I can’t not start with these images…
We now resume our regularly scheduled commentary, already in progress.
This chapter fully embraces the “use the gifts you gave yourself” method of writing in general and especially sequel-ing. Almost every trope in the TP universe gets up on a familiar stage for a final curtain call. Local Boy playing a coffee shop open mic night, Jimmy’s sharkskin jacket, the whole Nelson family, songs stolen from the future, Harry Chapin, the Redhead, and of course “Won One” for good measure. Plus it all happens on a very important date.
I Took Off To Find the Tidbits:
- “It was a little bit funny” is a nod to a recurring line in the new Quantum Leap.
- Ricky Nelson playing drums really did inspire Cousin Jimmy the Drummer (CJTD?).
- “A Fifth of Beethoven” was released as a single on May 29, 1976 and reached #1 after nineteen weeks, which would be around October 9th—a month before this chapter.
- “Dueling Banjos” was popularized a few years earlier via the film Deliverance. Local Boy was remiss in not acknowledging the great Arthur Smith as the writer.1
- “Footlights were a few originals that could use better lyrics” is a very JLCivian callback to “Taxi” two paragraphs prior.
- Local Boy’s revelation that “This song belongs to everyone now” regarding “Won One” sets up the ending we’re barreling towards. He doesn’t understand what it means and says it just “popped into his head”—not unlike how some words popped into his head way back in the first chapter.
- “It’s like she read my mind, since red was on my mind” should’ve been a lyric. But was she on his mind, or in his mind?
- Bonus: Neither Local Boy nor I could come up with LBJ themed parody lyrics to “Johnny B. Goode,” so I asked ChatGPT to give it a whirl for fun:
“Lyndon B. Goode“
-ChatGPT, via prompt “Write a parody version of the song ‘Johnny B. Goode’ about former President Lyndon B. Johnson, reimagined as ‘Lyndon B. Goode.’ Use historical facts when feasible.”
(To the tune of “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry)
Way down in Texas ‘round the Pedernales stream,
Lived a big ol’ fella with a mighty great dream.
Didn’t play no guitar, didn’t rock real loud,
But he sure knew how to sway a crowd.
From the Hill Country plains to the Senate floor,
He’d twist your arm ‘til you gave him more!
(Chorus)
Go, go! Go, Lyndon, go!
Go, go! Go, Lyndon, go!
Go, go! Go, Lyndon, go!
Go, go! Lyndon B. Goode!
Took over office when JFK fell,
Sworn in on a jet, knew he’d govern well.
Launched the Great Society, Civil Rights too,
Sent folks to the moon, but to ‘Nam troops flew.
Signed Medicare and Voting Rights laws,
But that Vietnam War gave him major pause!
(Chorus)
He’d lean real close, give the “Johnson Treatment,”
Make a senator sweat like a guilty defendant.
Towered six-four, loomed like a tree,
Said, “Ain’t nobody arm-twistin’ better than me!”
Won in a landslide, but by ‘68,
He said, “I ain’t runnin’, I’ve had my fate.”
(Chorus, repeat and fade out)
SHE TOOK OFF TO FIND THE FOOTNOTES
- I just learned while writing this commentary post the song was originally had a “Feudin’ Banjos” title. Would’ve been perfect in the previous section. I also found this great quote from Smith: “A good copyright is really worth something,” he told the Charlotte News and Observer in 1998. “I’ve always said I’d rather have 10 good copyrights than the Empire State Building. I get a nice check every 90 days.” ↩︎