Before we go there, a quick origin story:

There was always an idea for a sequel to Timely Persuasion, but I never thought I’d actually write it. Years later came a completely different concept of a companion piece following the Local Boy musician character from 1969 to present, re-telling the story from his perspective while filling in a few time-jump gaps. I dug the idea enough to run with it for a few NaNoWriMos starting with the leap year anniversary in 2020 (TP1 was released on 2/29/08)…and another leap year later here we are!

Original plan was to kick things off when the narrator visits his father in 1969 from Chapter 14 of TP, but quickly decided it was more interesting to base it on the version of the same scene from Chapter 24 when Local Boy’s fame gets undone via some time travel shenanigans. Technically this makes Done Gone more of a straight-up sequel than a retelling, but the 1960s and 70s scenes were such a small part of the first book treating it as an overlapping yet mostly independent story was a fun challenge. That said, there are some sly comments in the original hinting the 2002 present-day father knows more than he’s letting on I wanted to explore more. Always needing a stunt to keep writing interesting, “standalone sequel that might actually be a prequel” fit the bill and fueled my fire.

Ye Olde Tidbits:

• A working title of “Father’s Days of Glory” named for a line in a Carter USM song stuck around for years, though eventually using the LBDG initials made more sense. Local Boy’s debut album in TP1 is titled Local Boy Done Good, but a little over a year after the book came out my future self sent me a vision of what another man done gone inspired by the Billy Bragg & Wilco take on Woody Guthrie. That future self was last year’s me!
• Similarly, the opening line used to be “Here I go again on my own” leaning into the original TP narrator’s penchant for speaking in song lyrics. Two problems there were a) the song that lyric comes from wasn’t around in 1969, and b) one of Local Boy’s guiding principles is “don’t mock the greats.” Cutting the anachronism was the right move.
• Six paragraphs in and the cousin from two brief first book scenes gets a name! One of the stunts in TP1 was to not reveal the name of any character except for Nelson. Here I considered going the complete opposite and naming every minor character every time they drifted by, but instead decided to be selective. Stays true to the spirit of the first book without being completely beholden too it, and in my mind stays realistic since most people don’t go around announcing their names left and right in real life while amongst friends.
• As referenced above, the other stunt of TP1 was the narrator speaking in song lyrics. Since Local Boy respects the greats too much to steal, I liked the idea of having him thinking in original lyrics that aren’t very good. Like father, like son but with a twist. This perfectly fit his established character background of being an excellent musician and vocalist but not a good songwriter.
• Local Boy was originally loosely inspired by a guy I knew from college named Ben Wood. His philosophy was “Never lose your stride” — a line I mentally associated with Local Boy in TP1 but never had him say/think until he does here while mowing the lawn.
• Example of a bad original lyric: “Blades of grass, blades of metal. Pickup trucks, it’s all connectal.”  Beta readers were quick to point out connectal isn’t a real word (duh!) and assumed it was a typo, so I tagged on “Not my best rhyme, but not a bad rhythm” in an effort to let people know it was intentional.
• I don’t love the father/son dialogue on the lawn, but since this is a retelling of an old scene I resisted the urge to rewrite and instead augmented/masked it with inner monologue. “His speech sounded scripted” is a nod to both the recycling and keeping it intact. Same with “Not that good of a line,” said with winking irony after introducing some of Local Boy’s lyrical stylings.
• At the end of TP1, the time traveling son’s adult father explains how he chased a solicitor off the lawn and immediately went inside to write “Won One.” So why’s he going inside to write “If Only” as the opening chapter closes? There’s always another side to the story…

Check Out Local Boy Done Gone

Lounge Act by Ken Gordon

Back in the summer of 2009 I heard a cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by a band called the Painting Tasters (aka Ken Gordon) on an indie hodgepodge episode of Coverville.  It was a great version in a Local Boy-esque kind of way, but my interest was really piqued when Brian Ibbott said there were also covers of “Drain You” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the band’s website.

I especially dug those covers and the way they were billed as “how I imagine Dylan or Tom Petty would play it,” so I sent Ken Gordon an email. We chatted back and forth about Nirvana and cover songs for a few days, he generously offered to take a stab at “Lounge Act” from TP, and eventually the conversation tapered off as we both got busy with real life.  I had more or less forgotten about the whole thing until he found me on Facebook in late December 2010 with a link to a huge cache of “Nirvana Country” covers he’d been working on!

Ken has put together a great batch of songs, somewhat reminiscent of the “Local Boy Does Nirvana” set I’ve envisioned previously but with different songs and so much better since he’s actually recorded them with his own unique spin and voice while still staying true to Kurt’s original lyrics.  The things he does with some of the heavier songs really blow me away.

Check out the full set along with some non-Nirvana songs on Ken Gordon’s Facebook, and get a bonus preview below of his rendition of Tourette’s — my favorite of the bunch since it’s almost unrecognizable going in and probably should have made my Local Boy short list:

Tourette’s by Ken Gordon

Thanks, Ken!

Once upon a time a designer named Chank Diesel put together something called the Rockstar Font Project. He basically took handwriting samples from musicians and turned them into fonts. Participants included Mike Doughty from Soul Coughing, Kelley Deal from the Breeders, Steven Drozd from the Flaming Lips, Mark Sandman from Morphine, and Everlast from House of Pain.

Being a big Soul Coughing fan I downloaded the Mike Doughty “Wichita” font shortly after it came out, messed around with it for 10 minutes, and then forgot all about it since I didn’t really have a practical use for it. (Origin story in Chank’s own words is available at WBR.com)

Flashforward a decade. While working on the remastered layout of Timely Persuasion with Bryan Davidson we hit upon this idea of doing the Local Boy setlists in a handwriting font. Originally we tried the Apple “Marker Felt” font, but it felt sort of cheesy and overplayed. I suddenly remembered Wichita, and miraculously managed to copy it over each time I switched computers over the years.

I emailed Mr. Diesel regarding permissions and he was super cool about it, as was Mr. Doughty when I let him know of his inspiration. And there you have it.

While we’re on the subject of Mike Doughty, check out his amazing new album Sad Man Happy Man. I know this sounds odd coming on the heels of my Benji Hughes post, but this is another of those rare, expectation-defying albums I just can’t get enough of. Beats out Dark Night of the Soul for my album of the year crown, and when the newness clears might even give Skittish a run for its money on the “best album ever” front.

This question came out of nowhere. There was no internal debate over the name of Local Boy or his album during the writing phase. I honestly don’t remember any distinct inspiration. It had a nice rhythm, the LBDG letters looked and sounded good together, and that was that. But now that this new “Done Gone” thing had entered my head I couldn’t shake it, leading to this chain of revisionist history…

• One of the songs the narrator taught Local Boy in the past could have been “Another Man’s Done Gone” from the Billy Bragg & Wilco collaboration Mermaid Avenue.
• The “DG” in the LBDG album found in the record store would link back to that reference.
• In the Local Boy recap chapter, LB could be wrapped up in the mild controversy between Woody Guthrie’s estate and Bob Dylan over the rights to Woody’s leftover lyrics, leaving the narrator in a bit of hot water for “borrowing” a song that he considered to be “from the future” which had actually been written but unreleased in the past.
• And best of all, it would set up an awesome title for a career spanning box set: Local Boy Done Gone Called It Quits Live At The Coverville Barnstormer.

(Confused?  Refresh your memory on the adventures of Local Boy in Chapters 15 through 17 of Timely Persuasion either online, in paperback, or on the Amazon Kindle.)

What happened happened, and all things considered I’m fine with the Local Boy Done Good album title.  But what might have been if I fully explored the above thread?  I leave you with this:

So when you think of me, if and when you do
Just say, “Well, another man’s done gone”

You can listen to a mix featuring original and cover versions from Local Boy’s second performance here:

Enjoy!

In the very first draft (circa 2003), the songs were:

I’ll Follow the Sun
We Can Work It Out
In My Life
Everyday
I Walk the Line

Two of the final five are already present (“We Can Work It Out” & “Everyday”).  As for the others:

I’ll Follow The Sun
Included because it’s acoustic and simple, but dropped since the narrator previously referred to it while finding his way around town.

In My Life
Chosen for the time travel imagery the song evokes, and possibly also because Johnny Cash covered it.  Dropped for the same reasons and to not have multiple Beatles songs.

I Walk The Line
Honestly I don’t recall why I picked this, which probably explains why I dropped it.  Probably classified Cash as one of the “rock and roll forefathers” that the narrator’s Dad influenced him with in his younger years.

The next iteration:

Homeward Bound
People Are Strange
We Can Work It Out
Everyday
Sugar, Sugar
All Along The Watchtower

The set expands to six and now contains four of the final five.  Also of note is a comment I found scribbled in the margin of a previous draft:

“Nick Drake?  Rod Stewart?  Homeward Bound?”

Only one of those notes (temporarily) made it in, but the influence was felt.  Remember this for later…

Notes on the discarded songs:

Homeward Bound
An obvious choice to connect the dots between the Dad calling Paul Simon “one of the greats” in a previous chapter.  Would have loved to have kept this one, but it didn’t fit the final theme of the cover set.

Sugar, Sugar
The Billboard Single of the Year for 1969, and coincidentally just wrapping up four weeks at #1 on the charts the day our hero arrives in ’69.  Made sense that Local Boy would be covering something that was really big at the time, and when I did the pop chart research it felt like a perfect choice.  Dropped for the same reason as “Homeward Bound,” I think that this cover probably popped up on a few of Local Boy’s tours from time to time and might even be on the LBBS live album.

And now for the final version in the actual book:

People Are Strange
We Can Work It Out
Everyday
Piece of My Heart
All Along the Watchtower

Remember that Nick Drake note?  Seems it subconsciously put dead musicians in my head, which set things up for the final theme of this set of covers.

People Are Strange
Chapter 16 originally started off with the death of Jim Morrison, but was later changed to Jimi Hendrix when I rewrote it to include the narrator predicting the other members of the 27 club to Local Boy.  Can you say foreshadowing?

We Can Work It Out
Included from the very beginning, I kept it to dovetail with the “Paul Is Dead” reference earlier in the book.  Incidentally, Paul was 27 in 1969.  I also liked how having Local Boy do this song famously in 1969/70 might have stolen the thunder from Stevie Wonder’s 1971 cover, furthering the unexplored impact of stolen songs.

Everyday
Also included from the first draft, this should have/could have put the theme in my head from the start.  Just a great classic song and one that showcases the simple LB style I envisioned.  The lyrics also evoke time & love, making it a good fit.

Piece of My Heart
Like Coverville‘s Brian Ibbott, I’m also fascinated by gender swapping covers and had to include Local Boy doing Janis in his repertoire.

All Along The Watchtower
See the Jimi/Jim note above.  In my head this version sounds like LB doing a folk version of Hendrix rather than Dylan, making for a deliciously interesting translation from folky Dylan to electric Hendrix and back to folky Local Boy.

iTunes Playlist (Including all non-Beatles songs referenced)

I’ve not so coincidentally timed the commentaries so we’d reach the Kurt Cobain chapters this week. But before we get to those, here’s something else. For a fleeting moment early on I flirted with having the Local Boy songs only be Nirvana covers, but it never got past the idea phase. To be honest I can’t decide if it would have been better or worse. Figured today would be an appropriate day to explore what might have been with a rundown of essential Nirvana filtered through the folky acoustical lens of Local Boy. Selections and liner notes below.

LBDN: Local Boy Does Nirvana

On A Plain
I distinctly recall my excitement when this was played on Unplugged, as it was both unexpected and perfect at the same time. This was originally the Nirvana track chosen for Local Boy back when the songs skewed towards “famously covered,” but I felt it was too obvious and changed it to “Lounge Act” for the final draft.

Lounge Act
This has gone back and forth for me over the years, but I think I can finally cement in writing that it’s my favorite song on Nevermind. Thus why it ended up being the Local Boy choice in the book. I can vividly hear the Nevermind/Rubber Soul hybrid version described in my head, but I’d be doing it a disservice by attempting to articulate it further.

Curmudgeon
An underrated B-side that I was this close to using for Local Boy, but I was worried that people either wouldn’t know the song or if they did they wouldn’t believe it could be done acoustically. Almost makes me want to learn guitar to prove my vision. This is another that I can clearly hear in my head as a beauty all stripped down, though I think Kurt would be disgusted if he knew that.

Oh, The Guilt
Probably my favorite rarity and another that was under consideration for Local Boy initially, but abandoned for the same reasons described in “Curmudgeon” above.

About A Girl
A no brainer to be played in a folk rock style, but impossible to omit. The Beatlesque comparisons are spot on, and something that has always made me appreciate music criticism.

Hairspray Queen
The trippiest song in the Nirvana catalog and one that every musical loving instinct I have tells me I should hate, but I’ve dug it since the first time I played Incesticide. Has to be included in an all-Nirvana Local Boy set, detractors be damned.

Swap Meet
An overlooked Bleach song I’ve always been partial to. I hear this toned down in a bit of a Lou Reed Velvet Underground style, doing the chorus like the verses of “Temptation Inside Your Heart.”

In Bloom
There’s a part on the uncut Unplugged In New York DVD where Kurt sarcastically says “How are we supposed to play ‘In Bloom’ acoustic?” in response to a request. (Odd since he once did an acoustic “Negative Creep” at an in-store.) When I first heard that I took it as a dare and was up for the challenge. Here’s how: Play “Be Here Now” by Mason Jennings but use the lyrics to “In Bloom.” Spooky how perfectly they fit…

Blandest
When I first started collecting B-Sides and rarities this was my holy grail. Never understood why it wasn’t the first B-Side, or even A-Side for that matter.

Breed
An odd choice, but I think I can articulate this one. Imagine the main riff finger-picked in a Nick Drake style, with the lyrics not much more than a slow and grainy whisper ala M. Ward. Can you hear it?

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
In Utero being a more aggressive screamer of an album makes acoustic translations tough without going for obvious choices like “All Apologies” or “Dumb,” so I’ll take this as my surprise token eastern song.

Spank Thru
This one could totally be pulled off almost as is in a very straightforward acoustic number. A bit of a shame to downplay Kurt’s best recorded scream, though maybe Local Boy could get away with it if it was the encore.

Full Playlist at iTunes

Timely Persuasion Press Release for Cobain Anniversary