With all the bad news arriving today, GalleyCat decided to pass along a little writing music.
Last week we asked, “What music kept your writing in 2008?” GalleyCat readers responded with pages and pages of music lists. Styles ranged from rock & roll to classical, and everybody had a different set of favorites.
For your listening pleasure, here is the first batch of GalleyCat readers’ favorite music. If you need more links and inspiration, be sure to check out Largehearted Boy’s extensive music and literary coverage.
Novelist JT Ellison wrote: “I wouldn’t have been able to finish my 4th book, Edge of Black, without three songs from Evanescence — Come Find Me, Bring Me To Life, and Call Me When You’re Sober, plus Broken, by Tift Merritt. Amazing how a song can make or break a novel.”
Terena Scott choose a different kind of music: “Whenever I’m working on a particularly difficult piece, I listen to the soundtrack to ‘Chocolate.'”
Barbara Caridad Ferrer wrote:
“First off, ALL of Jason Mraz’s We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, but if I was forced to pick one or two songs, it would have to be either ‘Butterfly’ (Come on, he wrote a song for a stripper to perform to and wrote it about a relationship WITH a stripper– freakin’ brilliant) or ‘Lucky’ just because it’s a beautiful, sweet duet.”
Many, many more songs after the jump…
Ferrer continued:
“Duffy- “Save it For Your Prayers”
Chris Cornell- “Scream”
Marie Digby- “Spell”
Antonio Carmona & Alejandro Sanz- “Para Que Tu No Llores” (The lead character in the YA is a dancer, specializing in Latin dance– this song is AMAZING)
Alanis Morissette- “Torch”
John Mayer- “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” (Live) He’s another one I never much cared for, but dang if this song isn’t just perfect mood music.”
GalleyCat reader James Klousia submitted this expansive list of songs:
“Desert and the Great Divorce” by Aveo from Battery
“Elephant Gun” by Beirut from Elephant Gun EP
“Poison Oak” by Bright Eyes from I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
“A Lack of Color” by Death Cab For Cutie from Transatlanticism
“On the Bus Mall” by The Decemberists from Picaresque
“A Sight to Behold” by Devendra Banhard from Rejoicing in the Hands
“Album of the Year” by The Good Life from Album of the Year
“Inmates” by The Good Life from Album of the Year
“Heart’s a Mess” by Gotye from Like Drawing Blood
“Moving Pictures, Silent Films” by Great Lake Swimmers from Great Lake
Swimmers
“The Trapeze Swinger” by Iron and Wine
“Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley from Grace
“What They Say” by Jon Hardy and the Public from Make Me Like Gold
(one of the best mellow songs)
“Running Hot” by Jon Hardy and the Public from Make Me Like Gold
“All My Senses” by Mando Diao from Hurricane Bar
“A Sea Chanty of Sorts” by Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s from The
Dust of Retreat
“A Light on a Hill” by Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s from The
Dust of Retreat
“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel from In the
Aeroplane over the Sea
“Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel from In the Aeroplane over the Sea
“Westfall” by Okkervil River from Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You
See
“A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene” by Okkervil River from The Stage
Names
“Lost Coastlines” by Okkervil River from The Stand-Ins
“How to Disappear Completely” by Radiohead from Kid A
“Fall, Fall, Fall” by Razorlight from Up All Night
“Chelsea Hotel No 2” by Rufus Wainwright from Leonard Cohen
“Pink Bullets” by the Shins from Chutes Too Narrow
“Tom Traubert’s Blues by Tom Waits from Small Change
“Steady Rollin'” by Two Gallants from What the Toll Tell
“Some Slender Rest” by Two Gallants from What the Toll Tells
“Threnody” by Two Gallants from What the Toll Tells
“Far, Far Away” by Wilco from Being There