All She Wanted Was To Do Her Best

Yesterday, a post about books about music, today a post about music about books. Or, more specifically, a book: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. 

The Bell Jar was Plath's only novel. It was published under the pen-name Victoria Lucas, partly because Sylvia didn't want her mother to read it but also because she thought it might be considered a bit of a pot-boiler and she was worried it might affect the more serious reputation she hoped to develop as a poet.

It came out in January 1963, while she was still alive, unlike most of her poetry, much of which didn't make it to hard covers until after she put her head in the oven a month later. She wrote the novel under the sponsorship of something called the Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship, whose representatives were not impressed. They called it "disappointing, juvenile and overwrought".

Hah! What did they know? 

I first read The Bell Jar at University, where I was studying for a degree in English Literature. Back then, it wasn't taught in schools, like it is now. It wasn't even on my course. 

As far as I can remember, neither was Plath, although to be fair to the Cambridge syllabus of the late seventies and early eighties, there was a great deal of choice involved. Maybe I opted to do something else the week other people were doing Plath. Or maybe she just didn't have the rep then she does now.

My introduction to the tragic icon was much more personal. I was roaming around the upper levels of the faculty library, where no-one ever seemed to go, pulling random books off shelves and trying them out for size. One of the books I pulled was Plath's Journals, which I sat and read for what might have been hours. It was certainly much of an afternoon. 

From there, I went on to read a whole lot more of her work and several of the many biographies that kept getting commissioned because Plath scholarship has been an industry for decades now. I even read her poetry and I've never been a great poetry fan. Not of reading it, anyway. Writing it, sure, when I wasn't old enough to know better, but reading it? Not so much.

All or some of that may be true. Hard to be sure. But then, truth has little to do with loving Sylvia Plath. Never did.

Either way, The Bell Jar became one of my very favorite novels and remains so, although again you have to temper such judgments with a flick of reality when you think of how long ago it was you actually read the damn books. 

For decades I maintained an extremely consistent top three favorite novels of all time: Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar and Tender is the Night. 

I've read Catcher at least half a dozen times, the most recent being in the last five years and it holds up. Is it still my #1 of all time? Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn't be far off, though. 

Tender, I've read four or five times, in both the original published version and the "as Fitzgerald intended" reprint. It gets better every time and I can't decide which structure I prefer.

The Bell Jar, though, I'm not even sure I've read twice. I think I have. But even if I'm right, it's still only twice. Which is weird. 

I certainly haven't read it for decades although I have, several times, tried to listen to the audio version read by Maggie Gyllenhaall. The problem with that is that I always listen to it in bed and the rhythm of her voice sends me to sleep. I listened to it again last night and I got as far as the part where Esther leaves the apartment as Lenny the DJ is trying to seduce Esther's friend Doreen. I think that'd be about twenty pages in, at most.

The whole audiobook is on YouTube if you fancy giving it a go. Not the most convenient platform, granted, but you can't beat the price. It's an absolutely stellar performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who sounds exactly like Esther ought to sound. She also makes no attempt to "do" any of the voices, a practice all readers of audiobooks would do well to follow. I highly recommend it although I can only speak from experience about the first half-hour or so. I'm going to have to burn the thing onto CD and play it in the car if I'm ever going to get to the end of it.

 

That's all by way of an introduction to the following selection of songs, either just called "The Bell Jar" or with some variation of the words in the title. Plus a few bonuses at the end.

I have a real thing for songs that use the names of famous people or books or movies in the title and there are a lot of them. Sometimes, when I get the notion, I pick a name and YouTube it to see if anyone's written a song. I did that a few weeks ago with Catcher in the Rye and the pickings were slim. I had it in mind to do a post like this about the Salinger classic but I couldn't find enough good examples so it occurred to me to try The Bell Jar instead.

That went a lot better, except that the phrase is in common usage outside the context of the novel so not all of the songs have anything to do with the book. In fact, I'm not sure the next one does. It's really good, though, and it has the right feel, so I'm allowing it. 

The Bell Jar - Chrissy Brennan

Isn't that just gorgeous? So many famous singers and songs. So many almost no-one ever hears. Doing my bit to spread the word. No need to thank me.

The Bell Jar - Honey Gentry

This one's definitely on message although it's using the conceit of one legend to reflect light on another. The resonances are powerful. Someone's probably written a whole PhD thesis on the similarities.

Bell Jar - Louise and the Pins

Another where the mood is unmistakably in keeping with the supposed inspiration but the lyrics don't easily reveal a specific connection. Too good to leave out, though, just because the provenance is unproven.

The Bell Jar - Nervous Young Men

The lyrics of this one make it pretty clear where they got the idea. Also, there's corroborative evidence. Nervous Young Men was an early project of Will Toledo, best known for his work in Car Seat Headrest. More from them later. Clearly, Will has read the book. Probably more times than I have.

Inside The Jar - The Silver Bayonettes

Enough with the ambiguity! "Based on the Sylvia Plath novel "The Bell Jar" and the poem "My Mother" written by her daughter Frieda Hughes". Clear enough for you? Not my favorite of the selection by a long measure but I can't fault the intent.

Bell Jar - The Bangles

By far the best-known track based on the book, I think. Written by lead guitarist Vicki Peterson, who gives it a rockin' tune and an elliptical, elusive lyric that evokes the spirit of the novel without making it obvious. Great song. 

Inside The Bell Jar - Car Seat Headrest

"I turned on the gas
And rested my head upon the racks of the oven"

I think that's all the proof we need here.

My favorite of them all. I have never paid the slightest attention to Car Seat Headrest until now, despite their name cropping up over and over again in links and articles. It's a terrible name. Why would you click on anything to hear a band called that? I imagined they'd sound like Coldplay or Muse, about the worst thing you could imagine of any band. 

Well, they clearly don't, do they? I'll have to pay more attention when their name comes up in future.  

Sylvia - The Antlers

And now, to finish, a couple of palette cleansers. There are some longer, live versions of this on YouTube (One's over thirteen minutes!) but they don't have any of the sonic backlash, which is what appeals to me. Without that it sounds a bit like what I imagined Car Seat Headrest were going to sound like and no-one wants that. Also, more lyrics about heads in ovens. She did do other things, you know...

i was all over her - salvia palth

You can't really do a whole post about Plath-related songs and leave this one out, can you? Well, I can't, anyway. Any excuse to hear it again.

Well, that was fun. I hope we all learned something. 

I do like a themed music post. Maybe I'll do another, and soon.