Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Evolution of a Song

As I work on my newest novel, The Wager, I've been constructing a playlist on YouTube as mood music to write by.

Based on suggestions from various people, from NPR's 50 Favorite Songs on 2012 (so far) and from the recommendations YouTube makes in response to these jumping off points, to evoke different scenes from the book. Mostly I've tried to stay away from songs people know well.


"He Called Me Baby" started out as a Patsy Cline song, released just a month before she was killed in a plane crash in 1963. Then, in 1970. Candi Staton remade it with a blues arrangement. Still a wonderful song, but in a totally different way. In 2009, One Eskimo released a song called "Kandi" about a guy dealing with his girlfriend's infidelity. An homage to the Candi Staton version, it actually incorporates Candi's version into the arrangement. I love the idea of this song being repurposed and taking on new life and new artistic meaning along the way. And I think Patsy would like knowing that it ended up as a cheatin' song.

1 comment:

  1. One evening i was a wisp of wind
    blown in a house
    passing through time

    This song fell on the heavy lacquered steps

    my childhood pillow breathed it it in as I fell asleep

    those women in the alley separated me from the royalty...the old bricks in the alley

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