So, as I am wont to do while aimlessly searching the web, I was reading up about Buffy and saw a stray comment about how Giles/Anthony Stewart Head used to sing “Every Breath You Take” for audiences (I assume at fan conventions). This didn’t seem like such a huge deal, but then I saw that he referred to this song as “The Watcher’s Song” because of the whole “I’ll be watching you” side of the lyrics, and suddenly I had to hear it. I scoured the Internet, and after a good hour of absolutely nothing showing up, I found a Real Player audio clip on a barely standing Geocities site. Success! Since that audio file was clearly made before the advent of YouTube, I felt it was my duty to bring it to the world of 2012 and save it for posterity. Any clip of Tony Head singing is, of course, glorious, but there is something poignant and personal about hearing him sing a song that he considered to be thematically related to his character. I taught myself how to make both a video with iMovie and upload it to YouTube, and there it is above. Please enjoy.
For the purposes of this blog, which focuses on writing (and fantasy writing in particular), I wanted to just say something about what Tony Head has done here which I find interesting. He’s given his character a theme song that he doesn’t have in the actual show, but is entirely pertinent and revelatory. You might say the whole “I’ll be watching you” has a somewhat creepy connotation to it, but if you use the show’s definition of what it means to be a watcher (a guardian, protector and guide), then the song becomes a perfect definition of Giles’s mission towards Buffy: basically, no matter what she does Giles feels he must be “watching” for her–aiding her, backing her up, counseling her, protecting her, supporting her, working with her. Not only does this help show why Giles refuses to back down from “watching” when he’s fired in season three, but the song also gives us insight into how Giles feels when Buffy dies and he thinks she’s gone for good (a feeling he claimed to be unable to express in words in Fool for Love when discussing the prospect of her death):
Since you’ve gone I’ve been lost without a trace
I dream at night, I can only see your face
I look around but it’s you I can’t replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
For me, this deepens my enjoyment of that part of the show, and of Giles in general.
What I’d say for writers is: do exactly what Head did here. Give your character a theme song that will never actually show up in your final story. Instead, use the lyrics of the song and the emotions in it to help inspire you as you craft the character’s arc and emotional journey. If you make it a habit of giving your characters theme songs that only you know about, it will help deepen your writing immeasurably.
Just think of Giles while you do this because it was his idea.
