TAM LIN PLAYLIST

Tam Lin Songs:

1) Eye of the tiger (survivor)
We chose Eye of the Tiger because Tam Lin is a military man and speaks of soccer as a field of battle. He says he finds "great pleasure in watching people bump heads together." This almost directly matches the lyrics of eye of the tiger for the main chorus. This also sounds like a song he would listen to due to the overall character of Tam Lin.

2) Man I used to be (K-OS)
When Matt meets Tam Lin it has been many years since he joined El Patron in Opium and he sees Matt as a younger version of El Patron or in other words the son he never had. He tries to steer Matt away from the evil of El Patron as a bit of redemption for himself for the 20 kids he killed. This is shown when Tam Lin says "It's like the old vulture was being given a second chance" (farmer 69). In the song K-os tries to get back to his roots. "Back into the man I used to be. I tried it, I couldn't fight it"

3) Never Say Never (JB.)
We chose never say never because Tam Lin isn't someone who would give up. When Matt went down to the Eejit Pens, he found two other people named Ralph and Hugh who knew who Tam Lin was and what he had done in the past. Matt said that ""Soccer sounds a lot like war" said Matt. "It is lad. it is"said Hugh (Farmer 175).  Whenever he got his head smashed, he would get right back up and keep going. The song says: I will never say never, I will fight till forever. I believe the main line of this song perfectly rein-acts to what Tam Lin is as a bodyguard in this book.

4) Dance with the devil (breaking benjamin)
This is because on a consistent basis, Tam Lin is El Patrons Bodyguard. And though he doesn't like him and he thinks of him as a bad man, he is still forced to serve and work for him. This is why it can be portrayed as "dancing with the devil" (this is a direct literary connection). In the story (farmer, page 70): Tam Lin says "El Patron has his good side and his bad side. Very dark indeed is his majesty when he wants to be. When he was young he made a choice, like a tree does when it chooses which way to grow. He grew large until he shadowed the whole forest, but many of his branches are twisted". Even though he thinks these things, he is still forced to work for him and remain in his hoard.

5) Through the fire and the flames
We put this song in due to the fact that Tam Lin has had to go through a lot of hardship is his life and he sees Matt as a way to redeem himself. The song is about the journey to escape from a horrible land to be free and that is what Tam Lin wants for Matt. He tells Matt this "I've spent years benefiting from the horrors of Opium and now I have the chance to make things right." (farmer 244). This is also the main reason that we choose this song as it is about the struggle to do the right thing. 

6) Rock You Like A Hurricane (The Scorpions)

Our group picked “Rock You Like A Hurricane”  because we think that since Tam Lin is a rugged man, this song represents him well. This song is about being a strong powerful man, and that is what Tam Lin is described as in the book. Tam Lin is known to be a brutal fighter, and the songs lyrics are somewhat reminiscent of this so this song is a good match for Tam Lin.  We also found it cool that the bands name is “The Scorpions” in correlation to the books title “House Of The Scorpion”.

7) What i've done (Linkin Park)
This is because for many parts of the book, he deals with a lot of self angst. This is because he consistently feels guilty about the terrorist actions that he has done and he feels as though he must suffer the consequences for what he did. A quote from the book is "He was guilty of a terrible crime when he was young, and he could never forgive himself. He believed this last act would make up for everything" (page 377 [of house of the scorpion, written by Nancy Farmer] beginning of paragraph 4)


8) We are the champions (?)

We Picked this song as Tam Lin has survived a lot to get to where he is today with Matt. He “keeps on fighting until the end” like in the song and won’t give up until Opium is destroyed and the eejit’s are set free. He has some scars from his fights “Tam Lin’s ears appeared chewed, they were so misshapen” (farmer 63). He also wants Matt to succeed and be the champion like the title of the song.

9) Scottish bagpipes last song
We as a group picked a bagpipes song because we believe that Tam Lin would like a little bit of culture in his playlist. ""I picked this lot in Scotland, breaking heads outside a soccer field" (Farmer 63). Bringing a little bit of scottish music into the playlist reflects the culture and place that Tam Lin is a part of.  Also Tam Lin was a scottish elitist/terrorist, so he definitely thinks highly of his scottish heritage and would most likely participate and enjoy his homelands culture and music.


10) Stronger (Kanye West)
I believe that Tam Lin would listen to this song because, he is all about being a strong a tough man.  He also has been through a lot and this song is about basically becoming stronger from your experiences, as we see Tam Lin is very experienced with survival skills. He most likely got his knowledge of survival from personal experiences, this is reminiscent of a line from the song “That, that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger”  (Quote from song) Tam Lins experiences has made him have a stronger sense of survival.