Posts Tagged ‘books’ |  

Sometimes people ask me if the books and the music are connected.  Sometimes, yep.  Amble Down Records compiled the following summary describing the connections from the Tiny Pilot album:

- The opening verse of “Edge of Town” is set on the highway overpasses described on pages 99-104 of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (HarperPerennial).

- The album’s title song, “Tiny Pilot,” was written in memory of Perry’s nephew Jake, as described in Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting (released in paperback as Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg).

- “If They Give You Wings” is a song drawn directly from scenes in “Branding God,” the essay found on page 256 of Perry’s book, Off Main Street (HarperPerennial).  The song lyrics also include a Dylan Thomas sample.

- “Harry Was Right” (bonus song available on physical CD version of album only as track #14) is a song set in a real-life bar called The Joynt.  Perry’s readers will recognize the bar and its denizens from Chapter 13 of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial) and may especially enjoy singing along with the bridge, which is a direct quote from the book: No…light…beer!

- Perry wrote the first verse of “Indiana” while driving from Michigan to Illinois on his Coop hardcover tour.  The song makes specific reference to “Seven A.M.,” the Edward Hopper painting that anchors Chapter 8 (beginning on p. 138) of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial).

- The lyrics of “Cissy Moan” invoke Oxford, Mississippi (home of Square Books) and the writers Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and William Faulkner.  The main character of the song is caught stealing books at “Lemuria” in reference to the actual bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi.

Printable .pdf here.

As you know I publicly track my authorial errors with an Oops! tag.  Therefore I enjoyed this entry on Terry Teachout’s blog, especially since a few sharp-eyed readers have noticed that the image on the hardcover of Truck: A Love Story is similarly reversed.  The Pops biography is terrific, by the way.  It was one of those books I parsed out so as not to devour it all at once.  Teachout is especially thought-provoking when addressing Armstrong’s lifelong navigation between artistic endeavor and the primary duty of entertaining the folks in the seats.  Armstrong took the second half of that equation very seriously, and I think Teachout has done him a fine posthumous service in suggesting that the two need not be mutually exclusive, and – perhaps even more to the point – those who would make it so are engaging in a bit of the ol’ hoity-toit.

This came out a while ago, but yesterday when I was sorting through boxes of books in the pole barn I was reminded that the editors of The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing asked those of us who contributed pieces to mention it on our blogs and whatnot.

Included is an essay I wrote about King Pleasure.

Wrote a song a while back that has to do with writers and bookstores and a man gone wrong in a Super 8 motel.  The Long Beds and I have played it live a few times.  I finally got into the studio to record it last month, and now it’s ready for a listen.

Cissy Moan is a song about a roughneck woman obsessed with southern writers.

Here are the real parts: The writer Larry Brown was a great influence on me. He wrote me a kind note once even though we had never met. He was a fire captain in Oxford, Mississippi, home of William Faulkner and the famous Square Books bookstore. The song references three of Larry Brown’s books and also a novel by the famous Oxford writer Barry Hannah. Lemuria is a terrific bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi. The Ray Nagin reference came from my brother’s experience helping clean up after Hurricane Katrina. My brother met Mayor Ray, and it did not go well.

The rest of the song (Cissy included) is straight-up fiction.

Michael Perry: Lead vocals, harmonies, acoustic guitar.

Justin Vernon: Harmonies, all additional instrumentation.

Jaime Hansen: Recording/Mixing.

Click here to listen to a streaming mp3:

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Digital download (mp3) (75 cents):

Lyrics:

I’m rollin’ out of Jackson on a Sunday afternoon
I couldn’t leave too fast, I couldn’t leave too soon
Cissy took to drinkin’, Cissy took to talkin’ mean
Cissy when she’s drinkin, do beat all you ever seen

Over there in Oxford lived a man named Larry Brown
Larry had a big bad love and he wrote that bad boy down
Cigarettes and whiskey and a fire in his eye
Cissy loved Larry but Larry up and died

And Cissy moans…

I am not a southern boy I’m Yankee born and raised
I cut for Mississippi when the last levee caved
I was lookin’ for employment paying hard cold cash
There was rumors of such business haulin’ Mayor Nagin’s trash

I run into Cissy on my way down 55
She was reading Joe in some all-night dive
I said I know Barry Hannah and she said you are my man
I said Yonder Stands Your Orphan and she jumped right in my van.

And Cissy moans…

We lost a week in a Super 8 outside of Picayune
Livin’ off each other and a needle and a spoon
Cissy read me Dirty Work between the liquor runs
We burned the time up doin’ things we shouldn’t oughta done

Cissy learned to read in the Rankin County jail
Got busted in Lemuria, she orders books by mail
She says she dreams of Tula as if it was her home
She says she dreams of Larry typing all alone.

And Cissy moans…

Paging Mayor Ray
I’ll come another day
Cissy’s up in smoke
Northbound
For Rowan Oak

Don’t never love a woman who’s loved a man of fire
You’ll be easy in the evening she’ll be hummin’ like a wire
Cissy what you doin’ here, Jackson is your home
Cissy’s in the graveyard diggin’ William Faulkner’s bones

And Cissy moans…

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