- Highlight
- #1
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about “Snake Eater,” the titular song in the 2004 video game masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In it, I gush about the song and how it is as responsible for the prestige of the game as anything else. Tucked into the final paragraph, I made an entreaty to the song’s performer, Cynthia Harrell, to get in contact with me. Her powerful vocals suffuse “Snake Eater” with such gravitas, elevating it from a simple song on a video game soundtrack to something that sees regular rotation in travelling video game orchestra performances and in people’s weddings. I wanted to hear from her, hear about her, and ask her if she knew what her song meant to people.
But I couldn’t find out anything about her.
Google her name and the top results are her wiki pages for Metal Gear Solid 3 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (wherein she’s credited for performing that game’s closing song, “I Am The Wind”). I couldn’t find any interviews. I didn’t know if she had gone on to do other video game work or not. In fact, one of the other top results from a “Cynthia Harrell” web search returns an r/videogamemysteries Reddit thread whose author posits she might be dead.
Concerned that this woman might be lost to me beyond the veil of death, I did my own research. I searched Facebook for surviving relatives mentioned in obituaries for Cynthias Harrell, cross referencing the locations of the many matching names I found against the location mentioned in the obits. Found a hit that way. My heart sank as I scrolled through the timeline of a person lamenting their lost mother. But then I realized this couldn’t be who I was looking for. This woman was white, and what little I did know about Cynthia Harrell is that she is a Black woman.
Frustrated by the dead ends, I made one last attempt that I realize now I should have started with: I searched Twitter. I found several hits for a Cynthia Harrell but only one with the picture of a Black woman who looked approximately like the woman on the cover of the Castlevania “I Am The Wind” single. Since this profile did not allow direct messages, I took a very public shot in the dark and @-ed her.
And she answered.
It took a week or so of stops and starts, buried under work and life, but I finally managed to speak to her. And y’all…Cynthia Harrell is awesome.
When we first started our phone conversation, what struck me was that Harrell sounded like one of my aunts. I was nervous before speaking to her. Nervous that she would find my sudden air-drop into her life intrusive. But she dismissed my worries with the soft, warm tenor of an older (but not old) Black auntie that instantly put me at ease.
“What have you done?” She asked me jovially. “You have brought back all kinds of memories. Jesus.”
some highlights
Her family sang with Aretha Franklin
She is sort of a gamer. Her favorites are Super Mario Kart and Zelda. Japan gifted her a playstation and she did play Metal Gear.
She was recovering from knee surgery when they asked her to go to Japan to celebrate the game release.. She had dinner with Kojima.
She had no idea people were looking for her. Nobody ever asked her to go to a convention or anything.
She did Snake Eater in two takes.
She also did a song for Castlevania.
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This woman is amazing. Hopefully they'll invite her to events and things.
