Mood: Monday

The Sinister Edition.

I had a different post planned for today but I can use it later. I’ve been writing most of the day, and then was reminded of a text exchange with Marika from a while back.

We were talking about the Beach Boys, as I’ve been known to do a few times in my life (the photo above would be different if I hadn’t used that image from the Internet because Harvey drowned most of my Beach Boys vinyl collection, which was vast–Tom could attest because of the number of times he had to move it through the years).

I should add we were talking about the REAL Beach Boys, not that sad assortment that Mike Love still puts together on stage for whatever reasons he has to do that. SALUTE to Brian Wilson, the late Dennis and Carl Wilson, and the loyal Al Jardine Beach Boys.

Anyway, Marika mentioned that what the Beach Boys needed was a teenage death song to capture her heart. NEVER imply that any heart can’t be captured by something the Beach Boys have done, but I understand. She tends toward the macabre, Marika does. Comes with being a mystery writer. To be helpful, I just said off the top of my head, “Pretend ‘Surfer Girl’ is a ghost. It’ll change everything when you listen to it that way.”

I’m not sure if it worked for Marika with “Surfer Girl” (which I then had to find a way to reference in my work-in-progress because…Beach Boys) but today, also randomly, I texted, “I wonder how ‘Tiny Dancer’ sounds as a ghost song?”

Whereupon we both listened to it from our separate Gulf Coast quarantined cities and agreed, damn! “Tiny Dancer” works great if she’s a ghost.

Then Marika texted that “Sara” sounds like it’s about a girl who was murdered by her lover (more specifically, by one of my characters WHO IS NOT A SERIAL KILLER. I’m not the mystery writer here). I knew she was probably referencing the Stevie Nicks song, but I couldn’t resist asking, “Starship ‘Sara’ or Hall and Oates ‘Sara,'” whereupon I had to listen to both of them, and hand to heaven, they are both ghost songs about a girl possibly murdered by her lover.

I guess this means Monday’s mood is melancholy or murder, or maybe the moral is, don’t name your daughter Sara (hi to my niece Sarah!). Seriously, if there’s a song you’ve heard a million times and want to make more interesting, turn it into a ghost song. Or listen to the Becky and Marika Ghost Song Playlist below, with a bonus track suggested by Marika of HELL YES THAT’S A CREEPY SONG in the context of the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much: Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart, Hitchcock.

You’re welcome.