Soul Music
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- This article is about the novel Soul Music. For the type of music, see Soul music.
Template:Infobox Discworld Soul Music is a 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 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.
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 Gaelic translation of bud Y holly ("bud of the holly"). He looks rather "Elvish" (Elvis), which is remarked upon several times in the books.
- 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.
- 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)
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 succefs in three easy lefsons and twenty hard lefsons) [sic] 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 Ysabel 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.
Soul Music translations
- Музика на душата (Bulgarian)
- Težké melodično (Czech)
- Zieltonen (Dutch)
- Hinge muusika (Estonian)
- Accros du roc (French)
- Rollende Steine (German)
- Muzyka duszy (Polish)
- Музыка души (Russian)
- Duševna muzika (Serbian)
- Levande musik (Swedish)
External links
- Annotations for Soul Music (http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/soul-music.html)
- Quotes from Soul Music (http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/soul-music.html)