In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Briana Loewinsohn’s graphic novel Raised By Ghosts is a moving memoir of life in the 1990s told through the lens of a teenager’s personal notes to friends.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
“Decades-old notes stitch together a wistful search for connection and acceptance in this aching semi-autobiographical comic by Loewinsohn.”
In her own words, here is Briana Loewinsohn’s Book Notes music playlist for her graphic novel Raised By Ghosts:
Oh man. This graphic novel I just finished making, Raised By Ghosts, is like a love letter to all the people who meant so much to me in high school. The book is about writing notes to friends. It’s about what we say and what we leave left unsaid. It’s about high school in the mid ’90s, the last of the analog years. It’s about friendship, being a lost teenager, being bored at school, going to shows and… literally about making mixtapes! So much of our time was all about music. We listened to music constantly. We talked about it, thought about it, ate it for breakfast. For this project, I am choosing only songs that I might have put on a playlist in high school BUT ALSO only songs that came out in the ’90s (even though I listened to a ton of music from before my time, this will give a good picture of the era). Each choice is a song that feels foundational to my teenage self. There are so many more I had to leave out, but this gives you a pretty good picture of the music you should listen to when you read, or when you finish reading Raised By Ghosts. Write me a note, tell me what you think, fold it up, and send it to me.
Going to Pasalacqua by Green Day
This was definitely my favorite Green Day song for forever. I probably put it on every mixtape I ever made. I loved that it was about a torrid relationship but that the relationship was undefined. Was this romantic? Was it just an intense friendship? The ambiguity of the relationship mixed with the passion really killed me. All I wanted to do when I was 14 was find my soulmate and run away with them. This song made it feel like one day that might happen. Really all the lyrics are perfect. Go back and read them and think about being 14.
Keep Ya Head Up by Tupac
I love a lot of Tupac’s harder songs but I’m choosing this sweet one because it was all over the place while I was in high school. In my little teenage head he is singing straight through the boombox and into my room and telling me life is hard but I can handle it. Telling I got this. I remember starting a mixtape with Keep Ya Head Up and ending it with Hit ‘Em Up. I love a mish-mash of vibes and that pairing always made me smile to myself. Tupac wasn’t from Oakland, but he repped the Bay so hard. We felt like he was ours, even though everyone probably felt that way about him.
Nightswimming by R.E.M.
“And what if there were two, side by side in orbit, around the fairest Sun”. I have had that line stuck in my head for over 30 years. I think I have always found friendships to be the most important relationships for me. Feeling like you found someone who gets you and you can be next to them forever. Any drawings of me, in Raised By Ghosts, walking, with headphones on and walkman in my pocket, is probably me listening to R.E.M. I had a 20 minute walk to and from my high school. I had Green, Automatic For the People, and Out of Time in a constant rotation. They had enough range to keep me entertained but the overall message was, “Hey, things are sad and beautiful all at once.”
Jet Black by Jawbreaker
One of my besties in high school (who is still one of my besties) (and who is a major character in Raised By Ghosts) (and who is named Jacob) put this song on a mixtape for me sophomore year. It went straight to the nerve of being 15, not understanding the world, and feeling dark for the first time in my life. But there is also that great quote from Annie Hall at the end. We were so into movies and music and the fact that they had that in there blew my tiny little mind. Jawbreaker was another band that we felt we owned. They were from the Bay and they were ours. Their lyrics were rough and sad and angry and sometimes sappy. Hours were spent with people dissecting whether they were the best band or the worst. I love it all.
Weak by SWV
This is the first R&B song I remember falling in love with. I recorded it off the radio and played it over and over by myself in my room. Singing along so loud (my apologies to the members of SWV). I remember hearing it and just like the world stopped for a second and I was like, What. Is. This… INEEDMORE. Before that, I grew up in a house of old rock, and folk, and blues, and jazz. This was like a completely new thing for me and after that 106.1 KMEL (the rap/R&B radio station in the Bay) was a set station on my radio. Thank you SWV for making me fall in love with R&B.
Why Can’t I Be You by The Cure
So hard to choose a Cure song, they have been so good for so long. This is a pretty big 90s hit for me. I loved the gender and relationship ambiguity in the song. The pleading. It’s complementary but also self-deprecating. I love that he wants to both be the person and like he is in love with them? It’s sad but energetic. Ugh. What a song. But really we were listening to any Cure songs that had been made up to this point.
Tourette’s – Nirvana
This song is so bananas in the best way. It’s one minute and thirty-five seconds of rage and joy. This is for the days when you wanted to scream and shout and be a mess and act a fool. When you want to be ugly and jump around and feel like everyone else is ugly and jumping around with you. That’s this song for me. I’ll listen to Nirvana any hour any day.
Sabotage by the Beastie Boys
We were so into all Beastie Boys anything. My pops took my sibling (9 years old at the time) to see them in 1987. My mom was so mad when she found out. They threw beer at the audience. It’s the most jealous I will ever be of someone in my family. But the Beastie Boys hits kept coming. Every album was new and amazing. The video for Sabotage was a huge deal. It’s all set like a janky ’70s cop movie with them running around with tan suits and mustaches and sunglasses and toupees and being absurd. We watched it anytime it came on. It was one of the first videos I remember being a parody in that way. It was smart and funny and that song is infectious. If I was gonna pull a heist, that’s the getaway song on the radio.
Feed the Tree by Belly
This band but especially this song makes me think of just a few friends who really loved Belly in high school. Every time I hear it I am brought back to friends rooms and sitting around for hours with nothing to do. Laying on each other like puppies. Having crushes. Deep talks. Stupid talks with a million jokes. This song is hard and soft at the same time. It’s about being old and little. It’s stillness and dancing. It’s demanding and demure. It’s what life felt like on all those endless days.
The Difference by The Jenny Thing
This was a local band that me and some friends loved. We would go see them at the Berkeley Square (an all ages club in Berkeley, Ca). They had that kind of ’80s softness to them that I still miss in music. We knew all the lyrics and sang along at the shows and in our cars. When I listen to their music now I am brought back to being 15 and going out on cold nights to see warm faces and hugs and dancing and sitting in the back of a smelly club. I feel kinship with people I loved and will always love. Emily, this is for you.
Freaky Tales by Too $hort
Freaky Tales is one of those great songs from back then that listed a million different little stories (like Girls Girls Girls by Jay-Z, or 88 Lines About 44 Women by the Nails). It’s ridiculous in always. I thought about putting some other songs by Too $hort on this list but the song titles might be too dirty for an all ages list. Too $hort came from the Bay and so of course we thought he was great. He was just so funny and lewd. I can’t help it, we just loved this artist. We played his tapes over and over. I will give a dollar to anyone who can guess what song I am actually thinking of.
Not the Doctor by Alanis Morissette
This is a real underrated song on Jagged Little Pill. It makes me laugh now because of how hard I felt it when I was a lil teen. It’s about her standing up for herself and not trying to rescue broken men (I think?). Of course, I felt this was my lot in life as well. In my head it was to all the people I wanted to tell that I was not going to clean up their mess, but looking back… no one was asking me to. Ha. I guess I loved it because I did in fact want to be the doctor. But I didn’t want to want to be the doctor. Either way, it’s a great song. A sweet spot between Alanis yelling and her being too somber.
Briana Loewinsohn is a cartoonist living in Oakland, CA. These days she teaches high school art and draws comic books. If she doesn’t text you back, she is probably gardening.