Ed's Song "Hero With A Thousand Faces" and Al's Song, "Soul Within The Steel"

[binaryalchemist]

since "Hero With A Thousand Faces" is being done at GaFilk and going in the GaFilk Songbook, there are a few who've asked about it--For those who haven't seen "Hero" or don't remember and wanted the lyrics--here it is. And yeah, I was also pissed at JK Rowling and George Lucas as well as Arakawa...Cow just was the last straw, so to speak:

 

THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

By Linda Walsh, AKA Aunty Binary 2010

(ttto “Macdonell On The Heights”, by Stan Rogers)

 

1.The seed that births the Hero isn’t nurtured in the womb

 A drop of ink ignites a life in a writer’s lonely room

 He’s born of someone’s fancy—someone just like you or I

 But their dream contains a spark that will not die

2. A feather-stroke of sumi ink upon a page of white

  A pencil sketch on legal pad—a young man springs to life

  A Manga stall in Tokyo—a bookshop in Detroit

  We will gather there to read of his exploits

He bears a thousand faces and a hundred million names
A scribble or a keystroke and his life begins again
      No single bard or artist takes the credit for his birth
For the Hero’s tale is older than the Earth….

 

3.A tattered book is cherished as it’s passed from hand to hand
  The young man quest retold in countless tongues and foreign lands
  It changes in the telling as his tale becomes our own
  In the landscape of our dreams he makes his home

4. At multiplex and IMAX the adventure will unfold
  The profits are astounding from a franchise bought and sold
  His figure sells on Ebay—I cannot afford the cost
  And along the way beloved tales get lost…    

 

He bears a thousand faces and a hundred million names
A scribble or a keystroke and his life begins again\
No single bard or artist takes the credit for his birth
For the Hero’s tale is older than the Earth….

 

5. It’s sequel after sequel—milk a franchise half to death
When we squeeze each drop of profit we are squeezing out the breath
Of a young man on Adventure’s Road—his triumphs and his pain
But within our home-spun tales he breathes again

6. The Realm of Dreams contains a room unseen by waking eyes
Where the songs and art and fanfics scorned as cannon-less and lies
Have been bound with love and tender care on a billion star-lit shelves
   Where in joy the Hero reads about himself

He bears a thousand faces and a hundred million names
A scribble or a keystroke and his life begins again
No single bard or artist takes the credit for his birth
For the Hero’s tale is older than the Earth….

7.       You’d think the book that starts his shelf ought to bear the

name of one
      Who has sold the book—who owns the rights—when all is said
     and done
     But their empires are inspired by the hero’s tales of yore
     And though the names and lands have changed, they will endure

8.   Is it Harry Potter’s magic---or the Elric’s alchemy?
They are dreams that weave the Hero’s bones—the mythic   tapestry
From painted cave to Blu-ray, ‘cross a thousand stars and seas—
His enduring tale’s his immortality (chorus, repeat last line)

THIS is the melody: MacDonell on the Heights by Stan Rogers, one of the most loved Canadian composers of all time:

[ Download ]

AL'S SONG: THE SOUL WITHIN THE STEEL:

THE SOUL WITHIN THE STEEL

By Linda Walsh and Teri Wachowiak

(ttto “After The Gold Rush” by Neil Young)

    G                                    C                        G

Well I dreamed I saw my soul in armor coming to this timeless place

   C

where I wait

                    D                                   D                           C

With a promise made and a promise kept he had come now to this

 D

Gate

    Em                                F                         C             F

Fingers of steel reached out for mine—I almost hesitate…

            G                               D

For a brother’s blood and a brother’s love

              F                      C

Had brought us to this fate

                G                                   D

For a brother’s blood and a brother’s love

          F                          C

Had brought us to this fate

             

Well I dreamed I heard a young boy crying-and I knew that voice  was

Mine

It was a cry of joy and yet a cry of anguish

For this tragedy of time

Caught in a dream—but not a dream

No pattern would align….

Flesh and spirit torn asunder once

Must somehow entertwine

Flesh and spirit torn asunder once

Must somehow entertwine

Yet I dreamed I saw the Gates of Wisdom parting

And a frail hand clasped my own

Tattered armor faded—flesh was animated

As my soul reclaimed its home

Promises kept-my debt was paid

The blood seal now undone

I shall keep my vigil faithfully till the day my brother comes

I shall keep my vigil faithfully till the day my brother comes

Through the Gate I heard my brother Edward crying

By the wreckage of my armored shell

To return me safely to the world again

He had sacrificed himself

Power was lost—but Wisdom gained

There’s a world we two must heal…..

Bearing in our hearts the wounded child and the soul within the steel

Bearing in our hearts the wounded child and the soul within the steel

AND THE MELODY FOR AL'S SONG--"AFTER THE GOLDRUSH" BY NEIL YOUNG, PERFORMED BY PRELUDE

[ Download ]

Comments

[nochick-fics.livejournal.com]

I really like the Hero one! I was kinda all "Hell yeah!"a few times while I was reading it. :D I can almost see the passion you wrote that with, esp. after the triple fail.

[binaryalchemist.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was so furious at Cow...this and 'Half Lives" are me returning fire, so to speak. You know the old adage, "NEVER piss off a Bard--because people remember songs....and your name scans to Greenesleeves". I just got final confirmation from the committee just a minute ago, so it will be shared in the songbook--and I hope somewhere Joseph Cambell, author of the book "Hero With A Thousand Faces"--a big fan of comic books and Star Wars--is grinning on the other side of the Gateway...how he would have loved the mythic journey of Ed and Al and Harry...

[happymediocrity.livejournal.com]

Very nice lyrics! They're really lovely. :)