#pulpnovels

@pulpnovels: ♬♬♬ — SONGS I LOVE

lightning field - sneaker pimps! i initially found this song for my star wars dnd character (lady-107 my beloved) and it's been living rent-free in my head ever since. it's very on par with constantine's simultaneous regret and lack of it when he inevitably sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and gets cosmic, karmic backlash for it: he always needs to know what's going on, no matter how ugly it is. he makes himself look at the worst that the world has to offer, even when he doesn't want to. and he's always got this inner monologue of 'should have left it alone, shouldn't have opened the door, should have asked the questions', but he just keeps doing it anyway, and he doesn't give a flying fuck about the consequences so long as he gets the answers he wants.

strike me down / better left it all unknown / strike me down / should have held it all alone / wash the questions off my hands / i'm the fate in no one's plans / strike me down / give it everything you've got

ballroom blitz - sweet! this has been my car ride scream-along song since i was a teenager, AND it's some quintessential rich-the-punk-era constantine to boot!! absolutely balls to the wall bar fight banger, with a flair of hellblazer unreality to taste. there's no meta for this one, other than a nod to the 2019 john constantine: hellblazer ending that's due to be continued in january, this is just a get-off-your-ass-and-dance classic.

oh yeah! it was electric / so frantically hectic / and the band started leaving / 'cause they all stopped breathing / yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

war pigs - CAKE! this cover and t-pain's are two of my FAVORITE covers ever made, and i feel like assigning constantine the band that did short skirt / long jacket is simply the right thing to do. aside from the obvious political commentary that aligns beautifully with constantine's attitudes towards bloodthirsty politicians and war, it specifically makes me think about the early warning - how i learned to love the bomb storyline in hellblazer issues 25-26, where a dying country town of brainwashed people worship a nuclear warhead at the neighboring american missile base. there's some really fascinating commentary in that issue, and of course it ends tragically, but there's also a sick panel of constantine (who cannot drive) doing donuts in a parking lot with a hot-wired car blasting music at top volume. the lyrics are so well-aligned to the story that i'm almost certain this was their inspiration for that two-parter:

now in darkness, world stops turning / ashes where their bodies burning / no more war pigs have the power / hand of god has struck the hour

+ 3 songs: for pronsias cassidy, underrated love of my LIFE, fire in the empire - william crighton is always what plays in my head during his duel with jesse, and the lyrics remind me intensely of him waking up in the river in the comics after being turned, what with the 'iron tears' being blood. also, man catches fire in the sun, just seems to fit.

i was out where the straight road ends / red dust rises, mighty river bends / i lay down on the sand / fell into a dream / the earth and the crow appeared / with a beak of eyes filled with iron tears

for sly gould, because he is SO cool to me, con man - dispatch is the song i always thought of when i saw his promo pics! feels both sinister and playful in equal amounts, and i would love to see a scene where it's playing in the background while henry thomas walk into a room with that coin spinning over his fingers.

he's just another con man sitting on a hill / you see him at the bull fight, closest to the kill / he lives up in a tower, sells dreams to the poor / no matter how he gets 'em, he always wants some more

and for dan torrance, also the love of my life, thanatos - soap&skin gives me major doctor sleep vibes. not only does it nail the movie ending right in the heart, but i think it also kind of encapsulates his hopeless spiral at the top of the book, and the dark tint that his shine seems to have after the overlook. idk, to me this song feels like both a sunset and a sunrise, which both feel like doctor sleep danny to me.

❝  i'm  obsessive  and  i  love  too  hard..  good  at  overthinking  with  my  heart.  ❞

❝  sometimes  one  bite  is  more  than  enough  to  know  you  want  more  of  the  thing  you  just  got  a  taste  of.  ❞

"have a drink with me."

standing outside an upscale bar, a place too wealthy for her blood. no matter how much she painted herself, she's a girl from the holler and would never feel comfortable among the elites.

(something so many of them reminded her of even when they called on her for her services.)

"clement," a hand on his arm to stop him. "i swear to fuck you better not be dragging me into some shit."