The Music Of Kid Silver: Alone

I wanted to share some of the musical influences that guided me while I worked on Kid Silver: Alone.

 

1.)   Bottom of the River: Delta Rae’s “Carry The Fire” –

 

Hold my hand.

Oh baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river.

Hold my hand.

It’s a long way down. It’s a long way down.

 

I heard this song for the first time on VH1. It was a part of the rare music video blocks that occur in between shows about drunk women slapping each other. It’s this eerie soul-filled song with diluted echoes of field Hymns. There’s this call-and-response, call-and-response rhythm that expresses, at least to my ears, a desperation and seduction. I don’t know how Kid Silver: Alone and Bottom of the River fit together, but they do. Like chocolate and potato chips, it shouldn’t work but it does. Possibly, it has something to do with Maxwell’s descent into darkness. The seduction of the gummy, tan Heroin on the tip of his finger. Were he to snort it up his nose, it’d go a long way down…a long way down.

 

2.)   Die Young: Ke$ha’s “Die Young- Single”

 

I hear your heartbeat t

to the beat of the drums.

Oh, what a shame that you came here with someone.

So, while you’re here in my arms

Let’s make the most of the night

Like we’re going to die young.

 

This one’s a little embarrassing and a little obvious. Elena dies young in the novel and for some reason, this spoke to her death. Elena died the way she wanted to. She died fighting and she died loved. This song is about someone living like they were going to die the next day. I don’t want to attribute some philosophical depth to a Ke$ha song, but this song, in particular, isn’t exactly philosophically shallow, either. Also, it’s just crazy catchy. I could easily listen to it on a loop for a solid hour.

 

3.)   Mayday!!!: Flobot’s “Fight With Tools.”

 

Spray paint on the teleprompter

Anchorman says he sees a monster

There are bloodstains on his shirt

They say that he’s gone berserk

 

This song is all about the action. It has this revolutionary feel to it. When you listen to it, you can almost smell the Tear-gas in the air and feel the ground trembling from all the footsteps. Kid Silver is rising up against a force far greater than himself. While listening to it, I felt like I was inside Maxwell’s world, fighting alongside Kid Silver.

 

4.) O Death: Ralph Shelby of the “O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack”  

 

O Death.

O Death.

Won’t you spare me over to another year?

Won’t you spare me over to another year?

 

This song is hopelessness  and lonesomeness set to a rhythm . Mr. Shelby isn’t accompanied by any instruments. It’s just his reedy, Southern voice singing about a man pleading with Death, asking if he could live for one more year, one more month, one more week, one more day. Death can not be reasoned with. It can not be bribed. As Kid Silver stares at the wreckage that had been the shipping bay toward the end of the novel… As he hears a man cry out in pain, I hear this song. It’s the song of the lonesome, of the unredeemed.

 

5.)   Wont Back Down: Eminem’s “Recovery”

 

You can sound the alarm

You can call out your Guards

You can fence in the yard

You can pull all the card

But I won’t back down.

Oh, no! I won’t down.

Oh, No!

 

This is a ‘Jock-jams 101’ kind of song. Kid Silver is a powerful character, fearless and unrelenting. Won’t Back Down got me into Maxwell’s mindset. If Kid Silver: Alone is fast-paced, it’s because Eminem was my goad, stabbing me in the back with a pointy stick whenever I slowed down.