Revised playlistsThe playlists, as named below, are available on Spotify.Stay tuned if you need guidance.I've read about ten of George Pelecanos's novels. I've never picked up another book once I've started one of his, till I'm finished.George Pelecanos, 2013One of the best Pelecanos stories. This is the second of the D.C. Quartet series, published between 1996 and 2000. Takes place mostly over the July 4 weekend of 1976, that of the American Bicentennial. (I remember it well, we were on the Mall for the fireworks with friends. Six months later I was a first-time father.)His novels explore the Wash. D.C. crime scene; where he grew up, when he grew up. Very gritty. Sex, bad language, violence. But Pelecanos writes stories with real characters that you want to root for (if they're the good guys, of course). Also features some real mean dudes.He always features both black and white characters, good, bad, and in between in both groups. Oh, and ethnic characters too - Greek, of course - play a major role in almost all of his novels! As always, writing about what he knows.One of the unique features of Pelecanos' novels is the way that popular music of the stories' eras is prominently featured in the narrative. This is not because the music plays a part in the plot, but rather because it helps set the story in its historical context. It can also get it playing in your head.Having said that, I need to admit that I am typically only marginally familiar with much of the music that is mentioned in his stories. He obviously was not himself a big fan of top-40 music (nor was I) - his protagonists, if they are black, will be into R&B/Soul music (or some brand of D.C. hip-hop in the more contemporary novels), while the white dudes will groove on album-oriented, experimental or acid rock music.When I read this book I decided to take notes on all the music that was mentioned. Frankly there is so much mentioned that I know I missed many songs and artists, but when I was done I had about 30-35 examples for both the white dudes and the soul brothers of the novel that I wanted to sample, or remember in some cases. I bought all this music from iTunes, and made four CDs out of it. The whole exercise was a great way to build up a little library, and become familiar with music from the mid-70's. Thanks George!The original four playlists have been combined into two. The order of songs has been changed. And several tracks have been added to both - these are shown in bold.Jimi Hendrix flashing the peace sign prior to his performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, August 18, 1969.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjzZh...Seven of the new tracks are by Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix's music has its own sub-plot in the story, in which one of the main characters, who owns a record store, argues vehemently with a young employee over whether Hendrix's LPs should be filed with rock or soul music - this although they're both black. Older fellow says ROCK, younger man says SOUL. Fact is, older fellow is probably right for most of Hendrix's music, but not of course for all of it.I've split six Hendrix tracks evenly between the two lists, with the Rock list getting songs from Hendrix's first album, Are You Experienced, and the Soul list picking up songs from that album and his last one, Band of Gypsies. I've put one of the new Hendrix tracks in the lead position on both playlists. I think this track, Red House (from Experienced), is a good example of one of his songs that really could be argued about back and forth. .Are You Experienced ... recorded in London in late 1966 & early 1967, released in the U.K. in May '67, and in the U.S. in August (where it spent over two years on the Billboard 200) ... in 2005 ranked by Rolling Stone fifteenth on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ... also that year, the record was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in recognition of its cultural significance to be added to the National Recording Registry. Writer and archivist Rueben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote: "it's still a landmark recording because it is of the rock, R&B, blues ... musical tradition. It altered the syntax of the music ... in a way I compare to James Joyce's Ulysses." (Wiki) Probably the greatest debut album in pop music history.Band of Gypsies ... recorded live on January 1, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City ... Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums ... "The album mixes funk and rhythm and blues elements with hard rock and jamming, an approach which later became the basis of funk rock ... the last full-length Hendrix album released before his death" less than nine months later (Wiki) A tragic end to one of the most creative musicians of the twentieth century.King Suckerman - Rockers1 Red House, Jimi Hendrix2 Midnight Rider, The Allman Brothers3 Foxey Lady, Jimi Hendrix4 Tangerine, Led Zeppelin5 Highway Chile, Jimi Hendrix6 Hey Lawdy Mama, Steppenwolf7 Rock and Roll, Led Zeppelin8 Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix9 Mean Town Blues, Johnny Winter10 Viva Tirado, El Chicano11 Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison12 Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd13 Dixie Chicken, Little Feat14 Slide On Over Slinky, Rick Derringer15 Reelin' In the Years, Steely Dan16 Back to Get Ya, The J. Geils Band17 Takin' Care of Business, Bachman-Turner Overdrive18 It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference, Todd Rundgren19 Too Much Time, Captain Beefheart20 Madness, Mahogony Rush21 We're an American Band, Grand Funk22 Money, Pink Floyd23 Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2, Emerson, Lake & Palmer24 The Wizard, Uriah Heep25 Two Trains, Little Feat26 Thirteen, Big Star27 All the Young Dudes, Mott the Hoople28 Sally Can't Dance, Lou Reed29 The Fool and Me, Robin Trower30 You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Bachman-Turner Overdrive31 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Genesis32 Kill Your Sons, Lou Reed33 Any Major Dude Will Tell You, Steely Dan34 Travelin' Shoes, Elvin Bishop35 (Then Came the) Last of May, Blue Oyster Cult36 Pretzel Logic, Steely Dan37 Man on the Silver Mountain, Rainbow38 Master Builder, Gong39 Bridge of Sighs, Robin Trower40 Coney Island Baby, Lou Reed41 Born to Run, SpringsteenKing Suckerman - Soul Brothers1 Red House, Jimi Hendrix2 War, Edwin Starr3 Power of Soul (Live), Jimi Hendrix4 What's Going On, Marvin Gaye5 (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below ... , Curtis Mayfeild6 Who Knows (Live), Jimi Hendrix7 Maggot Brain, Funkadelic8 Them Changes, Buddy Miles9 Give More Power to the People (For God's Sake), The Chi-Lites10 The Bottle, Gil Scott-Heron11 The Wind Cries Mary, Jimi Hendrix12 Never Never Gonna Give You Up, Barry White13 Back to the World, Curtis Mayfield14 For the Love of Money, The O'Jays15 The Boss, James Brown16 Papa Was a Rolling Stone, The Temptations17 Are You Man Enough, Four Tops18 Down and Out in New York City, James Brown19 A Joyful Process, Funkadelic20 The Payback, James Brown21 Hollywood Swinging, Kool & The Gang22 Little Child Runnin' Wild, Curtis Mayfield23 Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, Funkadelic24 Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?, Creative Source25 You Sexy Thing, Hot Chocolate26 Be Thankful For What You Got, William DeVaughn27 It Only Takes a Minute Girl, Tavares28 Theme From S.W.A.T., Rhythm Heritage29 I Can't Stand the Rain, Graham Central Station30 Give Up the Funk, Parliament31 Brown Eyed Girl, The Isley Brothers32 Call Me (Come Back Home), Al Green33 Gimme My Mule, The Commodores34 Betcha By Golly Wow, The Stylistics35 Bad Luck, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes36 Rock the Boat, The Hues CorporationIf I had to pick (luckily I don't) I'd take the soul music.By the way, Pelecanos has a web site -> http://www.george-pelecanos.com/There's a section on music (perhaps not updated very recently, but still good), a section on the work he did on The Wire, and other topics.
Read the STOP SMILING interview with George Pelecanos: This interview appeared in the STOP SMILING DC IssueDC CONFIDENTIALThe Stop Smiling Interview with George PelecanosBy Walker LamondIt turns out the paper coasters on George Pelecanos’ coffee table were lifted from the short-lived City Museum of DC. Printed up to promote the museum’s opening and tout the city’s hometown heroes, they read, “Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard, all rolled into one Silver Spring boy.” Pelecanos, the best-selling author of 15 novels set in and around Washington, DC, chuckles, embarrassed by the audacity of the boast. Or maybe it’s the irony that the museum chose him as its poster boy, the guy who has made it his life’s work to document the desperation and violence indigenous to the nation’s capital.But hey, DC is short on celebrities, literary or otherwise. And Pelecanos is a superstar. Among crime fiction junkies, he ranks with the top writers working today: Richard Price, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane. He was a writer (and eventually became a producer) on The Wire, hailed by critics — this one included — as one of the best dramatic television series ever. And director Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, Wonder Boys, 8 Mile) plans to bring at least one of his novels to the big screen, which may or may not make George Pelecanos a household name. Either way, more people will begin to see Washington as Pelecanos sees it: dangerous, proud, volatile, soulful. Real. By all means, put his name on some coasters.Read more...
Do You like book King Suckerman (2001)?
Look ma, no cops!As good as Soul Circus, although I can't decide if the avalanche of 70's references in this one was distracting or not - they kept triggering either old memories (ah, how I pined for an orange Karmann Ghia but settled for a red Fastback; how I swooned over Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes If You Don't Know Me By Now and on and on...) or frustrated scramblings to link names with sounds (uh, Robin Trower, let's see, some sort of virtuoso guitarist, right? Damn, that's about all that trickles back.) Would be cool as an e-book with links to an integrated soundtrack for foggy brains, like mine, or just any reader who doesn't happen to have Pelecano's encyclopedic command of musical references, like me.Still, being able to pick up on all the notes is secondary; this is a juicy, pulsating crime novel that manages to get somewhere beyond the limits of pulp. No smart-ass detective to the rescue here; just a cast of players - the not-so-good, the bad, the stupid and the-just-happened to be there - all hanging, riding and writhing around the streets of DC. Pelecanos puts them all in the pot and lets them get on with it; what he doesn't do is waste his time and ours by judging them. And I do appreciate that!
—Andrea
RUM PUNCHPubblicato nel 1997, l’anno in cui uscì “Jackie Brown” di Quentin Tarantino, entrambi vanno a rispolverare quel fenomeno degli anni Settanta che fu definito blaxploitation. Entrambi, al contrario della vera blaxploitation, presumo siano diretti a un pubblico non esclusivamente afroamericano, anzi, direi principalmente altro.George Pelecanos è un bravo scrittore e meriterebbe di non essere penalizzato da edizioni italiane così brutte e cialtrone: a parte essere inguardabile, è pieno di refusi, errori, ripetizioni di parole, scambi di preposizioni…A differenza dei film di Tarantino, e dei romanzi di Elmore Leonard (“Rum Punch” di Leonard è l’origine del film di Tarantino), i personaggi nei libri di Pelecanos sembrano veri. Maneggiano armi, usano droga, guidano macchine oltre i limiti di velocità, uccidono senza un fremito, entrano ed escono di galera….: non proprio quello che la vita media del lettore medio contempli. Eppure, brillano perché risultano molto verosimili, del tutto credibili.Non c’è quella sensazione di guardarsi allo specchio che sia Tarantino che Leonard mi suggeriscono, pur con il loro grande talento, quella gigioneria che mi affascina e tiene a distanza allo stesso tempo.“King Suckerman” ha una colonna sonora già prevista, scandita, ma per nulla intrusiva. E’ pieno di riferimenti cinematografici, titoli di film vengono proprio citati. Ci sono personaggi che potrebbero essere definiti ‘natural born killers’, che girano con fucile a pompa e lasciano spiaccicati sulle pareti metà faccia e cervello della gente che si mette di mezzo. Ci sono le celebrazioni per il bicentenario dell’Indipendenza (4 luglio 1976)…. E tutto sembra quotidiano, autentico…
—orsodimondo
Good pulp fiction. Pelecanos seems to love adding details about music, clothing, and cars which can lend an certain authenticity for the period. However with the music, it feels slightly too indie and "spot on" to be believable. But if you want to make sure all the characters in your novel are listening to hip stuff, so be it. I'll check out more of the DC quartet.Not a heavy read, but then doesn't pretend to be. Delivers cleanly what it's meant to. The action scenes told from various angles work well, or use of the "Rashomon effect".
—Chilly SavageMelon
