Chapters in the original Timely Persuasion used songs with numbers in the titles. Local Boy Done Gone mostly (but not always) sticks to songs but skips the numerics. Here we have a semi-lost non album Mason Jennings track, sticking with the stolen/missing song theme.
Another thing I tried to do while naming chapters was segue between sections in unexpected ways. We just found a set of stolen songs in the previous chapter, but now we’re asking where they are.
Tidbits:
- Although Local Boy doesn’t speak in song lyrics like his son (and wife), sometimes it just kinda happens. I couldn’t resist pairing the “everything everything everything” Violent Femmes reference with the ongoing “if only if only if only” refrain stuck in the character’s head. In the universe of the story, there’s some residual past self telepathy going on feeding his occasional lyrical Tourettes.
- Originally all we knew about Local Boy’s parents was they weren’t around much in 1969 and their grandson had trouble finding their house. Here they get a little more characterization being shipped off to Europe and having a separate library & study hinting at their personalities.
- “The only other other sound system” isn’t a repeated word typo. I like the singsong ring to it plus how “other other” is a subtle play on “Won One.” I almost changed it many times but always landed on keeping it, for better or for worse.
- Barry McGuire’s cover of PF Sloan’s “Eve of Destruction” has been a favorite for as long as I can recall knowing music. I hadn’t heard the whole album until it was reissued for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2021. Mostly covers but fantastic enough to earn a place here in Local Boy’s esteemed hall of greats.
- Harry Chapin on the other hand was central to TP1, so Local Boy having never heard of him is an in-joke and generally/chronologically likely.
- The implied yet unseen do-over regarding how Local Boy learned “Won One” from the old man primarily exists to show changes to the timeline are possible. It was important to establish this now before shining a different perspective on time travel a few chapters later.
- “Without music, the butterfly effect is enormous” sums up the theme of Local Boy Done Gone. A few reviews of TP1 wished the Local Boy song-stealing subplot was explored further and/or a bigger part of the plot line. Your wish is my command…
- “Hopefully not all the way to my own Plan E…I don’t like flying” is about as JL Civi as it gets on the complex bad joke front.
- Speaking of flying, we’ve got Harry flying in his taxi, Local Boy’s dislike of planes, and the orange flyer for the open mic night (and some of the dialogue leading up to it) as a loving Back to the Future homage. Save the clock tower, save the music. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
“We do now.”