasional reunion get-togethers, while Barrett hides his face and groans. Nanaki is lying by the table laughing at Barrett's discomfort. Whether the AVALANCHE crew is ever capable of the sort of harmonies demonstrated in this version of the song isn't something I'm capable of commenting on, although if they do attempt them, Yuffie's going for the soprano, Tifa is the alto, Cloud is a tenor, and Vincent does bass.

"Bat Out of Hell" - Meatloaf
Keywords: SOLDIER; Turks

Another drinking song (I have a number of drinking songs in this playlist). This is also one which tempts me toward fanvidding, because between the lyrics, the tempo and the imagery, I figure it would work brilliantly. As a drinking song, it suits the SOLDIER and Turks better than it does AVALANCHE, although for this one I'd be casting Cloud as a SOLDIER purely because this is his "biker bad boy" song. It's a drinking song because it's one that you can scream along to the chorus of when you're drunk.

"Be My Number Two" - Joe Jackson
Keywords: Cloud Strife; Tifa Lockheart

This one is for Cloud and Tifa. I sincerely doubt Tifa was ever Cloud's "number one" except for a very brief time when she was the prettiest girl in the small town they grew up in (and therefore the token sex object of his fantasies), but I can see her slotting in as a very solid "number two" for him. It's a beautiful song, wonderfully honest, and I can see it as something which suits the relationship between the two of them.

"Been Down So Long" - The Doors
Keyword: Barrett Wallace

Barrett suits this particular blues song quite nicely - "been down so very damn long that it looks like up to me", particularly at the start of the game.

"Before Too Long" - Paul Kelly
Keyword: Lucrecia Crescent

"Before too long, the one that you're loving will wish that he'd never met you" - and is there a better way of summing up the relationship between Lucrecia and Vincent from her point of view? One of the things which irritated me about Dirge of Cerberus was the constant refrain of "I'm sorry" from Lucrecia; I tend to see this as a marker of extremely low self-esteem. Another reason why I don't think the relationship between them would have worked out in the long term - Lucrecia didn't care enough about herself to think she was worthy of having nice things.

"Beggar On The Street Of Love" - Jenny Morris
Keyword: Tifa Lockheart

"In my time, I have been a rich girl given favours; All the world at my feet in its many different flavours; I sucked it all dry; Now I realise I'm a beggar on the street of love." This one is very much a song for a particular stage in Tifa's life; the stage which was kicked off when she and Cloud made their promise on the water tower - I get the strong impression it was a life-changing event for her, simply because she was faced with the realisation that here was something right in front of her that she hadn't even seen, and now that thing was being taken away from her. I think this was probably the point where she started to fall for Cloud Strife as a person.

"Better Be Home Soon" - Crowded House
Keyword: Cloud Strife

"I know I'm right, for the first time in my life; that's why I tell you, you'd better be home soon". This is one which fits Cloud at the end of "Advent Children", when he finally seems convinced he's the right person in the right spot, with the right friends, and pretty much chooses to live, rather than just existing.

"Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell
Keyword: AVALANCHE

Another drinking song for AVALANCHE - "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" - which sort of goes along with the environmental terrorist motif of the AVALANCHE crew.

"Bleecker Street" - Simon and Garfunkel
Keyword: Midgar City

Quiet urban isolation. It suits Midgar, even if the song itself is set in New York.

"Blood and Gold" - Maddy Prior
Keyword: SOLDIER

This one is about recruiting men to serve in wars, so of course it fits as a SOLDIER drinking song - one they sang around the campfires in Wutai, in acknowledgement of their role as mercenaries in a war not of their choosing. Although, I have to admit they're not likely to have sung it with quite the same sort of harmonies.

"Boadicea" - Enya
Keyword: Tifa Lockheart

This is one which fits that portion of Tifa's life between the destruction of Nibelheim and the start of the game. I think she spent a lot of that time absolutely furiously angry, albeit with a rather poorly articulated anger. Given the history of the Iceni revolt (which Boadicea led) I think this particular tune suits the female war leader aspect of who Tifa becomes in that time period.

"Born at the Right Time (Live)" - Paul Simon
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

The Rufus in my head keeps smirking at the lyrics of this song, and the contrast between them and his life, even though he was "born at the right time". As he points out, he has been lonely and lied to, and had things denied to him. I think he enjoys the contrast between what everyone thinks his life must have been and what it actually was.

"Bottle of Smoke" - The Pogues
Keyword: Turks

Another Turks drinking song. The hasty, slurred delivery of this one makes me think of Reno three sheets to the wind - again.

"Bouree" - Jethro Tull
Keyword: Tseng

This arrangement by Ian Anderson of a classic bit of Bach just feels right for Tseng to me - the contrast between the rather baroque tune itself, and the more modern instrumentation and tempo. It suits this Wutaian man who is in charge of the main intelligence network of the Shinra Corporation.

"The Boxer" - Simon and Garfunkel
Keyword: Cloud Strife

This is pretty much Cloud's theme song. The lyric is his life - a poor boy who went to the big city and failed to make it big, just had life beat him up again and again and again. Yet the fighter still remains.

"Breaking the Girl" - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Keyword: Tseng; Aerith Gainsborough

This one to me is about Tseng's relationship with Aerith. She's definitely the girl "soft but estranged", and I get the strong impression that Tseng was quietly fascinated by her.

"Brothers In Arms" - Dire Straits
Keywords: Zack Fair; Cloud Strife; Sephiroth; Angeal Hewley; Genesis Rhapsodos

"We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms" - but they each had to, and it hurt them all in so many different ways. If there could be a motto for the entire collection, I think that would be it.

"Brown Rice and Kerosene" - Redgum
Keyword: AVALANCHE

"Sometimes, I think about cocktails - update Molotov's recipe/Forget the gravel ballast and stink of benzene, use rice and kerosene." A song about industrially facilitated poverty in Australia which suits the AVALANCHE crew down to the ground. This would be the drinking song of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge, the three kids from Midgar who make up the bulk of AVALANCHE in the early game.

"The Bug" - Dire Straits
Keyword: Cid Highwind

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug" - Cid always strikes me as a pretty philosophical type down underneath the bluster and bad language. He's the type who can accept that sometimes you are the shit, and sometimes you're just *in* the shit. He'd also phrase it pretty much like that - the Cid in my head nods along to the tune. Also, I think Cid had his nose rubbed fairly hard in the fact he was never the most hard-done-by person in the world when the events of the game caught up with him. Just hearing Yuffie's story would be a bit of a wake-up call; Tifa, Vincent, Barret and Cloud would be more of the same.

"Caramel" - Suzanne Vega
Keyword: Rude

Rude is smooth jazz, like this song. The lyrics suit him, too, being about the dangers of being in love with someone you can't have.

"Careless" - Paul Kelly
Keyword: Cloud Strife

A song about being sorry for making friends worry about you. Definitely one for Cloud during the events of Advent Children. It's also a song about depression, in a lot of ways, and the sort of mental, physical and emotional cleanup that a depressive person is faced with when they resurface from a bad patch.

"Ce He Mise Le Ulaingt/The Two Trees" - Loreena McKennitt
Keyword: Aerith Gainsborough; Cloud Strife

This one is an Aerith song because the lyrics (courtesy of Yeats) just seem to suit her. But it's also something I can see her pointing Cloud towards, in the hopes he'd listen and get the message (namely, that it's what's inside that people value him for, not just what he can or can't do).

"Clint Eastwood" - Gorillaz
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

This one just suits Yuffie when we first meet her in the original game - talky, strange, quirky, and full of some strange wisdom which actually works well with the more morose members of the party ("just remember that it's all in your head").

"Close, But No Cigar" - Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing
Keyword: Reeve Tuesti

"The joint was jumping in economy, and you were sitting in first class/You got close, but there you are: you got close, my friend, but no cigar." I think this sort of suits both Reeve and Cait Sith in many ways - they sort of just about participate in things, but they're not actually there, per se. Plus the tune is jaunty and bouncy, which really seems like a Cait Sith sort of tune to me.

"Cloudy" - Simon and Garfunkel
Keyword: Marlene Wallace

This one is a song for Marlene, mostly for the lyrics - childish, upbeat, and positive in a way that resounds around her. A lot of it comes from my internal head-canon, which firstly posits that the difference between Cetra and humans was more cultural than biological, and secondly that Marlene is likely to become the next of a new generation of cultural Cetra.

"Coconut" - Harry Nilsson
Keyword: Reno

A song about drinking, and the only copy of same I have is from the soundtrack for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Of course Reno grabbed it and shoved it in my face!

"Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" - The Offspring
Keyword: Reno

Another one I think Reno would like. Very Midgar ghetto, and fandom Reno is definitely a Midgar street punk before he becomes a Turk.

"Communique" - Dire Straits
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

One which makes me think of the sort of spin doctoring which would accompany just about everything in Shinra. It's a very interesting little song about political and corporate manoeuvring.

"Company Sin" - The John Butler Trio
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

Corporate misdemeanours, exploitation, pollution and so forth... now why would I associate those with Shinra?

"Constant Craving" - k d Lang
Keyword: Nesa Conway

Nesa is a lesbian. She got this one pretty much by default.

"Copperhead Road" - Steve Earle
Keyword: Cloud Strife

At heart, Cloud Strife is basically poor white trash made good. In a different world, this song covers an analogue of his situation. It's inspired me to songfic.

"Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)" - Kim Carnes
Keyword: Cloud Strife

The various lines between sanity and insanity are somewhat tangled up inside Cloud's head. Then the Cloud in my head heard this song, and shoved it at me, saying "yeah". So it's on the list.

"Cuscatalan" - Frente
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

"Blood is the colour of the sunset; You walked into the darkness; I did not hear your last breath; There will not be an inquest; This is not human interest." Because Yuffie is, above all else, the survivor of a war which devastated her homeland, and the occupation of her homeland by their conquerors. It has to have scarred her, and underneath the cocky kid, there's a wounded one.

"D U I" - The Offspring
Keyword: Reno

"When I'm on a binge, my friends all cringe" and if there's any lyric which fits Reno better, I've yet to run across it... Yeah, Reno gets a lot of the Offspring, because they're somewhat sarky and cocky, just like he is.

"Dark as a Dungeon" - The Chieftains & Vince Gill
Keyword: Barrett Wallace

A song about coal mining and being a coal miner. It suits Barrett because he started out as a coal miner.

"Darling It Hurts" - Paul Kelly
Keywords: Cloud Strife; Tifa Lockheart; Aerith Gainsborough

It's the "drag scene" song - the three of them playing things up to hook in Don Corneo (the mental vid running in my head for this one has them all in their AC-quality models for it, so we can actually see how pretty Cloud looks in his purple dress as the shy "girl", while Aerith and Tifa are both playing a much less innocent type of sexuality). Yes, I know the canon didn't go that way. But it's fun to think it might have. Another that inspires me in the direction of vidding - or it would, if I was any good at animation or art.

"A Day In The Life" - The Beatles
Keyword: Nesa Conway

"I read the news today, oh boy!" Nesa's the character most likely to read the news, and hear about what was going on via the papers and the mainstream media on Gaia.

"The Day You Went Away" - Wendy Matthews
Keyword: Nesa Conway

A song about breakups, and the sorts of pain left behind in their wake.

"Devil Inside" - INXS
Keywords: Reno; Tseng; Vincent Valentine

Vincent gets this one for the title as well as for the lyrics, while Reno and Tseng get it because they're Turks. It's pretty much a Turk theme song, in many ways, being about the way people aren't as wholesome and holy as they pretend on the outside.

"Different Drum" - The Stone Poneys
Keyword: Cynthia Steele

This is a song about a woman telling a man she doesn't want a relationship with him because she doesn't want to be tied down. "We'll both live a lot longer if you live without me" is pretty much how Steele sees a lot of things, having been a Turk and an experimental subject in her time.

"Dirty Old Town" - The Pogues
Keyword: Midgar City

The Pogues version of this song is much more suited to Midgar than the original Ewan McColl one, in my opinion. It suits Midgar, particularly the space below the plate, and the slums there. The Pogues are a lot more gritty than McColl was.

"Disrepair" - Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

"I woke up, turned to talk to you this morning, just to realise too late that you're not there" - this one is very much Vincent grieving for Lucrecia, and the various things that happened between them that left him in disrepair.

"Don't Crash the Ambulance" - Mark Knopfler
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

I think Rufus may have been listening in to this one in my head when I was thinking about it as a sort of song for George W Bush as sung by his father, George H W Bush. The lyrics imply a sort of handover from one powerful and somewhat clandestine figure to a successor. Anyway, Rufus quite liked it, so I put it in there for him.

"Don't Die Just Yet" - David Holmes
Keywords: Midgar City; Cynthia Steele

This song was the one which inspired the story "Night in Midgar" for me. Then someone (I think it was Coyo) mentioned "Night in Midgar" sounded like the start of a noir-ish detective story, and that was when the mental camera pulled back to show me Cynthia Steele wandering through the streets of Midgar.

"Don't Dream It's Over" - Crowded House
Keyword: Edge

Another for the town of Edge, because it's one of those places which for me embodies a lot of the optimism and hope involved in the process of rebuilding.

"Down On The Corner" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Keyword: Edge

Again, it's optimism, enthusiasm and hope - and it's a group of kids getting together to make music and busk for a bit of spending change. Time-wise, it probably fits into the eleven months between the end of the whole Geostigma thing, and the emergence of Deepground.

"Dream a Little Dream of Me" - The Mamas and the Papas
Keyword: Marlene Wallace

I think of Marlene with this one because it's such a sweet song, and I can hear it being sung to her as a lullaby of sorts.

"Dumb Things" - Paul Kelly
Keywords: Zack Fair; Reno; Yuffie Kisaragi; Reeve Tuesti; Cait Sith

The song is about doing dumb things because they seemed like a good idea at the time, or continuing on a course of action even though it's likely to be disastrous. I'm sure anyone who knows the characters can see how this fits them.

"Echo Beach" - Martha and the Muffins
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

The song for the Shinra office drones ("From nine to five I have to spend my time at work/My job is very boring, I'm an office clerk").

"Eight Days a Week" - The Beatles
Keyword: 7th Heaven Bar

A bouncy, cheery little tune, upbeat and full of fun. 7th Heaven strikes me as the kind of place where Tifa tries to make things better for people, so I can see this one being on the jukebox there.

"El Macho" - Mark Knopfler
Keyword: Midgar City

A song which suits the denizens of the under-plate area faced with some rich kid gone slumming.

"The Eve Of the War" - Richard Burton (The War of the Worlds)
Keyword: Sephiroth

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, but still they come". In many ways, I tend to feel sorry for Sephiroth, because he didn't ask to be conceived as a science experiment, or warped practically from birth. He's in the unwitting position of the invader from Mars, and he spent most of his life thinking he was much like the people around him. The main parts of the song that really resonate are the instrumental bits, which aren't so very specific to the story of The War Of The Worlds.

"Everybody Wants To Rule The World" - Tears for Fears
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

He got this one for the title, and then I figured the lyrics also applied.

"Everybody Wants To Touch Me" - Deborah Conway
Keyword: Sephiroth; Genesis Rhapsodos

A song about being too seductive for one's own good. I prefer Deborah Conway's version of this to Paul Kelly's one - hers has a more slinky, seductive feel to it. Sephiroth thinks the lyrics of this one with a touch of resentment, while Genesis is gloating as he sings it.

"Executive Perks" - The Shiny Bum Singers
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

"Phone, car, bonus, parking" - sung to the tune of "Dona Nobis Pacem". Can't think why that would make me think of Shinra corporation, really.

"For a Short Time" - Weddings Parties Anything
Keyword: Aerith Gainsborough

This is another one which has inspired me to songfic. It's a song about chances you've missed, and connections you've missed making to people you never knew mattered until too late.

"Forever Autumn" - Richard Burton
Keyword: Aerith Gainsborough

This one is an Aerith song because of a description given of her by a character in Coyo's "Mascotverse" - "An autumn-haired goddess with eyes as green as summer". Aerith strikes me as someone who's fairly in tune with the natural cycles of death and rebirth - so she'd enjoy autumn just because spring will eventually be along.

"Freedom Calling" - Colcannon
Keywords: Sephiroth; Shelke Rui

Because freedom is so frightening sometimes, and I think both Sephiroth and Shelke would agree it can be terrifying to hear freedom calling when all you've known is the structures of a life in a lab, or a life in the military. Or both. This song does talk about the way freedom feels, when you aren't used to it: damn scary!

"The Galaxy Song" - Monty Python (From "The Meaning of Life")
Keywords: Sephiroth; Cid Highwind; Bugenhagen's Apparatus

If you've seen Bugenhagen's apparatus in the game, you'll understand why it's a keyword for this song. Cid and Sephiroth would both agree with the final line of the song ("Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, because there's bugger all down here on earth") but for rather different reasons, and with rather different attitudes. Cid's a bit more philosophical about it, while Sephiroth is rather irritated by the whole business.

"The Gentleman Soldier" - The Pogues
Keyword: SOLDIER, Shinra Regulars

Another one the SOLDIER boys sing when they're drunk enough. It's a song about soldiers and soldiering, and the sorts of things soldiers would like to get up to when they get the chance. Such as drilling a consenting young lady in a sentry box... all wrapped up in a soldier's cloak.

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" - Cyndi Lauper
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

For the Yuffie we see by the time of Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. I have the strong suspicion that Yuffie actually goes chasing around the world because she's having too much fun to settle down and be a good little princess in Wutai.

"Give It Away" - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Keyword: Reno

If you listen to the lyrics, it's a Reno song. Think Reno funking along with this one, offering "what he got" to everyone around the place.

"God is a DJ" - Faithless
Keyword: Sector 5 Church

"This is my church. This is where I heal my hurts" - and I can see Aerith being quite happy to allow the church to be used as a venue for a rave or similar (provided people don't tread on the flowers). Despite its decrepit condition by the end of Advent Children, the church is still a place of worship, and the gods of Gaia are more than likely quite happy with that idea.

"Gone Away (Single Version)" - The Offspring
Keyword: Cloud Strife

This is for Cloud as we see him at the beginning of Advent Children - he's grieving so strongly. The chorus of this song is just such a brilliant keen of loss and despair, and it speaks so strongly of the pain of losing someone. I have this down in my head as a "shriek along to" song - one for those days when there's just so much emotion in there to express, and there's no other way of letting it all out.

"Greenback Dollar" - The Kingston Trio
Keyword: Barrett Wallace

The copy I have isn't a particularly good version of the song - if I had another I'd choose it. But the lyrics are definitely something which makes it into a Barrett song.

"Hand In Hand" - Dire Straits
Keywords: Cid Highwind; Shera Highwind

"If I was hard on you/I never chose to be/I never wanted no-one else" - I always get the strong impression that Cid actually did love Shera, it's just that they both made it hard for each other to express it, particularly after Shera decided to self-immolate on the pyre of self-blame for the failure of the rocket launch (my own opinion is this: if there was such a narrow window for launch that it couldn't hold until there was a decent safety inspection, then the whole thing was doomed anyway!)

"Happy Ending" - Joe Jackson
Keywords: Tifa Lockheart, Elena

"Do I listen to my heart, do I listen to my head?" Tifa and Elena sing along to this one when they're wondering why they fancy Cloud and Tseng, respectively. They both want a happy ending, but there's always the niggling worry that they're going to do something wrong, or be the wrong person somehow.

"A Hard Day's Night" - The Beatles
Keyword: Reno

I have at least two versions of this particular tune - one of which is this original Beatles version. The other is the Peter Sellers "Shakespearian" version (wherein the lyrics are recited in pseudo-Shakespearian theatrical style), which means I automatically giggle when I hear the original version, because I can hear the Sellers version in my head behind it. It also means when I'm thinking Reno for this one, I can hear Reno reciting the lyrics in my head while the Beatles are singing it - possibly as a way of getting another beer out of the woman behind whichever bar he's in front of.

"Hazard" - Richard Marx
Keyword: Cloud Strife

This one is another white trash outcast song, which is why when I heard it with my fanfic writer's head on, Cloud piped up and said he liked it. Or at least that he empathised with the main character in the song. (I think it sorta reminded him of how he felt when Tifa got hurt back when they were kids). So it's one of his.

"Heartache Tonight" - The Eagles
Keyword: SOLDIER

This is another of the SOLDIER "sing along while drunk" songs. Heck, if they get drunk enough, they may even attempt harmonies in the a capella bits, although not often. A drinking song for the good days.

"Hello, I Love You" - The Doors
Keyword: Reno

Reno definitely brings Jim Morrison to mind for me, and this song more than most. Mainly because it just has that lovely dissolute edge to it - "hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name?" - which is very much how Reno likes to be seen, I think. Meanwhile, below the flirtiness, there's actually a layer of very real worship and respect for the object of his lust.

"Here's a Health To The Company" - Traditional, performed by the Chieftains
Keyword: SOLDIER

"Here's a health to the company/And one to my lass/Let's drink and be merry/All out of one glass/Let us drink and be merry/All grief to refrain/For we may or may never/All be here again" - another SOLDIER drinking song. This one is a traditional sailor's song for their last night ashore, and I can see it working as a good song for the night before a mission for the SOLDIER boys.

"Hold Your Head Up" - The Party Boys
Keyword: Nanaki

This song is rather tribal in feeling, and Nanaki decided he liked it. Plus the chorus of "hold your head up, hold your head high" worked quite well for him.

"Holy Grail" (Live version) - Hunters and Collectors
Keyword: SOLDIER

Another one of SOLDIER's drinking songs, and if you listen to the lyrics, you'll soon figure out why the SOLDIER boys love it. It's a beautiful song about military disillusionment and hopeless optimism. "I've followed orders, god knows where I've been/But I woke up alone and my wounds were clean/I'm still here, I'm still a fool for the Holy Grail". I can see Zack and Kunsel singing this one, while looking straight at Tseng and Rude and just about daring either of them to make something of it.

"Hotel California" - The Eagles
Keyword: Turks

"You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave". Can't think why a song with those lyrics would be a favourite with the Turks, really.

"House of Fun" - Madness
Keyword: Denzel

This one came up because it's a song about a kid who's just reached the age of discretion (so to speak) and is trying to purchase prophylactics from the local dispensary. I started to think about it, and it immediately raised the image of Denzel reaching That Age, or having to get That Talk from Cloud, and the number of euphemisms which would be floating around.

"I Don't Remember A Thing" - Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls
Keyword: Cloud Strife

Given Cloud's canon issues with amnesia, it fits him. He likes it too - although it's a sort of uncomfortable cringing liking (because he can remember feeling that same sort of "what the hell have I done" uneasiness a lot of the time between waking up in 7th Heaven that first time, and the point where he woke up in Mideel after getting his head shoved together).

"I Drink Alone" - George Thorogood
Keyword: Rude

Rude doesn't say much, and he doesn't say it often either. Reno chose this one for him, and he didn't object.

"I Want Tomorrow" - Enya
Keyword: Shelke Rui

A song for Shelke after the events of Dirge of Cerberus, because I do think she wants a future to look forward to.

"I Was Only 19 (A Walk In the Light Green)" - Redgum
Keyword: SOLDIER

"God help me, I was only 19" - this could be the theme song for SOLDIER, quite honestly, particularly when one considers that when Zack Fair was 19, he was imprisoned in a lab below Nibelheim; when Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis were 19, they were probably conquering Wutai on the orders of Shinra. Cloud Strife spent his 19th birthday in Hojo's lab as well. All those nameless SOLDIERs in the games were also caught working for a corporate overlord who didn't really give a damn for ethics or morals when they were only 19. "And can you tell me doctor why I still can't get to sleep [...] and what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?" A song about post-traumatic stress and all the things which can cause it.

"I'll Tell Me Ma" - Van Morrison and The Chieftains
Keyword: Marlene

A kid's skipping song, in many ways, and one which touches on the way that kids will bounce back from just about anything.

"In My Life" - The Beatles
Keyword: Cloud Strife

Cloud has those memory problems alluded to above, so this song, about things which are remembered and which are meaningful for the memories which are attached to them is something which is very special. I think he'd play it for Tifa if he could, and hope she'd get the hint that she's one of those memories which he wants to hang onto at all times.

"Is She Really Going Out With Him" - Joe Jackson
Keyword: Rude

A song for the stage of the original game around Gongaga, where we discover Rude has a liking for Tifa. He sort of respects Cloud now, but back then, this song was particularly appropriate to how he was feeling, I suspect.

"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" - They Might Be Giants
Keyword: Turks

"Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks!" Of course Reno grabbed this one off the mental shelf and shoved it onto the Turks playlist.

"It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier" - Tom Lehrer
Keywords: SOLDIER, Shinra Regulars

Zack leapt on this one for the SOLDIER boys purely for the title, and Cloud is quietly pointing out that the lyrics are also appropriate for the Shinra regular army. So it's on the "drinking song" list (although Zack is busy trying to prompt my filk brain into re-writing the lyrics to a more accurate reflection of SOLDIER).

"Jack of All Trades" - The Chieftains
Keyword: Reno

A rollicking ballad about a guy who rambles from one job to another. Reno likes it.

"Keep Talking To Me" - Weddings Parties Anything
Keywords: Zack Fair, Cloud Strife

"Keep banging on 'till you've finished and then/Turn around sweetly and tell me again". This is a song which makes me think about the year they spent on the run; the year when Cloud was comatose and Zack kept talking to him, giving him something to focus on. "It's more than your words, it's the sound of your voice". I think Cloud would have appreciated the care and the thought behind it.

"Khe Sahn" - Cold Chisel
Keyword: SOLDIER

"I left my heart to the sappers 'round Khe Sahn/And I sold my soul with my cigarettes to the black market man". Another song about the whole Vietnam war experience as it was felt by the soldiers. The song was banned on Australian radio for a while. None of this really mattered, because the SOLDIER boys in my head grabbed it and shoved it at me, saying it got things right about the aftermath of the fighting in Wutai, even if the names weren't correct. So it's one of their drinking songs, one which comes out on the really bad nights, after they've all sung along to "I Was Only 19" and the Turks haven't made a move. It's another one which comes out when the demons are biting down hard, and they want to start a fight.

"Lay Your Body Down" - Divinyls
Keywords: Scarlet, Rosso the Crimson

"You know what my name is, I'm a mistress of the night" - because these ladies definitely dress for impact. The rather aggressive strut of the song is also suggestive of the attitude for both of them.

"Let 'Er Rip" - The Dixie Chicks
Keywords: Elena, Cid Highwind

"If you're gonna say goodbye, don't take all day and night/Let 'er rip, let 'er fly" - This one rings clearly for both Elena and Cid for me. Both of them are very direct people, and they prefer to have things out in the open, rather than cluttering up the subtext.

"Life in the Fast Lane" - The Eagles
Keyword: Turks

If there's a group in the FFVII world who live the life in the fast lane, it's the Turks. Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse. (Literally in the case of one Mr Valentine)

"Little Decisions" - Paul Kelly
Keyword: Shelke Rui

Another song about the difficulty of being free after years of having no options at all. Sometimes you have to step back and focus on the little decisions, and leave the big ones for later.

"Living in the Past" - Jethro Tull
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

This one is Vincent's because of the title. He does seem to live in the past a lot, trapped in his own regret and his guilt for what happened thirty years ago. Plus the 5/4 time signature really seems to symbolise something about Vincent, and the way he's slightly out of step with the rest of the world.

"The Long Run" - The Eagles
Keyword: Cid Highwind

As I've said, Cid strikes me as a philosophical and vaguely optimistic type. Things will work out how they work out. All we can do is our best.

"Love Over Gold" - Dire Straits
Keyword: Zack Fair

"It takes love over gold, and mind over matter/To do what you will when you must/When the things that you hold can can fall and be shattered/Or run through your fingers like dust" - I think of this as a song which captures how Zack felt in that horrible moment in Nibelheim when he realised what had happened, who had done it, and what he had to do in order to deal with it. Zack is definitely the type to throw his love to all the strangers, and caution to the wind - he has this wonderful daring and caring self, a heart large enough for the whole world and enough love to care about everyone in it.

"Love Takes Care" (Live version) - The Angels
Keyword: Cloud Strife

Love takes care of its own, and I see Cloud as a very loving person underneath it all. I chose the live version of this song because I like the saxophone part in it, and I think it suits the song better than if it were left out. In a little side note, the rather vague and confusing nature of the lyrics also suits Cloud.

"The Lowlands of Holland" - Traditional, performed by Natalie Merchant and the Chieftains.
Keyword: Tifa Lockheart

One of the many "my lad went away to the wars and left me" ballads which floated around for so many centuries. I can see a younger Tifa singing it as a reminder to herself that she's waiting for Cloud to come back to Nibelheim. I can see an older Tifa singing it, with much more feeling and understanding of the feeling behind the words, as she waits for Cloud to recover from Meteor and the events leading up to it. I think she stops singing it quite as often after the events of Advent Children.

"Lute Concerton in D - Largo" - Vivaldi
Keyword: Aerith Gainsborough

This is the song which comes to mind with Aerith in her garden, tending her plants.

"Lyin' Eyes" - The Eagles
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

For some reason, the Rufus in my head loves the city-themed country-style ballads of the Eagles. This one is a favourite of his, simply because of the stories it tells. I haven't asked him which character he empathises with most, so he hasn't had to tell me.

"Mad World" - Tears for Fears
Keyword: Sephiroth

It suits Sephiroth to have a song about living in a world which is rather insane. And unfortunately for the poor man, it seems highly conceivable that the dreams in which he was dying were indeed the best he ever had.

"Man Overboard" - Do Re Mi
Keyword: Nesa Conway

Another Deborah Conway classic for Nesa Conway. It rather embodies her "damn it, I refuse to give in to your maladjustment" attitude. I think it probably fits the point where her relationship with her girlfriend Sarai is starting to crack around the edges; she's starting to see Sarai is just using her as a way of rebelling against Mama, and she's starting to resent it.

"Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road to Dublin/The Galway Races" - The Pogues
Keywords: SOLDIER; Turks; AVALANCHE; Gold Saucer

Okay, a mixture of three different songs here, all performed at typical breakneck Pogues speed. The Recruiting Sergeant is very much one for SOLDIER and the Turks - another one in the drinking song repetoires for each; AVALANCHE joins in for The Rocky Road to Dublin, while The Galway Races winds up belonging to everyone plus the Golden Saucer amusement park (for the chocobo races).

"Metropolis" - The Church
Keyword: Midgar City

"Back in Metropolis/talk about a holocaust/then we visit the zoo" - a song for the Midgarian wealthy classes.

"Metropolis" - The Pogues
Keyword: 7th Heaven bar

A rather cheerful instrumental. It suits Seventh Heaven because it has that nice little edge of indomitable optimism. Something I can hear Tifa putting on for a busy night, when she needs something upbeat to help move at the requisite pace to keep up with the orders. Also the mixture of celidh band/big band sounds is a nice little touch in there. Very 7th Heaven.

"Mezzanine" - Massive Attack
Keyword: Shinra Tower

"All these other floors" - something which really defines the Shinra tower, the phallic centre of Midgar. The weirdness of the song suits the period in the original game where you've just got out of the cells on the 67th floor of the tower (when Jenova has just escaped).

"The Midnight Special" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Keyword: The Turks

This particular version of the old prison spiritual seems to suit the Turks, simply for the fatalism of it.

"Minor Swing" - The Gypsy Hot Club
Keyword: 7th Heaven Bar

Another cheerful, dancey tune. One I can just about picture Tifa having playing in the background in 7th Heaven, just to add to the overall happiness of the place.

"Missing (Todd Terry Mix)" - Everything But The Girl
Keyword: Tifa Lockheart

Another one for the period where Tifa is realising that she actually is interested in Cloud Strife, after he's headed off to Midgar to join SOLDIER, and probably also for the five year period between the Nibelheim Incident and the beginning of the game, where the best evidence she has is that Cloud Strife is dead.

"The Mist Covered Mountains" - Trad Scottish, arr Knopfler (Local Hero OST)
Keyword: Nibelheim

What better song for a little village nestled in the heart of the Nibel ranges? It's a quietly contemplative song, one which sets an atmosphere for the area. I have a feeling the Nibelheim region itself would be a beautiful place, full of wonderful views and some lovely sunrises and sunsets. What a pity it got contaminated by the things which happened there.

"Moondance" - Van Morrison
Keyword: Nanaki

Another werewolf classic for the wolf-cat. But it suits him, and he likes it.

"The Moonshiner/I'm A Rambler" - The Chieftains and Joe Ely
Keyword: Turks

Another couple of Turk drinking songs.

"My Home Town" - Tom Lehrer
Keywords: Nibelheim; Cloud Strife

This is much more a song about the people of the Nibelheim village than it is a song about the surrounding region. I think Cloud loves the area he grew up in very much, but he could have taken or left the majority of the people there (in most cases, probably left them without a thought). In many ways, I suspect the Nibelheim Incident tied him to a guilty feeling about his (perfectly reasonable) dislike for so many of them. Either way, the Cloud in my head quite enjoys listening to this one. Just cynical enough for his tastes.

"The Night Visit" - Traditional, performed by Christy Moore
Keyword: SOLDIER; Shinra Regulars

This old ballad (alternately known as "Sixteen Come Sunday", and possessed of a myriad variations) is a classic story of a soldier seducing a young lady while he's on leave, and then not marrying the girl at the other end of things. It's a popular subject for songs, for one reason or another. About the only more popular combo is the "sailor boy" version of the same thing.

"Nights in White Satin" - The Moody Blues
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

This is a bit of classic rock balladry, and the lyrics also suit Vincent right the way down to the floor. He suits the very melancholy, unrequited, unspoken, romantic nature of them. I can see him playing this in his room in the Shinra Manor not long after Lucrecia Crescent has rejected him (because he pre-dated emo bands by at least two decades) and never quite succeeding in drinking enough to convince himself to sing along, much as he might want to.

"The Nips Are Getting Bigger" - Mental As Anything
Keyword: Turks

I can't quite place why I'd assign a song about a descent into alcoholism to the Turks. I mean, it wouldn't have anything with their jobs or anything (or the way you always bump into them in bars in the original game - if you're not fighting them, they're in the bar drinking). Must be slipping or something.

"No One Said It Would Be Easy" - Sheryl Crow
Keywords: Lucrecia Crescent; Gillian Hewley

This song about a relationship in trouble (complete with trimmings of poverty and social isolation) belongs to Lucrecia because I really feel it's one she could have done with listening to, and to Gillian because I think it's one she lived. "No one said it would be easy/But no one said it'd be this hard" seems to be her credo, and unfortunately Lucrecia never really had the moral or emotional courage to stick with things despite the difficulty of them. Gillian, on the other hand, did, up to a point. Gillian gets it for the middle eight - "Sometimes I wonder who this picture is, then he looks at me; he looks at me and smiles" - and I can see a mother looking down at a baby and realising giving up everything was worthwhile after all.

"No, No Never" (Live version) - Weddings Parties Anything
Keywords: Sephiroth; Zack Fair

"All you said was that I owed you nothing/You looked so sad, you spoke so proud [...] Nothing I did for you helped in the least" - and this song to me really sums up a lot of the way things broke down between Sephiroth and Zack. Zack tried his hardest, but nothing he could do was able to help.

"Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G - Allegro" - J S Bach
Keywords: Aerith Gainsborough; Sector 5 Church;

Another of Aerith's "songs to garden by". This one seems to have birds flittering around catching insects near the flowers - it's probably more appropriate for the gardens at Elmyra's house than for the church, but I suspect there are some rather stubborn and bloody-minded swallows and pigeons who live under the plate in Midgar. I can see Aerith stopping in the middle of whatever she was doing to watch them swooping past her, and squabbling over things.

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" - performed by Eric Clapton
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

One for Rufus after Meteorfall, when he's busy recovering from having the Shinra Tower dropped on him as well as Geostigma. I get the strong impression that Rufus had a hard lesson in this one - nobody knows you when you aren't the bloke at the top.

"Nothing Every Happens" - Del Amitri
Keywords: Midgar City; Nibelheim

A song about the way that simple day-to-day routines can be so very deadening to anyone's sense of adventure or interest. Nibelheim gets in there for "they'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock/and we'll sing along just like before" - after all, this is the home town of the Jenova Project.

"NPWA" - Billy Bragg and The Blokes
Keywords: Shinra Corporation; AVALANCHE

The title of the song means "No Power Without Accountability". Which is why it's so appropriate for the Shinra Corporation, and why it's one of the AVALANCHE (in the sense of Barret, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie) drinking songs. It's a song about living in a corporatocracy, and more particularly, about living in the underclasses of the corporatocracy - being the ignored, the unheard, the ones more likely to be hurt by the decisions of the folks in the shiny offices.

"Oliver's Army" - Elvis Costello
Keyword: SOLDIER, Shinra Regulars

Another one of the SOLDIER drinking songs. Not quite on the riot track with a lot of the others, but one of the ones which could go either way. "Don't start me talking, I could talk all night" - and the only thing which makes it vaguely perky is the rather tinkly and clinky piano sound rattling through the chorus. "And I would rather be anywhere else than here today". It's a song about being in an army which isn't particularly great at the best of times, but is capable of getting rapidly worse with very little notice.

"One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" - George Thorogood.
Keyword: Reno

While I don't know whether Reno has attempted to drink the requisite drinks at the appropriate pace (I suspect he has, it seems his kind of thing to do) this bit of vintage Hooker blues as performed in best rollicking Thorogood fashion is pretty much a quintessential Reno song.

"Overkill" - Men At Work
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

"I can't get to sleep" and I strongly suspect that after his thirty-year nap, Vincent has a lot of insomnia built up. He also strikes me as the kind of person who would be prone to over-thinking things.

"Pastures of Plenty" - Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls
Keyword: AVALANCHE

A song written by Woody Guthrie about the itinerant fruit pickers of the USA, and their organised labour movements, seems to suit AVALANCHE quite a lot. "This land I'll defend with my life if it be/For pastures of plenty must always be free".

"People are Strange" - The Doors
Keyword: Denzel

A song for the period where Denzel was living on the streets.

"Private Investigations" - Dire Straits
Keywords: Cynthia Steele; Tseng

A lovely, evocative piece about the classic film noir detective, which suits both Steele and Tseng down to the floor. They're the type who would get involved in private investigations, rather than public inquiries, and they're the ones I can see slipping through a low fog as they shadow their target. They're also the ones who'd wind up at the end, older, more cynical, and possibly wiser.

"Pump It Up" - Elvis Costello
Keyword: Turks

Another of their drinking songs; this is the one that Elena sometimes grooves on down to if she's in a mellow enough mood. Reno tends to slam dance to it, and as a result, people tend to clear the dancefloors when he's around.

"Respectable" - Mel and Kim
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

"Take or leave us, only please believe us, we ain't ever gonna be respectable!" - and Yuffie would be singing along with a grin on her face that could only get bigger if you moved her ears further back. Wutai is in for a bit of a surprise when she becomes the ruler; on the one hand, I get the feeling she loves the place for its traditions, but on the other hand, those traditions are stifling to live in.

"Riders on the Storm" - The Doors
Keyword: Rufus Shinra

This one just rang bells with the Rufus in my head. He insisted. I didn't argue - he still has that shotgun, after all, and he also has those Turks of his. I think he's most fond of the instrumental bits, where Jim Morrison's shut up, and there's this wonderful rainy night feel about it. It's definitely the dark jazz feel of it which appeals to him. Something he listens to while he's in Healin Lodge.

"The Rockafeller Skank" - Fatboy Slim
Keyword: Turks

Another one I can see as a Turk Montage song. Reno certainly suggested it for that reason.

"Roll On" - The Living End
Keyword: Turks

"We'll roll on with our heads held high/Our country's in the gutter, our dreams up in the sky". The sheer cocky bloody-mindedness of this one strikes me as something which encompasses a lot of the attitude of the Turks. Plus there's something interesting about having the Turks associated with a song about a dock strike in Australia.

"Sake In The Jar" - Akiko Yano & The Chieftains
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

Not speaking a word of Japanese myself, I can only guess that this particular song is a re-working of the old Irish classic "Whiskey In The Jar" (about a bandit who narrowly escapes being captured for robbing a rich man) in a Japanese idiom and tune. If this is the case, it suits Yuffie down to the ground - and it encompasses so much about her and her attitude to things as well. She's a member of the royal family of a highly traditional nation, who took to banditry in a very personal fashion, in order to obtain revenge on the nation who conquered them. She loves her nation for what it was, for the traditions it used to be so proud of, and she wants to restore that pride and tradition, despising the trappings of modernity (and the way her home town has been turned into a tourist resort) on a cultural level. Meanwhile, she embraces them herself, because it's a lot easier to move around and be a reasonably inconspicuous ninja in shorts and a shirt than it is in kimono.

As I said earlier, Wutai is in for a few surprises when she takes over (if she doesn't just decline the honour in order to concentrate on roaming around nicking materia).

"Saturday Night" - Cold Chisel
Keywords: Midgar City; 7th Heaven

"Saturday Night, already old, walking into Sunday" - a song full of the ennui of an alcohol-filled late night which hasn't been particularly special, at the end of a week which wasn't that great either, and looking forward to another which will be more of the same. Very much a song for the people of Midgar city.

"Save the Day" - The Living End
Keyword: Barret Wallace

"So here I come to save the day" - At the beginning of the game, Barret strikes me as the type of person who maintains a rather self-serving and self-righteous idea that he's the only one who can save the world. It changes along the course of the game, I think, as he hears the various stories of the other characters (and realises he isn't the only one who's been hurt, the only one who's had his home destroyed by Shinra's actions, the only one who had his dream shattered, and that compared to some of them, he got off comparatively lightly) but at the start of the game, Barret seems to see himself as the only person who can save the world. ("Take your pride and swallow, swallow" - definitely an apposite line).

"Say Goodbye" - Hunters and Collectors
Keyword: SOLDIER

This one is another of their drinking songs (and it's certainly one of the classic "yell along to while drunk" songs in the Aussie rock repertoire).

"Scotch and Soda" - The Kingston Trio
Keyword: Rude

"People won't believe me, they'll think that I'm just braggin'/But I could feel the way I do, and still be on the wagon". Another bit of smooth-jazz sound for the quietest of the Turks. This one is the one he'd be thinking of should Tifa ever return his overtures.

"Small Town" - John Cougar Mellencamp
Keywords: Cid Highwind; Cloud Strife

Cid and Cloud are both small town boys, and Cid in particular seems to be proud of this. I can certainly see Cid turning around and heading back to Rocket Town after the end of "the thing with Meteor" or any of the other incidents he's being hoicked out of his small-town isolation for.

"The Space Race Is Over" - Billy Bragg
Keyword: Cid Highwind

This is the one for Cid back before the events of the game catch up with him - "the space race is over, it's been and it's gone and I'll never get out of my room"

"Stop the Cavalry" - Jona Lewie
Keywords: SOLDIER; Shinra Regulars

Another song about being in the army and not particularly liking it too much.

"A Stor Mo Chroi" - Bonnie Raitt and the Chieftains
Keyword: Tifa Lockhart

Another of the songs Tifa would have sung in that period between Cloud leaving and the Nibelheim incident, when she's hoping he'll come back home to her after having made his fortune. I suspect she would have been in for a bit of a disappointment, to be honest, because I think Cloud may have realised when he returned to Nibelheim that he'd outgrown the place.

"Strong Enough" - Sheryl Crow
Keywords: Lucrecia Crescent; Cynthia Steele

A song which is about the particular pain of being a "difficult woman" - "Are you strong enough to be my man?" is the constant refrain. I think part of Lucrecia's tragedy is that she did find someone who was strong enough (in Vincent), but she didn't give him a chance. In Steele's case, it's a song from the latter period of her life, where she's a former Turk, a former experimental subject, and a former private eye - post-traumatic stresses out the wazoo, and she'd be hell to live with at the wrong times of the year.

"Sway" - Bic Runga
Keyword: Nesa Conway

This is a lovely song where the lyrics have a mixture of wanting the subject of the song, but not wanting to risk a relationship. Very much a post-breakup Nesa song.

"Take It To The Limit" - The Eagles
Keywords: Cloud Strife; Rufus Shinra

They both like this one. In Cloud's case, it's the whole "put me on a highway, show me a sign" thing - it's one of his songs for riding Fenrir and touching the sky. For Rufus, it sums up a lot of his own attitude to life. It's one where the pair of them can see some similarities between their different perspectives, and are honest enough to acknowledge they're each a little envious of the other (Rufus envies Cloud the freedom he finds so readily and the challenges he faces; Cloud envies Rufus the material ease of his life, to a certain extent, although he's realistic enough to know there's got to be a catch).

I get the feeling one day Rufus is going to ask Cloud for a ride on Fenrir, just so he can touch the sky in a little way. And I get the feeling Cloud is going to grant the request, because if there's one thing Cloud can understand these days, it's the feeling of being an eagle trapped in a budgie's cage.

"Tea-House Moon" - Enya
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

This is for the early part of Yuffie's life, before the Wutai war starts, and also for what it encompasses about her country and her culture. The Yuffie in my head gets all teary-eyed listening to it, because it's about what she wishes she'd never had to lose. She doesn't necessarily regret what she's become, but she regrets what she had to lose to become it.

"Telegraph Road" - Dire Straits
Keyword: Edge

A song about the way a town grows up out of nothing on the edge of nowhere. It suits Edge, even if Edge does have rather the reverse storyline.

"There is Power In A Union" - Billy Bragg
Keyword: Shinra Corporation

One for the Shinra staff.

"Think" - Aretha Franklin
Keyword: Tifa Lockheart

Tifa in Advent Children, where she's got fed up to the back teeth with the way that Cloud is moping about the place like an ad for a particularly lousy anti-depressant and not considering the impact of his actions (or lack thereof) on anyone else.

"Too Many Times" - Mental as Anything
Keywords: SOLDIER; Turks

"Too many times I've seen the sun come up through bloodshot eyes this week" - and why didn't I put the Turks onto this one? Must fix that. Oh, that's right - because it starts off so damn peppy and bouncy. Definitely a "Zack The Puppy" one. There's a certain amount of optimism involved in this song, despite the dismal lyrics.

"Tortured, Tangled Hearts" - The Dixie Chicks
Keywords: Cid Highwind; Shera

It's their relationship, once Shera gets over her constant self-blame for the failure of the initial rocket launch. I can see her as being a much more resilient woman once she's atoned for her one "failing", and she'll be more than a match for Cid once that happens. I do get the feeling that Cid cares about her, it's just that he's spent so long in denial that it's going to take something the size of Meteor falling to get him to admit it.

"Urge for Going" - Joni Mitchell
Keywords: Cloud Strife; Nibelheim

A song about the way autumn affects things in a very cold climate. I can see a young Cloud Strife watching the geese flying away in the autumn every year, and watching all these things leaving, and wishing he could follow. Eventually he does get to go, and he comes back and, I think, finds he's outgrown Nibelheim.

"Walk Right In" - Dr Hook & The Medicine Show
Keyword: SOLDIER; 7th Heaven

Another of their drinking songs. Look, it takes a lot of alcohol to have an impact on a SOLDIER - of course they have a long playlist of drinking songs! It goes for Seventh Heaven because it's bright and cheery, and that's more the atmosphere that Tifa's trying for.

"Wannabe" - The Spice Girls
Keyword: Yuffie Kisaragi

Because Yuffie embodied Girl Power back when the Spice Girls were still in nappies! She's busy prodding at my filk-brain to try and get the lyrics altered to suit her, particularly the middle eight rapping bit.

"Wanted Man" - George Thorogood
Keyword: Zack Fair

This is one for the year on the run. Zack particularly likes the verse "I went to sleep in Shreveport/Woke up in Abilene/Wondering why the hell I'm wanted/At some town halfway between" - it's definitely the truth of being on the lam from Shinra.

"Watching the Detectives" - Elvis Costello
Keyword: Cynthia Steele

Another one for Steele in her film noir persona, and with her Turk past. She's one who would be watching the detectives, and making sure that nobody got too close to the secrets at the heart of who she is, and the various buried bodies she's still concealing for Shinra (including her own, incidentally - her grudge has always been with Hojo more than with Shinra itself).

"Weapon of Choice" - Fatboy Slim featuring Bootsy Collins
Keyword: Turks

It fits them. That's all I'm saying.

"Weirdo Libido" - Lime Spiders
Keyword: Hojo

If there is anyone who fits this particular song title, it has to be Hojo. If he has a libido, it isn't one most people would want to touch with a bargepole. I go with the popular theory that Sephiroth was mixed up in a test tube and a petri dish, at Lucrecia's most heartfelt request.

"What's Up" - 4 Non Blondes
Keywords: Soldier; Turks; AVALANCHE; Shinra Regulars

A song with a classic "yell along to while drunk" chorus. Which is why it's on the drinking song repetoire of all the above groups, and why Tifa loathes it with a passion which is almost holy. There's a note (in rather small print) to this extent up by the bar in the new Seventh Heaven in Edge, and the regular clientele know finding it on the jukebox more than once every two or three months is grounds for getting either cut off (for a first offence) or bounced out by the bartender. (The other song which is grounds for this treatment is "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora... although for that one, you're slung out by Tifa for the first offence, and the second means she calls Cloud to do the throwing).

"When the War Is Over" - Cold Chisel
Keyword: Sephiroth

A lovely little song about what might happen when the war is over, for a man who never had it finish. "How can I go home and not get blown away" indeed.

"When Will You Fall For Me?" - Vika and Linda Bull
Keywords: Tifa Lockheart; Rude

A song about unrequited love and about waiting for someone to wake up from their dreams and see what's right in front of their face. Tifa sings this a lot in the two years between Meteor and Advent Children. Rude listens to her singing and wishes she'd damn well hear the lyrics.

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone" - The Kingston Trio
Keyword: AVALANCHEa

A classic anti-war song, although I strongly suspect the way AVALANCHE sings it is more in an honest question: where have all the flowers gone? (The answer being, go down to Sector Five - Aerith has 'em all).

"White Roses" - Deborah Conway
Keywords: Vincent Valentine; Nesa Conway

A song about being the one who was dumped, or the one who was broken up with. "I'm still flying the flag for you: blue heart, red eyes, and white roses".

"White Trash Wedding" - Dixie Chicks
Keywords: Cid Highwind; Shera

They both started laughing when they heard this one. So it's on their list. And Shera says, yeah, that's probably how their wedding would go, if ever they bothered to get married.

"Who Can It Be Now" - Men At Work
Keywords: Vincent Valentine; Cloud Strife

One about the joys of being somewhat-less-than-traditionally-sane. In both Vincent and Cloud's cases, they have their reasons, but that doesn't stop the people around them wanting them to behave "normally", no matter how damn difficult this is.

"Who Will Save Your Soul" - Jewel
Keyword: Vincent Valentine

This one has a lot of layers for Vincent. For a start, there's the straightforward challenge of the lyrics: who is going to save your soul if you don't? Then there's the little echoes of what Chaos' actual role is (dispatcher of souls when Omega rises) and the choices made by both Vincent and Chaos in Dirge of Cerberus.

"Wild Theme" - Alan Clark and Mark Knopfler, "Local Hero" OST
Keyword: Cid Highwind

This song, for me, is associated with clear skies, wide vistas, and the possibility of escape from the narrow boundaries of the world as it is in suburbia. Cid agrees - it catches that brilliant moment when all of a sudden, you've slipped the bonds of gravity, and you're flying.

"Working for the Man" - Mental As Anything
Keywords: SOLDIER; Turks; Shinra Regulars

For the title, and the lyrics. Because let's face it, they are.

"World Outside Your Window" - Tanita Tikaram
Keyword: Sephiroth

I do think Sephiroth wanted to see the world beyond the narrow boundaries Shinra set for him. He just couldn't find a way to do it. Even Nibelheim wasn't an actual move into the world outside his window, because all he was doing was using the same tactics and plans as before, just against Shinra rather than in their service.

"You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" - Billy Bragg
Keyword: Scarlet

She does strike me as the kind of person who's rather difficult to live with. Her boyfriends/boy toys/partners probably spend a fair number of nights on the couch for reasons which still bewilder them even now. Think of this song as musings on the part of an ex of hers.

"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" - The Beatles
Keyword: Rude

Another song about unrequited love, and dealing with having it.

(My apologies to everyone's f-list...)