That song she sang? That’s an aether shanty. Surely it’s not the only one, though it’s the first we’ve “heard” in the strip so far. We were wondering if you knew of any more?
Here’s a chance to help us enrich the details of our world. We’d like to see a collection of aether shanties and folk music from the floating lands composed by our readership. I’m sure some of you play musical instruments, and all of you have it in you to at least come up with some words for others to sing!
I’m hoping that we’ll at least solicit some lyrics, and also some actual recordings of songs that we can collect on a service like SoundCloud. In the best interests of mimicking the folk tradition, let’s establish that everything created via this thread is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, meaning that everyone can share, remix, adapt and use the stuff we come up with, so long as those new remixes, adaptations, and uses are released with a similar license.
Use the comments section of this post as a grounds for sharing your work or your interest in collaboration. Personally, I’d like to hear songs performed in a traditional style with traditional instruments (if you have access to a hurdy gurdy, you automatically win at everything). But we’re open too to “modern interpretations” of classic aether tunes.
Here’s a contribution from me to kick things off. Feel free to do with it as you please (consider it inspired by Marty Robbins):
♬
The man who rode from Tanitin
With a mustache waxed and black
Went out pursuing five men
Only one of them came back
And the fifth, he told of four graves
Where once four men had been
But he’d not dared to draw against
The Man from Tanitin
♬
No deadlines, no obligations…let’s see what we can come up with! When you have something to share, drop it in a comment, or send a link via an Aethergram.
The Daughter, the Mother, the Crone
We hold in trust and light
She is forever young
And steadfast in the night
The truest gentle sovereign
That Aether may beget
The Rose is Allyria
and we shall not forget
Lovely!
You wrote the lyrics perfectly for a traditional folksong save one thing: The refrain. Nearly all folksongs have one or two lines, then a refrain – ex: “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme!” I’m going to add a refrain to your excellent song and have it for you soon!
Hi Greg!
We met at the 2012 Emerald Comic Con and you clued me into Lady Sabre, but it took this long for me to get over my aversion to webcomics to fall in lurve with what you and Rick are doing, here! Anyway, here’s my Aether Shanty:
That wench, they said, is well-past dead
A mermaid bathed in seaweed
Once beached, then left, her lost love leeched
A thief had poached her great need
The winds will rise, the foaming tide
Subsides and soon will falter
‘Til then we’ll chase and steal the taste
Of salt caught from found shelter
Shiver me timbers, hoist the sail
Heave-ho and pass the bourbon
My love is gone, my gold is spilt
And jail is mine for certain
This Aether is the end for me
Privateer turned and twisted
Witch blinded to all future crimes
The past remains my burden
Looking forward to Thursday’s comic, all the best!
Sincerely,
Brad “Bear Bomb” Barnes
This is delightful! So glad you checked us out, and even more so that you like what you’ve read!
Hi Greg and Rick!
CRY FOR BLOOD remains my favorite Huntress tale, as well as one of the best retroactive continuity stories of all time. But LADY SABRE & THE PIRATES OF THE INEFFABLE AETHER has a great menu of characters, a wealth of well-constructed gadgets and a Wild-Wild West spirit running through it: what a blast! All the best!
Sincerely,
Brad “Bear Bomb” Barnes