Part 2 promised a van & a list. Here you get both. Musically a hit list is a ranking of top tunes—but there’s also a more nefarious, entertainment agnostic meaning. The list becomes Local Boy’s obsession for the rest of the novel.
Tidbit List:
- Learning the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered mere weeks before the time period we’re in was fun and became a nice little through-line.
- No offense or appropriation intended when Local Boy calls their meeting a powwow. It was common usage in 1969 before the world put more stock in respecting cultural traditions, and I felt having Local Boy use it here showed despite his best intentions he’s still a child of his era. He’ll get called out on this later.
- A winking nod to the DeLorean: “I wondered if the van was the actual time machine we used, but the idea of a time traveling car seemed silly so I didn’t bring it up.”
- The first 7 names we see on the list were designed to obfuscate the purpose while reinforcing Local Boy’s musical knowledge. The redhead (literally) points us to how names get on the list when she says “He was 27, like the others” before revealing the trio of commonly known 27 Club members in the next batch. But why is Paul McCartney included?
- “The List” warrants a dedicated behind the scenes post I’ll slot in a little later so I’ll stop digging in here. I will say I’m very thankful my past self chose the “Paul is dead” date as the entry point to Local Boy in Timely Persuasion since it let so much of this new story naturally fall into place.
- In the paperback the list is in my terrible handwriting using a font created with Calligraphr.
- I still really like this bit: “His stare continued to haunt me via the side mirror as we pulled away. Reflected objections hit closer than they appeared.”
- Originally the redhead did take Local Boy to see Paul McCartney, but I didn’t love the scene and it violated the previously mentioned “Local Boy is not a time traveler” rule (which seems to already be violated at the Cobain house—but technically isn’t based on the re-enactment and “Paul isn’t a memory” hints provided here.)
- Props to Dr. Frank for the rhyme (and rhyme scheme) inspiration on conversations with reservations, undisclosed participation, concert-going destination—though I tried to make it Local Boy’s own bad lyrical style with no subliminal help. Respect the greats!