Another instrumental closes out Side C before we flip the record for the final time. I always knew I wanted to mirror the opening of the “I Am You, You Are Me, We Are One” sequence here, but doing the fuller suited celebrity déjà vu took awhile to figure out.
Replacing the two men with two coyotes was the obvious starting point. So was making the room black instead of white. The abrupt screeching sound at the end of this track before the next song starts inspired the running on a record reveal and reinforced the color selection—but it was a goof. The screeching noise ends “Cornfields” not “Coyotes.” Oops!
For the first few drafts this was a Benji/Heartman centric dream. Switching to Songstress/L centric opened the door to convert the white suits to wolf suits and to run (pun intended) with the James Bond theme song theme.
Other tidbits:
This “dream” (if we’re still using that word) takes place inside the SAL door across the hall from the door marked MON used in the opener. The two men/two animals are intended to be the same two entities. Can you guess who?
Go, Go! GO! is a very subtle reference to my favorite children’s book, Go, Dog. Go!
From “The Greatest of E’s” comic book story by Mark Evanier. Official? You decide.
Ethelbert is the little known middle name of Wile E. Coyote. Jessica & L would know that. I dug the single letter aspect, ala C & L. It’s also debatable whether or not the name is canon, raising the question of whether or not L Extreme the novel represents canonical further adventures of Evilon & Chocolon from LILILIL.
The POV is intentionally drifting between Benji, the narrator, and L as the Lon magic of the door does its thing, becoming more firmly L by the end.
It’s true Glenn Frey from The Eagles sings on “Against the Wind” and Joe Walsh has a song called “Coyote Love.” Once again, the book writes itself.
“A full moon zips across the horizon. Or maybe I’m the one zipping by. Before I can determine which it is, a shot rings out and the moon turns red. The music stops.”
Each peep in wolf’s clothing performed a James Bond theme, listed in rough order. Burt Bacharach technically shouldn’t be here since his score appears in the spoofy/unofficial Casino Royale film, but since he has an unreleased co-write with Benji Hughes I included him here. Same with Alice Cooper, who had a rejected James Bond theme but retains a shoutout as a Hughes collaborator. Otherwise, I mostly kept the female musicians (Bond girls?) in this set of ladies on parade.
Although it may seem out of nowhere, the precedent/inspiration came from a story on how Benji’s first attempt at jingle writing was a Bond themed razor ad. (He didn’t get the gig.)
“Not knowing a song stresses me out” originally appeared in the opening chapter, but I moved it here as a complement to “You’ve got heart, man“ hinting at who is dreaming.
Is the conductor Monty Norman or John Barry? You decide…
The cross-genre extravaganza represents multiple iterations of the famous James Bond score, and also the songs of Benji Hughes in general.
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