« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
August 6, 2020
Odie Lindsey's Playlist for His Novel "Some Go Home"
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, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Odie Lindsey's novel Some Go Home is a brilliant debut that roots the reader into the north Mississippi of his characters.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"Lindsey’s incandescent debut novel captures a riveting slice of life from the deep South…In dazzling prose, the author lassos complex subjects with acuity, from the legacy of racism in Mississippi to internecine class wars, the horror of combat, and the joy and terror of becoming a mother. This is a consummate portrait of human fragility and grim determination."
In his own words, here is Odie Lindsey's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel Some Go Home:
My Book Notes playlist for Some Go Home is a mash, or maybe hash, of songs picked up from the places where I worked on the novel—from north Mississippi to northern Morocco. This mix of near and far suits the story, about an Iraq War veteran who comes back to the rural South, only to realize that her homeplace—and its traumatic history—may prove her greatest battlefield.
“Mississippi Rolling Stone” / Ike & Tina Turner
Years before I moved to Mississippi—the setting of Some Go Home—I loaded up for Nashville, with the goal of working for Capricorn Records. Of course, they weren’t hiring, so I worked for free, stuffing envelopes (in between paid gigs as busboy and mall clerk). The upside: comped promo records, including The Jewel/Paula Records Story compilation, which featured this tune. It was my intro to pre-MTV Tina Turner. Worth every unpaid paper cut!
“Some Go Home” (1970 version, from Bein’ Free) / Jerry Jeff Walker
The key lyric here—the reason I titled the book after this tune—speaks to my protagonist, Colleen, a young, Iraq War veteran, come home to Mississippi. “She’s headed home,” the song says. “Back where life begins and ends / and they feel that you belong to them.” In the novel, Colleen’s hometown becomes more adversarial than her war.
“Dag Dagui” / Mohamed Mazouni
A little cheat here. While I didn’t work on Some Go Home in Algeria, I logged several months in neighboring Morocco—Tangiers, Asilah, and Rabat—and this tune made its way over. Most relevant in this context is the electric guitar, a dialog with the music of North Mississippi and Chicago.
“Seguiriyas de los Grillos” (1968 version) / Camaron de la Isla
Yet another tacit influence here (as there isn’t any flamenco in Some Go Home!). When drafting, I spent several months in Andalucia, in the Albaycin in Granada, and in old city of Cádiz. The things I learned there about Camaron: he achieved godlike status in Spain; his co-god was guitarist Paco de Lucía; the two can still gut me with a few notes. As worn as this tune sounds, Camaron cut it when still a teenager.
“L’Innocenza” / Scisma
I also worked on Some Go Home while in rural Italy, so a nod to those folks, too. This Scisma song (and their album, Armstrong) have stuck with me since its ’99 release. Like many of the songs on this list, “L’Innocenza” pairs well with a long drive—a la those taken in Some Go Home.
“Yes We Can Can” / Pointer Sisters
It is easy to adore this Allen Toussaint-penned tune, yet difficult to pick which version to include here. Solution: alongside this take, pursue the trifecta by playing Lee Dorsey’s 1970 hit, and then find the video of maestro Toussaint himself, on solo piano.
“Misty Blue” / Dorothy Moore
Couldn’t put together a Mississippi-minded playlist without including this ballad. Written in Nashville, a town too commercial to capture its range, Mississippi partnered this tune to the timeless singer and studio it deserved. Moore + Malaco Records + Jackson = When “the mention of your name / turns a flicker to a flame.” Oof.
“Can I Change My Mind” / Tyrone Davis
Following the Mississippi-meets-Chicago thread in Some Go Home, I’ve gotta include a song by Greenville-born, Chicago-made Davis. How do you not move to this record? (“Turning Point” was a close second when thinking about Mississippi-born and Chicago-raised Davis.)
“Stay Fly” / Three 6 Mafia
Twice, I have driven a UHaul through west Tennessee when this anthem hit the truck’s factory radio. Of course, half the lyrics were bleeped—maybe a good thing?—but oh, that production. That hook. As the song insists: “We must represent Tennessee.” Some Go Home opens with my protagonist, Colleen, driving out of Memphis.
“Gasoline Maybelline” / 6 String Drag
There are ample examples of fire and lighters in the novel, so this title fits. I remember when this band was poised for Americana greatness…until, upon album release, they disappeared. Like: gone. Not sure what happened, though the album High Hat was released, and was/is a bomber. (Google tells me that a sophomore release came out 17 years later!)
“On the Wings of a Dove” / Ferlin Husky
Several characters in Some Go Home want to fly away, or be delivered, and/or just look for a way out of facing their truth. In the case of this song, that truth centers on the circumstances of a Civil Rights-era murder. Instead of a confession, let alone a discussion, two of the relevant characters make a habit of turning to this song.
“Station Blues” / Otha Turner
I started traveling to Otha Turner’s goat roast picnics about 45 years after he started putting them on. Taking place in rural Gravel Springs, Mississippi, his music & band, alongside the food and people were tremendous: a seeming collapse of time and culture, in service to dancing and community. The picnic is dramatized in Some Go Home.
“Tell Him What You Want” / Staple Singers
AKA “Jesus On the Mainline.” Now and again those Otha Turner picnics would fall on the same weekend as the baptism in nearby Moon Lake, MS. If you could pull yourself together on early Sunday morning, or just stay up through Saturday night’s party at Turner’s, you could drive into the Delta, and were welcomed by the lakeside congregation. The service provided a full breath of possibility (with a side of appropriate, moonshined guilt). This hymn was sung by all after the neophytes were baptized in the lake. A version of the scene appears in Some Go Home. (Maybe check out the Mississippi Mass Choir’s interpretation, “Call Him Up (Part 1).”)
Odie Lindsey is the author of Some Go Home and We Come to Our Senses: Stories. He received an NEA fellowship for combat veterans, holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the University of Mississippi, and is writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University's Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you appreciate the work that goes into Largehearted Boy, please consider making a donation.
