What, I thought, would be a modern-day playlist to match a Victorian savage girl’s temperament? If that makes sense. Here are some ideas, and I welcome more if you’d care to leave a comment. I plan to pass out CD’s when Savage Girl comes out in March, for anyone who likes to blast tunes in the car with the windows down. There’s a complete list of songs posted on my facebook author page; give it a like while you’re there and add to the list.
Got to lead off with Hendrix, his version of Wild Thing by the Troggs.
I also like this one that came out earlier this fall, Wild Child, sung by folk/pop boy-child Brett Dennen.
But why not jump back a little, to Bessie Smith, who sang I’m Wild About that Thing in 1929.
I think Savage Girl might quite like Etta James’ version of Born to be Wild. Anyway, it’s one of my favorite renditions of the song.
Lou Reed had a contemporary version of savagery in mind with Walk on the Wild Side. But when you read Savage Girl you’ll see that there’s plenty of cross-dressing in the novel, nineteenth-century style.
One more. Because the heroine of my book climbs the social ladder and actually reaches its pinnacle for a moment or two, let’s listen to Queen of the Savages, by the Magnetic Fields.
It’s the least we can do for a mysterious girl who escapes the wild West only to wind up in wilder Manhattan.
Jean Zimmerman 