Music and D&D have been closely tied together from the beginning for me. At around the same time I discovered D&D, I also became more musically aware. There were many, many days spent after school where I would go up to my room and spend the afternoon making dungeon maps and populating them. Throughout this process the radio would be playing the latest songs. Thus music and D&D came together for me.
The first song that linked the two together for me was Sailing by Christopher Cross. It was released in 1980 and was hugely popular at the time. It was playing on the radio all the time so I would hear it almost every day while working on my D&D dungeons. For those who don't know it (or for those who are confused about how this song is a D&D song for me), the song is about wanting to escape. It's about seeing new horizons, new vistas including those of imagination. It also had a lovely, almost ethereal sound to it. Now, I'll admit that some of the lyric translations were me putting my love of D&D and imagination onto the song, but for me, it worked.
Here are some lyrics that brought it home for me...
"Well, it's not far down to paradise, at least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility"
"It's not far to never-never land, no reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy of innocence again"
"Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free"
"Fantasy, it gets the best of me"
"Well it's not far back to sanity, at least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity"
Some say that D&D is an escape and perhaps it was for me as well. But D&D is also about imagination and where it can take a person. This song was also about those things as well. Whenever I hear it now, it brings me back to those innocent days when I had no cares beyond what monster and treasure to put in the next room.
1 comment:
Thanks, I'm off to start this challenge of my own. Btw, whilst that wasn't my first D&D song, it's definitely one of my favorites!
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