If It Weren't For Your Wings [Steve/Tony Fanmix]

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Title: If It Weren't For Your Wings
Creator:masterofmidgets
Notes: Okay, so. I have a little bit of an obsessive love for folk and Celtic music. And a truly impressive assortment of weepy Celtic ballads in my iTunes. And my most favorite-est Celtic singer is Kate Rusby. And I've long had Bitter Boy on my list of songs that are Totally About Tony. So, I was on my way to class the other day and thinking about that, and I realized just how many of my Kate Rusby songs really work for Steve/Tony. And thus the mix was born!

Since these are traditional-style ballads, a lot of them tend to be kinda specific; I was just going for songs that fit the sense of what I was thinking of. So please ignore names, gendered nouns, and events that have never happened to the boys.



1. Bitter Boy - Kate Rusby

There was a boy, a bitter boy,
Who's golden heart I saw gleaming,
I thought I'd win the heart within,
But now I know that I was dreaming.

One of my favorite Tony songs, for all his heart problems, both literal and metaphorical, and how he tries so hard to be a good person, despite all of his (oh so very many) issues.

2. Exile - Kate Rusby

and the days are drifting into seasons
they're the hardest I have ever known
a million spaces in the earth to fill but
there's no going home
no going home

A song about Steve right after the Avengers pull him out of the ice. Waking up in a world that is completely unfamilar to im, with all his friends and family long gone, is it any wonder he feels a bit adrift?

3. The Village Green Preservation Society

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.
Preserving the old ways from being abused,
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do

My Official Avengers Song, as cracked as it is. Steve and Tony together build a team that fights for truth! Justice!...Strawberry jam? Well, why not. And somewhere along the way, they find themselves becoming friends, too.

4. Falling - Kate Rusby

And here I am falling,
Oh why am I falling.
Take me to where I belong.
I'm standing here falling,
Before you falling.
If it weren't for your wings I'd be gone.

It's not just that Tony likes Steve. It's that he relies on him - to stand by him, to be his moral compass, to give him strength. And even though Steve will never know it, he loves him.

5. Game of All Fours - Kate Rusby

As I was walking one midsummer's morning,
To hear the birds whistle and the nightingale play,
Was there that I met a beautiful maiden,
As I was a walking along the highway.

Very, very silly, and, one may surmise, just a little bit suggestive as well. Tony is surprised, to say the least, when Steve finally makes the first move and succeeds in seducing the consummate playboy.

6. You Belong To Me - Kate Rusby

See the pyramids along the Nile
See the sunrise from a tropic isle
Just remember darling, all the while
You belong to me

Steve is possessive. Tony is okay with that. It's not like he's controlling or jealous - he just wants Tony to remember, while he's off gallavanting around the world as a billionare/superhero, what he's coming home to.

7. The Moon and St Christopher

When I was young I spoke like a child, and I saw with a child's eyes
And an open door was to a girl like the stars are to the sky
It's funny how the world lives up to all your expectations
With adventures for the stout of heart, and the lure of the open spaces

And with this, we start to get into Civil War territory. Tony thinks (hopes) he's doing what's best for the superhero community, but as he pushes people away and has to do more things he regrets, it's hard to think this is all worth it.

8.  The Queen and the Soldier - Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside.

Steve's always done his duty, but now his country is asking him to do the unthinkable, to turn his back on all the values he holds dear by supporting Registration. He meets with Tony one last time, but since he's not willing to compromise and Tony won't give up on Registration, it goes...badly.

9. The Plains of Waterloo - Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts

Come all you loyal lovers, I pray you to draw near
To listen to verse or two I mean to let you hear.
In the praises of a worthy youth who's honest, fair and true,
Who fought through Spain and Portugal and fell at Waterloo.

Steve does the right (or at least the lawful) thing, and turns himself in, but in the end it doesn't matter - he is assassinated on the steps of the court when he shows up for his trial, and all Tony can do is remember that his love died a hero.

10. Sweet William's Ghost - Kate Rusby

There came a ghost to Margaret's door
With many a greivous groan
And aye he's tirled long at the pin
But answer she gave none
Is it my father Phillip?
Or yet my brother John?
Or yet my own dear William
From Scotland now come home?

The last song - Tony after Steve's death. And Tony's not very happy in the Marvel-verse right now: stripped of his power with SHIELD, company in ruins, hated by most of his friends, and in fact the world at large. And those dreams of Steve, coming back in the night to talk to him? Really not helping.


//full mix track zip on sendspace//