Dave's Anatomy #9: My History as a Writer: Writing stories based on songs: "Purple Haze"

As a musician, I know a lot of songs. As a writer, I use them to create stories. Looking back, the creative evolution of these stories intrigues me. Writing a story based on a song, on the concept of song, entails more than simply taking  what is described in a song's lyrics and turning it into a narrative tale. Songs are poems of a sort and they create not merely narratives with the lyrics but also a group of creative associations that become springboards into unique plot sequences.

Looking at lyrics, I marvel at how they are so often creatively associative. An old Led Zeppelin song, "Rock and Roll," has the line, Been a long time since the book of love. I've pondered the exact meaning of that line a lot. Does it mean:  Been a long time since the book of love was written? Been a long time since I read the book of love? Been a long time since the Monotones released "Who Wrote the Book of Love" in 1957? What is the book of love? This is the richness of song lyrics. Or the line by Cat Stevens, in "Peace Train":  Peace train holy roller. Again, what does this mean? A holy roller is a derogatory name for a charismatic or Pentecostal Christian who might shout or, in some cases, roll on the floor in religious ecstasy. But what does that have to do with the Peace Train? And what is the Peace Train anyway?

Song lyrics are not as cut and dried as we think. Ideally, they get the human mind working in creative directions. They create associations. I followed the lead of some of the associations of song lyrics in my story "Purple Haze." I had used song titles for titles of stories before:  "Son of a Preacher Man," "Norwegian Wood," "Into White," and "Revolution." Most of these stories, however, took the song titles because my character, Sossity Chandler, sang the song at one point in the story. This one was different. It relied more on creative association.

Most people interpreted "Purple Haze," as a song is about an LSD trip (though this is disputable). It emerged as a hit in 1967 and remains an iconic song in rock and roll. Whether about drugs or not, it is about someone out of control and not able to function properly. This, I think, was the thing I took to make the basic plot of the story. Sossity falls in with people who turn out to be a gang that steals musical instruments. They want her guitar. They drug her and take her to an abandoned warehouse, steal her purse, and try to get her guitar (she has left it with a friend). She also finds a stolen guitar that belonged Jimi Hendrix

But Sossity is at least able to function and reason, despite being disoriented by the drugs they gave her. She finds a headset and puts in on, thinking it may provide focus to her mind. It is a track of Jimi Hendrix's first album. By letting the familiar songs focus her mind, Sossity is able to get out and get home. The police contact her, return her stolen purse, and tell her the gang has been caught.

Years, later, her nun friend Heather arranges a meeting with a

female member of the gang, who has been religiously converted and released from prison. She asks Sossity's pardon for what she did. When Sossity asks her who helped the police find them, she answers, "It was him." Sossity asks who. The woman says, "I think you know." Though she doesn't believe in ghosts, Sossity at least considers the possibility what she has been told is true.

Being confused (possibly by drugs), helpless, and fighting for control of one's senses are big parts of the song "Purple Haze." These elements suggested Sossity's drug-induced torpor. The iconic songs on the album Are You Experienced give her a focus and help her snap out of her own "purple haze." Stories of Hendrix supply additional content. Songs lead us down creative pathways. Any pathway has lots of possibilities. Songs are good for story ideas. More on this topic later.

My new book, Mother Hulda, a short, fast-moving sci-fi tale based on a story by the Brothers Grimm, is available. Pick up a Kindle copy. 

For more titles, checks out my Writer's Page.

And--amazement!--I found an archive copy of the story, even though the journal that printed it is no longer in operation.  Here it is, for your reading pleasure:  Purple Haze. 

More to come on using songs and music in stories.