[you must have a heart of steel] - a larry underwood fanmix (the stand)
.for round 14 ("Journeys") @ waywardmixes.
About
The Stand is Stephen King's epic vision of an apocalypse in the course of a plague that wipes out 99.4% of the population, leaving the survivors to stagger around looking for other survivors before eventually settling into one of two morally polarized communities. Characters are moving around a lot in this book, sometimes even venturing on foot over vast portions of the United States. Larry Underwood is a character who is metaphorically at a crossroads as he makes his physical journeys; his flaws run so deep that there are moments of uncertainty when we aren't sure whether his transformation will lead him into darkness or make him capable of great good.
We first meet Larry as a rock musician who has already blown the advance money from his hit single and landed himself in debt to cocaine dealers, and his natural course of action is to run home to his semi-estranged mother and lay low until the next check comes through. Alice Underwood observes the coldness and weakness in her son's character that makes him resort to cowardice and selfishness whenever the going gets tough, and believes that while there is goodness in him, it would take "nothing short of a catastrophe" to make him finally change.
The beauty of Larry's characterization, to me, is that we can only speculate at what point that change really starts to take hold: It could be the horror of witnessing the plague and losing his mother. It could be his remorse at his harsh treatment of an older survivor who later overdoses on painkillers and leaves him feeling responsible for her death. It could be the insane loneliness that overtakes him when he finds himself without a companion, or his decision to travel with Nadine Cross despite her attachment to a traumatized erratic boy who initially came at him with a knife (a leap of faith he's greatly rewarded for as he later finds himself falling in love with the kid and accepting a paternal role over him).
Often the ethical trials aren't so black and white: As a leading figure in Boulder's Free Zone Committee, his role in sending highly vulnerable individuals to act as spies in Las Vegas is something that makes him "feel like a pay toilet." When the "diffident love" he shares with the widowed Lucy Swann is threatened by his fiercer desire for Nadine, he ultimately senses that to give in to Nadine would not only forsake Lucy but possibly destroy all the good he's found in himself (though he remains conflicted over renouncing Nadine after she succumbs to the influence of the demonic Randall Flagg). Larry "comes out the other side" of one tragedy or another as a very different person; he may not ever be able to silence the crueler impulses in himself, but he learns to ignore them as much as he can, and some of his final decisions are unquestionably not only selfless but very heroic.
[ download]
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(1) "There are no maps of the change." (excerpt - narrated by Grover Gardner)
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California.
"...There's a hard streak in you. There's something in you that's like biting on tin foil."
(2) F*!#in' Up (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Mindless drifter on the road
Carry such an easy load
It's how you look, and how you feel
You must have a heart of steel
Why do I keep fuckin' up?
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New York.
"You ain't no nice guy...I hope you fall in front of some fuckin subway train!"
(3) Cheap Thrills (Eagles of Death Metal)
(Whatcha doin'?) I'm spending time
(Whatcha doin'?) Got my last dime
(Catch a fast babe) I'm on the sly
When my back's against the wall
I see red
Like the ocean when it's standing at the end
Of what you're looking for
I see red
And that's all
(4) Canceled Check (Beck)
I hate to do this
But you're a pain in the neck
I thought you knew this
You're handing me a canceled check
(5) Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Joe Cocker)
sometimes I'm so carefree with a joy that's hard to hide
And sometimes it seems that all I have to do is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side
I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
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New England.
"People need other people. Didn't you feel that? When you were alone?"
(6) Metal Heart [2006 version] (Cat Power)
oh hidy hidy hidy what're you trying to prove?
by hidy hidy hiding you're not worth a thing
sew your fortunes on a string
and hold them up to light
blue smoke will take a very violent flight
and you will be changed
(7) Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar
Make it snappy
You are the one who can make us all laugh
But doing that, you break out in tears
(8) Road Trippin' (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Road trippin' with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It's time to leave this town
It's time to steal away
Let's go get lost
Anywhere in the U.S.A.
(9) Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
She is like a cat in the dark and then
She is the darkness
(10) American Pie (Don McLean)
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
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Colorado.
"And your choice is made?...Then live with it. For God's sake, Larry, grow up. Develop a little self-righteousness."
(11) Under the Milky Way (The Church)
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
And it's something quite peculiar
Something shimmering and white
It leads you here
despite your destination
(12) No Light, No Light (Florence & the Machine)
I was disappearing in plain sight
Heaven help me, I need to make it right
You want a revelation
You want to get it right
And it's a conversation
I just can't have tonight
(13) All These Things That I've Done (The Killers)
Over and again, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
(Time, truth, hearts)
If you can hold on
If you can hold on
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Nevada.
"I don't know if it's God's will for you to defeat him. I don't know if it's God's will for you to ever see Boulder again. These things are not for me to see. But he is in Las Vegas, and you must go there, and it is there that you will make your stand."
(14) Garden (Pearl Jam)
I won't be taken
Yet I'll go
I will walk, with my hands bound
I will walk, with my face blood
I will walk, with my shadow flag
Into your garden
(15) Upward Over the Mountain (Iron & Wine)
So may the sunrise bring hope
Where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds
Flying upward over the mountain
Mother, I made it up
From the bruise of a floor of this prison
(16) Don't Fear the Reaper (The Caesars)
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
Take my hand...don't fear the reaper
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About
The Stand is Stephen King's epic vision of an apocalypse in the course of a plague that wipes out 99.4% of the population, leaving the survivors to stagger around looking for other survivors before eventually settling into one of two morally polarized communities. Characters are moving around a lot in this book, sometimes even venturing on foot over vast portions of the United States. Larry Underwood is a character who is metaphorically at a crossroads as he makes his physical journeys; his flaws run so deep that there are moments of uncertainty when we aren't sure whether his transformation will lead him into darkness or make him capable of great good.
We first meet Larry as a rock musician who has already blown the advance money from his hit single and landed himself in debt to cocaine dealers, and his natural course of action is to run home to his semi-estranged mother and lay low until the next check comes through. Alice Underwood observes the coldness and weakness in her son's character that makes him resort to cowardice and selfishness whenever the going gets tough, and believes that while there is goodness in him, it would take "nothing short of a catastrophe" to make him finally change.
The beauty of Larry's characterization, to me, is that we can only speculate at what point that change really starts to take hold: It could be the horror of witnessing the plague and losing his mother. It could be his remorse at his harsh treatment of an older survivor who later overdoses on painkillers and leaves him feeling responsible for her death. It could be the insane loneliness that overtakes him when he finds himself without a companion, or his decision to travel with Nadine Cross despite her attachment to a traumatized erratic boy who initially came at him with a knife (a leap of faith he's greatly rewarded for as he later finds himself falling in love with the kid and accepting a paternal role over him).
Often the ethical trials aren't so black and white: As a leading figure in Boulder's Free Zone Committee, his role in sending highly vulnerable individuals to act as spies in Las Vegas is something that makes him "feel like a pay toilet." When the "diffident love" he shares with the widowed Lucy Swann is threatened by his fiercer desire for Nadine, he ultimately senses that to give in to Nadine would not only forsake Lucy but possibly destroy all the good he's found in himself (though he remains conflicted over renouncing Nadine after she succumbs to the influence of the demonic Randall Flagg). Larry "comes out the other side" of one tragedy or another as a very different person; he may not ever be able to silence the crueler impulses in himself, but he learns to ignore them as much as he can, and some of his final decisions are unquestionably not only selfless but very heroic.
[ download]
ν
ν
ν
ν
ν
ν
(1) "There are no maps of the change." (excerpt - narrated by Grover Gardner)
ν
ν
ν
California.
"...There's a hard streak in you. There's something in you that's like biting on tin foil."
(2) F*!#in' Up (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Mindless drifter on the road
Carry such an easy load
It's how you look, and how you feel
You must have a heart of steel
Why do I keep fuckin' up?
ν
ν
ν
New York.
"You ain't no nice guy...I hope you fall in front of some fuckin subway train!"
(3) Cheap Thrills (Eagles of Death Metal)
(Whatcha doin'?) I'm spending time
(Whatcha doin'?) Got my last dime
(Catch a fast babe) I'm on the sly
When my back's against the wall
I see red
Like the ocean when it's standing at the end
Of what you're looking for
I see red
And that's all
(4) Canceled Check (Beck)
I hate to do this
But you're a pain in the neck
I thought you knew this
You're handing me a canceled check
(5) Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Joe Cocker)
sometimes I'm so carefree with a joy that's hard to hide
And sometimes it seems that all I have to do is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side
I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
ν
ν
ν
New England.
"People need other people. Didn't you feel that? When you were alone?"
(6) Metal Heart [2006 version] (Cat Power)
oh hidy hidy hidy what're you trying to prove?
by hidy hidy hiding you're not worth a thing
sew your fortunes on a string
and hold them up to light
blue smoke will take a very violent flight
and you will be changed
(7) Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar
Make it snappy
You are the one who can make us all laugh
But doing that, you break out in tears
(8) Road Trippin' (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Road trippin' with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It's time to leave this town
It's time to steal away
Let's go get lost
Anywhere in the U.S.A.
(9) Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
She is like a cat in the dark and then
She is the darkness
(10) American Pie (Don McLean)
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
ν
ν
ν
Colorado.
"And your choice is made?...Then live with it. For God's sake, Larry, grow up. Develop a little self-righteousness."
(11) Under the Milky Way (The Church)
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
And it's something quite peculiar
Something shimmering and white
It leads you here
despite your destination
(12) No Light, No Light (Florence & the Machine)
I was disappearing in plain sight
Heaven help me, I need to make it right
You want a revelation
You want to get it right
And it's a conversation
I just can't have tonight
(13) All These Things That I've Done (The Killers)
Over and again, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
(Time, truth, hearts)
If you can hold on
If you can hold on
ν
ν
ν
Nevada.
"I don't know if it's God's will for you to defeat him. I don't know if it's God's will for you to ever see Boulder again. These things are not for me to see. But he is in Las Vegas, and you must go there, and it is there that you will make your stand."
(14) Garden (Pearl Jam)
I won't be taken
Yet I'll go
I will walk, with my hands bound
I will walk, with my face blood
I will walk, with my shadow flag
Into your garden
(15) Upward Over the Mountain (Iron & Wine)
So may the sunrise bring hope
Where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds
Flying upward over the mountain
Mother, I made it up
From the bruise of a floor of this prison
(16) Don't Fear the Reaper (The Caesars)
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
Take my hand...don't fear the reaper
ν
ν
ν
ν
ν
ν
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