Soundtrack Sunday – “Revolution”

We’re going waaaay back this week.

I first wrote Bloodlines around 2004. A character strolled up, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me her name was Zara Lain. If you’ve read that book, you know precisely why I then had to start writing and not stop until that first book was done: she bloody well wouldn’t shut up.

Zara was, in many ways, my savior. She had strength, power, and independence when I didn’t. Really, my own relationship with her mirrors that of her human counterpart Ana.

It was a little before that time that the old show Birds of Prey was out (was it still the WB back then, or already CW? I don’t remember!) and the song “Revolution” was everywhere for a time. (The Aimee Allen album it was due to be on was dropped but leaked on the internet back them–if you hunt around, you can find some of the songs from it released separately on iTunes.)

That was how Zara Lain first introduced herself to me: with I’d start a revolution/if I could get up in the morning blaring from my computer speakers. It’s that kind of walk-dramatically-at-night-with-kickass-boots-and-no-fucks-to-give sort of song that I hear Zara in every time.

Today is also a twofer, though, because there was another song on of hers that ended up on the Bloodlines soundtrack.

“Too Fucked Up For Love” really described Zara for Bloodlines.

That was the original version–pretty obscure at this point.

I'm afraid you're holding on to something that's too far gone

She’s come pretty far from that place, I think–she’s grown a lot, inching toward no longer being too fucked up for love.

Compared to Bloodlines, it’s a very different Zara Lain that’s in next month’s Counterpoint: Always Kill a Boy on the First Date. It’s been about eight years of story time between them and she’s been through an apocalypse so while I wouldn’t quite say she’s softened, she’s got a different perspective than she used to have.

But even then, she’s still that badass in great clothes strolling down the street in the middle of the night with no fucks to give.