That original lifeline.

It was sort of a deadpan joke that all the chapter titles in Set Off Like Geese were misheard lyrics. It was also deeply thematically appropriate to the subject matter, and I was happy to use an idea whose time had finally come to shine.

I went through a lot of songs to figure out which ones I could use. In the process, I learned that nobody can agree on what The Decemberists are singing, and that a lot of you out there who offered suggestions have delightful taste in music. Some of the ones I really wanted to use weren't quite right - and I figured, it'd be fun to share what almost made the cut.

- All Wash Out, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes: here comes Jenny Preacher
- Maybe Just Maybe, Sons of the Never Wrong: the crazy woman and the rotting man
- Tomorrow, James: gotta keep faith that your past won't change
- Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House: the paper today tells of war on the wise
- The Idiot Kings, Mike Doughty: my riptide-lidded eye
- Holocene, Bon Iver: straight above the highway air
- The Boy in the Bubble, Paul Simon: the baby with the babbling heart
- Exile Vilify, The National: you miss so much
- Penny Lane, The Beatles: the pretty nurse is selling puppies from a tray
- Graceless, The National: bullets through rock and to
- Introduction, Voxtrot: when I slip into the sleep that lets me love some other day
- (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, The Clash: you can't comprehend
- Johnny Appleseed, Dar Williams: that soul is hard to find
- Secret Garden, Bruce Springsteen: In the eyes of the sea
- Complete Control, The Clash: see you in control
- Ladies of the Canyon, Joni Mitchell: violent leaves are favored eaves
- Diamond Dogs, David Bowie: sashay to the bow-wow, scurry to the ditch
- Blank Space, Taylor Swift: go tell my Starbucks lovers
- Jesse Likes Birds, Carrie Elkin: Jesse likes drugs
- Church on Sunday, Green Day: if our fathers go to church on Sunday will you go with me on Friday night
- Tea in the Sahara, The Police: tears in the heart with you
- Somebody Told Me, The Killers: you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had to be very wary of last year
- Going Out Like That, Reba McEntire: here comes Eliza Bacardi
- Rain, Toto: I guess the rain's down in Africa
- Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Arcade Fire: 'cause on the surface, the city lights shine
- Want You Back, HAIM: I'll take the fall and the faultiness
- Found It In Silence, HAIM: I found it inside, I finally see
- Third Eye, Florence + The Machine: my touch, it makes fires, you pull away, you don't know where
- People's Parties, Joni Mitchell: laughing and crying you know it's the same relief

It's a bit of a shame because some of these songs are so very fitting to the fic - the correct lyrics "there's a hole where your heart lies/and I can see it with my third eye" basically is this fic's Spike and Drusilla, and in retrospect, maybe I should've used that in the AO3 summary. Something to think about.