The Power of a Playlist

A few years ago, while listening to the song "Digital Ghost" by Tori Amos, the plot of a book came into my head. I pictured a boy and girl who had been childhood friends but never let a romantic relationship fully develop. Eventually they grew up and apart, and the female character became ill, and the only way the two could connect was through a virtual universe, like the lyrics suggest:

It started as a joke

Just one of my larks to see

if somehow I could reach you so

I swam into your shores

Through an open window

Only to find you all alone

Curled up with machines

Now it seems you're slipping

Out of the land of the living

The plot of this particular book has gone through many changes and revisions, but I developed a playlist on iTunes that I listen to specifically when I'm working on it. In fact, I have quite a few playlists created for books I have either written part of or am saving for a later date. Here are just a few of the songs on that playlist:

Sky Blue and Black - Jackson Browne

Joey - Concrete Blonde

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

Lay Me Down - The Connells

Comes and Goes (In Waves) - Greg Laswell

The Letter - Natalie Merchant

Fix You - Coldplay

Life is Beautiful - Vega

Breathe Again - Sara Bareilles

Digital Ghost and Bouncing off Clouds - Tori Amos

Every time that playlist starts up on iTunes, it makes me smile. It also reminds me to get back to work, and transports me to the world I've created in that book. I'm so grateful that music is such a powerful inspiration to me.

Do you have specific music/playlists you listen to while you're writing?

The Best of Me (Part One)

I recently finished reading the book "The Song Remains the Same" by Allison Winn Scotch. The narrator of the book is Nell Slattery, a thirty-something New Yorker who is one of two survivors of a plane crash. The catch? She has absolutely no memory of who she was before waking up in the hospital, and must rely on some questionable family members and friends to help her put the pieces back together. Nell's sister puts together a playlist on an iPod titled "The Best of Nell Slattery," and the music gradually sparks memories of the events that shaped Nell's life. As I read the book, I started thinking of what my own life playlist would look like.
There are so many artists and songs in a variety of genres that I could say accompanied me on my journey so far. I don't even know that it's possible to narrow it down, but I'm going to try and mix up the upbeat and depressing songs that always make me stop and take pause when I hear them. In fact, there are going to be so many songs that I'm going to divide this post into two parts -- the first 18 years of my life and then college and beyond. And I want to know, what would be on your life playlist and why?

1. "The Tide is High" by Blondie. The opening notes of this song instantly take me back to my childhood in Texas, hairbrush microphone and all.
2. "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Gos. Another great dance number.
2. "Time in a Bottle" or "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" by Jim Croce, an artist who left this world way too soon. My stepfather shared a great deal of his favorite music with me when I was a child and Croce was always one of our favorites. I can't hear either of these two songs without instantly tearing up.
3. "American Pie" by Don McLean. And "Vincent." These are just two great examples of magnificent songwriting -- basically poetry set to music.
4. "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac. Okay, it's honestly difficult to pick just one of their songs to go on my playlist. I'd really need to put the entire "Rumours" album on there, and "Beautiful Child" from "Tusk."
5. "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield. That's right. Raise your hand if you DIDN'T want to be Jessie's girl?
6. "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. My parents were huge Cars fans and I don't remember a time not listening to them. I loved Ric Ocasek's dark glasses.
7. "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna. I was a huge Madonna fan in the 80s and early 90s, so it's hard to narrow it down on this one. But I do have a great memory of singing this during our sixth-grade end-of-year chorus concert. It was a blast. And the boy I had a crush on that year played a mean air guitar during that number.
8. "Hazy Shade of Winter" cover by The Bangles. I still can't watch the movie "Less Than Zero" without getting severely depressed. But Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr. make it doable.
9. "Runaway Horses" by Belinda Carlisle. Again, lots of dancing, singing and writing really bad poetry during this era.
10.  "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. I consider this an appropriate segue into the college years.

And of course . . . a discussion on how music influences my writing to come later!