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The Alongside Night Official Music Video was premiered at Libertopia this past weekend during my talk in the second video. — JNS



Over a year ago when I asked Soleil O’Neal-Schulman to compose a theme song for the Alongside Night movie based on the poem I’d written back in the 70’s for the forematter of the novel I did not specify a style for the song; and a month or so ago our discussions involved how her more recent music was more alternative and less likely to satisfy what I was looking for. I simply told her, “I trust your judgment; I trust your taste” — and left it at that.

When Soleil delivered a one-verse demo, here’s what I wrote her:

“The novel Alongside Night is dedicated to Samuel Edward Konkin III, whose vision of black-market traders developing a libertarian revolutionary code first inspired me to organize two conferences held off-season at my father’s brother and sister-in-law’s Camp Mohawk in the Berkshires in fall 1974 and spring 1975; and to begin writing Alongside Night in 1974. Sam was one of my closest friends when I was your age, living in New York City, and we not only had libertarian ideas in common but we also shared a lot of the same esthetics in books, movies, and music.

“Sam and I made it a practice always to go together on opening day to see the latest James Bond movie, and we both loved the John Barry underscores and the opening song which set the tone for the movie, often sung by female artists like Shirley Bassey (“Goldfinger,” “Diamonds are Forever,” “Moonraker”), Gladys Knight (“License to Kill”), Nancy Sinatra (“You Only Live Twice”), Lulu (“The Man With the Golden Gun”), Carly Simon (“Nobody Does It Better,” from The Spy Who Loved Me, and Sheena Easton (“For Your Eyes Only”).

“You have just given Alongside Night a James Bond theme song. It’s exactly what Sam would have wanted. It’s perfect.”

I wrote two more verses with Soleil’s close guidance so in a way this song is a three way collaboration between myself at around age 24, myself at age 59, and Soleil at age 21.

Soleil provided a first-draft full production of the song to Alongside Night‘s composer, Daniel May, and the final production is their collaboration.

Music by Soleil O’Neal-Schulman
Lyrics by J. Neil Schulman
Performed by Soleil O’Neal-Schulman
Produced by Daniel May

–J. Neil Schulman, October 11, 2012

Here are the song lyrics:

Alongside Night
Parallel Day
By Fearful Flight
In Garish Gray
Will Dawn Alight
And Not Decay
Alongside Night?

Alongside Night
Invisible Day
We hide our light
Out of the way
They bring the fight
We won’t obey
Alongside Night

Alongside Night
Agorist Day
To wake our fight
To make our way
We seize the right
So come what may
Alongside Night

Copyright © 2012 Alongside Night, LLC. All rights reserved.

Alongside Night Scary Poster

At Libertopia on October 13, 2012, writer/director J. Neil Schulman talks about the evolution of Alongside Night from a novel published in 1979 to a feature film currently in production. This presentation includes some exclusive surprise content.





Now in production: Alongside Night. Look for it in 2013!

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