The Genesis and 
Meaning of a Song Inspired by Literature

By Christian Z. Goering
Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 5, 2010

Shortly after I began playing bass guitar with my friend Aaron Traffas in 2005, I learned a couple of things about myself: I probably wasn’t going to be the next big thing as a musician, but all the same I wanted to produce a record of original music to, as Neil Young sings, “leave tracks in the sound.”

In the time since, both of those revelations proved to be rather prophetic. In November 2009, I released a full length CD of songs I had written or co-written (with one cover). And last month, the eight guitar lessons a dear friend purchased for me ended with progress, albeit small.

You Have to Take the First Step.

While I’ve long been a fan of writing, reading, teaching, and music — and the biggest fan of instances where all four forces coalesce — the idea that I might someday write and record original compositions seemed to be a faraway dream in my high school teaching days. I didn’t have any music skills to mention. I wasn’t particularly gifted at writing poetry. I didn’t even know anyone — other than my students of course — with the ability to compose music. And then I moved to Manhattan, Kansas, to attend graduate school and one of the first nights as a resident of the little apple, I saw Aaron play a solo show and asked if he needed a bass player.

I soon realized that Aaron’s “yes” meant I had talked myself into a situation that might prove more challenging than my ability to successfully answer the call, given the extent of my two qualifications. One: I owned a bass guitar. Two: I had a pretty good amplifier.

But I practiced and practiced for a week until time came to enter the crucible at our first show as a band, a Labor Day Eve affair in rural Kiowa, Kansas. Setting up for the gig at Dave’s Bar, I met the drummer, Mason Powell, for the first time. Aaron didn’t believe in the necessity of practice. With a brown book containing notes about all of the songs we “might” play, a music stand, and my trusty guitar, I put on my game face and “played” my first show.

Somehow, someway, it stuck. I continued to play in Aaron’s band throughout graduate school and into my first couple years in Arkansas, burning up the highway north to our infrequent but rewarding performances. It was during that time in the band one night in Manhattan — that’s Kansas, not the Big Apple — in the smoky basement of Auntie Mae’s Parlor, I co-wrote my first song, an upbeat number about farming and living on a “Red Dirt Farm.”

'Dear Oklahoma Rain'

Since that time I have joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas and the CornDancer family with LitTunes — and have written any number of songs, but none more relevant to a discussion here than “Dear Oklahoma Rain,” a Lit Tune I composed after reading The Grapes of Wrath in 2007. For those of you new to our little cyber universe, a Lit Tune is our term for a song inspired by literature.

During my reading
of the novel, a task I had managed to avoid in high school and college despite my abiding respect for Steinbeck, I was struck by the vivid pictures he painted of Depression-era settings and the realistic and poignant ways he rounded-out his characters. As for LitTunes, a quick study of the LitTunes database of songs connected to literature reveals Steinbeck’s profound and lasting influence on American music with connections to tunes penned by Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, and my personal favorite, Chris Knight. Their tunes focused on Steinbeck’s iconic and archetypal Tom Joad.

Chris Knight told me in a 2008 interview that he found lyrical inspiration in the sense of anger embodied by the character Joad. I began to think about what I could possibly say that hadn’t been said better — or at the least, to find a way to say something meaningful in a different way. I began to think about my Kansas roots and tried to imagine the Depression-era experiences of poor and dispossessed Kansans, the northern neighbors of Joad’s clan of Oklahomans.

A Rain that Wasn't Coming

Some claim that we can write only from what we know through experience, but I also believe in the power of imagination. While I’m too young to have personal recollections of the 1930s, I do know the character and traditions of southern Kansas, having grown up there. So I put my imagination to work.

I thought of drought and failed crops, and began to write rhymed couplets about Kansas folk wishing for rain from down in Oklahoma to cross the man-made border, but it was a rain that wasn’t coming. One of the first couplets I wrote became the foundation for the tune. Later the couplet would inspire the name of the record company that published the CD, Dreaming Dust Music.

We got acres of dreaming dust and part of a two-bottom plough
A marker by the tree of a memory that won’t fade no how.

In the tune, the patriarch of the family has lost his wife in an accident, a “memory that won’t fade no how.” He must keep on working the land to honor her dream and prove his loyalty to her memory — and also to provide for their seven children. As the story unfolds, the protagonist, who remains nameless like so many characters from Dust Bowl narratives, finds himself clinging to the hope for rain, and the underlying hope for god’s grace, which would surely help turn around the pitiful situation.

In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family fled Oklahoma to chase the illusion of hope in far-away California. The Kansans in my song stayed on the land, but faced the same plight.

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A Sparse, Dark Mood

The intertextual crossroads of The Grapes of Wrath with the music of Americana, the interplay of fiction and memory, of imagination with my desire to create a new thing, led me, ultimately, to the realm of music. On the recording, my singing is accented by Trey Graber on guitar (he sings, too) and Laurie Jennings on harmony vocals. The musical arrangement is fairly sparse. Laurie and Trey create a dark mood in their backing vocals, a nice fit for the grim tone of the lyrics.

While “Dear Oklahoma Rain” won’t be the next feel good hit of the summer, I’m fascinated by the act of creation and the idea of bringing an idea home — from a novel to a song to something existing out there on the intertextual landscape. My inclusion of the work on LitTunes makes sense — and I don’t have to worry about distribution rights for classroom teachers who are interested in using the tune to build a lesson. It’s yours to use any way you see fit.

It might be worth discussing in a study of The Grapes of Wrath. It can illustrate the concepts of setting and tone, and provide a hook for the discussion of character, and lead to the study of other songs related to Steinbeck’s masterwork. My song might be worth examining in the planning of lessons about other books, too, as a way of opening a pathway to helping students understand the literary terms mentioned above.

As I continue to write songs and hopefully become savvy on the guitar, I hope — ah, there is that dreamy word again! — to create, to write, to maybe even be heard. After all, what is the point of this string of words and images if no one is listening? It might be like praying for rain while standing on a farm withered by drought. But rain or not, it’s worth a moment or two of reflection.

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Contact Chris Goering by E-mail at chris@littunes.com

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