Blister in the Sun

A short guide to the soundtrack of This Time Tomorrow.

Hi all!

In case anyone was wondering how fun it is to have three out of four family members get Covid, one at a time, stretched over three weeks, very little fun indeed! Keep your masks on, all.

In other news, I made a playlist for This Time Tomorrow. Most of these songs/artists are mentioned in the book, but I did add some songs to the playlist that are important to understand as a layer underneath, as part of my psyche, as part of my DNA, such as songs from the greatest soundtracks to ever exist: Dirty Dancing, Pretty in Pink, Stand By Me, you get the picture. Ditto a New Kids on the Block song, because you just have to know that that’s the foundation of my heart, and it doesn’t matter what they sound like, just like it doesn’t matter what my children look like—to me, they will always be the most beautiful people in the world.

Here’s the whole playlist, and below please find some assorted feelings.

As ever, preorders are vitally important and I thank you in advance.

This Time Tomorrow, by the Kinks: Duh.

Fantasy, Mariah Carey. Did I make a copy of this record for a boy I liked? Yes. Did he deserve it? No. Do I ever go to Rye Playland and not think of this iconic music video? Also no.

When I Come Around, Green Day. I went to see Green Day with my friend Laura when I was in the 9th grade and she was in the 10th grade. Her mom drove us to Nassau Coliseum, and we had seats way up, but when they started playing, Laura and I jumped (!) over a barricade onto the floor, where I immediately lost her. I smoked an entire pack of cigarettes and have no memory of how I ever found her again. (I did, and she’s fine, hi, LMP!)

Juicy, The Notorious BIG. After my friend Katherine got unceremoniously bounced from our school in Brooklyn, she started going to a school on the Upper East Side, and I remember going with her to a party with a sea of very, very rich white boys in Northfaces crowded around a full-size pool table that one of them had in his apartment, and this song playing, just as the lord intended.

End of the Road, Boyz II Men. I don’t know what middle school dances are like nowadays, but in the early 1990s, it was slow dancing to this, and it was fucking great.

No Myth, Michael Penn. The good Penn. Heathcliff? Romeo? Black jeans? Yes, please. Fun fact: the chorus of this song was one of the epigraphs to the first novel I ever wrote, which will remain unpublished forever and ever, amen.

Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes. Angela Chase dancing in her bedroom. I love her like I love my very oldest friend. And can I just say that I have finally come around to the fact that Brian Krakow was a far superior match, Jordan Catalano’s perfect face and hair notwithstanding. I no longer have any patience for Jared Leto, and neither would Angela.

Electric Relaxation, A Tribe Called Quest. I really did think that Q-Tip and I would get married someday, or at least stare at each other from across a room and have a little moment, you know, just something for me to hold onto for the rest of my life.

I’ll Be There For You, Mary J. Blige and Method Man. Speaking of men I thought I might marry, I would still marry Method Man. Also, I just want to say thank you to the universe for giving me Mary. J. Blige, a woman who had truly been through things, at the moment when I, a pre-teen, felt that I too had been through some things. Olivia Rodrigo just doesn’t have the same sort of gravitas.

Have a listen.

Stay healthy, all!