Ellacott + Strike

Tom Waits love songs for self-declared best friends

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

Finished The Hallmarked Man last week, and I’ve been coping with the post-book emptiness by listening to love songs by Strike’s favorite artist, Tom Waits, and thinking about Strike and Robin. So I thought I’d share a few of them here.

I’ll start with my favorite so far: “Picture in a Frame.”

I can’t help interpreting the “Ever since I put your picture in a frame”, which is repeated throughout the song, in the context of Strike and Robin as Strike finally putting Robin first, deciding that he wants her above everything else: the agency, the friendship, all of it.

And then there’s “I came calling in my Sunday best”, followed by “Ever since I put your picture in a frame” which immediately makes me think of Strike putting on a new shirt to impress Robin… and actually succeeding in THM. 😂

And, of course, the line “I’m gonna love you till the wheels come off” makes me think of that battered Land Rover after everything they’ve been through together.

Honestly, I can just picture Strike, miserable and slightly drunk, listening to this song with a glass of whiskey in his hand and thinking about Robin.

I’ll keep adding more songs to the Spotify playlist as I find them, and I’ll also be sharing the lyrics and my thoughts about them on my Twitter page, which is dedicated to Tom Waits love songs for self-declared best friends.

🎵 Follow the playlist! Link in the comments

https://t.co/nwAepzZWMn

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 @GingerBriq Definitely not. Jo is an absolute mastermind

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

Tom Waits love song about a bird who falls in love with a fish #Strellacott

'A song of a little bird
That fell in love with a whale
He said, 'You cannot live in the ocean'
And she said to him
'You never can live in the sky'
But the ocean is filled with tears
And the sea turns into a mirror
There's a whale in the moon when it's clear
And a bird on the tide'

'Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes'

'So tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part'

https://t.co/8tLgU154AF

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 @GingerBriq Exactly!! I’d never thought about it that way, but it makes so much sense 🤯😲

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 A few books ago I would’ve been sure about it, but after seeing how @jk_rowling has played with our emotions in the last few books, I’m just hoping for a first kiss.

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 And this time it didn’t even need a ring. 🥰

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

I only started listening to him after discovering Strike’s music taste, and I’m so grateful because I’m absolutely loving getting to know his discography.

What surprises me the most isn’t just all the parallels you can draw with the love songs, but how many of his songs revolve around criminals, drifters and shady characters. Some of them feel like I’m reading an interrogation transcript. They give me such a strong crime/noir/investigation vibe.

Once my emotional neediness dies down a little, I’ll start posting this kind of song too.

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@MeansB4Motive @GingerBriq Maybe she'll come back again at the beginning of STE to sort out this easily remedied problem. 👀
That shoud have happened 3000 pages ago 😪😭

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 He got carried away 🤣
An imperfect proposal from her imperfect best friend.
Actually, there was nothing imperfect about it. That was the most perfect proposal in history. 😭

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

I hate to admit it, but I love when they fight. As Strike said, “If you can’t get what you want, you take what you can get.”

Their argument in chapter 68 of THM is one of my favorite moments ever. It’s so obvious they’re both dying of jealousy over each other. I love them so much 😭

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

'It had grown so high / It’s winding wove the briar around the rose'
'I tried to tear them both apart / I felt a bullet in my heart'
'A briar and a rose'
Strike and Robin. 🌹

https://t.co/ke0DeMZejO

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@Janeite This one really hurts 💔

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

This might be one of the most fitting Tom Waits songs for Strike and Robin, and THM makes the parallels even more obvious

“You spit as you slammed out the door / If this is love we're crazy” — They spend so much of the book fighting despite being so obviously in love with each other.

“So please call me, baby / Wherever you are / It's too cold to be out walking in the streets / ... / I don't want you catching your death of cold / Out walking in the rain ” — Strike constantly pestering Robin to call him because he’s worried about her being out on the streets.

“We do crazy things when we’re wounded / Everyone’s a bit insane.” — They’re both hurt, they keep fighting, and then Strike decides that proposing marriage is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. And Robin calling him insane makes those lyrics even more fitting.

"And I admit that I ain't no angel / I admit that I ain't no saint / I'm selfish and I'm cruel but you're blind” — Strike admitting who he used to be, while Robin still can’t see how much he’s changed or how badly he wants to be with her.

https://t.co/it1YNG7sHf

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@MeansB4Motive Not sure why, but she really made the ficwriters happy with this 😂

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

I like to think they slowly moved closer in their sleep and spent the whole night breathing against each other

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

I also can’t really see him as having been disrespectful towards her. It was definitely bold of him to think she might reciprocate while she was with RFM, but I don’t see it as a mistake on his part. She had to know.

Besides, she didn’t seem uncomfortable with him doing it. If anything, she felt something she probably had never felt with Ryan or Matthew, and she was actually angry at herself for having liked it. That, to me, says a lot more about what was going on in her head than discomfort and rejection

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

Easily remedied

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

ChatGPT is going to use all the water in the world just trying to fill the void in my heart.

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@KindScorpio5 This one is definitely the catchiest so far. I know it’s going to be stuck in my head for a long time
I loved it, and it’s perfect for Robin’s troubled mind.
Please don’t stop with the suggestions, I genuinely love getting them! ❤️

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

Thank you for sharing this one 🙏😍

'I know I was a 45 percent then
I know I was a lot of things
But I am good I am grounded'

[Kind Scorpio @KindScorpio5]

@PeixeElton Strike, after the ending of THM: https://t.co/8RW7JtcqcS

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@msnomdeplume @LindsayMLand @NicklessPamela 🤯

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@MikeInWales2021 @MeansB4Motive @Litz17D @GingerBriq Wait, Kairos was an IT guy too according to his bio, and I am currently in IT 😂 What are the odds?

[Ellacott + Strike @PeixeElton]

@MikeInWales2021 @Litz17D @GingerBriq Strike needs a prosthetic leg with a built-in recorder. USB compatible, obviously
A proper James Bond upgrade.