Dear Jukebox Author....

[betony]

I'm so glad you decided to write for one of these songs! I hope you enjoy working with at least one of them, or at least the prompts I've included!
Songs:
All For Love of One--Mediaeval Baebes
The Crane Wife--The Decemberists
In Another Life--Vienna Teng
Tam Lin--Mediaeval Baebes
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)--Florence + the Machine

As far as general likes/dislikes: I like humor/snark, long plotty fic, retellings or resonance with myth/folklore/etc., worldbuilding, idealism, unreliable narrators, playing with or twisting tropes, and women being awesome in multiple (not just Strong Female Character, to quote Kate Beaton) ways. I prefer you avoid any consent issues or explicit sex/violence (that is, anything up to a M rating on AO3 is fine, but nothing beyond that, please)

Before you look at any of these prompts, however; if you have a plot bunny for any of these songs already, run with it! I'd love anything inspired by one of these, so whatever you'd like to work with should be fine. However, if you'd like a few more ideas.

All For Love of One--Mediaeval Baebes
I must go walk the wood so wild
And wander here and there
In dred and deadly fere
For where I trusted I am begeld
And all for love of one

Thus am I banished from my bliss
By craft and false pretence
As one from joy were fledde
As from my leaf day by day I flee
And all for love of one

My bed shall be the greenwood tree
The running stremes my drinke
And acorns be my food
When of your beauty I do think
And all for love of one

This song is so wonderfully evocative-- I love the sense of adventure and danger throughout, and I've quite wanted to know the backstory behind what led to the narrator's circumstances. Who is the narrator, anyway; male or female, rich or poor? Who betrayed them, and how? Who is the object of the narrator's love, and how was that love responsible? What happens next to the narrator?

Or, y'know, if you just want to go with the obvious and write Robin Hood-inspired stuff, that would be cool as well :D

The Crane Wife--The Decemberists
"The Crane Wife 1 & 2"

[1]

It was a cold night
And the snow lay low
I pulled my coat tight
Against the falling down
And the sun was all
And the sun was all down
And the sun was all
And the sun was all down

I am a poor man
I haven't wealth nor fame
I have my two hands
And a house to my name
And the winter's so
And the winter's so long
And the winter's so
And the winter's so long

And all the stars were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

It was a white crane
It was a helpless thing
Upon a red stain
With an arrow its wing
And it called and cried
And it called and cried so
And it called and cried
And it called and cried so

And all the stars were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found
My crane wife, my crane wife
My crane wife, my crane wife

Now I helped her
And I dressed her wounds
And how I held her
Beneath the rising moon
And she stood to fly
And she stood to fly away
And she stood to fly
She stood to fly away

And all the stars were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found
My crane wife, my crane wife
My crane wife, my crane wife

[2]

My crane wife arrived at my door in the moonlight
All star bright and tongue-tied I took her in
We were married and bells rang sweet for our wedding
And our bedding was ready when we fell in

The sound of the keening bell
To see its pain erect
Soft as fontenelle
The feathers and the thread
And all I ever meant to do was to keep you
My crane wife
My crane wife
My crane wife

We were poorly, our fortunes fading hourly
And how she vowed me, she could bring it back
But I was greedy, I was vain and I forced her to weaving
On cold loom, in a closed room, with down wove

The sound of the keening bell
And to see its pain erect
Soft as fontenelle
The feathers and the thread
And all I ever meant to do was to keep you
My crane wife
My crane wife

There's a bend in the wind and it rakes at my heart
There is blood in the thread and it rakes at my heart
It rakes at my heart

My crane wife

[3]

And under the boughs unbowed
All clothed in a snowy shroud
She had no heart so hardened
All under the boughs unbowed

Each feather it fell from skin
Till threadbare while she grew thin
How were my eyes so blinded?
Each feather it fell from skin

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

A gray sky, a bitter sting
A rain cloud, a crane on wing
All out beyond horizon
A grey sky, a bitter sting

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

I'd be interested in something from the wife's perspective for the song: how does she manage her transformation? What are her thoughts on her husband? And how strange do the human world and human mores appear when seen from a crane's point of view? Alternatively, I've never gotten the sense that the wife will return (I don't believe she does in the original folktale, either), but does she ever check up on him again? (Or, if you do think she comes back one day in this version, I'd love to be convinced of a happy ending.) Finally, incorporating any other crane legends or imagery would be very neat!

In Another Life--Vienna Teng
In another life
You and I worked West Virginia coal mines
Side by side
Collecting the black dust like sin
The day the main shaft caved in
I caught your eye
As the lantern light guttered out
And the afterdamp swallowed us slowly
I gripped your hand
And caught a glance
Of the next time 'round

In another life
You and I were Red Guards in training
Side by side
We marched on Tiananmen
Turned our own parents in
For hoarding rice
And in the Great Leap forward
We crawled on our bellies and died
A blood orange sky
Gave a cry
Of next time 'round

In another life
I was married at thirteen
You were killed at twenty-one
On a minor battlefield
I was buried beside my second stillborn child
My last thought it seemed
A fever dream

Now we sink into a summer afternoon
Central Park in June
Marveling at the bounty our days contain
And we feel it like the shiver
Of a passing train
That other life
Deep underground
You and I
Side by side
We are the next time 'round

I'd love to know more about the stories of the other lives mentioned in the song: what are their different relationships to each other? Do any other aspects of their lives follow them through their reincarnations? Anything, really, that expands on the song would be great!

Tam Lin--Mediaeval Baebes
What gar's ye pu' the rose Janet
What gars ye break the tree
I'll come and go by carter haugh
And ask me leave of thee.
He's ta'en her by the milk white hand
And by the grass green sleeve
He's led her to the fairy ground
And spierd at her nae leave

A word I winna lie Janet
The truth to thee I'll tell
My father was a noble knight
And loved hunting well
And on a cold and frosty day
Down from my horse I fell
The queen of fairies she caught me
In yon green hill to dwell

And at the end of seven years
We pay a tiend to hell
I am sae fair and fu'of flesh
I'm feared it be myself
This night is Hallwe'en Janet
When fairy folk moun ride
And they that would their truelove win
At miles cross they must bide

So gloomy gloomy was the night
And eiry was the way
As Janet in her mantle green
To miles Cross she did gae
And then upspoke the Fairy Queen
Tam Lin if I had know
I would have pulled out both your eyes
To give you eyes of stone

This ballad--all versions of it, really--is one of my favorites. So! Any retelling will be excellent. Given that this version features the Queen's voice so strongly, something about her and Janet might be interesting; or, something that deals with what happens next. I've always wondered how Tam Lin would adjust to being a mortal again, and how that would affect Janet? But basically anything about this ballad would be marvelous.

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)-- Florence and the Machine
The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades
I start spinning, slipping out of time
Was that the wrong pill to take? (Raise it up)

You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up
But will it ever be enough? (Raise it up, raise it up)
It's not enough (Raise it up, raise it up)

Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl
Frozen in the headlights
It seems I've made the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

I look around, but I can't find you (raise it up)
If only I could see your face (raise it up)
Instead of rushing towards the skyline (raise it up)
I wish that I could just be brave

I must become a lion hearted girl
Ready for a fight
Before I make the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

Raise it up, raise it up
Raise it up, raise it up

And in the spring I shed my skin
And it blows away with the changing wind
The waters turn from blue to red
As towards the sky I offer it

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift

This song fascinates me--obviously it draws strongly on sacrificial maiden imagery, but something giving the narrator more agency might be interesting as well. I've always wondered if you could see the song as telling the story of a woman who becomes a hero or warrior (given the emphasis on going from a rabbit-hearted girl to a lion-hearted one) but finds herself trapped by the price for her courage, or for her survival. Or the repeated references to Midas--is she trapped by greed, whether her own or someone else's? Any of these possibilities--or any other that you'd like to run with--would be excellent!