Rock to write by

Music plays a key role in my novel The Big Empty. The main character, Trace Malloy, isn’t a rock n’ roll fan, but a line from Bruce Springsteen’s The River, which he heard as a young man, sticks with him: “Is the dream a lie that don’t come true?”

(When I first used that line, I thought it was “Is the dream alive that don’t come true.” Fortunately, I have an eagle-eyed editor.)

In the second chapter, Trace’s son, Colt, listens to Robert Earl Keen’s Rollin’ By, which sets the tone for Malloy’s frustrations with Witherspoon and the changes in Conquistador, which boiled over earlier in the chapter.

And finally, Witherspoon, in reflecting on childhood arguments with his parents, makes a passing reference to Rush’s Freewill.

Recently, I was asked if music was an important part of my writing process. The answer is sometimes. When I’m writing, I usually prefer my office to be quiet, but some days it seems too quiet or there’s too many distractions from social media, email and so forth. On those days, I prefer a little background music.

But if I’m trying to write, I don’t like a lot of lyrics. I tend to get distracted by the words and then I’m thinking about the song instead of what I’m supposed to be writing. (When I’m editing or revising, it’s not a problem.) I’ve assembled playlists of classical and jazz, and I find jazz can be particularly good for writing depending on my mood.

Them problem is, rock is my genre. And it generally find it a better lubricant for the muse. So I assembled a playlist of rock instrumentals that I call Rock to Write By. It skews toward classic rock, (and yes, I know that grammatically speaking it should be “Rock By Which to Write.”). Here’s the list in case you want to test it out:

What am I missing? Are there any other good rock instrumentals I should add?