{"id":3347,"date":"2025-01-07T21:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T03:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=3347"},"modified":"2025-01-07T21:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T03:37:15","slug":"lbdg-commentary-23-aint-misbehavin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lbdg-commentary-23-aint-misbehavin\/","title":{"rendered":"LBDG Commentary 23: Ain’t Misbehavin’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The list of 27 is key to the plot and has an iterative behind the scenes origin story worthy of its own blog post. Thankfully it’s pretty much the singular focus of this chapter, allowing time for a deep dive here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The 27 members of the 27 Club in Local Boy Done Gone<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My list twist was to originally have Local Boy (and by extension the reader) think the time travelers are targeting musicians, creating the 27 Club as they pick them off one by one. The reveal is they’re actually trying to rescue each and every one. Virtually all musicians die at 27 in the world of the story, but they’re setting right what once went wrong one life at a time. (Get it? They ain’t misbehavin’<\/em> because they’re the good guys…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2010, my friend Gary Gunter and I collaborated on a beat sheet for a 27 Club themed screenplay. Gist was two friends go to a cool speakeasy for a 27th birthday featuring a jukebox with unreleased songs by members of the 27 club. They learn the jukebox can take them back in time, and they use it to try to save the 27s but fail. I don’t remember all the details of how this came to pass; I’m pretty sure the original idea was Gary’s and he invited me along for the ride. I do recall being the one to pitch “and the big twist at the end is the “Paul is dead” rumor was true, he did die at 27, and one of the friends from the bar is the Billy Shears who replaced him!”1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea petered out after our outline for reasons I also can’t completely recall, but the whole “Paul is dead was true” has always echoed in my brain for the last decade plus. I ran with it here — and kept running adding more and more 27 Club members who weren’t in our timeline. My one rule was I had to be able to plausibly explain why each person could have historic means to be a die at 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billie Holiday was rumored to have a government hit placed on her due to performing “Strange Fruit.” 27 year old Sam Cooke survived a car crash that killed his driver and put Lou Rawls in a coma. Paul McCartney is quoted as saying he almost became a casualty of rock and roll during the dark times right after The Beatles split. David Bowie was a mess<\/a> in his Ziggy Stardust days. Billy Joel has had a few near death experiences in car accidents and at least one suicide attempt<\/a>. Rivers Cuomo’s depression after Pinkerton’s initial flop might’ve gone deeper. What if all of these things really happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though my rule was “plausible’ I still had some fun with it. There’s a scene in It Happened At The World’s Fair<\/em> where 27 year old Elvis is kicked in the shin by a young Kurt Russell. What if it killed him in a freak accident? Britney Spears is targeted by so many tabloids another headline was easy to imagine. Flavor Flav wasn’t so much about a brush with death, but I liked the idea of the redhead being the one to give him his signature clock as a form of protection. What if the real Oasis shoe throwing incident only happened to prevent a tragic one a few years later that killed Guigsy by making him more alert for such a thing (or want to quit the band before it could happen)? And the wildest one, jointly inspired by the song “They Went Back In Time & Killed Robert Johnson<\/a>” by Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby): What if TTD was so upset over being mocked in “Lenny & Terence<\/a>” by Carter USM that he went back in time to kill Jim Bob (aka James Robert Morrison, the other Jim Morrison) in the pre-Carter Jamie Wednesday<\/a> days — only to have another time traveler stop him by having Jamie Wednesday cancel a gig and thus became the reason Carter USM formed? So realistic, sometimes this stuff writes itself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list went through a number of iterations over time. Musicians who almost made the cut included J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr (I didn’t like having 2 in the same year and moved away from “stealing songs leads to death” as a theme), Madonna (mainly present just to make a dumb Madonna & Sistine quasi-religious joke), Lou Reed (setting up a tie-in with the novel Vicious<\/em><\/a>), <\/em>Elvis Costello (to pair a second King with the two Jim Morrison’s; Michael Jackson<\/a> has him killed leaving the studio for calling James Brown & Ray Charles a racial slur<\/a>), Michael Jackson (the infamous Pepsi commercial hair fire<\/a> — but he was only 25 and it was in caused a paradox with him killing Costello), Alanis Morissette (choked on a jagged little pill), and BJ Barham from American Aquarium (Jason Isbell saved him in cahoots with the redhead after she helps him escape from the 400 unit of a certain time travel hospital; wish I found a way to keep this one).2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“So Paul retreated to his farm in Scotland in the fall of 1969\u2014where he died for real under the influence a few substances in a barnyard ram attack at the age of 27. <\/strong>“<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cComplications from a broken bone while filming It Happened At The World\u2019s Fair in 1962. Kicked in the shins by a child actor as part of a scene. The freakiest of freak accidents. I hired a different kid and he lived.\u201d<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlisted Tidbits:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n