{"id":112,"date":"2008-08-29T12:53:15","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=112"},"modified":"2014-03-12T21:18:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T05:18:52","slug":"evolution-of-local-boy-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/evolution-of-local-boy-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of Local Boy Covers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned in the commentary for Chapter 15<\/a> that the short set of covers Local Boy first plays for the narrator underwent a number of iterations.\u00c2\u00a0 Thought it would be fun to explore those old versions here.<\/p>\n

In the very first draft (circa 2003), the songs were:<\/p>\n

I’ll Follow the Sun
\nWe Can Work It Out
\nIn My Life
\nEveryday
\nI Walk the Line<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two of the final five are already present (“We Can Work It Out” & “Everyday”).\u00c2\u00a0 As for the others:<\/p>\n

I’ll Follow The Sun<\/strong>
\nIncluded because it’s acoustic and simple, but dropped since the narrator previously referred to it while finding his way around town.<\/p>\n

In My Life<\/strong>
\nChosen for the time travel imagery the song evokes, and possibly also because Johnny Cash covered it.\u00c2\u00a0 Dropped for the same reasons and to not have multiple Beatles songs.<\/p>\n

I Walk The Line<\/strong>
\nHonestly I don’t recall why I picked this, which probably explains why I dropped it.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably classified Cash as one of the “rock and roll forefathers” that the narrator’s Dad influenced him with in his younger years.<\/p>\n

The next iteration:<\/p>\n

Homeward Bound
\nPeople Are Strange
\nWe Can Work It Out
\nEveryday
\nSugar, Sugar
\nAll Along The Watchtower<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The set expands to six and now contains four of the final five.\u00c2\u00a0 Also of note is a comment I found scribbled in the margin of a previous draft:<\/p>\n

“Nick Drake?\u00c2\u00a0 Rod Stewart?\u00c2\u00a0 Homeward Bound?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Only one of those notes (temporarily) made it in, but the influence was felt.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember this for later…<\/p>\n

Notes on the discarded songs:<\/p>\n

Homeward Bound<\/strong>
\nAn obvious choice to connect the dots between the Dad calling Paul Simon “one of the greats” in a previous chapter.\u00c2\u00a0 Would have loved to have kept this one, but it didn’t fit the final theme of the cover set.<\/p>\n

Sugar, Sugar<\/strong>
\nThe Billboard Single of the Year<\/a> for 1969, and coincidentally just wrapping up four weeks at #1 on the charts the day our hero arrives in ’69.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

And now for the final version in the actual book:<\/p>\n

People Are Strange
\nWe Can Work It Out
\nEveryday
\nPiece of My Heart
\nAll Along the Watchtower<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember that Nick Drake note?\u00c2\u00a0 Seems it subconsciously put dead musicians in my head, which set things up for the final theme of this set of covers.<\/p>\n

People Are Strange<\/strong>
\nChapter 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<\/a> to Local Boy.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you say foreshadowing?<\/p>\n

We Can Work It Out<\/strong>
\nIncluded from the very beginning, I kept it to dovetail with the “Paul Is Dead” reference earlier in the book.\u00c2\u00a0 Incidentally, Paul was 27 in 1969.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Everyday
\n<\/strong>Also included from the first draft, this should have\/could have put the theme in my head from the start.\u00c2\u00a0 Just a great classic song and one that showcases the simple LB style I envisioned.\u00c2\u00a0 The lyrics also evoke time & love, making it a good fit.<\/p>\n

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

All Along The Watchtower<\/strong>
\nSee the Jimi\/Jim note above.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

iTunes Playlist<\/a> (Including all non-Beatles songs referenced)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned in the commentary for Chapter 15 that the short set of covers Local Boy first plays for the narrator underwent a number of iterations.\u00c2\u00a0 Thought it would be fun to explore those old versions here. In the very first draft (circa 2003), the songs were: I’ll Follow the Sun We Can Work It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-local-boy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-1O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":663,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/another-mans-dg\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":0},"title":"Another Man’s DG","author":"LBDG","date":"June 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"While walking the dog I had a random thought: Why did I use \"Local Boy Done Good\" instead of \"Local Boy Done Gone\" in TP? 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/pretending-im-like-kurt-cobain\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":1},"title":"Pretending I’m Like Kurt Cobain","author":"LBDG","date":"April 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't believe Kurt Cobain has been dead for 14 years. Both he specifically and Nirvana in general were big influences on me growing up, and that influence clearly bled into the narrator and the book. And how about this for an illustration of time travel cause and effect in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3069,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lbdg-commentary-5-piano-man-the-new-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":2},"title":"LBDG Commentary 5: Piano Man & The New Plan","author":"LBDG","date":"June 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not exactly a song title, but here we invoke Billy Joel\u2019s pseudonym plus a snippet of a Paul Simon lyric. No need to be coy, but why not? History repeating in a similar but not exactly the same manner when LBDG becomes LGDB is another bit straight out of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/unisex-staple-t-shirt-cardinal-front-668adec893751.jpg-e1722113787123.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/unisex-staple-t-shirt-cardinal-front-668adec893751.jpg-e1722113787123.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/unisex-staple-t-shirt-cardinal-front-668adec893751.jpg-e1722113787123.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/unisex-staple-t-shirt-cardinal-front-668adec893751.jpg-e1722113787123.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/unisex-staple-t-shirt-cardinal-front-668adec893751.jpg-e1722113787123.webp?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/commentary-17-wounded-kite-at-17\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":3},"title":"Commentary 17: Wounded Kite At :17","author":"LBDG","date":"June 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We finally return to \"present\" time, allowing our hero to discover that things have changed...but not for the better. His homecoming focuses on the effects of extended time travel on the body as well as his ensuing confusion when things aren't quite right. To make matters worse, this may no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1104,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/painting-tasters-done-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":4},"title":"Painting Tasters Done Good","author":"LBDG","date":"January 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever since Timely Persuasion came out back in 2008 I've always wanted to do some sort of tie-in soundtrack type thing featuring covers of the Local Boy songs, but various attempts to get a project like that off the ground always stalled for one reason or another. \u00c2\u00a0Until now... Lounge\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3089,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lbdg-commentary-8-the-big-break-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":112,"position":5},"title":"LBDG Commentary 8: The Big Break-In","author":"LBDG","date":"July 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Local Boy bailed on his previous big break to take the redhead\u2019s ride in a tan van. This break-in is even bigger\u2014directly revisiting a scene from the previous book. I keep calling Local Boy Done Gone a standalone sequel, but in these commentary posts I also keep pointing out places\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}