Another thing I have done in my work with Bruce, my character for Just a Little Lovin, is to make a short playlist for him, and even found “his number.” This again I did with my friend, but have worked on it since, (but I still can’t recommend enough to work on your character with a friend, it has really been helpful, especially if you’re a bit nervous about it.)

So the songs are both songs I know but also songs from the time and inspired by the playlists they have made for the game, (I’m listening to that right now). Not all of the songs are made before the game is set, but most is, and the most important one is, and one is definitely not from the eighties, but it has it’s point. So lets go through them.

Queen: Don’t stop me now
As soon as I remembered this song I thought: “This is perfect!” And the more I listen to the lyrics it just screams Bruce. But also the tempo, the partyness of it, the beet, it just fits! And luckily it’s made late in the seventies, so it could easily be the song he listens to, as he gets ready for another mad night out.
Just see these lyrics that I have picked out from around the song:
“I’m floating around in ecstasy”
“I’m a shooting star leaping through the skies”
“Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity”
“There’s no stopping me”
“I’m burning through the sky yeah!”
“Two hundred degrees”
“I’m trav’ling at the speed of light”
“I wanna make a supersonic man out of you”
“I am a satellite I’m out of control”
“I am a sex machine ready to reload”
“Like an atom bomb about to Oh oh oh oh oh explode”

Queen: Another one bites the dust
The one thing that got this one the list is the beat, its hard and sweaty. This songs plays in his head when he’s putting on his suit that fits just so. Or the one he hears after a good day at the stock exchange, where he has just gotten another client from the nose of a competitor. It’s a powerful song, and he likes it. (Queen fits in general, the lead singer also lived a double life, and lived life too hard. But I don’t think we yet knew he was gay by 1982?) Where the lyrics in “Don’t stop me now” fits perfectly for Bruce they don’t so much for this one, this is more the beat and the repeated phrase: “Another bites the dust.” Taking down another one, be it a good sale or another young lover, both is a success to be celebrated long into the night.

Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
Again this is only because of the beat. He likes to move to it, both on his way to the office and in bed. But also the strength and agility Jackson radiates in this song, is something Bruce likes. By coincidence I ended up with six songs, so you can in a way also see them as songs for each act. So the previous two are the ones from act one, it fits that act, is all about love, parties and enjoying life. Now this is the first song of act two, (which is a bit darker, and about partying, because there might be no tomorrow, ignoring the fear and partying for one more night.) So “Billie Jean” fits as the story in the song, is a bit more dark, but Bruce ignores that and keeps the party going.

Queen: Headlong
This one is kind of says the same thing as “Don’t stop me now” but with two differents: the singer says: you instead of me and it still someone moving too fast, but now out of control and heading for a crash. “And there’s nothing you can do about it…” If Bruce reacts to the pressure in act two with even more partying, this song fits very well, it can easily go very wrong and what he has been suppressing will hit him hard. The question is: will he realize the course he’s on and will and can he change it? I don’t know, but I hope I get to find out. (Bruce might die before this point, but I sure don’t hope so, I really want to explore this character, especially in act two, I can survive him dying (haha pun) in act three, but would still regret it.)

Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
This song is from before I started dividing them into acts, so it’s both a symbol of him chasing those pleasures (sweet dreams) (and again it’s also the beat I like), but it can also be the confusion act two and three might be putting on Bruce. What is his dreams and what is it everyone else around him wants? The sound if the song is also slightly mystisk and confusing, this is the conflict in Bruce. “Everybody’s looking for something, what are you looking for Bruce?”

Marilyn Manson – Sweet Dreams
But that’s just the same song! And it’s definitely not from the eighties, I hear you shout. Yes, I know, but I just like it so much, so it went on there. But the more I listen to it and especially in connection with the Eurythmics version, they start complimenting each other. This is much more dark and destructive, this is the sound of loss and collapse. I imagine, that if this was a film and that if Bruce did die, this song would be playing as he scared and (maybe) alone died. You never came around, you wasted your life, the devil mocks him as he gasps for the last time. This is in short the worst end that Bruce can face. Will it come to that? I don’t know, I have no idea how the two last acts will be, I and don’t want to. It’s impossible to plan anyway, as he and other players will also have a great influence on what happens.