LBDG Commentary 17: Timely Persuasion

Posted on by LBDG

In the last commentary I mentioned an aversion to albums that share their title with a song on the record. I prefer album titles to come from lyrics or overarching concepts vs. having a title track. (See: Nevermind, Skittish, A Love Extreme).

On the other hand, I’m a big fan of cheekily naming a record after a song from a DIFFERENT album or a B-Side. (See: Love is Dead, Boneclouds, Houses of the Holy, Sheer Heart Attack, Waiting for the Sun). Naming the chapter here where Local Boy reads & reviews a copy of Timely Persuasion after the other book is a tribute to this titling phenomenon.

Timely Tidbits:

  • Deciding to get a little meta by including the book in the plot unlocked allowing this to truly be a standalone sequel. Acknowledge the other book exists and summarize it right here. Those who haven’t read the first one can read it later to fill in blanks; those who have can reminisce. The book report format was a fun stylistic diversion.
  • I waffled on whether or not Local Boy should put together how his alleged older self seems awfully similar to his son’s alleged older self. Eventually I landed on him suggesting it since he’s no dummy. The question for a reader is more around which one of them is the old man really. (Or as TP put it by referencing the great Perfect Thyroid: “Which one of us is me?“)
  • Modifying the old SCHRISTINE SIXTEEN title was a way to play the old no-name game while still evolving beyond it.
“For some reason she crossed out the CHR and drew a large uppercase S in its place. Her last bit of graffiti was underlining the names of musicians from the list when they turned up.”
“The back cover had no plot summary, but it did have Local Gal’s trippy LGDB logo with the letters in a different order centered on an orange background. Aside from a strange white box filled with black lines and numbers that was it.”
  • There really are 27 references to Local Boy or LBDG in Timely Persuasion not counting the 8-track image — couldn’t have planned it better if I tried!
  • “Present consternations” would’ve completed the rhyme scheme in a lyrical Local Boy way.
  • Addressing the AWAB elephant: In TP, Local Boy uncharacteristically uses “All Women Are B——” to describe the meaning of AWAB. Some people considered it inappropriate back in 2008, but since I learned the phrase from a female friend in college I thought that justified using it. I was wrong. Repurposing it here as “All Words are Bad” and having Local Boy take offense is an effort to take responsibility for my past sins as LB blames it on the author.
  • Ditto above for “The whole Nelson as scapegoat plot felt unjustified.”

Check out Local Boy Done Gone

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