Love, Barely

Being A List of Bands, Songs, Artists and Albums (Real and Fictional) Referenced in the "Barely" Chapter of Daniel Handler's Excellent Novel "Adverbs"

1. The Clientele
2. “I Am Here” by The Unsuspecting Motorists
3. Katydids
4. “Andrea Says” by Waltzing Pneumonia
5. Give Up the Ghost by Fallen Airlines
6. “I Wasn’t Meant To Live My Life Alone (with Vince Gill)” by Tammy Wynette
7. “Where Were You When They Crucified Our Lord (with The Carter Family)” by Johnny Cash
8. “My Way” by Frank Sinatra
9. Salad Forks
10. Tish Brothers
11. Phil Spector
12. The Spinanes
13. “A compilation from Don’t You Love Me Records”
14. Brad Wooly
15. Burt Bacharach
16. Ruins In the Country
17. The Asking Prices
18. The Stone Roses
19. Perfect Teeth (possibly by Unrest)
20. Ev’rything’s Coming Up Dusty by Dusty Springfield
21. Bob Dylan
22. Barrelhopper
23. Elvis Costello
24. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” by The Beatles
25. “I’ve Been Wrong Before” by Dusty Springfield
26. “How Good Are You” by The Magpies
27. Prince
28. “Manic Monday” by The Bangles
29. “Gota Whole Lota Shakin’ Going On” by The Bangles and Prince
30. How Can You Believe by The Cottontails
31. “Girl Hurricane” by The Cottontails (sample lyric: It was dark all day and getting darker all the time/I was sitting in a rocking chair, drinking gin and lime”)
32. Nick Drake
33. “Talk Show Host” by Radiohead
34. (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan by Dntel (with Ben Gibbard)
35. Sandinista! by The Clash
36. “Somebody Got Murdered” by The Clash
37. Katydids
38. The Marvelettes

A) And this is all in 19 pages. I love this chapter so much in part because of how the charachter’s lives are so accuratley soaked in music.

B) Here’s a Spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/sleepssundays/playlist/1ppJDsmdqK14kE5vYZ5Yru

C) You can work out which of the above aren’t real with a few quick Googles. Some notes though - “Talk Show Host” is not named (neither are Radiohead) but a lyric is quoted and it is suggested that they didn’t want their name included, but you can’t trust that Daniel Handler. He could well be joking. “The Dream of Evan and Chan” is referenced earlier in the book without mentioning the title. Magpies are a recurring theme. The Bangles and Prince are (obviously) both real but the collaborative cover is fictional.

D) Daniel Handler wrote a wonderful short story in the liner notes of the album In Our Bedroom After the War by the band Stars (featuring the excellently titled “Life 2: The Unhappy Ending”) which I really aught to type up sometimes. [Use this paragraph to work out what is what in The List]

E) I love fictional music.