About one month ago I re-read Neil Gaiman’s American fantasy epic, “American Gods.” “AG” is one of my favorite fantasy novels to be set in America and it’s also fairly unique in that aspect. Gaiman paints a vivid picture of the Midwest and his descriptions of roadside attractions and the sites and sounds you see while on the road are incredibly real. One of the ways he paints that picture is with music. Through writing, it’s obviously difficult to impress upon the reader something that they can hear when all they have is the book in their hand. The way in which Gaiman accomplishes this is through references to lyrics, characters talking about a song and how it makes him/her feel or by simply inserting the lyrics verbatim right into the text. In this way it makes the soundtrack easy to hear while you’re reading. So I started taking notes. I wrote down each and every reference and eventually I created the playlist you see below. The finished product resulted in an eclectic mix of genres that fits perfectly with “American Gods” and also made a fun playlist to listen to. Hopefully you think the same. Check it out via Spotify below…
Tracklist:
- Walkin’ After Midnight by Patsy Cline
- The Queen of 1964 by Neil Sedaka
- Iko Iko by The Dixie Cups
- Who Loves the Sun by The Velvet Underground
- The Fool on the Hill by The Beatles
- The Midnight Special by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan
- Danse Macabre in G Minor by Camille Saint-Saens
- Octopus’s Garden by The Beatles
- The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II
- The Emperor Waltz by Johann Strauss II
- Tango Til They’re Sore by Tom Waits
- Help! by The Beatles
- Why Can’t He Be You by Patsy Cline
- Material Girl by Madonna
- Old Friends by Stephen Sondheim
- In the Dark With You by Greg Brown
- Hang Me, Oh Hang Me by Dave Van Ronk
- What’s New Pussycat? by Tom Jones
- The Way You Look Tonight by Fred Astaire
- Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Nina Simone
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