Featured Author Playlist:
Joe Pernice
Every writer I know is a crazy music fan who pays homage to musicians by writing cherished songs into their books. I am certainly no different. My Riverhead novel It Feels So Good When I Stop is pretty full of references to songs I love. As a guy who has made his living primarily as a recording artist, I was able to pay additional tribute to some of my favorite recording artists by recording a soundtrack album to my novel. My own Ashmont Records, Inc. will release It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack) on August 4, 2009. Here are three tunes for your listening pleasure.
- Found a Little Baby—This is hands down one of my favorite songs of the 1990s. Liam Hayes (Plush) released it as a single on Drag City. Find it if you can. In my novel, the narrator basically ruins the tune for his girlfriend by singing it over and over and over. It begs the question: Would you rather someone sing a horrible tune over and over or a great one?
- I'm Your Puppet—A timeless classic hit. If you don't respond to the original recording (James and Bobby Purify), you clearly have no soul of any type. For my narrator, the song is forever attached to an exciting, sexually charged moment in his new relationship with his future wife. No good can come of such romantic leanings.
- I Go To Pieces—I think Peter and Gordon had the bigger hit with this ridiculously sad and hooky Del Shannon number. In my book, the narrator, during a particularly low period in his life, discovers the comfort in the genius and gnawing sadness of Del Shannon's voice. The narrator apologizes to the world for once having lumped Del Shannon together with Pat Boone, who is wholly a less admirable kind of sad.
—Joe Pernice
Read an excerpt from It Feels So Good When I Stop here.
