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Marilyn Roxie presents … The Music in Dennis Cooper's Books


It’s no secret that there are musical references in Dennis Cooper’s work. At times music has played a quite prominent role in his stories and the subject has been discussed before. But it was only after I become acquainted with his music journalism through Smothered in Hugs and had read Guide a few months ago that I stopped a moment to wonder just how much of the musical component in his books I had missed. I had been so intensely wrapped in my new interest in Cooper that I had breezed through everything I could get at the San Francisco Public Library at an unreasonable speed. So, I decided to read it all over again both to better understand my appreciation of his works as well as to tackle the project of cataloging the music in these books. Happening a upon a Guide-and-music-focused blog called The “Guide” Thingfurther encouraged me in this endeavor.

You can view Musical References in Dennis Cooper’s Books over at Rate Your Music and listen to the corresponding Spotify playlist here. Following the text below I have also selected a few music-referencing passages from Cooper’s books and added music videos to supplement them. Horror Hospital Unplugged was particularly enjoyable to take a closer look at for this purpose, because there are many references tucked away that I missed on first, second, and even third passes through, from the integration of lyrics in the background of scenes, to the atmosphere of the record store and bedroom shelves packed with albums.

I am already an obsessive list-maker and, relatedly, a library tech — imagine my delight at finding the best-of lists tucked away at the back of Ugly Man! — so I desired to fill this perceived gap as soon as I found out that someone hadn’t done this already. But I also felt it important due to the reasons why his writing, as a whole, is important to me personally and how I came to read these books in the first place.
I found out about Dennis Cooper around 2009 through this list of Richey Edwards' Favorite Books, where Frisk was listed. [Richey Edwards: a member of the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers whose history was posted about here at DC’s in 2012] I had never heard of Cooper or this book before, and became intrigued. Shortly thereafter I read Frisk as an eBook and Closer as a check-out from my college library, without reading any summary or review beforehand - no clue what to expect. Afterward, I didn't know whether I was supposed to be haunted or enthralled. Not until much later did I decide that it was perfectly okay to hold both in my head at the same time.

It is significant that I began reading Dennis Cooper’s books around the same time I was finally coming to terms with my gender and sexual identity. In short, I don't identify as a man or a woman, but I do strongly identify with gay male sexuality. It occurred to me that the subject matter of many of these books reminded me of the content (rather than the writing style I lacked and still lack: the immaculate, enviable crispness of words Cooper often uses to great effect) of my own bizarre scribblings in my teenage years. Reading an author like Dennis Cooper has somehow made me more comfortable with my identification and creative modes of expression than more positive bastions of “hope” or “transformation”. This is likely not despite but because of the preponderance of devastatingly pretty boys in ethically problematic situations. So much of what “squicks” some people out about his books are exactly what has drawn me in, because I am somehow reminded of what both mixed me up and interested me about sexuality in my past and something that is at times uncomfortable to recognize that is still inside of myself. This is probably the reason why it took me about two years from reading Closer and Frisk to make the decision to go on to read more.

And here we come to music. It has not been unusual for me to follow an interest in a particular artist to their own influences and interests. This not only helps me better understand and appreciate the interest that I started with, but expands my own tastes. In the case of the Manic Street Preachers, getting into them greatly expanded my literary reference pool. Through Cooper I have, perhaps inevitably, circled back around to music again through my tracking of these references. Music has been long established as a lens that I can better understand the world through, especially in the realm of making sense of emotions. Dennis Cooper, through his use of music, makes it clear that it is not just a plot prop: he loves music himself, and so it isn’t surprising that it often plays a significant role in the world/s of his characters, including at times characters with music taste dissimilar to his own.

When I read Dennis Cooper, it doesn’t resonate at all with some sense of self-hatred or whatever else people who think his writing is invariably about “shock value” feel is there. For me personally, reading Dennis Cooper’s books challenge me to interrogate the concepts of chaos, beauty, masculinity, and lust, and on a more intimate side, there is a connection with my own sphere of self-identity and attraction. That he does not hesitate to integrate his kickass music taste when it is fitting to do so makes the journey through this dark landscape that much sweeter.


Closer


While Alex showered I reached behind his cassette deck. I found the baggie where he hid his grass, rolled a joint, struck a match on my belt buckle. I tried the radio. Out popped Sparks' “Amateur Hour,” a flop song from my childhood that sounded best loud.



Sparks - “Amateur Hour”




Mr. Miles wandered back to the kitchen. George lifted his Mickey Mouse cap, grabbed a tab of the acid he'd stashed there, and slipped it under his tongue. He set The Cramps' “Garbage Man” forty-five on his turntable. “. . . Do you understand / Do you understand? . . . ” By its end he was seeing things.



The Cramps - “Garbage Man”



As the room starts to bustle we chat in a nerve-wracking whine we've developed to crack ourselves up. A great new song by The Swans is drowning us out. “Greed,” I think it's called. We go insane when this born-again Christian we know actually sobs when the lyrics begin.



Swans - “Greed”



He ran a damp washcloth under both arms, across his cock, between the cheeks of his ass. He tried to whistle the tune of The Smiths' “Handsome Devil” but the thing had no melody so he just sounded asthmatic.



The Smiths - “Handsome Devil”





Frisk


On the way to the shower Pierre makes a stop at the stereo, plays side one of Here Comes the Warm Jets, an old Eno album. It’s still on his turntable. It has this cool, deconstructive, self-conscious pop sound typical of the ‘70s Art Rock Pierre loves. He doesn't know why it's fantastic exactly. If he were articulate and not just nosy, he'd write an essay about it. Instead he stomps around in the shower yelling the twisted lyrics. “By this time/I'd got to looking for a kind of /substitute. . .” It's weird to get lost in something so calculatedly chaotic. It’s retro, pre-punk, bourgeois, meaningless, etc.



Brian Eno - “Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch”





Try

The Hüsker Dü tape's reached his favorite song, “I Apologize,” a raucous, fierce, kind of confused, pretty rant against the way the world works that's so appropriate to his current situation it's almost hilarious. That’s why he borrowed the name for his magazine. But every Hüsker Dü song is relevant to Ziggy’s life every second. That’s why they mean tons to him now.



Hüsker Dü - “I Apologize”



But the Sex Hole’s door’s closed, not sitting open an orangy slit, as per most visits. So Ziggy does like he does when Ken’s doing whatever he, ha ha ha, does in the Hole, and turns off the stereo system, to let the guy know he’s present. . . .  A cannibal’s desire feeds the fire that burns in your—Click. Ziggy loves how, like, even after it’s off, loud music, especially guitar hangs around in the air tinkling faintly for two, three seconds. “Cool.”



Slayer - “Live Undead”





Guide

Luke smiled mesmerizingly, he could just tell. Then he let his thought patterns crap out to the music.
Guided by Voices: Everything fades from sight / because that's all right with me.

Guided by Voices - “I Am A Scientist”



I’m in my office, typing a draft of the previous chapter. Several minutes ago, I pushed PLAY on my boom box.
Blur: I met him in a crowded room / Where people go to drink away their gloom.
The office is smallish and barren, apart from my desk, a file cabinet, a filthy Macintosh laptop, and a bulletin board pinned with pictures of people whose beauty inspires me for whatever reason.



Blur - “Charmless Man”




“Wake up, Chris.” Pam poked, poked. She was weighing a gnarly idea. “I’m counting to five, then I give you a salt-shot. One. . .two. . .”
Chris had nodded out at her desk. “Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled.
Guided by Voices: Are you the person I'm scheduled to meet / To assess my skeleton's worth?
Pam leaned in close to his ear. “I have an idea,” she said. “Take off your clothes, and go stand next to Goof.”



Guided by Voices - “Do the Earth”




Scott laid down his pencil and shook out some early arthritis.
On the radio, a strangely good song by the Lemonheads, whom Scott normally hates or, more specifically, thinks he could be up with indie-rock gods, i.e., Pavement, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh, if they cared a little less about fame.
Scott’s thoughts, in summary: Maybe I’m jealous.
The Lemonheads: Mary my path / Mark my path down.

The Lemonheads - “The Turnpike Down”





Tinselstool: You're gonna die too, bad boy / Bad boy, die till tomorrow. Scott grinned insanely at Daniel James's ass. The boy was hunched over, playing a solo. He meant every predictable note.



Silverchair - “Tomorrow”





Horror Hospital Unplugged



Any thought could be the beginning / Of the brand new tangled web you're spinning
“I see two...no, three gods.”
“Really? Where?”



Sebadoh - “Brand New Love”




‘Cos nobody loves me / it’s true / not like you do
“So...why do you always want to, uh, lick me and stuff?”
“Because you’re beautiful.”



Portishead - “Sour Times”




“Yeah, it’s cool. So your friend, uh...”
“Frank.”
“...Yeah, Frank. He really wants to make a documentary about Horror Hospital?”
I’m an alligator...
“Sure. Here, take one more of these.”



David Bowie - “Moonage Daydream”




"If a ten ton truck..."

Sung to the tun of The Smiths song "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"

Meanwhile, in Tim’s car...
The Smiths - “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”





God Jr.


My all-time favorite song is Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” I didn’t know it was their cover version of an old blues song for years. By the time I found out, I was already a fan. After I heard the original, Zeppelin’s copy seemed overstated and weak. But I didn’t change my mind. I just decided I was weak for continuing to love it.



Led Zeppelin - “Dazed and Confused”




Jake Holmes - “Dazed and Confused”





We’re feeling nostalgic so I’ve cranked KROQ. It’s playing a set of so-called nuggets from the ‘80s. Tommy happens to walk in the living room when KROQ’s playing a song called “She Sells Sanctuary” by a band that I think was called the Cult. Tommy smiles at the sound and grabs an imaginary microphone. He can’t sing, but he sings anyway.



The Cult - “She Sells Sanctuary”






The Marbled Swarm
I retrieved my brother's backpack from the floor and rummaged through its
mishmash until I'd clutched the cold hard outlines of an iPod. “What do
manga characters listen to when they're ... ?” I asked him. “Nothing,
strangely,” Alfonse said. “But I wouldn't mind hearing Cartoon KAT-TUN II
You.”



KAT-TUN - “Signal (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You)





I slept horribly, and yet my iPhone's silent, rumbling alarm so piqued my interest in exploring day-lit rooms and views, it might have played my favorite TV program's theme song if the show in question weren't predictably Twin Peaks and were its overture less soporific.
            Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme






Safe

“Fuck it, I’m going out.” He puts on jeans, a T-shirt, and stumbles off to the stereo, digging out his favorite record. Its doom and fashion sense waft from the speakers, through the lead singer’s stiff upper lip. Mark sways around in its breezes: “Gods will be Gods / but when mine opened up / I was made out of skin / and bones will be bones / but when I came home / there was no one in.” He mouths the lyrics. There’s a draft in their thinking that chills him each time he listens.



Echo and the Bunnymen - “Gods Will Be Gods”





Lunch (The Tenderness of the Wolves)
“I still say, Xeeman yawned, that Magazine is the biggest bore. Their last two albums didn't live up to the first one, but with a guy like Howard Devoto at their helm, who has an IQ of 140, you know they've got something.
From the tape recorder, Devoto accompanied her: Time flies, he intoned in a deep, broken wail, time crawls, like an insect up and down the walls.



Magazine - “The Light Pours Out of Me”




My Dad (The Dream Police)

Paul Petersen sang My Dad, his '64 hit, on The Donna Reed Show. He did so stage-left, in full view of Carl Betz, his dad in that scene, in those days. Now it's '83. Feelings for dads aren't so simple.

Paul Petersen - “My Dad”


Shelley's survived. Her song Johnny Angel a cult hit today with ironic and sentimental young fags. But I forget what she said about boyfriends whereas I parenthesized what Mr. Petersen felt for his dad, played it over and over.

Shelley Fabares - “Johnny Angel”





*

p.s. Hey. A silent reader of the blog, Marilyn Roxie, has very kindly made today's post about the music referenced in my books, and I'm humbled and very grateful, and I hope that you out there will find it interesting, of course. Please speak back to your guest host, if you don't mind, and thank you so incredibly much, Marilyn! I think the premiere of 'The Pyre' went really well last night. The response seemed enthusiastic. The only review I've read so far is a great one. Time will tell, but I think it might be okay. Tonight Gisele and I do a post-show onstage talk/q&a, so I guess maybe we'l get some direct feedback then. As for my debit card, ugh, it's lost, and getting a replacement card from an American bank, or from mine at least, when overseas is a ridiculous nightmare of a process, so I'll just be stressing a bit until the new card hopefully arrives in the nick of time before I leave for Japan. Oh, well. ** Grant Scicluna, Hi, Grant! I think it went well. It's a strange piece, but it seemed like its strangeness was appreciated. Well, I sorted the debit card loss as best one can, but it's a huge, predictable headache. Awesome about the great horror script/film news! Congrats and lots of bubbly and everything else, man! ** Jax, Hi, Jack! Great to see you, my pal! Obviously, really nice if the Noah Crooks post feeds or dances well with your piece. Yeah, Japan, crazy. I'll try to come back with as much cool evidence and news/anecdotes as possible. ** Rigby, I got a message from Missy last night, so he was alive as of the darkened part of yesterday, and I think I'll be seeing him in a few hours, so I'll take his pulse and report back. No, I hadn't noticed the 'like' refrain in his speech, but I will now. I'm from LA, so I probably wouldn't even have noticed if you hadn't noticed. Haven't seen 'Girls'. I know the same-named band a little. I'll see what 'Iron Soul of Nothing' is about, thanks. What a title. Oh, it's that thing Stephen/Sunn0))) did with NwW, so I do know it, just not by title. G'day! ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Nah, French banks can't/won't help me out, but hopefully I'll be lucky. Did the images make sense? Sense in what sense? I wasn't thinking about sense when I saw and inserted them. I don't know. They do something unexpected to the text, and that's good enough for me. 'The Loop' is really terrific. I don't know if I can do as 'as good as' thing with it. It's really, really good too. Last night seemed sort of maybe wonderful, hard to tell. I was kind of way too nervous to read it accurately. I didn't talk to anyone there except my friend Zac, whose opinion I hold in the highest of all possible highs, and he loved the piece and said it went really well. So, seemingly. Bon day! ** S., 'A Pillow of Winds'. Nice title. Nice, kissy, kissable stack. Everyone, almost like clockwork, here's the spanking new Emo stack called 'A Pillow of Winds' by the Emo/stack finesser S. Did you write that? It has this nice kind of Hair Metal avant-gardism about it. I've never done shrink drugs. I do know some guys they've helped. Helped a lot in some cases. Not many, though. I think I only really like one Blink 182 song. I think it's called 'Stay Together for the Kids'. Interesting Lynchian encounter thing. ** Bollo, Hi, J! My card did not magically reappear, sadly, but, yeah. 'Pyre' seemed to go well. Hopefully you'll see its somewhere. It seems like it's going to tour all over the place. I have friends who've done residencies in Japan, so it's certainly possible. Oh, that Efteling coaster, yeah, nice. There's a far superior one too. Might be too new for you to have ridden it. It's this one: The Mysterious Ship 'De Vliegende Hollander'. Really sorry and hugs about the stupid rejection letters. Oh, the Bjarne Melgaard novel, right, I should look for that. I wonder. I wish you Cloud 9 too, a bunch of them, a Fog Bank 9 even. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Yeah, it is very sad. On the other hand, re: your link, yes, and with no one getting beaten up or stabbed or anything. ** Sypha, Hi, James. I'm even envious of myself re: Japan, so I understand. Schizophrenic reading years are the best. Maybe that's just me and my thing. ** Gary gray, Hi, Gary! Lovely to see you here, sir! Yeah, major empathy with Noah from me too. I guess obviously. Thanks re: 'The Pyre' stuff. Yeah, it's really cool that POL agreed to publish the 'Pyre' book and that they're okay with it not being available outside the context of the piece, i.e. to the public/bookstores, etc. POL is the best. I have, I think, enough cash to get me through until the new card arrives, assuming it arrives. If it doesn't, I'm dead, but, you know, faith and all that. So nice to see you, man! What's up? ** Heliotrope, Hey, Mark, you least sore sight for the sorest of eyes, you! You have the coolest nephews. Mine's the coolest too. Lucky us. You good? You sound pretty good. I miss you, man! Tons and tons of love to you and to J! ** Steevee, Hi. I don't know, him leaking it because he's bored sounds like an interesting concept to me. I trust your instincts. I just sounds like a matter of differing aesthetics, you know. ** Nemo, Hi! Yeah, just check to make sure I'll be here when you're coming. I'm in this 'traveling a lot' phase these days, and that might continue for a while. Give me heads up when you think you might come, and I'll check to see what the status of my in or out of town thing will be. Would be great! Love, me. ** Thomas Moronic, Really sad, yeah. Thanks about 'The Pyre'. So far so good maybe? I saw Kiddiepunk, but your book doesn't physically exist in his hands as of yet, so I have to wait a few days to get one. Tick, tick ... ** James, Hi, James! Really good to see you! Fingers crossed into a psychedelic wonderland re: the publishers who have your novel mss. I didn't find my debit card, but thanks for wishing for that outcome. Would have been very nice. Much love to you too! ** Pilgarlic, Wow, that Paula Deen story is so great! Have I told you lately how great your stories and story-telling skills/style are? That was fantastic. I learned so much, and I did some writer-to-writer swooning along the way. Does Saltwater Creek have salt water in it, or what's the deal? ** Rewritedept, Thanks about the cool wishes for the 'Pyre' premiere. That's a tough poem, in the good way. Punchy. People still buy iPods? Yeah, I guess they must. That's kind of sweet somehow. Wow, Livejournal. People still do Livejournal, I think, don't they? Condolences and hugs, man, about the depressing birthday of your friend. You know how hard suicide is for me. Yeah, hugs. ** Bill, Hi, Bill! No, no debit card, but what can you/I do? Greetings to Korea! I'll google Daejeon just for fun. Have you done the gig yet? How did it go, if so? Very nice looking NJP piece, obviously. Enjoy Seoul. Report on anything you deem to be reportable, please. ** Okay. Be with Marilyn and, you know, with the music in my stuff, I guess. I'll go ... oh, probably/ hopefully see Misanthrope and _Black_Acrylic, who are here in Paris, and then maybe film/document a Fujiko Nakaya fog sculpture for a film project with my pal Zac, and then go see 'The Pyre' and talk to/with the audience afterwards. That's the bulk of my day ahead. What constituted your bulk? See you tomorrow.

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