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Soul music
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Plot summaryThe story follows "The Band with Rocks In" through their short-lived but glamorous musical career. The band consists of the following members:
- Imp Y Celyn, a young lad from Llamedos who sings and plays the guitar. His name is Welsh and means "Bud of the holly". Later on he uses the pseudonym "Buddy".
- Lias Bluestone, a troll who does percussion, which in typical troll fashion consists of banging rocks together. He later takes the name "Cliff", despite his colleagues' warning that no-one would last long in the music business with a name like that.
- Glod Glodsson, a dwarf who plays horn, and is not ashamed to admit he is in it for the money.
- The Librarian joins the Band for a little while to play the piano, but leaves the band before they become famous.
The band is "discovered" by C.M.O.T. Dibbler, who becomes the Disc's first manager. He tries to cash in by any means possible whilst keeping the band ignorant. He also hires the troll Asphalt as a roadie to accompany the band on its tour.
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 is forced to stand in for her missing grandfather. Complications ensue when she falls in love with Buddy, and tries to save him from his "live fast, die young" destiny as the Discworld's first rock star.
Buddy wants to do a free concert, and after Dibbler figures out how much money he can make by selling T-shirts, sausages-in-a-bun etc. to the audience, he agrees. A large number of bands, all of whom have formed in response to the original "Band with Rocks In", participate in the largest concert of all time.
Afterwards the band flees from their crazed fans. They are pursued by the angry Musicians Guild, C.M.O.T. Dibbler, Susan and Death.
Allusions to pop cultureThere are allusions to popular songs, bands and movies associated with rock 'n roll culture between the 1950s and 1990s.
Bands- Following the band's amazing popularity, a large number of other "music with rocks in" bands appear, such as:
- We're Certainly Dwarfs
- &U
- The Whom
- Lead Balloon
- Insanity|Madness]])
- The Surreptitious Fabric
- One character buys a deaf leopard instead of leopard skin pants.
- When Death is experimenting life as a homeless beggar, he is handed a coin. The next passage is "thank you, replied the grateful Death", a reference to the Grateful Dead.
- While arguing about the name of their band, one band member states that "a rolling stone gathers no moss, my father says", which could be a reference to either The Rolling Stones or a lyric from Highway Chile by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
- There's a mention of a guitar-lesson book by Blert Wheedown.
- The original cover art is highly similar to the heavy metal band Judas Priest's Painkiller album cover and also (as mentioned above) to the cover of Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf.
- The band Metallica may be referenced when Cliff is told that he won't last long in the music industry. Cliff Burton, Metallica's bassist, died in a car crash in 1987, 4 years after their debut album. Although, owing to the Discworld novels being heavily centred on English culture it could be a reference to the longevity and success of Cliff Richard's career.
- One of the characters talks about the most famous horn player in Discworld history, a monk who stole sacred gold from his temple and melted it down to make his instrument. Buddy dismisses the legend, referring to him as a "Felonious Monk", a pun on Thelonious Monk.
Movies- 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 fast die young) 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. At one stage a mumbling and rebellious Dean is called the 'rebel without a pause'. Near the end of the book, an inner voice asks Death: "So, you're a rebel, little Death? Against what?" and Death cannot think of a snappy answer.
- The Blues Brothers - early in the novel there is a parody of the diner scene where the characters order four fried rats and some coke (four fried chickens and a Coke); later, when stealing a piano, Cliff remarks they are "on a mission from Glod" (the Blues Brothers justified their actions by saying they were "on a mission from God.") There's also a scene where the band is talking to the woman who sold Buddy his guitar. She asks them, "Are you the Watch?" They reply, "No, ma'am. We're musicians", ("Are you the police?" "No, ma'am, we're musicians".
- A Night at the Opera - later in the diner scene, the ordering of food by several characters at the same time reaches a rather frantic and confusing pace, with Buddy occasionally adding "and two hard boiled eggs." This is reminiscent of a similar scene in the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera.
- Buddy starting to fade away while playing onstage is reminiscent of Marty in Back to the Future.
- Buddy playing his song "Sioni Bod Da" ("Johnny B. Goode") at the climactic concert, instead of what the audience expected, is another reference to Back to the Future.
- Twice Binky leaves fiery hoof-prints, much like the DeLorean in Back to the Future.
- Buddy always begins concerts saying "Hello, Ankh-Morpork!", a reference to "Hello, Cleveland!" as seen in This Is Spinal Tap.
- The Terminator - When Death, after commandeering the Librarian's bike asks for the Dean's coat.
- Boyz n the Hood - The band that plays before The Band appears at the climatic concert is entitled Boyz from the Wood.
Miscellaneous- One of Ankh-Morpork's premier guitar makers is a dwarf named Gibsson
- 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.
- At one point, Glod mentions that the band should be named Gold or Silver to which Buddy replies that "I don't think that we should name ourselves after any kind of heavy metal".
- The Dean is seen making himself new trousers, which are dark blue and riveted together. After a dispute with Ridcully about them, the Dean yells after him: "If history comes to name these, they certainly won't call them 'Archchancellors'." The Dean is clearly hoping they'll name them 'Deans', which is not too far away from 'Jeans'. (However, it could also be said that the Senior Wrangler was the real winner of this exchange.)
- The Dean's new rebellious attitude is a reference to the James Dean rebel image
- When the Dean makes a new leather robe he writes "Born to Rune" in studs on the back of it. This is again a reference to the 50's rockers and also to Bruce Springsteen's album "Born to Run".
- The band play at the troll Chrysoprase's bar, The Cavern, a parody of the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles amongst others performed early in their careers.
- While in Quirm, famous for its cheeses, Buddy says that the band is "More popular than cheeses," to the outrage of the mayor. This mimics the public backlash to John Lennon saying that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Appearance in other mediaAn animated adaptation was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Channel 4 in 1996. It 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 beat music (and mixing-bowl haircuts) in Ankh-Morpork, to acid rock in Scrote, to spiritual hippie rock in Quirm. In Sto Lat, they sound like the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Bad Company, but are dressed in clothes similar to the Beatles on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. 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. Crash's band is also given the name "Socks Pastels".
The soundtrack was also released on CD but is now out of production.
External links
Sources! colspan="3" | Reading order guide
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