{"id":2092,"date":"2021-04-30T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T18:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2092"},"modified":"2021-11-22T22:23:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T04:23:12","slug":"lx-chapter-commentary-1-i-am-you-you-are-me-we-are-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-1-i-am-you-you-are-me-we-are-one\/","title":{"rendered":"LX Chapter Commentary #1: I Am You, You Are Me, We Are One"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2088\">referenced previously<\/a>, the first chapter I wrote for <em><a href=\"http:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\">L Extreme<\/a><\/em> was about the song &#8220;The Mummy&#8221; starring Benji, Count &amp; Frank and referencing additional Benji Hughes songs from other albums. I did a few of those in random order and had a rough idea of how to loosely segue my way through the first side of the vinyl.<\/p>\n<p>When NaNoWriMo came around I decided to take it from the top with the very first track. I sat at my desk as the clock struck midnight (a Nano tradition to hit the ground running as soon as Nov 1 literally hits), played the album for inspiration\u2014and laughed out loud.<\/p>\n<p>The first song is an instrumental. It&#8217;s also a cover.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2110\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2110\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Love_Devotion_Surrender\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2110 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LoveDevotionSurrender.jpg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LoveDevotionSurrender.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LoveDevotionSurrender.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2110\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two men. Both wear white suits. The one on the right looks like he&#8217;s trying not to laugh&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Deep down I obviously knew this, but in my excitement hadn&#8217;t really planned for it in the moment. The idea that the five instrumental tracks would be dreams was already in my head, as was the original idea to do a 33 1\/3 style non-fiction take on the album. I knew from reading interviews the title <em>A Love Extreme<\/em> was a play on <em>A Love Supreme<\/em> by John Coltrane\u2014but <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/175DCvUVc8dcQpZoJB4Epk?si=9c640bb74185410c\">the extreme version was a cover<\/a> by Carlos Santana &amp; John McLaughlin on their <em>Love Devotion Surrender<\/em> album.<\/p>\n<p>Undeterred, I fired up that album instead (I&#8217;d randomly been turned onto it a few months prior to discovering Benji by my sister&#8217;s boyfriend). I stared at the cover depicting the two white-suited guitar legends and started writing about what I saw filtered through Benji&#8217;s eyes.<\/p>\n<p>It got polished a bit over the years, but the general structure of the trippy, nondescript white room filled with celebrities flowed out pretty much intact all at once.<\/p>\n<p>Some tidbits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As the story goes, Santana &amp; McLaughlin were <a href=\"https:\/\/vintagerock.com\/ira-kantors-vinyl-confessions-the-album-divine-carlos-santana-john-mclaughlins-love-devotion-surrender\/\">dreaming about each other<\/a> in the lead up to collaborating. The dreamy nature of this song and that fun fact influenced my decision to make all of the instrumentals dreams.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;A white suit makes you look like a doofus&#8221; was inspired by something Jim Bob from Carter USM (my other favorite musical act) said on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Carter-The-Unstoppable-Sex-Machine-The-Drum-Machine-Years-Volume-2-1992-1993\/release\/2469881\">a live album<\/a>\u2014though his version is &#8220;a white suit makes you look like a dickhead.&#8221; Same difference \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Miami Vice is both a reference to the popularization of white suits and the song &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/3JZARYS46RhrIW4tcWTdVs?si=53f4be0523df49c0\">Miami Nights<\/a>&#8221; by Dirt Nasty &amp; Ke$ha that Benji Hughes sings the chorus to.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got heart, man&#8221; has more meaning on a second read.\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_2112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2112\" style=\"width: 265px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2112\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fred_karlin-for_all_we_know-musicnotes_image.jpg?resize=265%2C265&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fred_karlin-for_all_we_know-musicnotes_image.jpg?w=265&amp;ssl=1 265w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fred_karlin-for_all_we_know-musicnotes_image.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fred Karlin: &#8220;A hip looking cat with some crazy chops&#8211;both with the music and the facial hair. He has the inverse of a goatee.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I Am You&#8230;&#8221; is actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IrP5kTwpho4\">an instrumental<\/a> sampled from the soundtrack to the film\u00a0<em>Lovers and Other Strangers\u00a0<\/em>composed by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fred_Karlin\">Fred Karlin<\/a>. The cat with the sideburns playing an organ and conducting the orchestra is a fictionalized version of Fred as a tribute to the original.<\/li>\n<li>The thing that changed the most as this chapter got rewritten were the actual white-suited celebrities. In the final version they are (mostly) a list of Benji Hughes&#8217;s influences, favorites or offhand conversational mentions.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sri_Chinmoy\">Sri Chinmoy<\/a> was an Indian spiritual leader followed by Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin. His teachings inspired them to make <em>Love Devotion Surrender.\u00a0<\/em>Sri really did have this special platform <a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/news\/weightlifting\/a-weekend-of-weightlifting-sri-chinmoy-lifts-the-worlds-tallest-horse-and-then-the-strongest-men-in-the-world\/\">he&#8217;d use to lift celebrities, animals and objects<\/a>. It was such a wild story I couldn&#8217;t resist including it here.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Up Where We Belong&#8221; references an epic duet cover version Benji did with Jenny Lewis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/benji-hughes\/2010\/largo-at-the-coronet-los-angeles-ca-639412d7.html\">at Largo in LA<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I really liked the idea of unifying the instrumental songs on\u00a0<em>A Love Extreme<\/em> into the dream sequences, but I also knew that dreams in novels\u2014especially as opening scenes\u2014were frowned upon as overused tropes. Eventually that led me to think &#8220;What if they aren&#8217;t dreams?&#8221; Hence the final line of the trippy dream-like chapter became: &#8220;And then I fall asleep.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\">Check out <em>L Extreme<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IrP5kTwpho4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As referenced previously, the first chapter I wrote for L Extreme was about the song &#8220;The Mummy&#8221; starring Benji, Count &amp; Frank and referencing additional Benji Hughes songs from other albums. I did a few of those in random order and had a rough idea of how to loosely segue my way through the first&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-xK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2083,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/new-novel-l-extreme\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":0},"title":"New Novel: L Extreme","author":"LBDG","date":"April 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been awhile but we're back with style... Announcing the new novel by JL Civi: L Extreme! Readers of this blog know I've been a huge fan of Benji Hughes for years. Somewhere along the line I decided to write a novel based on his album\u00a0A Love Extreme. For a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"L Extreme Book Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LX-Space-Painting-Cover-FINAL-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2123,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-3-you-stood-me-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":1},"title":"LX Chapter Commentary #3: You Stood Me Up","author":"LBDG","date":"May 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A dream, a frame story, and a flashback walk into a novel based on lyrics from a double album by Benji Hughes\u00a0who also stars as the protagonist.Kidding aside, the thrill of working on L Extreme was the kitchen-sink zaniness of the structure. As I began to identify the throughline of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","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\/2021\/05\/Unknown.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2396,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-16-the-mummy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":2},"title":"LX Commentary #16: The Mummy","author":"LBDG","date":"October 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favorite things about Chuck Klosterman\u2014besides this coincidence\u2014is his glowing judgment of an album by its cover review of\u00a0A Love Extreme for Esquire. One of my favorite parts of his novel\u00a0The Visible Man\u00a0is a scene where he's clearly talking about a certain television show, but dances around the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Headshot of Thurston Moore from the film Slow Century; headshot of Benji Hughes from the Appetizer EP.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM-156x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2430,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-17-love-is-a-razor\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":3},"title":"LX Commentary #17: Love Is A Razor","author":"LBDG","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Love is a razor. It's cold, and it's sharp. It's cutting out hearts that glow in the dark. And it's selling wine...\" The core of this chapter is your basic lyrically inspired play by play: C has a glow in the dark razor and challenges Benji to a shaving contest.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","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\/2021\/10\/Writing-Action-Shot-LX-Razor-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2227,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-8-where-do-old-lovers-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":4},"title":"LX Commentary #8: Where Do Old Lovers Go?","author":"LBDG","date":"July 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The song may be about going away, but ironically it helped pull the musical concept of the book together. It was also one of my favorite chapters to write. The lyrical breadcrumbs showed me connections to other Benji Hughes songs so clearly it made me start seeking them elsewhere. Benji\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","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\/2021\/06\/SpacelandSetlist-149x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2487,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-20-ladies-on-parade\/","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":5},"title":"LX Commentary #20: Ladies On Parade","author":"LBDG","date":"November 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Way back in chapter 5, \"Waiting For An Invitation\" starts with the lyric \"Ladies roll by...\" I've always considered the ladies rolling by as a precursor\/sister song to this parade (\"there is a theme there\"), so I knew we'd be headed back to the cemetery. But how would we get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","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\/2021\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-11-06-at-10.20.50-PM-300x211.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092","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=2092"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2570,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions\/2570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}