Books - Soul Music

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	Books - Soul Music

Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1994. Like many of the Discworld novels, it introduces an element of modern society into the magical and vaguely late medieval, early modern world of the Discworld, in this case, Rock and Roll music and stardom, with nearly disastrous consequences.

It also introduces the recurring character Susan Sto Helit, daughter of Mort and Ysabell.

An animated adaptation was produced by Cosgrove-Hall Productions for Channel 4 in 1996. The soundtrack was also released on CD and is now out of production and highly sought-after.

The cover is similar to that of the Meat Loaf album Bat Out of Hell.

Story outline

The story of the book follows The Band with Rocks In through their short-lived but glamorous musical career. A pun on the Rolling Stones, the band consists of the following members:

Imp Y Celyn, a young lad from Llamedos ("Sod 'em all" backwards, see Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood) who sings and plays the guitar. His name is a Welsh translation of bud Y holly ("bud of the holly"). He looks rather "Elvish" (Elvis), which is remarked upon several times in the books and leads up to the final pun on the Kirsty MacColl song "There's a guy works down the fish shop who swears he's Elvis" which was a moderate sized (#14) hit in Britain in 1981.
Lias Bluestone, a troll who does percussion, which in typical troll fashion consists of banging rocks together. He later takes on a more rocky name, Cliff (the other members commenting that no-one with a name like that would ever be able to have a musical hit).
Glod Glodsson, a dwarf that plays horn, and is not ashamed to admit he's in it for the money.
The Librarian joins the Band for a little while to play the organ.

Following the band's amazing popularity, a large number of other "music with rocks in" bands appear, such as:

We're Certainly Dwarfs (They Might Be Giants)
A Big Troll and some other trolls
Trollz
&U (U2)
The Whom (The Who)
Lead Balloon (Led Zeppelin)
Insanity (Madness)

One of the bands keeps changing its name and at one point buys a deaf leopard (Def Leppard) as a mascot.

During the Band's popularity, Blert Wheedown's Guitar Primer (play your way to succeſs in three easy leſsons and eighteen hard leſsons) becomes a temporary bestseller in Ankh-Morpork. Also, C.M.O.T. Dibbler tries to make big business by selling Band with Rocks In shirts and assorted memorabilia.

Meanwhile, Death is in one of his philosophical moods, and takes a holiday in search of a way to forget his more troubling memories, such as the recent demise of his adopted daughter Ysabell and her husband Mort. In the meantime, his granddaughter Susan discovers the truth about her heritage when she's forced to stand in for her missing grandfather. Complications ensue when she falls in love with Imp, and tries to save him from his "live fast, die young" destiny as the Discworld's first rock star.

Pop Culture References

Besides the band references, there are several references to popular songs, movies, and people associated with rock 'n roll culture between the 1950s and 1990s.

Songs include:

"Don't Tread on My New Blue Boots" (Don't Step on My Blue Suede Shoes)
"Good Gracious Miss Polly" (Good Golly Miss Molly)
"Sto Helit Lace" and Buddy saying 'Hello, baby' (Chantilly Lace)
"Pathway to Paradise" (Stairway to Heaven)
The book references at least one person's thoughts on 'the day the music died,' referring both to the plane crash which claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper and to the song "America Pie" commemorating the incident

Movies include:

A Hard Day's Night - many of the band's getaway scenes, and their general lives while in the band
Wayne's World - Blert Wheedown banning the playing of "Pathway to Paradise" in his guitar store
The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause - the Dean's increasingly rebellious attitude, as well as his manner of dress (live fats die yognue) and hairstyle (a 'duck's arse') mirror the youth culture movies of the 1950s, as well as the association of death and motorcycles with music with rocks in

Miscellaneous:

One of Ankh-Morpork's premier guitar builders is a dwarf named Gibsson (Gibson produced the first pickup driven electric guitar in the 1930s)
Glod often redecorates the band's hotel rooms, referring to the common practice, starting with the Who, of destroying hotel rooms, also parodied in This is Spinal Tap
The University staff become 1950s teeny-boppers with beehive hairstyles

The Cosgrove Hall animation of the book takes the association of the Band with Rocks In with the Beatles even further than the book does, evolving their style from 1950s rock and early 1960s 'bubblegum' pop (and mixing-bowl haircuts) in A-M, to acid rock in Scrote, to spiritual hippie rock in Quirm. In Sto Lat, they sound much more like the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Bad Company, but are dressed in clothes similar to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover. Also in Quirm, Buddy says that the band is 'more popular than cheeses,' referring to John Lennon's famous quote proclaiming the Beatles to be more popular than Jesus. In Pseudopolis, their outfits and style resemble the Blues Brothers.

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