Songs In Novels

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songs that characters in novels listen to:

Louis Armstrong "Black and Blue" in Invisble Man
Van Morrison "Slim Slow Slider" in Anil's Ghost
Trainspotting High Fidelity blah blah blah blah

― Sym (shmuel), Thursday, 11 March 2004 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Alan Warner and Brett Easton Ellis to thread!

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 11 March 2004 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

mystery writer george pelecanos is the master of deploying songs/musical tastes to describe characters.

― lovebug starski, Thursday, 11 March 2004 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Stephen King always seems to have a million pop culture references in his books. I always liked him quoting the Ramones in "Pet Sematary". Too bad their song for the movie soundtrack sucked.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 11 March 2004 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

There's also some Tom Waits and Geoff Muldaur ("Brazil") in Anil's Ghost, which pleased me greatly as those three works ("Brazil," Astral Weeks, and the Tom Waits discography) are great great great.

― Sean M (Sean M), Thursday, 11 March 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

"Cocksucker Blues" in Don DeLillo's Underworld, along with a bushel and a peck of other pop culture references. Wie immer.

― C W (C W), Thursday, 11 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Pelecanos always drops some pretty surprising DC stuff into his books -- he has namechecked Dismemberment Plan and some local Go-Go bands, and lots of Dischord.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 11 March 2004 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

dennis cooper - guide (and a million other of his books)

― jesus nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 11 March 2004 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has a character named Lil and references to the "her name was McGill, and she called herself Lil" bit from "Rocky Racoon".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 11 March 2004 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"Serge's Song" by the Paranoids:
What chance has a lonely surfer boy
For the love a surfer chick,
With all these Humbert Humbert cats
Coming on so big and sick?
For me, my baby was a woman,
For him she's just another nymphet;
Why did they run around, why did she put me down,
And get me so upset?
Well, as long as she's gone away-yay,
I've had to find somebody new,
And the older generation
Has taught me what to do --
I had a date last night with an eight-year-old,
And she's a swinger just like me,
So you can find us any night up on the football field,
In back of P.S. 33 (oh yeah),
And it's as groovy as it can be."

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 11 March 2004 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

In Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Couplan, there are numerous Smiths references.

― Cass, Thursday, 11 March 2004 20:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't like it when this happens.

― m., Thursday, 11 March 2004 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Balfe's "The Maid of Artois" in "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot.

― dieblucasdie (dieblucasdie), Thursday, 11 March 2004 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

must mention the electronic music night (something like that) on crying of lot 49.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 11 March 2004 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The entire "Perks of Being a Wallflower" book is loaded with song references... just pick a page.

― Stephen, Friday, 12 March 2004 08:45 (twenty-two years ago)

In Bernardo Atxaga's marvellous "The Lone Woman", the Smiths' "Last Night I Dreamed Somebody Loved Me" crops up completely unexpectedly (the novel's set on a bus from Catalunya to the Basque Country). At least, it was unexpected to me because I hadn't read the credits in the front of the book.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 12 March 2004 09:12 (twenty-two years ago)

It seems like i remember somebody (Gene?) in Kerouac's On The Road singing, or listening too, Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do?"

Anybody?

― christoff (christoff), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Russell Hoban refers to songs a fair bit. Her Name Was Lola has the Kinks and Barry Manilow going on in it. What really blew my mind was when he referenced Shriekback in Amaryllis Night & Day. I mean, the guy was 75 or something when he wrote that!

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Haruki Murakami to thread.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm currently reading "Be My Enemy" by Christopher Brookmyre, and the Mutton Birds and Everclear are involved somewhat.

There are other songs referenced in Brookmyre books (e.g. the terrorists in "A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away" are named after the members of Queen and the Clash) but I can't remember them right now.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 13 March 2004 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(i realise that wasn't really an answer)

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 13 March 2004 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Some Prince song in Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn.

― O.Leee.B. (Leee), Saturday, 13 March 2004 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Just about every song released between 1974 and 1980 in Lethem's Fortress of Solitude. So much stuff I actually made a mix CD with the best songs from the book.

― Scott, Saturday, 13 March 2004 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't the Prince song in 'Motherless Brooklyn' "Kiss"?

Larry McMurtry's 'All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers' is named after an early Merle H. tune, and also features a toddler singing the "I got allll pig iron" section of "Rock Island Line." He also namechecks "Gates of Eden" in 'Moving On,' something in 'The Last Picture Show,' "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly" in 'Texasville' etc. etc. All great books BTW.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 13 March 2004 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick Hornby and Dave Eggers to thread.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 13 March 2004 08:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The music references in Elmore Leonard books are usually spot on and add to your understanding of the characters. While in Iain Banks books they only tell you what Iain Banks has been listening to lately.
In Trainspotting (the book) Sick Boy wears a Fall t-shirt, which doesn't seem quite right.
In 'The Man with the Golden Gun' (set in Jamaica) Bond listens to some mento songs(can't remember the titles)

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Saturday, 13 March 2004 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

In Microserfs, the only pop culture references Todd makes are to the Talking Heads.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 13 March 2004 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Asleep by The Smiths is the favorite song of the character in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Great book by the way.

― DOESTOEVSKY, Monday, 17 April 2006 07:41 (nineteen years ago)

Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, John Cale and Billie Holiday in "Watchmen".

"Big Girls Don't Cry" in "A Confederacy of Dunces".

Carole King's "Tapestry" in "A Scanner Darkly"

John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Van Morrisson, Beatles in "Number9Dream" by David Mitchell.

― Chin Tee (quipu), Monday, 17 April 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

In one of the early scenes in his terrible novel Fair Warning, Robert Olen Butler has one of his characters listening to Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces". But it's just lazy characterization. Rumor has it he wrote the novel after Sharon Stone was interested in the original short story, and this seems to be his lame soundtrack cue.

― someteenpartying (someteenpartying), Monday, 17 April 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" and Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" and a Patti Page number in Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 17 April 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

Let us never forget Douglas Adams wanking on about some Dire Straits song ("Romeo and Juliet"? "Your Latest Trick"?) for an entire rofflicious chapter of one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books.

― Mingus Realty (noodle vague), Monday, 17 April 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

Although frankly PEE PEE MAW MAW to the lot of them.

― Mingus Realty (noodle vague), Monday, 17 April 2006 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections has a character who made millions inventing a musical software type of thing.

The character is really into indie rock, and I believe there are references to The Minutemen and lots of other 80s alternative/indie bands. Can't remember any specifics, it's been awhile since I read it.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 17 April 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder how does "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" fit in here: the lyric was in the eponymous Rushdie novel before it became an actual U2 song...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 17 April 2006 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

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