Lemme ‘splain. No, there is too much, lemme sum up.

Basically, my 60s-set women’s fiction, Between Here & Gone that has been trying to, you know, kill me for nearly three years?

I’m almost done.

I have one chapter left to go.

So why a new playlist now?

Well, because story-wise, I’m jumping ahead more than four years, from spring of 1965 to summer of 1969. And none of my current playlists had the correct feel to them. They had the bouncy, peppy hopefulness of the early and mid-sixites. There wasn’t any real evidence of the turmoil and change that would transform the country in less than five years. Not to mention the sheer scope of music that came out from 1965 to 1969. Holy mama!

And that’s just what I needed this playlist to convey—all the change and the new freedoms. It’s no mistake, really, that this story is going to resume during the same weekend that the lunar landing occurred. Landing on the moon was the culmination of essentially a decade-long journey (from the inception of the Mercury program); for my protagonist, her journey also begins a decade earlier with her family’s escape from Cuba in the wake of Castro’s takeover.

Why yes, I’m big with the metaphors.

And it’s not as if it was difficult for me to piece this playlist together. It was actually harder figuring out the order and constructing good segues and flow, because of the sheer stylistic range of the charts. I have so much from that particular era and like all my playlists, it may continue to evolve. Although maybe not, because I AM going to finish this bad boy this weekend. As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again— erm, sorry. Went off into a Scarlett place there.

Anyhow, here be a playlist—probably the last one for Between Here & Gone. Let’s hope it brings me luck and I finish this story off in a good, strong manner and that the whole of it doesn’t suck.

The Kids Are Alright- The Who
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes- Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Reflections- Diana Ross & The Supremes
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)- The Fifth Dimension
Time of the Season- The Zombies
Get Together- The Youngbloods
Love Me Two Times- The Doors
Somebody to Love- Jefferson Airplane
I Can See For Miles- The Who
Feeling Alright- Joe Cocker
Piece of My Heart- Big Brother & the Holding Company
Valleri- The Monkees
More Today Than Yesterday- Spiral Staircase
Young Girl- Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
Beginnings- Chicago
The Story in Your Eyes- The Moody Blues*
All Along the Watch Tower- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
For What it’s Worth- Buffalo Springfield
God Bless the Child- Blood, Sweat & Tears
Easy to Be Hard- Three Dog Night
I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)- The Commitments*
Love is Blue (Instrumental)- Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra
Both Sides Now- Judy Collins
Everybody’s Talkin’ (From ‘Midnight Cowboy’)- Harry Nilsson
Baby, I Need Your Lovin’- Johnny Rivers
The Tracks of My Tears- Adam Lambert*
Scarborough Fair/Canticle- Simon & Garfunkle

*I cheated in a couple of places. The Moodies didn’t release “The Story in Your Eyes” until 1971, but stylistically, it fit exactly the tone I was looking for. While I adore Aretha, I have a real soft spot for The Commitments soundtrack version of “I Never Loved a Man,” and as far as “The Tracks of My Tears,” again, I just have a real soft spot for how Adam Lambert recorded it. Very true to the original, stylistically, but with perhaps a hair more substance, which I wanted.

Which is probably more than you wanted or needed to know, so I’ll just shut up now and get back to writing.