In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Linda Kass’s novel World News from Waverley High is a transportive coming-of-age story.
In her own words, here is Linda Kass’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel World News from Waverley High:
World News from Waverley High is set against the backdrop of national unrest and some of the most vital music ever created.
Music has always been a focal point for me, so it felt essential that the soundtrack of the era permeates this story. The Sixties produced music that was socially inseparable from the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and the cultural upheaval of the era. The music wasn’t just a soundtrack. It was part of the argument. It became both the mirror and catalyst for the movements of social change. During the November 1969 Second Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, the biggest turnout of its kind that Washington had ever seen—described as the size of two Woodstocks—rock and folk performers galvanized demonstrators gathered across from the White House as Pete Seeger led the crowd in singing Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” When I learned about this real scene, I knew I had to include it.
In reimagining this consequential historical period, I knew I would weave in moments where music grounded the story, made it feel authentic and come alive. This was one of those moments.
My novel begins with Sly and the Family Stone. In fact, four of the sixty songs included in World New from Waverley High are by this rock-pop-funk band that emerged from the Bay Area in 1968, preaching a message of peace and equity. Sly and the Family Stone was the first racially integrated band in rock history. Their hit and the title of my second chapter, “Everyday People,” reflected their ethos, a protest song wrapped in joy. Released in November of 1968 and the band’s first No. 1 hit, the song is a plea for peace and equality between differing races and social groups. It suggests we celebrate our differences, with “different strokes for different folks” which became a well-known catchphrase. It is this idea, that it makes no difference what group you’re in, that narrator Lena Rosen shares when she says, “Waverley’s energy comes from all of us, thrown together with different socioeconomic backgrounds, different religions, different races.”
Toward the end of the second chapter, the Beatles song “Blackbird,” is featured. Written by Paul McCartney in 1968, the song was primarily a metaphor for the Civil Rights Movement. McCartney was deeply affected by news of the 1960s race riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. Rather than explicitly writing a localized political protest song, McCartney veiled the lyrics, writing it as a message of hope and empowerment to Black women facing racial oppression in the American South, using the British slang term “bird” for girl. Lena’s growing friendship with Derrick Wright, a fellow reporter for the school paper who is Black, leads to a conversation about music and Lena is surprised by his interest in this song. Derrick tells her he heard McCartney on a radio interview talking about the song and how he dedicated it to people affected by discrimination. Derrick said he felt a calmness when he listened to the song and remarked how that was odd given that it was racial tension that inspired the lyrics.
By the spring, Waverley High experiences a bomb threat and then the nation experiences the well-known series of bombings in an elegant brownstone in Greenwich Village, near Lena’s grandparents’ home. Protests are going on everywhere, even close by at Ohio State University. Lena calls her sister, Sylvia, attending a college in northern Ohio, to make sure she’s safe and to try to understand what college students are thinking. After a girl answers the dorm’s house phone, she leaves the phone cord dangling and Lena hears someone yell, “Play a new LP!” Lena hears the needle scratch vinyl, and an electric guitar slowly plays two notes followed by a quiet pulse-like drumbeat. “There’s something happening here. But what it is ain’t exactly clear.” While Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” originated on a Hollywood street corner, its amorphous lyrics allowed it to become a universal anthem for the anti-war movement and 1960s counterculture. It remains an enduring classic about youth, generational friction, and protest.
Ben King’s 1961 classic, “Stand by Me,” is a powerful anthem about loyalty, companionship, and finding strength in numbers. At its core, the song conveys that if you have a trusted person by your side, you can endure and overcome any of life’s hardships. Because of its message of unwavering solidarity, the song was widely adopted by Civil Rights activists in the 1960s. There’s a cool garage band in my novel called the Halcyons who play a concert for peace for their high school and surrounding community in early 1970. As the school year draws to a close, Kerry Ross, Halcyon’s lead guitarist and Student Council President, strums the solo in Rich Kohn’s garage (Rich is the band’s drummer and concert organizer) while Lena and a few others gather and listen. It reminds Lena of the friendships forged at Waverley and the realization that they may be listening to the Halcyons for the last time.
During a weekly Current History class, where the textbook is Time Magazine and discussion covers national and world news, students lament over the death marches and nationwide protests. Lena makes an emotional plea for it all to stop, and the classroom becomes silent until Derrick steps in. “It’s all in the music, man. Those songs tell our story. I mean, listen to this piece on Pete Seeger’s new album called ‘Bring Them Home.’ The words. They’re an explicit retort to this senseless war.”
The music of the 1960s transcended mere entertainment to become a cultural force, helping shape collective consciousness during one of America’s most transformative decades.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Linda Kass’s playlist for her novel Tasa’s Song
LINDA KASS began her career as a magazine journalist and correspondent for regional and national publications. She is the author of three previous works of historical fiction: Tasa’s Song (2016), A Ritchie Boy (2020), and Bessie (2023). Her fourth novel, World News at Waverley High, was just released and includes a soundtrack of the era’s iconic music. A longtime civic leader, she is the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in Central Ohio. Linda lives in Columbus, Ohio. Find her online at lindakass.com