Literature and Music: Circular inspiration
From Nathanael Johnson
| 00:05:30
Producers: Nathanael Johnson
It's not often that authors get to "rock" - or that musicians get to be literary. But the cross fertilization of the two can be incendiary.
Lots of music woven together with stories of inspiration. A musician is inspired by a book - an author describes how music helps her move a plot forward - and then a musician becomes an author and when one of his literary characters starts writing songs, he starts performing them.
Assembled at San Francisco's Litquake festival.
Transcript
For Bay Area songwriter, Jill Tracy, inspiration was born from pages damp with spilled alcohol.
JT1 - I was cleaning up the bar late at night I was the only person there the place was a mess and I noticed someone had left a book behind.
NJ2: It was Low Life ? by Luc Sante, a New York history written with all the flair of a crime novel.
JT2: you know it was 2:30 in the morning and I started reading through some of the pages and the next thing I knew the sun was coming up and I was still reading Low Life. And it has since inspired ?Evil Night Together.?
Post music (Lyrics ?Let?s spend and evil night together?)
NJ3: If you think about it, you can probably come up with a few dozen songs that come from books. White Rabbit, by Grace Slick, Bowie?s 1984, the entire band Steppenwolf. It works in the other direction too. San Francisco author Kaui Hart Hemmings says music insp...
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Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Running Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turncoat | Anti-Flag | Terror State. | Fat Wreck Chords, | 2003. | 00:00 |
| Evil Night Together | Jill Tracy | Diabolical Streak. | 125 Records, | 1999. | 00:00 |
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Additional Information
- Produced: Dec 11, 2006
- Added to PRX: Dec 11, 2006
- This piece is in English