fanmix: this girl is a hurricane

[coyotesuspect]

Title: This Girl Is a Hurricane
Subject: Jo Harvelle
Notes: Jo is the only character in canon to have chosen to be a hunter. She's tough and she's vulnerable; she's brave, and she's naive and she's tragic. This a fanmix that covers the arc of her story and examines who she is and her relationships to her mother, her father, and Dean and Sam. Implied unrequited Jo/Dean.
Dedicated to: scorpiod1, not for any special occasion, but because I love you babe, and I love how much you love Jo. Also, I kept thinking of you while making this. Thank you for being such a sweet and wonderful friend.

Fanmix includes front and back covers, lyrics, uploads of individual songs, a .zip of all the songs together, and a bonus poem. 

Enjoy! And remember, feedback is good karma.

Huge thanks to familiardevil for the hand-holding, help, and encouragement. ♥ I couldn't (and wouldn't) have done this without you.



elocation (or, exit us)

the city is american, so she
can map it. train tracks, highways slice through, bleed
          only to one side. like a half-red sea
permanently parted, the middle she'd

pass through, like the rest, in a wheeling rush,
afraid the divide would not hold and all
          would drown – city as almighty ambush –
beneath the crashing waves of human hell.

          the city's infra(red)structure sweats her,
a land(e)scape she can't make, though she knows
          the way. she's got great heart, but that gets her where? egypt's always on her right (it goes

          where she goes), canaan's always just a-head,
and to her left, land of the bloodless dead.

~Evie Shockley

(1) Expectations - Belle and Sebastian
And the head said that you always were a queer one from the start
For careers you say you wanna be remembered for your art
Your obsessions get you known throughout the school for being strange

(2) Daughter - Vienna Teng
Did you know you're so beautiful
On the edge of summer
That years from now
I'll cry to remember
How very close you were

How very close you were

(3) An Angry Blade - Iron & Wine
Grace is a gift for the fallen dear
You're an angry blade and you're brave
But you're all alone

(4) Blow Away - A Fine Frenzy
Hey, hey you, yeah you gotta be leaving,
Say what you want, what you say, say anything
No one knows just how deep it goes
We are old in your teen aged tyranny
And all you need is a hunger to feed
I've got my own secrets though, say what?

With a heart full of mess and lore
We are doomed but we wanted more

(5) Girl Sailor - The Shins
A stronger girl would shake this off in flight,
And never give it more than a frowning hour,
But you have let your heart decide,
Loss has conquered you,

You've won one too many fights,
Wearing many hats every time,
But you won’t win here tonight

(6) The Greatest - Cat Power
Once I wanted to be the greatest
Two fists of solid rock
With brains that could explain
Any feeling

Once I wanted to be the greatest
No wind or water fall could stall me
And then came the rush of the flood
The stars at night turned deep to dust

(7) This Girl Is Taking Bets - Thea Gilmore
This girl is a black eye, she's a bruise on your knee
She's the ashes of the people that you really meant to be
This girl's the resurrection, she's the comeback
She's the absinthe in whiskey she is poetry and Prozac

This girl is taking bets, this girl's a silhouette, can't you see?

This girl is the clean cut, she's the frozen ground
She's a knife drawn down the side street when there's no-one else around

(8) Sally's Song - Fiona Apple
I sense there's something in the wind
That seems like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend

and does he notice my feelings for him?
and will he see how much he means to me?
I think it's not to be

(9) Red Right Ankle - The Decemberists
Some had crumbled you straight to your knees
Did it cruel, did it tenderly
Some had crawled their way into your heart
To rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you

(10) Hurricane Drunk - Florence + the Machine
No walls,
Can keep me protected
No sleep,
Nothing inbetween me and the rain
And you can't save me now,
I'm in the grip of a hurricane
I'm gonna blow myself away.

Nothing to keep me from the storm,
And you can't hold me down,
'Cause I belong to the hurricane,
It's gonna blow us all away.

.zip of music



Comments

Jo = totally a hurricane

[cantarina]

I get the sense that you're on a hiatus of sorts, so I hope this isn't too distracting! I'm writing now anyway because I'm afraid that I'll lose my notes in my sea of stuff, never to be seen again.

OH MAN, "Expectations" is an awesome high-school Jo anthem.
Your obsession gets you known for being strange [...]
In the queue for lunch they take the piss / You've got no appetite / And the rumour is you never go with boys and you are tight / So they jab you with a fork / Your drop the tray and go beserk [...] And you can't settle down
I love the idea of the unpopular best friend and the empathy in the singer's tone is gorgeous! Misfit Jo who can't balance what she knows of the world and the kids around her is just spot-on.

You know, even before I looked at the title of the track, all I could think of was Ellen and Jo's relationship. The opening lyrics are so the two of them in the roadhouse and then the lyrics punch you right in the gut. The things that matter too much to say anything but lightly! I think that Ellen's love for her daughter must be pretty all-consuming at times and this song captures that so so well!

"An Angry Blade" - I LOVE the old west, dust 'em up feel! The roadhouse had a certain element of that and Jo slides into this tone *perfectly*. I like that the idea of a blade is canonically so tied to Jo. The grief in the lyrics of this piece makes me think of her father. turning a shade of an angel born
in a bramble ditch Also, I'm totally taken with the idea of Jo as an avenging angel.

"Girl Sailor" also makes me happy!
But you have let your heart decide/ Loss has conquered you [...] But you've lost one too many fights / Wearing all of your clothes at the same time
This one hits home for both the scrappy Jo from "Expectations" and the way she and Ellen probably had some really lean times and probably never owned a whole hell of a lot. We meet two women on their feet, maybe in conflict with each other, but doing reasonably well. This is like tearing open some of the cracks the show only hints at, especially in Jo.

"This Girl is Taking Bets" - YESSSSSSSSSSSS. This is everything Jo was and could have been and all of the power in her and YES. Just, YES. Even the title is perfect.

"Sally's Song" - pffft, I didn't even know there was a cover of the original, but I'm glad you've taught me otherwise, because this is beautiful. Dean much? But maybe it's more. I think it's not to be... I like how the song credits Jo with a certain awareness and insight to herself and to the situation. It and "This Girl is Taking Bets" work really well with the wild west vibe you introduced back in song three.

"Red Right Ankle" feels like a soft, wistful goodbye. Is this her death?

... aaaaand the title track. Probably. "Hurricane Drunk". To the whole opening section, I say "That's my bb Jo!" This fits the canon character so, so, so well and it's an awesome ending point for the mix. The song speaks of struggle, but it's strength, and it's putting up your chin and putting yourself out there and that's the Jo I saw the potential for in season two and got to love in season five.

You had a lot of songs rocking an old west or folksy sort of vibe and while I wouldn't have thought to associate it with Jo, it works really, really well! Maybe it's that I like my Jo Harvelle untamed by any man or devil :P Thanks for mixing for Jo <3

Re: Jo = totally a hurricane

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

Expectations is total high school Jo, and I think it works well for college Jo, or civilian Jo, in general. (Go back to college and be the freak with the knife collection?) I get the sense Jo's never quite fit in the "real" world, and that's partly because she didn't want to. (Unlike Sam, who who so desperately wanted to, and Dean who somehow manages to fit in everywhere.)

Daughter is the ultimate Jo & Ellen song to me. *g* So I'm glad you think it works well for their relationship as well. :D

An Angry Blade definitely is a nod to her father, and to her knife. (Also, since this fanmix also somewhat follows Jo chronologically through the seasons, this song is a shout out to No Exit where Jo acts, or at least tries to act, the part of avenging angel.)

I like Girl Sailor a lot for the reasons you said, because I think it's a good poke at Jo in BUaBS, and because the title works so well for Jo.

This Girl Is Taking Bets is the first song I put on the mix. *g*

I actually wasn't aware that Sally's Song was a cover until familiar told me about it! But, yes, it's a Dean song. Jo's crush on Dean is an important part of her character as far as the show is concerned. And I definitely think she's self-aware enough to know it's unrequited. (I'll call you. No you won't; rejecting his advance in ABAH) Which gives her feelings for Dean this fantastic pathos.

Red Right Ankle is her death; it's also a bitchface at show for killing Jo for the Narrative Glory of the Winchester Brothers. "This is the story of the boys who loved you." I think Sam and Dean both loved Jo in their own way, and Supernatural is ultimately their story, they're the ones who get to save the world, and Jo gets sacrificed on the way. : /

Also, "rend your ventricles apart" works on a nice, literal level, and I'm cruel like that.

Weirdly, Hurricane Drunk was a last minute add! I already had the title picked (from God knows where), and had another song in its place. Then, literally half an hour before I posted, I listened to Hurricane Drunk and realized how much more perfect it was.

Hee. The old west/folksy vibe is partly because I think it's a sound that works really well for Jo (and for Supernatural in general), and partly because that's the vast bulk of the music I listen to. MOAR GUITAR STRUMMING.

I'm so, so glad you liked this and thank you for such a long and thoughtful comment! I truly appreciate it. ♥

Re: Jo = totally a hurricane

[cantarina]

Thanks for the insights into Red Right Ankle. A+ for subtly bitchingfacing the show! It kind of needs that sometimes.

that's the vast bulk of the music I listen to. MOAR GUITAR STRUMMING.
Clearly, you have wonderful taste in music :D

I'm always happy to leave you long and squee-filled comments ♥