Interview with Susana H. Case, author of Elvis Presley's Hips & Mick Jagger's Lips
Author Susana H. Case found inspiration in classic rock music for her new book of poetry, "Elvis Presley's Hips & Mick Jagger's Lips" due out April 1, 2013 from Anaphora Literary Press.
In my interview with Case, we discussed her book and her writing process.
Q: Would you say that you’re a fan of all the artists who inspired Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: Some more than others. And there’s music I love very much which never ended up being a source of inspiration for the poems in the book. For example, Blondie and Queen didn’t make it into this collection, yet they are both inspirational to me in my work. They will be in my next volume of rock poems, I’m pretty sure.
Q: Which part of Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips did you enjoy working on the most?
A: That’s a hard question. I’m not sure. The book is divided into three sections. I didn’t want to call the sections “Sex,” “Drugs,” and “Rock and Roll,” because those labels are trite by now. But they mirror those themes to some degree. I decided instead on “The Honey Thing,” “Mood Alteration,” and “Do a Song About It.” “Mood Alteration” also incorporates emotional shifts and “Do a Song About It” contains a lot of thematic content about the music business. Some of my favorites are in each section. But I wanted to write about musicians and the business, and not just write about myself. So I enjoyed going back and forth between poems with the pronoun, “I,” and those that were constructed differently.
Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: The challenge is always to whip disparate poems into a narrative that tells a story of some sort. When I was growing up, I wanted for a period of time to be a songwriter. It was important for me to remind myself while I was organizing the book that I was not that songwriter, but—someone entirely different—a poet. I also had to get past the notion that every favorite musician of mine had to be in the book. I had to go with what worked for the narrative. There will be other books.
Q: Who do you see as your audience for Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: The audience for poetry is usually other poets, but I’m always looking for ways to expand my audience and I think that those interested in rock and roll would also be interested in this book. I think it can be instructive also, as a sort of ekphrastic work, to see the way in which the music becomes the muse, if not always what is directly addressed as the subject of the poem.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
A: I hope they are entertained by the funny parts, that they think about the other parts, and that it stimulates more poetry based upon music—all kinds of music—which I’m a big fan of. I think there’s also a lot of information embedded in the poems, about what life was like in the seventies, as well as other decades, about the trajectories of various musical careers, about the way in which early rock music emerged from rhythm and blues, for example.
Q: Do you think there is a real difference between a poet and a lyricist or do you see them working at essentially the same craft?
A: The requirements are different, though both work at condensing. But the ways line and sound and rhythm are used are different in both, though there is overlap in what is paid attention to. I think some of my lines could be parts of songs. And I think there are lines of songs that could easily be poems. Pink Floyd comes to mind here. Think about the lines of “Brain Damage,” for example. Those lines contain more rhyme than most contemporary poetry, but “Brain Damage” is a very poetic song.
Susana H. Case
In my interview with Case, we discussed her book and her writing process.
Q: Would you say that you’re a fan of all the artists who inspired Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: Some more than others. And there’s music I love very much which never ended up being a source of inspiration for the poems in the book. For example, Blondie and Queen didn’t make it into this collection, yet they are both inspirational to me in my work. They will be in my next volume of rock poems, I’m pretty sure.
Q: Which part of Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips did you enjoy working on the most?
A: That’s a hard question. I’m not sure. The book is divided into three sections. I didn’t want to call the sections “Sex,” “Drugs,” and “Rock and Roll,” because those labels are trite by now. But they mirror those themes to some degree. I decided instead on “The Honey Thing,” “Mood Alteration,” and “Do a Song About It.” “Mood Alteration” also incorporates emotional shifts and “Do a Song About It” contains a lot of thematic content about the music business. Some of my favorites are in each section. But I wanted to write about musicians and the business, and not just write about myself. So I enjoyed going back and forth between poems with the pronoun, “I,” and those that were constructed differently.
Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: The challenge is always to whip disparate poems into a narrative that tells a story of some sort. When I was growing up, I wanted for a period of time to be a songwriter. It was important for me to remind myself while I was organizing the book that I was not that songwriter, but—someone entirely different—a poet. I also had to get past the notion that every favorite musician of mine had to be in the book. I had to go with what worked for the narrative. There will be other books.
Q: Who do you see as your audience for Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips?
A: The audience for poetry is usually other poets, but I’m always looking for ways to expand my audience and I think that those interested in rock and roll would also be interested in this book. I think it can be instructive also, as a sort of ekphrastic work, to see the way in which the music becomes the muse, if not always what is directly addressed as the subject of the poem.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
A: I hope they are entertained by the funny parts, that they think about the other parts, and that it stimulates more poetry based upon music—all kinds of music—which I’m a big fan of. I think there’s also a lot of information embedded in the poems, about what life was like in the seventies, as well as other decades, about the trajectories of various musical careers, about the way in which early rock music emerged from rhythm and blues, for example.
Q: Do you think there is a real difference between a poet and a lyricist or do you see them working at essentially the same craft?
A: The requirements are different, though both work at condensing. But the ways line and sound and rhythm are used are different in both, though there is overlap in what is paid attention to. I think some of my lines could be parts of songs. And I think there are lines of songs that could easily be poems. Pink Floyd comes to mind here. Think about the lines of “Brain Damage,” for example. Those lines contain more rhyme than most contemporary poetry, but “Brain Damage” is a very poetic song.
Susana H. Case
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Jennifer K. Lafferty, author of Movie Dynasty Princesses, reviews a wide range of books and discusses various aspects of contemporary and classic literature.
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