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May 31, 2022
Aaron Foley's Playlist for His Novel "Boys Come First"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Aaron Foley's novel Boys Come First is a compelling and moving portrait of friendship, love, and Detroit.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"Foley’s love for his city and his engaging characters shines through, and his novel is funny, naughty, and comforting. This auspicious debut will leave readers eager for more."
In his own words, here is Aaron Foley's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel Boys Come First:
Boys Come First is a story about Black gay men, and one thing I know about them — not just being one, but befriending them, dating them, loving them, studying them — is that our music tastes are among the most eclectic of any demographic. Those of us who came of age before streaming largely took inspiration from either our mother’s music collections or what was on the radio; I was privileged enough to grow up in one of the largest Black radio markets in the country with vinyl-obsessed parents. Some of this list sounds like quiet-storm Detroit radio, while other parts come from my own sound evolution.
It would be far too easy to include big-voiced divas and oontz-oontz beats for a gay book, and even easier to lean on Motown’s vast catalogue for a Detroit book, so I tried to put together something in the spirit of Detroit radio in its prime. We had DJs like Electrifying Mojo, Foody and Butterball that had carte blanche to play whatever they wanted, and radio stations like the “old” 107.5, Magic 105.1 or the dance-music era of WDRQ that had genre-bending playlists that went against the norm. This is just a sampling of tunes in heavy rotation (I do mean a sampling; I had to make some hard cuts to keep this short) while I was crafting my story.
“We Don’t Cry Out Loud” - The Moments
I like to think there’s a running theme in this book, and the real lives of men who have to live with being Black and gay at the same time, of just how much one has to conceal from the world around them. And the heart-wrenching lyric for me, “learn how to hide your feelings” — the one that every little Black gay boy learns how to do on their own, anyway. I reference the Melissa Manchester version of this song in the story, but the original version is the one I came back to, particularly when writing a breakup scene or generally capture the emotion of having to bottle up your feelings when all you want to do is move on unscathed.
“’T’ Plays it Cool” - Marvin Gaye
The opening scene begins with Dominick flying down the freeway at night, approaching Detroit in the wee hours of the morning. On Saturday nights in Detroit, this instrumental Gaye track kicks off the “Battle of the Old School,” a precursor to Verzuz in which the deejay plays competing songs from two artists in the same league. I’ll always associate this song with night drives in the Motor City.
“Take Money to Make Money” - Stretch Money
This song is an anthem of sorts of Detroit, one that combines everything I like to hear in a Detroit rap song: An old-school sample, lots of braggadocio, unabashed hometown pride, and lots of references to real-life places. I kept this song in mind when writing the character of Remy, who, like Stretch Money, came up on the east side of Detroit (as mentioned in a few bars) and understands the Detroit hustle, legit or otherwise, one must have to make it. And as I was writing and thinking about a sense of place — streets and intersections and places where the characters might gather — I came back here, too.
“This Feeling’s Killing Me” - The Jones Girls
There wasn’t a single artist I listened to more than this Detroit trio while writing this, and their short but lush discography is just enough that I could score this whole novel with their work alone. (I cut the better-known “Who Can I Run To” in favor of this album cut.) This one was constantly in rotation as the one that conveys the frustration of kissing a bunch of frogs to find the one, or trying to find an equal among those who seem to put in only half the effort.
“Easy” - Demetria McKinney/“Magnet” - Angie Stone
Early in the draft, I imagined each character’s “staring-out-the-window-with-a-glass-of-wine” song, and one of these would’ve been it for Remy, especially “Easy.” Someone who’s confident in their own self yet is discerning about what they want in someone else. “I ain’t picky, I just want the best for me/I can’t let nobody get the best of me.”
“Thoda Resham Lagta Hai” - Lata Mangeshkar
One character, Troy, is half-Bangladeshi — an ode to my maternal grandmother, who is not, but had an admiration for South Asian cultures my entire life. This song is from a Bollywood film, “Jyoti,” but there’s a generation of us who recognize the song as the sample behind Truth Hurts’ “Addictive.” I listened to this song as I imagined what Troy’s wedding would look like after translating the lyrics: “it takes a little silk, it takes a little glass.”
“Just Can’t Stay Away” - Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole is my paternal grandmother’s favorite singer, so I named a supporting character after her. One could interpret the lyrics of “here I am baby/right back in your arms/what is it about your love?/that draws me to you?” as repeatedly returning to a toxic relationship, something at least one of the characters here knows all too well.
“Alone” - Halsey/“Lucky” - Britney Spears
Two songs I’d dial up when I wanted to channel feelings of anxiety, loneliness and desperate escapism. The facade of having your shit together, when inside you’re a mess.
“Dream Lover” - Liz Hogue
In the earliest draft of this manuscript, before I sent it for early reads and queries, I had this song as the “love song” between two of the characters. There’s a line in the final version that says one of the characters’ mothers worked at a radio station and brought home promo copies of singles and albums, and “Dream Lover” would’ve been one of those. This alludes to my own mother, who worked at a newspaper and did the same, and one of her favorites is indeed “Dream Lover.” It’s an extreme deep cut in a subgenre I like to call “Detroit radio in the early ‘90s” — smooth, midtempo steppers’ grooves appropriate for both Saturday night at the club and Sunday brunch the next day.
“Love Stories” - Jennifer Holliday
I first heard this song a few years ago at Motor City Wine, a real-life wine bar that’s a major setting for the characters, and yet it sounded like it was always there. (Come to find out, the track was produced by Michael J. Powell, Anita Baker’s longtime producer, hence why it also sounds like Detroit radio in the early ‘90s.) The lyrics of going on and on about a failed (or promising?) lover to a best friend immediately spoke to me and reflects the journeys of each of the characters.
“Plastic Love” - Mariya Takeuchi
At some point, one of the characters resigns himself to the fact that trying to find a partner is going to be an endless game, so he might as well squeeze some fun out of it and embrace the superficiality of it all. Dancing to the plastic beat until another morning comes is what I think of when I think of gay bars (where the characters spend a lot of time), or just about a good chunk of the gay experience overall. “Plastic Love” also checks a few other boxes: It’s the kind of offbeat song you’d hear at Detroit’s UFO Factory bar (another real-life setting that shows up in the book), and had it been released in America with English lyrics, it’s just the kind of midtempo R&B song a now-30-something in Detroit would’ve heard on the radio growing up.
“Silly Ho” - TLC
There are points where the characters are forced to socialize with vapid, shallow gay men they don’t particularly care for, and I imagine this is in their heads when doing so.
“Egoist” - LOONA
I mention several songs in the book, but I’ll quickly mention this one here because it’s a song about self-empowerment after a breakup. “Love myself today/let you go today” is what I imagine each of the characters, but Dominick especially (you’ll see why after reading), saying to themselves at some point in their respective journeys.
“Heaven In Your Arms” - RJ’s Latest Arrival
At least one character (no spoiler) has their ultimate “love song” moment, and I imagined this one playing (from another unsung Detroit group) as they ride off together. I had wanted to nix the idea of any character having that moment but keeping this on repeat in final edits kept me from being too cynical.
“Can’t Forget the Love” - Sylvester/“You Are My Friend” - Patti LaBelle
Hard to choose just one for the closing credits! Some might interpret the former’s lyrics as being between romantic partners, but I interpreted as finding your person regardless of relationship. The message of gratitude for an unshakeable bond runs deep in both tunes, and how our friends are “here the all the time” — even when we might forget they are.
Aaron Foley's reporting and writing on Detroit, blackness, and queerness has appeared in This American Life, Jalopnik, the Atlantic, CNN, several anthologies, and the PBS NewsHour, where he is currently a senior digital editor. A Detroit native, the city's first appointed chief storyteller, and a former magazine editor, he is the author of How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass and editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook. He currently lives in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
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