Saturday 25 April 2015

A Robot In The Blog Tour

Hi everyone. Welcome to my spot in the Robot In The Garden blog tour! And I am thrilled that Deborah Install is taking over the blog and chatting about the book's playlist! So, before I go any further, I would like to thank Deborah for taking time out to chat about music and I would, also, like to thank Ben from Doubleday/Random House for inviting me on this tour!

Now, shall we get this blog post started and hand it over to Deborah? I think we should, so all yours

1. "The Garden" - Take That
Don’t judge me ;-). The title is relevant, of course, but also the lines 'This is the life we've been given, so open your mind and start living' are relevant to Ben

2. "Distant Sun" - Crowded House
Similarly, 'Tell me all the things you would change, I don't pretend to know what you want.' I also always thought this song was about a guy completed bowled over by the brilliance of a girl, and I always thought that was something that drew Ben to Amy.

3. "Fix You" - Coldplay
I love this song. I find it really emotional. I used it once in an amdram play I directed once. In this context it fits the point near the beginning where Ben really realises Tang needs his help. Also the line 'But if you never try you'll never know just what you're worth' is what people have been trying to say to Ben all along, but never found the words.

4. "Hotel California" - The Eagles
I called the place in the book the Hotel California because I always reckoned the one in the song to be a really unpleasant, seedy sort of place, so it fitted.

5. "Born To Be Wild" - Steppenwolf
The chapter where Tang dances to this song was one of the earliest I wrote. I just had to have my robot do 'the robot' and this song was just always in my head for it, partly because it's a total driving song, but also because it gave Ben the opportunity to ponder Tang's sentience.

6. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons
I confess I picked this one entirely for the title. I wanted one for Kyle and there aren't too many songs about radioactive sausage dogs.

7. "One For My Baby" - Frank Sinatra
A song about a guy, nursing a drink, being miserable about a girl who's left him. Either fits in the sports bar section or when Ben is drinking the Old Fashioned in the hotel in Tokyo.

8. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - Bonnie Tyler
Ben's song of choice for karaoke. Traditional heartbreak song and easy to belt out drunk. I do not know this from experience, I hasten to add.

9. "The Robots" - Kraftwerk
A Doubleday recommendation, and it makes me think of the bit in the book with all the androids lined up in the Japanese shop.

10. "Paranoid Android" - Radiohead
Purely for the title. And because I like it. :-)

11. "Digital Love" - Daft Punk
Had to put some Daft Punk in, and this one seemed to fit best. I put it at this point in the playlist because it would be at about the point where Ben and Tang are on Palau and, as the saying goes, 'shit gets real'.

12. "The Scientist" - Coldplay
Bollinger = mad scientist figure. But also, it feels to me that pretty much every line has relevance for the story.

13. "Mr Brightside" - The Killers
Placed here for the point where Ben feels that he is losing Amy all over again.

14. "We Are Family" - Sister Sledge
The end of the book is very much concerned with family. And it's a fun song.

15. "Happy" - Pharrell Williams
What can I say? I'm not sure I could bring myself to write an unhappy ending...perhaps I'll surprise myself one day. :-)

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