Soul Music Discussion **Spoilers**

[Jan Van Quirm]

The Pathway to Paradise gag is Stairway I think - it was in Wayne's World 1 - the music shop where Wayne went to drool over his unattainable Stratocaster? Anyway - they had a sign in that shop saying Absolutely no Stairway to Heaven! Or words to that effect...

[fords]

My favourite reference is to They Might be Giants, courtesy of the group We're Certainly Dwarfs

[Tonyblack]

I liked &U for U2.

[Who's Wee Dug]

< I suppose it's because Josh's covers drew me in from the start back in 1983 so it's a nostalgia thing and so on a gut level his work's more 'Discworld' to me than Paul's - all a matter of taste anyway! >
Josh did a lot more covers than discworld ones,He did some SF ones other fantasy ones, early Robert Rankin ones, and some for Tom Holt.

[swreader]

I must admit that I liked this book more this time--and even more as I'm now on the 3rd reading. Terry really outdid himself (I suspect) in humorous & modified allusions to various rock music groups. Some I got, and since Tony and I do a quiz that has a day of "music" which tends to be heavy on Rock and Heavy Metal, I picked up more this time than before. Nonetheless, I think this is still one of Terry's weaker books in that he still gives in to "look how clever I am at making an allusion" even when it gets in the way of, or substitutes for, the real theme(s) & development of the novel. (Sorry Pooh! You and I have to agree to disagree on this point, as I know you love this type of humor. Even Tony likes that aspect.) So though I'll may join in with a few of these IDs, basically I find them tedious. The fact that (as Tony explained) there is a British singer called Cliff Richards, which makes the joke about Cliff taking a name that, as Glod comments, "Can[t see anyone lasting long in this business with a name like Cliff," doesn't add much, but it doesn't impede things either. Tony thinks the dog with the Canting Crew isn't Gaspode, but I rather think he is, even if he never speaks in this book. He can explain why he thinks the dog is there.

But what I find interesting in this book is that Terry is beginning at this time to write the more serious novels which characterize his later work. I think that the DEATH figure has more complexity than I realized at first, though I still find his sudden abandonment of his responsibilities a bit puzzling, and the whole Klatchian Foreign Legion section gets very old very fast. But one of the very significant allusive strands in Soul Music is a continuation of the learning experiences of Reaper Man. It is, I am sure, Azrael - god of all deaths--who asks "So you're a rebel , little Death? Against what?" DEATH ignores the question since he can't think of a "snappy answer," but instead goes out to do the job before him, taking care of humanity. And incidentally--he has saved MUSIC, I think. That particular kind of music will never again be in a disc world novel, but MUSIC itself will make itself felt in other worlds because, unlike humans, it never dies.

[poohcarrot]

(Sorry Pooh! You and I have to agree to disagree on this point, as I know you love this type of humor. Even Tony likes that aspect.)

How did I know you wouldn't be too impressed with this book SW?

[Willem]

He knows you don't have a sense of humour Pooh

[sheilaj]

I don't get the "look how clever I am thing" with the allusions. By me its like one of those silly riff things friends do starting off with one word play then adding others, getting sillier and sillier...the wizards do it in at least one book. I love the idea that the world started with "a-0ne.a-two"

[Verns]

I have to say I tend to agree with swreader's view of the book - which is not my favourite by a long chalk - since I find the jokes/punes/musical allusions a little too knowing and contrived. But there's still a lot to love in the book, not the least being the introduction of Susan to the cast of memorable DW characters. And it's sombre and serious enough about dealing with Death allowing Susan's parents to die, which is a difficult thing for a grandfather to have to remember, after all.

Mind you, having said I don't particularly care for the musical punes, there is nice reference to a felonious monk...

[Tonyblack]

I had to remind myself that this is the first book that we meet Susan. Her character seems so familiar.

There's a lot of teenage angst in this book, but Susan, who is a teenager, seems to be acting more adult than the adults. Actually, I think it's more a case of her trying to act like she thinks an adult would act.

[swreader]

Having had a rough day today, I'm not going to try for a serious post. Pooh, have you counted the number of British or American bands or singers which Terry punningly alludes to? Some even I got-- U2, Rolling Stones, The Who (just off the top of my head). But I was wondering if, for example, that rubbish band that doesn't keep the same name for much more than 30 minutes at a time is a reference to an actual group? Or is it just choosing names that don't seem to make any sense or refer to anything? I figure you and/or Tony might want to start a list of references, perhaps on a separate thread that we all could post on or refer to as we find them.

Some of them are funny, but I stick to my point that after one or two readings they become intrusive and as our new member Verns (welcome) pointed out "a little to knowing and contrived. And Verns, I agree that there are much more important things going on--of which the introduction of Susan (and her education as a supernatural/human) is a major part.

[Tonyblack]

Crash and his rubbish mates have puns of several real bands.
Insanity = Madness
Suck = KISS
The Surreptitious Fabric = The Velvet Underground

Not to mention the whole problem they have with the Deaf Leopard.

[Sjoerd3000]

And they were The Whom for half an hour

[Tonyblack]

And they were The Whom for half an hour

Of course!

[poohcarrot]

My fave musical pun is the "Don Maclean - American Pie" joke.
Just before Death rides off on the bike he grabs the Dean's leather coat.

"...In a coat he borrowed form the Dean (James Dean)

And the "We're on a mission from Glod" was brill.

The thing is, if you don't get the musical jokes, the book isn't half as much fun.