A Dribble of Ink

As a former art student, I’m a visual person, but music has always played a big role in my life. One of my earliest memories is of sitting in the back of my parents’ car with “Hit the Road, Jack” playing on the radio. My parents had just had an argument where my father had walked out the door and then turned around and come back. That song perfectly fit a moment I’d lived through not twenty minutes before. My mother says I might have been two years old at the time — tops. Ever since then, I’ve associated songs with certain events in my life. So, it was a natural transition from real life to novel scenes.

I used music to help me travel back in time to the ‘70s. While I was writing Of Blood and Honey, I dumped anything I remembered hearing in addition to anything I might like from the era into a huge playlist. (Of course, Charles de Lint had more than a few suggestions, thank goodness.) I usually run through the giant list a few times until a select few frame up into something that tells the story of the novel I’m working on. That becomes my final list. Here’s the list for Of Blood and Honey:

Magic Man — Heart
Teenage Kicks — The Undertones
Street Fighting Man — The Rolling Stones
Kashmir — Led Zeppelin
The Boys Are Back in Town — Thin Lizzy
Nights in White Satin — The Moody Blues & London Festival Orchestra
Take the Money and Run — Steve Miller Band
Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress) — The Hollies
Bang a Gong (Get It On) [Single/LP Version] — T. Rex
Bad Penny — Rory Gallagher
Bad Moon Rising — Creedence Clearwater Revival
Live and Let Die — Paul McCartney & Wings
White Riot — The Clash
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door — Bob Dylan
Johnny Appleseed — Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

You can imagine how happy I was to have my agent call me and say, “Have you heard this song by Joe Strummer? I think of your book every time I hear it.” (Ah, moments when you know you’re working with the right people.) For the record, I’ve always seen Liam in the middle of that riot in chapter one with “Street Fighting Man” playing in the background. That was even before I’d had a final list. With that novel, I was very careful to keep my soundtrack to songs which were popular in the 1970s. However, with And Blue Skies from Pain I decided to be a bit more relaxed. I’d gotten tired of hearing the same songs over and over for two years. I wasn’t ready to go through a third year of the same. So, with And Blue Skies from Pain I went with the feeling of the song. If it fit, it got dropped into the play list. In the end, I came up with this:

Father Forgive — The Will
Dead Heaven — Gary Numan
Mad World — Michael Andrews & Gary Jules
Wish You Were Here — Pink Floyd
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking — The Rolling Stones
Your Decision — Alice In Chains
Passive — A Perfect Circle
Golden Slumbers — The Beatles
Carry That Weight — The Beatles
Little Lion Man — Mumford & Sons
Gimme Shelter — The Rolling Stones
Pretty Vacant — Sex Pistols
Seven Deadly Sins — The Outcasts
Brand New Cadillac — The Clash
The Ballroom Blitz — Sweet
The Angel Wars — Gary Numan
Sober — Tool
My Way of Saying Goodbye — Arlene Bishop
Golden Slumbers — Mindy Gledhill

As you can see, there’s a big difference between the two song lists. The Will track is, of course, a Father Murray song, the Gary Numan tracks are for the Fallen, and “Passive” was definitely for Liam and D.C. Haddock. “Little Lion Man” was one my husband found. He said that it was very much a Bran and Liam song. And it is. I’ve a whole host of car chase songs. “Brand New Cadillac,” “The Ballroom Blitz,” “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)” and “Bang a Gong (Get It on)” are all songs designed for slamming the gas pedal to the floor. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the list. I don’t know that readers ever pop a suggested soundtrack into the stereo while reading. (I’m curious to find out if anyone ever has.) But it’s fun putting the mixes together anyway.

Written by Stina Leicht

Stina Leicht’s debut novel Of Blood and Honey, a historical Fantasy with an Irish Crime edge set in 1970s Northern Ireland, was released by Night Shade books in February 2011. The sequel, And Blue Skies from Pain hits bookstores on March 6th, 2012. She also has a flash fiction piece in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s surreal anthology Last Drink Bird Head.

http://csleicht.com/