Pub Songs & Stories: Reaver Drinking Song (Patreon)

Touring musicians sometimes fall into a dangerous trap. Find out how I escaped it…this time. Learn what fun was had at my 20th anniversary at Dragon Con and how it all began. And finally, the reavers in the TV show Firefly are crazy and insane, yet they can fly a spaceship. Learn the twisted story behind why they now have a “Reavers Drinking Song”.

WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. This is the audio liner notes for the songs I record and play.

The show is brought to you by my Gunn Runners on Patreon. If you enjoy this podcast and my music, please join the Club. You’ll get 2-3 behind-the-scenes podcasts per month. You’ll be able to download songs featured in this show, get sheet music, and access to Coffee with The Celtfather video concerts. It’s just $5 per month. And you can save 15% with an annual membership.

1:02 - WHAT’S NEW?

Dragon Con was amazing. It was my 20th anniversary performing there.

It all started because I saw Emerald Rose on the MP3.com charts. I checked out their website and saw they were performing at I-Con, a science fiction convention on Long Island in New York. I wondered, “why is a Celtic band performing at a science fiction convention?”

So I called up the convention. Kerry answered. She was a fan of ours all because of our success on MP3.com. We started chatting. Next thing I knew, we were booked there as well.

We got to know Emerald Rose at I-Con. They raved about Dragon Con and invited us to come. I don’t remember what shows we had. But I know it wasn’t long before we became part of the Filk Track. I also remember our debut concert.

I think it was Thursday. Emerald Rose was playing a show that night. They invited us to play a couple songs. I think we played “If I Had a Million Ducats” and “Do Virgins Taste Better”. The songs were a HUGE hit. People LOVED what we did. The next night, our show was packed with people who wanted to hear more. It began an annual pilgrimage to the show.

All of that was fantastic. However, this past weekend was my favorite of the past 20 years. Not only did we have some amazing shows, but my wife was able to attend too. And I escaped the musician trap.

I am hard working when it comes to my music business. I didn’t let up for years. Andrew and I would go to a Renaissance festival. We started playing music as soon as we left our car. We warmed up with bright, cheerful tunes. We played almost all day.

I still remember when we went to Castle Muskogee in Oklahoma. We started playing at about 7 AM. We stopped at about 9 PM. At one point, we were busking in a pub. The audience started dying down at the end of a song. So we decided we would take a break. Then in walked more people who immediately got into our music. So we kept playing. That went on for hours. I was so sore at the end of the day.

I eventually realized as I got older that I can’t go non-stop. In fact, I shouldn’t drink too much when I have a really big convention like Dragon Con, because it dries out the vocal cords. My voice is about gone by the end of the weekend.

So the past 10  years or so were mostly fun when I did shows. They were not so much fun in the off hours. I recouped. I didn’t really experience the convention. I went to shows, the table, to lunch or dinner, and then back to the hotel.

It’s the musician trap. It used to happen when I traveled to gigs too. Instead of stopping to enjoy where I was at, I went straight to the venue. I did the show. I went to my hotel.

This weekend reminded me why that’s no way to live. Sure, sometimes it’s necessary. But other times, I have to push myself to do more.

Because, well, I think it makes for better shows. I had so much more fun this year breaking the mold of my Firefly Drinking Songs show. I let Mikey Mason take the lead on the closing song. He was brilliant!

The Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers show had people lined up in the hallway to listen while the track director turned many others away.

The Kids Filk show was just upbeat joyous fun!

The Brobdingnagian Bards shows had people crying with laughter.

And I might’ve been drunk for Hobbit Drinking Songs, but the energy of the show had 400 people singing every word to the songs that Rie Sheridan Rose and I wrote.

Here’s to many more years of that.

5:45 - “Heart of Fangorn” by Brobdingnagian Bards from Memories of Middle Earth

9:07 - UPCOMING SHOWS

SEP 14: Coffee with The Celtfather (Public) on Bandcamp

SEP 22: Lord of the RIngs Drinking Songs Livestream @ 7:30 PM ET

SEP 28-OCT 2: ALEP, Shakertown, KY with Brobdingnagian Bards

OCT 8: Ironshield Brewing, Lawrenceville, GA @ 7:00 – 10:00 PM.

OCT 14-16: MultiVerse, Atlanta, GA

9:42 - STORY OF REAVERS DRINKING SONG

Reavers are like demons in the Firefly universe. They’re goblins or orcs of Lord of the Rings. There’s a great line from Zoe when we first meet reavers in the very first episode of Firefly. She says:

“If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing and if we're very very lucky, they'll do it in that order.”

We learn about the origins of reavers in the movie, Serenity, which I’m gonna assume you’ve seen since it was released in 2005. So I don’t think this should have any spoilers, but just in case, forward about 40 seconds, and you should be fine.

It turned out that reavers were part of an experiment by the Alliance. From the FireflyWiki page:

“Reavers originated from one of the outermost planets in the solar system named Miranda. The Alliance had been testing behavioral modification on this planet through a chemical known as "Pax." The chemical was designed to inhibit aggression and anger, and was administered through the air recycling system on the planet.

A tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite intended reaction, with their aggression and primal instincts boosted beyond simple madness and into the realm of animalism, robbing them of their humanity.”

When you see them on the screen, they are insane. More like rabid dogs than actual humans. And yet they are humans. But they are crazy. Insane.

And yet… they can still fly spaceships?

This was one of the ideas that came to me while watching the episode “Bushwhacked” for the In the ‘Verse podcast. Mikey Mason and I were joking about the fact that they are crazy but can fly a spaceship. Since I do a lot of drinking songs. It seemed only natural for me to write a drinking song for Reavers.

I started with the chorus because any good drinking song needs a good sing-along chorus.

“Bash their heads, flay their skin / Make them scream in pain / Let ‘em alone and think you’re done”

Those are just good fitting lyrics for reavers in general. This song is a classic folk song, like you’d find at a Renaissance festival. So the end of the chorus is

“Let’s start another refrain”

Normally, I do not like writing songs ABOUT characters in the shows I love. But I was having a lot of trouble with this song. It was an easy way out. And then it turned out to be funny.

In the first verse, Niska is old. He likes to talk about “reputation”. So I mentioned that I had him cremated.

“Badger was a businessman / Roots in the community“A reaver ate his little gang / and now he can’t even pee”

That’s a classic Ren Faire-type line that both refers to Badger’s character as a small-time, community-based gangster. It also has the double meaning of little gang being the size of his penis.

Duran was in the episode “Trash” as one of the many husbands of Saffron aka Yo-Saff-Bridge. He had a lot of money. So I made him eat steak before he became a vegetarian thanks to reavers.

One of the few things we know about Bester is his love of ships and women. We met him in the episode “Out of Gas” having sex with Kaylee. He was Serenity’s first mechanic. So I got to wordplay Bester having sex with women followed by reavers having sex with Bester.

Every time I think of Boss Higgins' law set in stone, I think of the Ten Commandments with Charleton Heston, which I watched annually as a kid. And maybe it’s not the best comparison since I suspect Boss Higgins would more likely make something from clay than stone. But stone definitely rhymes better with bone.

In the Big Damn Movie, Malcolm Reynolds points out that Fanty is the prettier twin. So when they meet reavers, Fanty is messed up enough that Mingo is now prettier.

Jubal is the bounty hunter in “Out of Gas”. He was definitely a sadist. This is another one I let slide a little lyrically. Because while he is a sadist, I say, “He rambled about philosophy / while a reaver started to chew”. That line seems more masochistic. I mean, it could still work. But not for what we know about Jubal.  But whatever. I really love how the lines flow. It’s a good twisted visual, especially if you’ve seen the episode.

The final verse comes in part from the episode “Bushwhacked”. “No Mercy, they all were weak / cattle for the slaughter” is a line that is used by the passenger ship’s lone survivor in the episode. Again because of the craziness of reavers, I felt like it would rhyme well with the crazy, off-the-wall last lines, “Open them up and look and inside / I think I see Harry Potter”.

I’ll be honest. This was not one of my favorite songs I wrote for the In the ‘Verse podcast. But it’s grown on me. And it seems like everyone who hears the song Loves it. I’m not sure if that’s because of all the memories it recalls from the TV series or if it’s just the fun and absurd chorus. I mean, how often do you get to sing: “Bash their heads, flay their skin / Make them scream in pain.”

I feel like it appeals to the twisted side of human nature, much like my Happy Songs of Death CD.

15:51 - “Reavers Drinking Song” by Marc Gunn from Come Adventure With Me

You can download this song as an MP3 in the shownotes for this episode on Patreon if you’re a member of the Gunn Runners Club.

18:26 - FEEDBACK

What are you doing while listening to Pub Songs & Stories? I’d love your thoughts and feedback. So take a picture of yourself or where you are or what one of these stories reminds you of. Post it on social media. Use the hashtag #pubstories so I can find it and share your story.

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. The show was produced by Marc Gunn, edited by Mitchell Petersen with graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. You can subscribe and listen to the regular show wherever you find podcasts. You can also subscribe to my mailing list. You will get regular updates of new music, podcasts, special offers, and you'll get more stories behind several of my most-popular songs.

And of course, please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor.

Have fun and sing along at www.pubsong.com!

#pubstories #reaversfirefly #dragoncon2022