Nellcott is My Darling by Golda Fried

by Golda Fried

Nellcott is My Darling already references its own music throughout, so much so that one friend of mine said, “If it’s ever made into a movie, it already comes with its own soundtrack.”

Mentioned in the book are the following singers/ bands, songs and albums in no particular order: The Velvet Underground’s “Heroin,” Iggy Pop and the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” Joni Mitchell’s Blue album, The Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations” and “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain,” David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Courtney Love, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Sonny and Cher, Royal Trux and The Who. Allegra, the roommate, favors Tom Waits, Nick Cave and The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa. In their first meeting, Alice and Nellcott [the main characters in the novel] argue over which Bob Dylan song is better from Blood on the Tracks, “Simple Twist of Fate” or “Tangled up in Blue.”

Also, on the dedication page, I chose to put a quote by Elliott Smith, “I don’t think I’m ever going to figure it out.” This quote is directed particularly at relationships. It’s stated fairly early in the book, “Relationships were the greatest mysteries of all time. She [Alice] would never figure them out.”

However, what I was listening to while writing the novel is a whole other list. I would have to say the following:

1."My Darling" by Wilco
I was listening to a lot of Wilco, both Summer Teeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after hearing the song “My Darling” on an episode of The Gilmore Girls and tracking down who sang it. This song is actually about the singer’s daughter but as a love song, and because it had words from my title in it, I played it a lot while writing this book. It has wonky dreamy keyboards in it too and it’s comforting because the singer is telling the daughter to “go back to sleep now” and that’s what I like to hear when I’m stressed. I like to have long pajama writing sessions.

2."You Got the Silver" by the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are so much a part of my past, my gateway into listening to rock music and my reason for staying there. The first album I ever bought on my own was Hot Rocks. And “You Got the Silver” is the ultimate Keith song, so beautiful like riding into the sun, and Nellcott, the main character’s love interest, was very much so modeled after what I thought a young Keith Richards would be like.

3."Free" by Cat Power
I was listening to You Are Free the album as much as the song during the writing of this book. Chan Marshall’s voice is a mixture of honey and cigarettes, diary and pain. “Free” is an upbeat freedom song though, very good to keep typing to. The lyrics/ chant “It’s alright/ It’s okay” were soothing words whenever I got desolate that the writing sucked.

4."Twilight" by Elliott Smith
At the beginning of this song, you can hear crickets(?) in the background, much ambient sound. This immediately plunges you into a new reality which happens to me when I’m writing and it’s going well. Elliott Smith breaks my heart and I was writing a broken-hearts-club book. The lyrics “I could make you smile if you stayed a while / But how long will you stay with me baby” could be from Alice’s mouth.

5."Trouble" by Cat Stevens
This song is angst in a song, originally from the movie Harold and Maude at the part where Harold is losing Maude and he can’t do anything about it. This is pretty much what was happening in the novel as Alice was barely holding on to Nellcott. The song “Trouble” starts with some strums on acoustic guitar, I like that too. Also, “Trouble” could describe the character Nellcott Ragland in one word.