#that's so greasers vs socs coded

[east-coast-snowboarder]

ok so I mean im literally the CEO of baseball aus....should I do it?

Dizzy as hell but. Sports au. Like idk baseball, or basketball, or football, or tennis, or volleyball, or SOMETHING

Oh my god sports anime’s your characters. The socs are actually just another team and rumbles are games and any kind of tussles beforehand are like scrimmages/ mock games or whatever depending on the sport. I don’t know jack about sports but I am thinking.

Idk who coaches would be. Maybe the oldest in each group or they’re just random characters

[neufer]

No one asked for this, but I wanted to go through my outsiders playlist and talk about my thought process behind each song. I love making playlists for characters and stories and think making the connections between them and the songs is very fun. If anything this is just for me to have my thoughts actually articulated and written down, but I figured someone else might enjoy it too.

Here is the playlist I’m talking about.

Okay so the first two songs are obviously from the movie and are there just to set the tone.

This next group of songs is all about being a greaser. Sort of wild and crazy because of the circumstances. Specific lyrics that demonstrate this: “I used to be such a sweet sweet thing ‘til they got a hold of me” (No More Mr. Nice Guy) and both choruses of Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked and Youth Gone Wild. The others songs are based mostly off of vibes, and I saw a post on here one time headcanoning some of the gang jamming out to Respect, and it’s like, yes give them their respect.

This group of songs is similar but it gets a little more deep and specific to certain characters. I really love Ethel Cain so I wanted to include American Teenager partly because of that. It might be a reach but I think “a long cold war with your kids at the front” is pretty outsiders coded, same with “it’s just not my year” and the whole second verse. The lines about being wasted and handling liquor remind me of Two-Bit, and the mention of Jesus reminds me of Ponyboy and Johnny. Patches by Clarence Carter is a new addition and it gives me Darry having to take over vibes. Point of Know Return for me is Ponyboy wanting to get out of Tulsa, kind of like, how long until he reaches the point where he can’t stand not to leave, until the point of no return? The lines “Your father, he said he needs you. Your mother, she said she loves you. Your brothers, they echo your words,” are also very Curtis bros coded. Standing Outside The Fire and The Poet are both very Ponyboy, specifically his passion and heightened sense of emotion and him being that way in the rough neighborhood he grew up in. I guess you could say those two songs also apply to Sodapop, and Standing Outside The Fire is also very greaser vs soc.

These two songs are about Cherry and Bob. Specifically about his drinking and other wild habits and how she knows they maybe aren’t the best for each other. “Them boys are out and they’re angry and they’re lookin’ for blood” in Oklahoma Smokeshow is also SO soc coded it’s crazy. I’m pretty sure I saw a post on here about that song relating to the outsiders so that kind of gave me the idea.

Class of 2013 is Johnny Cade, simple as that. I also think “you have so much to do and I have nothing ahead of me” in Your Best American Girl is kind of Johnny to Pony/the rest of the gang, but I also saw an edit to this song where it was Darry to Ponyboy, and that is so valid as well. And, if you’re a Darry/Paul truther, it’s also Darry to Paul (the rest of the song too, not just that one lyric). Now Runs in the Family is kind of hit or miss. Like the song in the musical, it talks about being doomed from the beginning, but I see it more as Ponyboy’s tendency to overthink and his breakdown at the end of the story. Also not being able to run from his family. There’s some more in the lyrics about the family kind of exploiting the person whose pov is the pov the song is from, and I don’t think that relates to the outsiders in any way.

This is where it starts to get serious. Obviously we have two songs from the musical. They, and another one that comes later, are in my opinion the ones that sum up the themes of the outsiders perfectly, so I wanted to include them. Fly To The Angels is about Johnny’s death and the other characters having to let him go, specifically “heaven awaits your heart and flowers bloom in your name.” Mama I’m Coming Home is about Dally’s death. I’ve been thinking of it as Dally’s pov, and while it may not work perfectly, I think it still works. Specifically, “times have changed and times are strange, here I come but I ain’t the same.” I also really like “lost and found and turned around by the fire in your eyes” but I don’t really know who that would be about from Dally’s pov. Maybe Johnny?

These next four songs are all Ponyboy mourning Johnny and Dally and longing for them to still be alive. Tuesday’s Gone is a bonus because it talks about a train and the phrase “gone with the wind.” I saw an edit of the three of them to Crab, so that’s where I got the idea for that. There’s nothing in particular about Comin’ Home, just a vibe. Copperline is all about a sense of nostalgia for a place/time you can’t go back to and if that’s not perfect idk what is. The line that does it for me the most is “I tried to go back as if I could, all spec house and plywood. Tore up and tore up good, down on copperline.”

Then these last three songs are obviously the epitome of Johnny’s message about staying gold. Stevie Wonder’s Stay Gold from the movie is a little less optimistic than the one from the musical, but I think it still fits well here at the end. Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) is actually very similar to Stay Gold from the musical in that it’s about having a better outlook (“you’re the one they can’t beat and you know it”, “just take your best shot and don’t blow it”). Obviously it applies to Ponyboy but I also think it could apply to Darry as well. And then of course Stay Gold from the musical. It’s tied with Throwing in the Towel as my favorite from the soundtrack so I would have included it no matter what, but what else would I have ended on? To me, Stay Gold perfectly encapsulates one of the main messages of the whole story. It’s the biggest message that I’ve taken from my recently renewed interest in the outsiders, so it only made sense to end with it.

If you made it this far or skimmed this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed reading and hearing my thoughts.