This playlist is the soundtrack for the novel THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD, pretty much.
I’m doing a full post on the mythology behind the title of it soon, to coincide with the airing of the podcast episodes, but here it is and a little bit about it:
The Songs on Shuffle
Inspired by a fun post from Ezra Arndt’s site on their novel, Lost Gods, I thought I’d do something similar here. I’ve already played a Twitter game with this playlist where I got people to give me numbers and then I’d post their song… but this is a fun way of introducing the character, too.
I’ll do five of them and we’ll see how it goes! The playlist is genuinely on shuffle so the results are random.
Song #01
Song 01 is Fukstar by WARGASM (UK), and it’s a Wes anthem. The first verse goes:
I find my comfort in chaos
Source: Musixmatch
I’ll fall asleep in a seance
Don’t wear my makeup for men
No, I just love corporations
Want them to take all my money
Burn the ocean to sand
I’ll take a big fucking sip
So hot I’ll turn it to glass
Songwriters: Kieron Pepper / Rachel Hastings / Sam Matlock
Fukstar lyrics © Locomotion Music Ltd
… yeah. That is an accurate description. The chorus lines are also extremely Wes:
You’ve got your money and your fast cars
You’re not a god, you’re just another fukstar
Wes would beg to differ on the ‘you’re not a god’ part, and he’s working on it.
Song #02
Song #02 is Paris by The Chainsmokers – apt, given Wes’s smoking habits – and this is much more a vibe song. I think this is a Hugo and Wes song, actually, and it feels like the kind of thing Wes would like their relationship to be. It’s an aspiration song that doesn’t reflect reality at all, which is very much the whole thing going on with the song’s narrative anyway, I think.
“If we go down then we go down together” is also pretty sinister in context of the stakes of the novel, and Wes does genuinely have a moment where he has to make a choice between doing what he thinks is the right thing to save the world (but he might lose his partners), or letting it burn and pretending there is nothing he can do, so his last moments are with them both.
Song #03
Song #03 is Wild Child by The Struts (with Tom Morello). Literally every word of this song oozes Wes, or rather, what Wes wants you to think about him. It’s all sex appeal and bad boy persona, from the very first line through to this verse:
Scratch your number right onto my chest
Source: LyricFind
Hit me up and you can call for sex
Keep in mind, I like to be impressed
I’ll only have you in your Sunday best
It’s been a while since we’ve been flirting
But one thing’s for certain
You should take your time to think me through
‘Cause every rumour that you’ve heard is true
Come on
Songwriters: Adam Slack / Gethin Davies / Jed Elliott / Jon Levine / Luke Spiller
Wild Child lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
If you’re wondering: what, every rumour? Here’s a teaser quote from the novel, when Wes is attending a family memorial service in a small parish church:
Christ, he missed cocaine.
The Day We Ate Grandad, Chapter 8 – C. M. Rosens
Not that it was appropriate to snort a line off the back rest of the pew in front, but Wes had done far worse in far better places.
So… maybe.
Song #03
Song 04 is a good counter to Song 03: it’s The Killing Kind by Marianas Trench. Wes’s love is indeed the killing kind, as far as Charlie is concerned.
This song is in the playlist as a nod to Wes’s addictive powers/properties, and the lyrics really lend themselves to the journey of darkness that Charlie goes on in Overexposure, and that Wes then goes on in The Day We Ate Grandad as he fears freeing her of her addiction will mean he loses her for good.
Song #04
Song 04 is Hot Mess by Cobra Starship. This one is very much a sleazy Wes vibes song for me. Wes absolutely has a predatory streak a mile wide and he loves the party scene. I don’t know who it’s about, and Wes is lying when he says he’s in love, because he’s a demiromantic/grey-romantic, but if it’s about Charlie when he first meets her then he’s telling the truth for once??
Anyway, this is also a description of Wes, who is absolutely a hot mess. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter who the song is about, it’s just a very Wes-feeling song to me.
Song #05
Ending on a banger, Song 05 is I Knew you Were Trouble by The Animal In Me, a cover of the Taylor Swift song. This is Charlie’s song, and I think also Tina’s song, and maybe also Hugo’s if he had enough sense, and pretty much the anthem of EVERYONE Wes has ever slept with, or made him the centre of their world.
It’s a great one to end on, as it’s only fair he doesn’t get the last word.
He’s trouble, friends. Don’t get invested.
C. M. Rosens 