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February 2, 2023
David James Keaton's Playlist for His Novel "Head Cleaner"
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.
David James Keaton's novel Head Cleaner is a fast-paced, genre-defying literary thriller.
Nick Mamatas wrote of the book:
"This is the sci-fi crime novel for Generaton X. A quirky, multigenre journey through the VHS era, but you can’t rewind and dare not skip ahead to the end."
In his own words, here is David James Keaton's Book Notes music playlist for his novel Head Cleaner:
In order to settle some grudges (mostly with myself), the three main characters in my new novel Head Cleaner are, for the most part, representative of Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z. As a representative of Gen X in real life, I decided to immerse myself in the music of these newer generations. Initially, I thought this would to help me get a handle on the book, and the Gen Y songs rang some nostalgia bells, but the Gen Z tunes were rough road on these ears, borderline unlistenable. Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tracks, I don’t know. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise anyway, since enduring the terrible music of younger generations was the perfect way to calibrate the media-related arguments in the novel after all. “No wonder!” I’d marvel after each tune, finally sympathizing with their suffering for the first time in my life. Okay, it’s not really that grim. I mean, Billy Eilish, the foremost Gen Y ambassador, whisper-sings her way through a James Bond theme song for godsake. Zoomer meets Boomer. If that can’t bring us all together, nothing can.
Beastie Boys – “Get it Together”
I think of this more as a Q-Tip song than a B-Boys song (and it led me directly to A Tribe Called Quest’s high point, The Low End Theory), but Ad Rock effectively reclaims this song with by far the most memorable verses (see: “She’s the cheese and I’m the macaroni” and “You know I’m getting silly/I gotta grandma Hazel and a grandma Tilly.”) One, two, oh my god.
Pixies – “Monkey Gone to Heaven”
Though Gen Xers are required by law to be into the Pixies, particularly if you’re in college, I missed the boat until the end credits of Fight Club, which makes me more of a Millennial when it comes to this band, I guess. And since humming “Where Is My Mind?” is considered a serious red flag these days, I’ve pivoted to enjoying this song instead, which was their only hit, which has gotta be an even worse red flag, right?
Geto Boys – “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”
It was when I was working in a Blockbuster/Family Video/Hollywood Video hybrid that I heard this song for the first time, except I didn’t know it was a song. There was this customer who would drift around the shelves looking for movies while repeating the chorus, which is more like talking than rapping. So I just thought he was seeing ghosts or something. When I finally bought the album later in life, I realized this is apparently what’s happening in the song too.
Rod Stewart – “Maggie May (extended)”
This song sort of has a double intro, and the first intro is usually left off when it’s played on the radio, and the second intro is also shortened in most versions, so it wasn’t until I dated a girl named Maggie that I realized there was much more to this song. She also told me that every guy she dated thought this was “their song,” and she was a little tired of it, but still liked the long intro version, since it wasn’t so overplayed. Like a fool, I decided to use the chorus of this song as her ring tone, which meant I shortened the song even further. I’m not usually superstitious, but I’m convinced this also shortened our relationship.
Pure Prairie League – “Falling In and Out of Love/Amie”
Proof that history repeats itself, I never realized this song also had a long intro until I started dating someone named “Amy.” She told me every guy she ever knew sang this chorus to her, like they were the first ones to think of it. So, of course, I made this her ringtone. It’s like I’m incapable of learning.
Lou Reed – “Sweet Jane (extended)”
The novel is sort of Lou Reed-heavy, due to a character’s obsession with his fake death announcements on Facebook, and this song is probably my favorite, even if it’ll forever remind me of Natural Born Killers.
Lou Reed – “Metal Machine Music Part 1”
This song (?) is (so far) the closest representation I’ve found to the glorious and surprisingly inspiring static between radio stations. (see also: Mike Patton’s Adult Themes for Voice)
The novel details a visit to a Facebook-esque campus, a place I’ve visited on several occasions (Palo Alto is real close to Santa Clara, where I teach), and one of the things I noticed (besides offices with full-size hockey nets and free Smart Water) was how they had all these bikes lined up and ready for anybody to hop on to zip around their huge headquarters or the nearby duck pond. And there were also these employees whose sole job seemed to be wiping off the seats of these bikes. So I tried to imagine this accommodation taken to its logical conclusion (this chapter, entitled “Endless Bicycle,” was also published separately in the Lou Reed tribute anthology Dirty Boulevard.
Pantera – “Walk” (Official Live/100 Proof version)
The Gen X guy in the novel has an annoying habit of imitating lead singer Phil Anselmo’s energetic but idiotic stage banter, which is featured heavily on this album of microphone-mouthing classics. He’s right up there with Paul Stanley (aka Dr. Rockzo) when it comes blowing your car speakers.
Massive Attack – “Teardrop (Tool ‘Stinkfist’ remix)”:
When I was a volunteer DJ for WYEP in Pittsburgh, this mash-up was my unofficial theme song. And instead of a “weather report,” I had a mosquito report, and for that I used the theme music from Magnum P.I., which made sense at the time. So at one point I’m at a party and talking to someone who loved that station, and I told them I was the overnight DJ. They said they loved my show, but the guy who was on after me “was more than a little disorganized, always talking about mosquitos.” I quickly realized that she thought I was “David Dye” from The World Café, which was on both earlier and later. I didn’t correct her. David Dye is a pretty cool name, and I kept it all week.
Bruce Springsteen – “The River”
There’s quite a bit of driving in this novel, as well as in my daily commutes, and this double album contains approximately 629 songs about cars. Weirdly enough, I gravitate towards the title song, which in spite of the central image being Bruce and Mary swimming in the titular river, also contains at least a half dozen references to driving, and a “brother’s car.” This dynamic also features heavily in Head Cleaner’s climax during an “Atmospheric River Event,” which sounds exactly like the site of an endless Springsteen concert.
The Toadies – “Possum Kingdom”
I’m still convinced this song is about vampires, as are the characters in Head Cleaner (the proof is there, just listen!) Fun story, when The Toadies played Toledo, my friend Steve and I went to see them, and they were at the bar real early just hanging out. We wanted to talk to them and didn’t know what to say, so Steve asked the lead singer if he could borrow five dollars, then had sort of laughing attack, and everyone was super annoyed. The lead singer also told me the song is not about vampires, merely murder. But lucky for all of us, authorial intent should never be implicit, and this song is definitely about vampires.
David James Keaton is the author of three collections of short stories, including FISH BITES COP! Stories to Bash Authorities, which was named the 2013 Short Story Collection of the Year by This Is Horror, and Stealing Propeller Hats from the Dead, which received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. He is also the author of three novels, The Last Projector (a thriller), Pig Iron (a western, which has been optioned for film), and She Was Found in a Guitar Case (a mystery). He is the co-editor, along with Joe Clifford, of Hard Sentences: Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz, and the editor of Dirty Boulevard: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Lou Reed. He teaches composition and creative writing at Santa Clara University in California and can be found on Twitter @spiderfrogged.
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