Everyone always asks three questions about the songs that appear in the book—why did I choose them, did I listen to them during the writing process, and wouldn’t mentioning the title have been enough?

The songs occurred to me during the writing process. I typed them into the text to set the tone for a scene, and I grew accustomed to them. When we began the editing process, I couldn’t extract the songs without feeling as though I was collapsing the whole. One very important song got pulled because we couldn’t secure the rights in time and I still feel like a bullet went through the book.

I listened to some songs during the process but not all. Some, like Cisco Kid, would have been too distracting; they would have made me think of subsequent projects. Others, like Seventy-Six Trombones were completely incidental to the story, and though they are fine songs, they are not exactly ones I would seek out.

I think a mere title mention would have fallen flat for readers who don't know that title, whereas the lyrics cab read like poetry. One reason I didn’t take a traditional publishing route is that I would have been forced to cut the songs. It was very difficult and costly to secure these rights, but I was determined to try. In retrospect, I think there was something I was trying to say about music in general and that time in particular. Something about shared experiences and meaning. Those shared experiences don’t exist anymore, because marketing groups are so incredibly restricted. It's as if there is all this missing meaning between generations. I think my feeling for the time comes through. Everyone who talks to me about the book talks about how much they love the songs.

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