Get Lucky!

So here’s today’s WANAFriday blog prompt: Post your favorite recipe and perhaps a story to go with it.

Yeah, that’s an awesome prompt, except that I’m really not much of a cook, and don’t have what you would call a favorite recipe.  (Where’s Noni when I need her?) I read through the other WANAFriday posts, hoping for a little inspiration, and came away hungry but without any clever ideas for my own post.

Hmm…

Don’t get me wrong. I love to eat, and I enjoy spending time in the kitchen creating stuff. I just don’t have established Go-To, no-fail recipes. I tend to make it up as I go along, checking Pinterest, AllRecipes.com, or The Bible (The Joy of Cooking) when I need a little help. Either that or I call Noni, ply her with cocktails, and let her go at it.

Heh.

Something I have been thinking about, however, is what makes a good novel, and the example I came up with is actually not a book at all. It’s a song – the new one by DaftPunk called “Get Lucky”. The video is embedded below so you can check it out. I think it’s going to go down as The Summer Song for 2013, but the first time I heard it, all I could think was that I’d heard it somewhere before.

The song takes familiar elements and mixes them up to create something new. The bass line came straight out of the disco, which makes sense because one of their collaborators was Nile Rogers, former frontman for Chic. The jangly guitar reminds me of something Prince used to do, although he likely borrowed it from someone else. And the subject matter – we’re up all night to get lucky – doesn’t break any new ground, either.

The voxbox effect sounds kinda like Cameo, and the whole thing is as catchy as they come. That said, no one has done it exactly this way before. The melody line doesn’t go where I expect it to, particularly the lines  leading into the chorus, “We’ve come too far/To give up who we are/Let’s raise the bar/And our cups to the stars”. The way the chorus is divided (She’s up all night to the sun/He’s up all night to get some/She’s up all night for good fun/He’s up all night to get lucky) cracks me up, because the lady in question is all about fun in the sun, while the guy is getting some and getting lucky.

Of course, on the repeat all the pronouns change to “We”, which makes things a little less gender-biased.

So is this a recipe? I think it is. Take several helpings of the familiar, then twist them just enough to make it fresh. It works in songwriting, and it works in fiction, too. Every great novel has its roots in what came before. While Game Of Thrones is it’s own distinctive creation, George RR Martin gets called The American Tolkien for a reason. Likewise, Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca is a brilliant 20th century take on Jane Eyre.

What do you guys think? Is there a recipe for creative success? Can you name the antecedents of your favorite novel, or one you’ve written, for that matter? I know these are heavy questions for a Friday, but hit ‘play’ on the video below and see what you come up with.

Peace,

Liv

And when you’re done contemplating creativity, check out the other WANAFriday posts. There’s some truly yummy stuff here!

Ellen Gregory – Recipe for Chocolate Pudding

Janice Heck – Chocolate Dream Desert

Kim Griffin – Meatballs and What?

Cora Ramos – Recipe for Murder