desertvixen | Jukebox Fest (Reply)

Last year was my first time doing a songs and music fic challenge, and I really enjoyed it – and got an awesome story as well! So I’m excited about this year.

My general preferences can be found here.

Musically, I like a lot of stuff. As you can see from the requests, my musical taste was largely influenced by country music in the 1980s and 1990s. But I like a lot of songs, if not necessarily following any artists specifically. I could probably have done an entire signup of Reba McEntire songs. Or Dolly Parton as well.

1. The Ride - David Allan Coe (Song)

I love ghost story songs and vanishing hitchhikers, and this one hits it. What happens to the singer?

So a bonus idea here would be for the singer/narrator to meet up with Hank Williams Jr (if you’re into country music) and connect on that level, as the song is about Hank Williams himself. Or make it about another singer altogether, or have the singer/narrator dealing with a young hitchhiker as well. But one of the moments that gives me the chills is when the driver says “The whole world called me Hank” and you just KNOW that the narrator has figured out what’s going on.

2. Fandom: Riding with Private Malone - David Ball (Song)

I love ghost story songs - tell me about Private Malone or the driver.

Pretty much it – where does Private Malone go afterwards? I’m really more interested in him than the driver. Not so much about his life in Vietnam, or how he died, but tell me about the kid who bought the cherry red Corvette. Did he get to drive it or park with someone in it? (It's okay if someone is remembering it after he's dead.)

Or tell me about the narrator finding Private Malone’s grave (Arlington, maybe) and visiting it. Maybe he sees him just one more time?

3. Why Does It Have to Be (Wrong or Right) - Restless Heart (Song)

So this is totally a feuding families type of song, or lovers who are somehow trapped on opposite sides. (If you're into GI Joe cartoon fandom at all, this is Mainframe/Zarana all the way). Would love to have some sort of social event that the song plays into?

Pretty much it. If you want to work this into either the GI Joe angle mentioned above, or maybe something related to the TV show Dallas, go ahead. Otherwise, give me your best country-western Romeo and Juliet type story.

4. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Reba McEntire (Song)

I love the video but ignore it - tell me about the song's events, or the lead up to the events.

Okay, if you loved country music in the 80s and 90s, you probably loved Reba. I did. The big hair, the costume changes, the duets with Vince Gill…and the fact that she was probably one of the best artists when it came to videos that really told a story.

Also really love this song. Would be down for a song where the place is haunted by the characters in the song, or a cold case researcher trying to solve it. (Ignore the whole part in the video where she tells him she did it.)

If you go with the cold case researcher, does the wife’s body ever get found? If you go the cold case researcher, ignore the whole video present-day story.

Why does she confess now?

Tell me a story where she sets up the judge (preferably as a younger woman).
Why did no one ever suspect her? After all, it was her fiancé sleeping with her sister-in-law.