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The West Wing


Tori Amos

Girl
Story: She'll Be Her Own
Reason: With or without the backstory, this song evokes the hell out of Donna and her many, many complexes.

Jackie's Strength
Story: Still In Recovery
Reason: A song that references love, lies, and a first lady, and contains the refrain "you said you were the real thing" is tailor-made.

Putting The Damage On
Story: as titled
Reason: I've always been enamored of "you say you packed my things/and divided what was mine," and break-ups are beginnings, and "boy, you're just so pretty" means Sam.

Don't Marry Her, Fuck Me
Story: as titled
Reason: If the title didn't make you think of bitter Toby and Ann Stark, then the lyrics probably won't either. But they should.

All Is Full Of Love
Story: as titled
Reason: The original inspiration for the story came from the first line, and the first line is the first line of the treatment for the video for this song. The rest is all irony.

Breathing
Story: as titled
Reason: This song is one-fourth of the reason the story exists. Playing it over and over kept me in the world of the story, emotionally, and its words and tone haunt the entire piece. I'm proud of the story. The song's damn good.

December Will Be Magic Again
Story: Four Decembers And A January
Reason: The first time I heard it, it became my second favorite nontraditional Christmas song. Right after Bing Crosby and David Bowie. It put me in the mood for Josh and Sam's mood vignette.

Wuthering Heights
Story: Carrying Cathy
Reason: Although the story is based on another song, anytime I think of the book I think of this song, and it's got that windy, wild, half-dreamed feeling.

Chelsea Hotel No. 2
Story: Two Rooms At The End Of The World
Reason: The first verse is bleak and yet sexy in a perfectly CJ/Toby way, and it could be about politics just as well as music-makers. Also, Cohen rules.

Suzanne
Story: Revelation
Reason: Before I remembered the poem that frames the story now, I was going to take a title from this song. It's nowhere in the story except in the background, playing for Toby and playing around him.

This Street, That Man, This Life
Story: as titled
Reason: It was on Homicide in a very different context, but this song, for me, absolutely wraps up the feel of late season two. You can spot different characters in it; you can see the places, and the bridge is a lament for a woman who's still being missed.

Providence
Story: none
Reason: I'm cheating a little here; I quoted this at the end of a Homicide story, but really, for me, it nails the CJ/Toby dynamic. Nails it. And really, any sort of requited-but-unlucky love affair. If the CJ/Toby stories I've written constitute a universe, this is the theme song.

Tamburitza Lingua
Story: as titled
Reason: It inspired the story, and it's very CJ circa the season 2/3 transition. "One breath at a time is an acceptable plan."

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Story: If The Fates Allow
Reason: Another wonderful Christmas song; this one's a genuine carol. But it's not precisely cheery. And there's nothing more heartwrenching than Judy's voice on "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow..."

The Boys Of Summer
Story: as titled
Reason: Quite possibly the slashiest song ever. It had to be done.

The End Of The Innocence
Story: none
Reason: I've taken down the old story that this was used for--I really couldn't look at it anymore--but it still conjures a sort of WW mood for me. In an escapist way.

Joking
Story: none
Reason: Someday I'll use it. Until then, it's just the song I listen to whenever I'm thinking about Josh and Sam and injustice.

Three Hits
Story: Three Hits To The Heart
Reason: The first song we ever used to write Josh/Sam (of course, the Indigo girls lend themselves to slash). Rhythmic as a chant, and as longing as a prayer.

You and Me of the 10,000 Wars
Story: as titled
Reason: The story came about as a result of LE and I listening to lots of Indigo Girls in a very brief span of time, and though lots of songs influenced the story, this one seemed to define it. "The heart and mind on a parallel course/Never the two shall meet." That's our Sam and Josh, and the conclusion that "a moment of peace is worth every war behind us" is more than perfect.

Sometimes
Story: The Flood
Reason: I played this CD so much I burned myself out listening to it. Then I rediscovered it when we were struggling for a theme to this story. Rain, loss, angst, and Polaroids. It fell into place.

Midnight Train To Georgia
Story: Against The Fall Of Night
Reason: It appears in this story, but I always think of it as the ultimate karaoke song, and you know CJ made her boys be the Pips on the road.

Supernatural
Story: Against The Fall Of Night
Reason: It's the summary, and the spooky spirit, of the story. Their acoustic version is really what you need to hear.

Watching The Wheels
Story: as titled
Reason: Because he is crazy, doing what he's doing. But we love him anyway, our cousin Charles, inside joke though he may be.

The Fall of the World's Own Optimist
Story: as titled
Reason: It's been in my music folder forever and somehow it insisted on playing itself while I was writing about Hoynes and his disastrous affair. It feels right.

Something's Come In
Story: Prisoners Of Circumstance I-III
Reason: I'm a little biased because this is my uncle's band (if you happen to be anywhere in upstate New York, find a way to the Saratoga/Albany region to see them, trust me, it won't be a wasted trip). I chose this song for the three fandoms/one lyric challenge. It's beautiful, and sad-sweet enough for several characters.

Ride On
Story: as titled
Reason: And this is the TWW part of that challenge. It's always gotten a positive reaction that surprised me. The song was picked mostly for the chorus; plus it's got a galloping spooky feel that suits Sam and Donna as they quietly fall apart.

Beloved Wife
Story: Certain Of My Life
Reason: The story would be better if we wrote it now. As it stands, it's slightly cheesy, but the emotion is right. The same is true for the song--it's a simple piano ballad but it still cuts deep.

Take Me Home Tonight
Story: Carrying Cathy
Reason: It's the kind of song C.J. might sing with on the radio--spooky and sexy, with a perfectly placed sample and opportunity for air saxophone. It fits the story's plot, and it would completely be stuck in Toby's head.

Daysleeper
Story: Circadian Rhythms
Reason: It's that eerie, twilight zone, up in the middle of the night feeling. The actual tune is more upbeat than the story, but that hazy headache atmosphere is there.

How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us
Story: as titled
Reason: The song is sort of uneven and awkward at first, and the melody gels slowly into an actual song. Much like our boys and girls. Also, because Mandy is a portent of doom.

Boys In The Trees
Story: First To Burn And Then To Freeze
Reason: A perfect character song for CJ, from its half-wistful, half-demanding tone to its simple but sharp lyrics.

People Have The Power
Story: You and Me of the 10,000 Wars
Reason: I went on a crazy rampage searching for a fitting campaign theme song for Bartlet in 2002 (Clinton's Fleetwood Mac move was a hard act to follow--did you know that Al Gore actually resorted to using "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet"?) And this is what we found. The chorus just makes you visualize one of those "it's morning in America" type commercials. And it's a good song.

Sleepwalker
Story: as titled
Reason: Against my will, I actually like the band. The song is about fitting in, and falling apart, and it manages to sound energetic and exhausted at the same time (I think it's that little clap in the chorus). It suits Sam.

Calling The Moon
Story: Four Decembers And A January
Reason: Abbey and Jed here are about the feeling of being loved. The song is about love, given and given and maybe finally returned. And Dar Williams is one of my favorite artists, so it's standing in here for any number of songs that have influenced any number of stories.

Iowa (Traveling III)
Story: Songs About The Impossibility Of Singing
Reason: This one, as the title indicates, doesn't actually appear in the story, but it's absolutely the thought behind it. It's a really bittersweet song, aurally and lyrically, and the stutter in the fourth line is everything Toby.

Farewell to the Old Me
Story: A Strange Spot in the Sky
Reason: When you listen to this song, it's near impossible not to think of Sam and his struggles with his ideals and their imperfection. "I used to think that things were meant to be," Dar sings, with a poignancy that goes right into Sam's eyes, and when that line is mirrored at the end as "You always said you knew what I could be," that's the light at the end of the tunnel. Or the runway at the end of the flight, as the case may be.

Campaigner
Story: Why Nineveh Is Still Standing
Reason: Go ahead, do the Dana Carvey 'chopping broccoli' song. Neil Young is an easy target, but I think he's underrated. This song is only mentioned once in the story, but it works for everyone lonely, circa Manchester.

Unplugged
Series: Our Time In Eden
Reason: This album is the impetus for the series; the songs are listed here in the chronological order of the stories. The music from the Unplugged is layered and dark and delicious, shadowy and strong. If you find half the spirit of the album in the stories, I've done my job.

"Farewell, Farewell"
"She Just Wants To Be"
"Daylight Fading"
"Moments Of Pleasure"
"Set The Twilight Reeling"
"Troubled Times"
Reason: I'm inordinately proud of this. It's designed like a film soundtrack; each song reflects, and contributes to, the atmosphere of the story, and the lyrics bring out the subtext. Musically, it fits together but there's still diversity--there's a plaintive folk song, a couple of straight pop-rock pieces, a piano ballad and a power ballad, and an offbeat, spare number. Not in that order. It's all ab out leaving and returning and remembering and caring.

I Don't Like Mondays
Story: as titled
Reason: We wrote the story listening to the Tori Amos cover, and then discovered that she left out the middle verse, which has a line that perfectly summarizes the whole thing: "It ain't too neat to admit defeat." The song, in either version, is a powerful girl thing.

Nightblindness
Story: as titled
Reason: Another remarkably slashy song--originally the sirens made me think it had to be Josh and Sam, but the first line of the chorus turned me around and made it Sports Night. Also, it's sad and lovely.

All The Way To Reno
Story: as titled
Reason: CSI = Vegas = Nevada = Reno. The song has that echoing desert feeling and the repeated line "you know who you are" ties into the CSI theme song. And it's about chance and hope and maybe success, and that's what I wanted to do with Gil and Catherine.

I'm Not Over You
Story: as titled
Reason: The only Buffy story I'm ever likely to write, not being a serious viewer of the show. Tara's my favorite, and she was unfairly absent from this episode. The song is a tiny, gorgeous tragedy.