Over the next two weeks, I want to spend some time exploring the songs and images that drove the creative process behind my first novel, Messiah of Monsters. When I speak about soundtracks, I am talking about the music I find myself listening to as I work on a piece. More often than not, I use music to help me work through character motivations and rough spots, to brainstorm new ideas, and remind me of the story when I'm not actively writing it. It's a great way to keep things fresh in my mind when I'm not able to get to a computer or pen fast enough.
If my first novel had end credits, it would probably start with them. Messiah is a wraparound story, starting near the end and ending with an epilogue. In this style, I started thinking about what songs might fit that feeling of closure. Early in the novel, Sam goes into the local diner. It's a familiar place to him, a place he feels at home in. He's been coming here for as long as he can recall; it's where his friends hang out, and the same place where his parents met. There's a jukebox, and pies, and the smells of burned coffee and gravy. We all know places like this. It made sense to me that the music that he's heard for nearly two decades should suddenly take on a more sinister tone, given he knows what will transpire and how the story will end.
So what was playing on the jukebox when Sam entered the diner that one final time? I had to think about this for quite awhile. I needed a song with lyrics that could be read both deeply and not at all. Moreover, I wanted one that was also familiar, but one that could be downright creepy if seen in a new light. At first, I was stuck on Leonard Cohen, but anything that was approaching dark or moody would be too obscure for a jukebox. Hallelujah is lovely song, and there were a couple of others, but after thinking about them for months, I found that they simply did not fit with the story, even if the image they conjured in my head still gave me some inspiration.
I arrived at the decsion that I also needed at least one song on my playlist that was timeless. It's one of my huge issues with including music as an active part in a story, and it's why I rarely do so. Often the writer loses sight of what an audience will think of their work in just five or ten years. Choosing something contemporary has a tendancy to date a story. My general rule is that if a band has been going strong over ten years, then they are likely safe to mention in passing. Only one band gets that treatment in the story, but that's a story for another post. So again, I went back to trying to imagine what would be playing on that jukebox.
The song I finally chose was The Ronnettes', Be My Baby. For many of you, this likely evokes thoughts of the movie, Dirty Dancing, but I didn't have that association. What I looked at were some of the more interesting lyrics. In the song, the singer appears to be pleading with the love interest to continue their relationship. What intrigued me most were the odd ways that the lyrics approached this, acknowleging right from the start that the relationship was unbalanced (for every kiss you give me/I'll give you three), also implicating the lover also has some sort of parental or mentor role (I'll make you so proud of me). I felt this paired very well with how Sam felt about Brande, and how he pursued their relationship partly as a learning experience. Finally, there comes a line that we often think of as flipant in most songs, the line about loving someone "for eternity," but this takes on interesting connotations in terms of what Brande claims to be and what Sam believes is real.
So yeah, this song gets quite the rotation when I am thinking about the novel. It has an almost a Stephen King-esque quality to it, a "small town puppy love" feel that makes it both safe and dangerous at the same time. It's the same kind of homey, not-quite-right feeling that Sam eventually finds in his relationship with Brande.
Something to note: in general, there can be concern about copyright when quoting lyrics in published works. One good article on the subject appears here. I rarely do it myself, but I did decide to add two very short snippets to the finished work. Since it gave me a bit of a headache debating it, I don't know that I will do so again, but I figured that in this case, it was very unlikely to be of issue, considering the fair use clause, and the negligible length. However, I stress that you should use caution if you choose to do so yourself.
Further Reading...
Check out the full lyrics here.
Be My Baby on Youtube
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