Adli Yacubi

Tag: Music

  • I let Nancy Sinatra sing in Sally Little’s biography

    I let Nancy Sinatra sing in Sally Little’s biography

    Adli Jacobs shares his insights on the process of writing Capturing the Fire and why setting the tone in storytelling is so important.
    nancy_sinatra_single_cover_these_boots_are_made_for_walkin
    Copyright belongs to Reprise Records or the graphic artist(s).

    Music is phenomenal. It is not just the universal communications that can cut across language barriers, the age gap or cultural differences. It sets the mood or the scene, draws out the emotions when you least expect it and can say things in ways that often defies explanation. But there is one more reason why it can be invaluable in a book.

    When I was writing the first few chapters of Capturing the Fire, a song came to mind when I was writing about a part of Sally Little’s life when she was struggling with a violent fiancé. It was a major milestone for her and as she was explaining how she dealt with event, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ started to play in my head.

    I googled the song and lo and behold, it was released in the very year this event took place! Originally performed by Nancy Sinatra (Frank’s daughter) and written by Lee Hazlewood, the song was first heard on the radio in 1966. That’s a year after I was born. Since then, various cover versions were made by, amongst others, Geri Halliwell and Jessica Simpson.

    I took the chorus lyrics and placed it as inspiration at the top of Chapter Three: Mr Wrong in the red MG. I read the chapter once more and realised that the lyrics just added an interesting dimension to the story; it transports the reader back to that time period and suggests the mood of Sally Little at the time.

    Later, as the editing unfolded, the editor asked me why some chapters had a quote or lyrics of a song such as Nancy Sinatra’s and why the others did not. I said, “It was spur of the moment thing.” But when I thought about it, I realised that there are probably songs at every milestone to Sally’s life that can help set the time for that era. And of course, there are.

    You can google any year and you will find lists of popular hits with few variations from country to country. These Boots, for example, became a hit song once more in 2005 not just in the US and the UK but also Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Ukraine and Greece. This, of course, speaks volumes about the monopolies in the international music industry.

    So the book ended up having song lyrics at the beginning of every chapter where I could not find some other relevant quotation. The song did not only have to be relevant to the time, the lyrics also had to speak to the content of the chapter and perhaps add a layer of insight or perspective that I could not, as the writer, say overtly.

    The irony of it all was that Sally is actually a classical music fan and there are not many lyrics for that genre or at least words that people will remember. She was once invited by her sister Janeen to join them at a U2 concert in the States. She was not much of a U2 fan (or pop music for that matter) and so when it began to rain, she wanted to go home.

    But I stuck to the music references in the biography because music pervades our lives whether we like the song or genre or not. It’s on the radio, on TV, in adverts, in movies. Music is everywhere and becomes a reference point through all our dramas, our breakdowns, our joys and celebrations.

    Now, when Sally’s story becomes a feature movie, they will know which music to source to set the scene for the different chapters of her life. So let me just place those lyrics firmly in your head…

    These boots are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do
    One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you

    Are you ready, boots?
    Start walkin’

  • The Road Trip of an Empty Coke Bottle

    The Road Trip of an Empty Coke Bottle

    Because unburdening can be liberating, and sometimes you just need to travel…

    coke-300x199An empty, capless, two litre Coke bottle was jay-rolling across a busy Goldman Street near the pedestrian crossing. I had fetched my ten year old son from the primary school down Sixth Avenue. At 2.07pm, that part of Florida, Roodepoort, can be a traffic nightmare for about another twenty minutes but the 2-litre did not care. It does not go to school and—and now that it was empty—no home to go to either.

    So it skipped and hopped across the street. I thought for sure that my front tyres would crush the life out of the bottle but no. It somehow dodged our wheels and of the two-way traffic by inches. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that it did not wait for the traffic light at the pedestrian crossing nor did it allow the traffic officer, on duty for pupils, to halt any of the cars to give a Coke right of way. If plastic bottles have a gust of wind at their back, who needs right of way?

    When it hit the curb on the other side of the road, it spun a few times and continued to roll in the direction it was going. All along Goldman Street it rolled. On the concrete between the curb and the road, it looked as if it was merrily making its way towards the Goldman Shopping Complex. The way it rolled, with its ends bopping as it hit stones and debris, it looked as if it was hopping to a beat.

    The car radio was on and I imagined the Coke bottle going down the street to the sound of Justin Timberlake’s My Love.

    Yeah, because
    I can see us holding hands
    Walking on the beach,
    our toes in the sand
    I can see us on the countryside
    Sitting on the grass,
    laying side by side

    But 2-litre plastic bottles don’t listen to music and don’t care much for Justin Timberlake even though they may have much in common as Pop Music is often referred to as plastic. It did not bother the bottle either that Coke often uses popular music to promote its product to consumers. It did not see the irony.

    So we cannot tell what gave the Coke bottle its rhythm as it made its way towards the next intersection. As the bottle went out of sight I wondered whether plastic bottles going for a stroll really need an observer to ensure that their story will be documented?

    So, anyway, as it rolled past Seventh Avenue, a guy on his bike was standing at the traffic stop with one foot on the road, waiting to make his way into Goldman. His eyes trailed the carefree Coke bottle roll along in front him. It seemed to be almost dancing. He thought to himself what an interesting metaphor for life. The emptier you are—with less worries and stress—the happier you will be. Freer. He smiled to himself.

    The 2-litre did not look up or contemplate the biker because Coke bottles don’t cycle and could not be bothered by philosophical thoughts about life and what it all means. So it passed by the guy on the bike without even a nod and on it rolled…

    The Coca-Cola logo was now a spinning red band when the 2-litre reached the busy traffic intersection on Eighth Avenue and Goldman. Wreckless buses, expedient mini-taxis and impatient BMWs were not going to slow down or honk at a plastic bottle who cannot understand what the red man means on pedestrian light.

    I cannot say that our Coke bottle smiled when it bobbed unscathed across Eighth or that it even looked back to admire what it had accomplished. But even if I could, it was short lived because just then the bottle deflated.

    Some heavy guy, dressed in rags, had stepped on the empty bottle with his worn out boot. He jumped a bit on the bottom part to ensure that there was no air left. He took off the wrapper and put both in a huge canvas bag squatting on his trolley. There were hundreds of other squashed plastic bottles, plastic wrappers and an assortment of other used junk in his treasure.

    He pulled the rope on his trolley to haul it for another 10 kilometres to the recycling dump. He thought to himself: Why don’t all the bloody plastic refuse come rolling down the street like this empty 2-litre Coke bottle. Then he had another brain wave: When they pay me at the dump, I am buying myself a 2-litre just for myself. The plastic Coke bottle said nothing.