The Quest for the Dark Tower - Shuffle: The Songs of Roland Part I

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

It's amazing how many musical references there are in the Dark Tower series, so I thought I'd share what I think of as "The Ultimate DT Playlist." This entry covers Books I-IV (since I'd rather not jump too far ahead of my own quest's narrative). Part II (covering books V-VII) will be posted in a future entry.

There are a lot of songs on this list, and I'm sure I've missed a few, so if there's anything missing, or if any of the links turn out to be broken, please feel free to mention it. This list wouldn't be nearly as complete as it is if not for several playlists that had been posted on the now defunct web community, www.TheDarkTower.net, so I'd like to take moment to say thanks to those good folks for sharing and helping to enrich so many readers' listening experience.

I've included links to Youtube (or other sources, on those rare occasions when Youtube came up dry) and page numbers to the trade paperback editions for easy reference. In many cases, I've included some commentary notes (for example, where a band or singer is mentioned, I've tried to include the song that best suits the situation, or vice versa). Some song references have been mentioned repeatedly, so for simplicity's sake, I've only included the first page where a song is made reference to.

Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

- Woodstock - Crosby, Stills Nash & Young (pg. xi of the expanded and revised edition)

- Bobby Ann Mason - Rick Trevino (pg. xii of the expanded and revised edition)

- TNT - AC/DC (pg. xii of the expanded and revised edition)

- Like A Rock - Bob Seger (pg. xii of the expanded and revised edition)

- Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones (pg. xv of the expanded and revised edition)

- Hey Jude - The Beatles (pg. 22 - pg. 17 of the expanded and revised edition)

- Onward Christian Soldiers – Traditional (pg. 34 - pg. 31 of the expanded and revised edition)

- Shall We Gather at the River – Traditional (pg. 48 - pg. 49 of the expanded and revised edition)

- Calling Dr. Love - KISS (pg. 83 - pg. 88 of the expanded and revised edition)

- Careless Love – Traditional (pg. 86 - pg. 91 of the expanded and revised edition) - I like various versions of this song, depending on the situation. Bessie Smith, Fats Domino and Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash’s versions are all favorites.

- Ease on Down the Road - Michael Jackson and Diana Ross (pg. 120 - 126 of the expanded and revised edition) – The first reference to the Wizard of Oz, and a mighty strange and unlikely one at that.

- A Hundred Leagues to Banberry Cross (pg. 120 - Replaced with Careless Love in the revised and expanded edition) – This probably refers to How Many Miles to Banbury Cross which is an alternate title for How Many Miles to Babylon a traditional English nursery rhyme.

- Instant Karma (We All Shine On) – John Lennon (pg. 191 - Omitted from the revised and expanded edition)

Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

- Lookin’ Out My Back Door - Creedence Clearwater Revival (pg. 77) - Eddie has a door following three feet behind him and he occasionally looks back through it. Also, repeated viewings of The Big Lebowski (a character with some similarities to Eddie) has caused me to consider the song in another light, or rather, a place where the sun doesn’t shine. The Dude listens to this track immediately after his (thorough) physical examination. Eddie endures a similar experience with Jack Andolini’s brother, Claudio . . . back door indeed.

- Just A Gigolo - David Lee Roth (pg. 93) - “I ain’t got no body . . .”

- Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues - Huey “Piano” Smith and His Clowns (pg. 123) - This is the song with the lyric “Doctor tole me son you got to quit it fast / Because one more rocket gonna be your last” which was incorrectly credited to Billie Holiday.

- You Go To My Head – Billie Holiday (pg. 123) - Even though Billie is incorrectly credited with singing “Tub-Ber-Cu-Lucas,” I still felt she needed to be represented. After all, nothing is mentioned in the Dark Tower without purpose. Granted, the mention of Ms. Holiday here is really only to emphasize her involvement with heroin, I think this song might sum up exactly what Henry Dean could be thinking as he’s given his last shot. Plus the fact that, soon after, Eddie breaks cover to run for Henry adds a slightly morbid literal twist to the song.

- Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash (pg. 124)

- A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash (pg. 124)

- People - Barbara Streisand (pg. 170)

- Pink Shoe Laces – Dodie Stevens (pg. 196) - Heard briefly by Detta Walker while scratching the face of a drunk frat-boy in the back of a ’46 Dodge DeSoto in a roadhouse parking lot.

- We Shall Not Be Moved - Mavis Staples (pg. 198)

- John Henry – Traditional (pg. 199)

- Barbry Allen – Traditional (pg. 199)

- Take The ‘A’ Train – Duke Ellington (pg. 215) - That fabled ‘A’ train that stops nowhere near Christopher St. Station.

- Oxford Town – Bob Dylan (pg. 233) - “Two men dead by the light of the moon / Somebody’d better investigate soon.”

- Twilight Time - The Platters (pg. 295) - "Heavenly shades of night are falling . . ."

Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

- Among The Living – Anthrax (pg. 55) - Captain Trips and The Walkin’ Dude. Wonderful little bit of musical foreshadowing.

- Peace Sells – Megadeth (pg. 55) - The title track for the album, the cover of which features Vic Rattlehead leaning on a “For Sale” sign in front of a bombed-out, dilapidated UN building. The vacant lot is in a similar predicament only one block over.

- Down on the Corner - Creedence Clearwater Revival (pg. 72) - Seems like the logical CCR song to be playing on Eddie's headphones as he imagines himself standing on the corner of Broadway and 42nd St.

- Paint It Black - Rolling Stones (pg. 77) - "I see a red door and I want to paint it black . . ."

- Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do) – Creedence Clearwater Revival (Wilson Pickett cover) (pg. 85) - Eddie (a confessed fan of CCR) thinks a very similar line while contemplating the carving of the wooden key.

- Love to Love You Baby (Radio Edit) - Donna Summer (pg. 104)

- Samson and Delilah – The Grateful Dead (pg. 117) - “Samson and the lion got into an attack / And Samson climbed up on the the lion’s back.” From The Grateful Dead’s “Terrapin Station.” Turtles and Train Stations . . . ye gods.

- Choo Choo Mama – Ten Years After (pg. 119) - “Chew Chew”

- Blitzkrieg Bop – The Ramones (pg. 172) - On the trail to the speaking ring Eddie lets out a gusty “Hey Ho, Let’s go!”

- Kashmir – Led Zeppelin (pg. 182) - Jake hears a LedZep tune on the gum-chewing cutie's transistor radio, I figured the song that mentions a "wasted land" was the perfect choice.

- Legs – ZZ Top (pg. 196) - “She got legs and she knows how to use them” Eddie quotes this line once more in Wolves of the Calla.

- Double Shot of My Baby’s Love - Dick Holler and the Holidays (pg. 196)

- Hippy Hippy Shake - Chan Romero (pg. 196)

- Foggy Mountain Breakdown – Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (pg. 227) - The closest I could find to “Clinch Mountain Breakdown.” And yes, it sounds about as inappropriate a thing as you could play on a banjo during a funeral.

- Buffalo Gals - Trad. (pg. 228) - Versions of the original arrangement by Woody Guthrie or even Bruce Springsteen are far more appropriate than Malcolm McLaren's old school hip-hop track, which, while influential in it’s own right, has nothing to do with the Dark Tower (of course, there is a Sex Pistols reference in Wizard and Glass so who knows?).

- Darlin’ Katie – Michael Holliday (pg. 228) - Misspelled 'Katy' in DT:III.

- Red Roses for a Blue Lady - Wayne Newton (pg. 228) - Eddie mentions him in relation to Jimtown (for those curious, Newton was born in Norfolk, Virginia) and I didn’t want to simply fall back on the old “Danke Schoen” cliché. When I dug this track up it seemed to fit perfectly, what with the rose in the vacant lot and Susannah's Aunt Blue.

- Sharp Dressed Man - Z.Z. Top (pg.254)

- Velcro Fly - Z.Z. Top (pg. 254)

- Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando and Dawn (pg. 317)

- My Gal’s a Corker - Trad. (pg. 336)

- See You Later Alligator – Bill Haley and His Comets (pg. 385)- One of Blaine’s favorite sayings, I figured this song deserved inclusion, since Blaine drops quite a few musical references to the tet.

- Stardust - Hoagy Carmichael (pg. 399)

- Tube Snake Boogie - Z.Z. Top (pg. 409)

Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

- As Time Goes By - Frank Sinatra (pg. 39)

- Blue Sky - Allman Brothers Band (pg. 56) - Music references from Blaine. this song is from the album Eat a Peach and could easily be used to describe Blaine's late companion, Patricia.

- To Be a Lover - Billy Idol (pg. 56) - From Idol's album Whiplash Smile. Billy keeps yelling "Have mercy!" throughout the song, I like to think that's what Blaine was driving at (in his usual obtuse and riddling way . . . I'm still puzzling over "OLIVE OIL BUT NOT CASTORIA" twelve years later).

- On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe - Judy Garland (pg. 68) - Roland notices a sign featuring this railway. The movie ‘The Harvey Girls’ stars Judy Garland (Oz), as Susan (!) and features this song early on.

- Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival (pg. 90) - All that talk of demons and moons makes this a pretty obvious choice.

- Flying High (In the Friendly Sky) - Marvin Gaye (pg. 90) - Sounds like the sort of song Eddie would dig while doing some turnpikin’.

- Hard Headed Woman - Elvis Presley (pg. 90) - This song references Samson and Delilah and the phrase "hard headed woman" is mentioned later on in Song of Susannah.

- Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols (pg. 100) - A Sex Pistols poster shows up on the fence of the vacant lot. Can’t get much more obvious than this for song choices.

- Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On – Jerry Lee Lewis (pg. 214) - One of Pettie the Trotter's favorites.

- Golden Slippers – Traditional (pg. 244) - Sheemie hums this one, probably heard Sheb playing it the night before.

- Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan (pg. 268) - Possibly a variation of Mid-World's Play, Ladies, Play?

- White Christmas - Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby (pg. 406) - "We'll break bread and speak of . . . whether or not Frank Sinatra really was a better crooner than Der Bingle."

- Red Dirt Boogie, Brother – Jesse Davis (pg. 466) - Possibly a variation of Mid-World's Red Dirt Boogie?

- Beer Bottle Boogie – Marilyn Scott (pg. 563) - Possibly a variation of Mid-World's Big Bottle Boogie?

- All God’s Chillun Got Wings – Paul Robeson (pg. 627) "I got shoes, you got shoes, all god's chillun got shoes . . ."

- We’re Off to See the Wizard - Wizard of Oz Cast (pg. 633)

- Brain Damage - Pink Floyd (pg. 633) "See you on the Dark Side of the Moon . . ."

- Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland (pg. 636)

- Green Door – Jim Lowe (pg. 640)

- Big Iron - Marty Robbins (pg. 664)

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 4: The Pushing Place

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

In the the first Dark Tower book, The Gunslinger, Roland meets the boy Jake at the Way Station in the middle of the Mohaine Desert. Not knowing how he came to be there, Jake agrees to be hypnotized by the gunslinger after trying to explain to Roland that he had originally lived in a city with a statue standing in the water and buildings so tall they actually scraped the sky.

Once Jake is entranced by the skillful twirling of one of Roland's gun shells, he then describes the last few moments of his life before The Man in Black pushed him into the path of an oncoming blue, 1976 Cadillac DeVille that crushed him to death.

Only later, in The Drawing of the Three, is it revealed that Jack Mort is the one responsible for Jake's death at the intersection that Mort thinks of as the Pushing Place: Fifth Ave. and Forty-third St.

When Roland enters Jack Mort's mind through the mystic door labelled The Pusher, he interferes with his plans for the boy. Mort never gets the chance to try again after the gunslinger flings Mort's body into the path of a speeding subway train in Greenwich Village. This in turn creates a schism in both Roland and Jake's minds; if the boy never died in his own world how can he possibly have met the gunslinger at the Way Station?

In The Waste Lands, Jake thinks back to when the rift between these two realities began, how he suddenly had a sense of déjà vu, somehow sensing his own imminent death, as the details surrounding him become clearer and clearer. Ultimately, when he isn't pushed into traffic he then continues on his way to The Piper School, but all the while a voice inside keeps insisting that he did die, despite every indication to the contrary.

During our last visit to New York, I was amused to see a pretzel vendor on the same corner as described in The Waste Lands ('He's the one that yells "Oh my God, he's kilt!" Jake thought') even more incredible was the OZ moving truck parked across the street, The Wizard of Oz being an important theme later on in the Dark Tower series.

When the The Gunslinger was re-released in 2003 with revised and expanded material, Several parts of Jake's last moments were altered and fleshed out in greater detail, including a mention of reading a Clay Blaisdell western in the gym during period four lunch.

In 1977, the only novel featuring Clay Blaisdell (a name King would eventually borrow for the main character of his novel Blaze, published under his now infamous pseudonym, Richard Bachman) was Warlock by Oakley Hall (two other novels written by Hall featuring the character, The Bad Lands and Apaches were published in 1978 and 1986, respectively). What could be considered most interesting is that Warlock was originally published in September of 1958: a time period of great significance in King's most recent novel 11/22/63.

It's long been clear that most (if not all) of King's novels have a connection in some way or other to Roland's quest. Perhaps the forthcoming The Wind Through the Keyhole will finally shed light on how these novels relate to The Dark Tower as a whole.

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 3: Greenwich Village/Dunhill

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

Wow. A lot of Dark Tower-y goodness to process this week!

That would be the sneak preview of the two-page Foreword and first five pages of story from The Wind Through the Keyhole, as well as samples of the book's artwork (both the interior art and limited edition cover by Jae Lee and the mass-market cover art by Rex Bonomelli).

I've already read over the text of those seven pages at least a dozen times this week, flipped through what I think are the most important related chapters and segments from the existing books and hope to throw together a quick study guide. Hopefully, it will help prepare both old and new readers wanting to learn as much about certain characters before diving in when the new book hits shelves on April 24, 2012. Until then though, all I can really say is "Thankya big-big, Sai King" for the best Christmas present a Tower junkie could ask for!

. . . and now back to our regularly scheduled Dark Tower subject matter:

For the second time in just minutes, Roland had quickly and violently subdued the two police officers that had been tracking him outside of Katz's Pharmacy and then robbed them of their prowl car. Having no knowledge of motor-vehicles or even a sense of direction in this strange city, Roland has to let Jack Mort operate it. He relaxes his control over Mort's body and directs him to drive toward "The Village."

Once Mort manages to navigate the stolen police cruiser south toward Greenwich Village, Roland instructs him to drive to the subway station where Mort had - many years earlier - pushed Odetta Holmes into an oncoming train severing both her legs right above the knee. Mort tries to resist, but ultimately, he's powerless to deny the gunslinger's command.

Outside of the IRT subway stairs, Roland is again accosted by two officers of the NYPD; one whose name changes from Norris Weaver on pages 380-1 of the original trade paperback of The Drawing of the Three to Norris Wheaton on pages 382 and 384 (perhaps an unconscious reference to Wil Wheaton, star of Stand By Me? The cover to the movie tie-in edition of Different Seasons would seem to support that theory); the other officer, named Andrew Staunton throughout, shoots to kill.

Fortunately, Jack Mort's predilection for luxury brand name products (Rolex watch, Gucci loafers, Arrow shirts, etc.) winds up saving Roland's life when the bullet intended for Mort's heart instead smashes into the $200 silver lighter he had purchased at Dunhill. Once again, Roland manipulates the chaos that ensues to his advantage. Playing possum while the ignited fluid in the lighter quickly catches fire to Mort's shirt, Roland waits until the police officers drop their guard before delivering a sucker-punch and running full-tilt - chest still on fire - down the stairs of Christopher Street Station.

It's here that Roland intends to end Jack Mort's murderous hobby of pushing before he can harm yet another member of his ka-tet by flinging his burnt and broken body before an oncoming train as he himself carries his precious parcels of medicine and ammunition through the mystic doorway leading back to the beach of the Western Sea.

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 2: Katz's Pharmacy and Soda Fountain

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

Finished with his business at Clements Guns and Sporting Goods, Roland then focuses his attention on the next hurdle to cross: acquiring the antibiotic Keflex for the infection poisoning his body in another world. He makes his way quickly down Forty-Ninth Street to the nearest drugstore. Fat Johnny had told him there was one around the corner and half a block down. In the following chapter ("Code 19, Code 19 . . ."), we learn the exact location: 395 49th St., Katz's Pharmacy and Soda Fountain (Sundries and Notions for Misses and Misters).

In the New York of our where and when, the address 395 West Forty-Ninth Street doesn't exist, but directly across Ninth Avenue from 393 W. 49th there is a drug store, not half a block but exactly two blocks from 7th and 49th (I like to think Fat Johnny gave inaccurate directions to throw Roland off, maybe give the cops a chance to catch up to him, but since Roland really has no concept of city blocks anyway, it's sort of a moot point).

Though technically located at 721 9th Ave., it's amazing that a Duane Reade pharmacy actually stands on the spot where Katz's would be (or is it? 7+2+1+9=?). As Roland enters the pharmacy wondering what to expect, he thinks about all the magicians, enchanters and alchemists he has encountered in his long travels. Of the most dangerous, three names come to mind specifically: his father's advisor (and mother's seducer), Marten Broadcloak; the man in black, known only as Walter 'O Dim; and Flagg, who Roland believes may really have been a demon dressed up as a man. Roland had seen Flagg only briefly, as he was hunted down and confronted by two desperately grim young men named Dennis and Thomas, just before The Affiliation's final collapse.

The memory of Dennis, Thomas and Flagg during this chapter of The Drawing of the Three is a reference to an earlier novel of King's: The Eyes of the Dragon. Dennis and Thomas are also mentioned in passing in the Afterword to the fourth Dark Tower novel, Wizard and Glass, but the adventures involving Roland and these characters still has yet to be told.

When the Marvel Comics series approached this era in Roland's life, I was disappointed when it wasn't included, but not very surprised. Robin Furth explains her hesitation to include this chapter of Roland's past in Appendix IV of Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance Vol. 2). However, there is a gap in the narrative between The Fall of Gilead and The Battle of Jericho Hill of close to nine years, and with the upcoming release of The Wind Through the Keyhole, I'm hoping that this loose end in the DT-cycle will finally be tied up by none other than the King himself.

Once again, this time in Katz's Pharmacy, Roland creates havoc and mayhem as he relentlessly pursues his goals. Even so, he always pays for the items he needs. Having spent the last of Jack Mort's cash "buying" ammunition at Clements Guns, he offers the pharmacist (the long-suffering Mr. Katz himself) a Rolex watch in exchange. A watch worth over one hundred times the value of the antibiotics Roland takes. After a brief scuffle with the same two police officers he had enlisted in his earlier ruse involving Fat Johnny, Roland commandeers their horseless carriage (or cartomobile, as he will later think of these vehicles) and heads to the next stop of his first adventure through New York in the spring of 1977 . . .

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE

The Quest for the Dark Tower Pt. 1: Clements Guns and Sporting Goods

***Spoiler warning! Though I've made every attempt to avoid giving away key plot points during this quest, it's still very possible that information discussed herein may spoil a new reader's experience, so consider yourself warned! ***

I've been a die-hard fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower series since I first read books 1 and 2 waaay back in the summer of 1989. I've read each new book as they've become available (rereading the series as a whole each time over), as well as the current Marvel Comics series. That coupled with years of research into so many of the literary, cinematic, musical, and other various cultural and political references made in the series (also thanks in no small part to both Robin Furth's The Dark Tower: A Concordance and Bev Vincent's The Road to the Dark Tower) has resulted in my having an absurdly vast knowledge of most things Dark Tower.

Even though the story was said to have been completed in 2004, like so many other Dark Tower fans, I'm eagerly anticipating the latest chapter in the story (The Wind Through the Keyhole, scheduled for release April 24, 2012). So while we're all counting down the days for the new book, I figured I'd share some Dark Tower-related photos and memorabilia I've collected over the years.

Now let's travel todash to a place somewhere between New York City 1977 and Mid-World: Clements Guns and Sporting Goods!

Near the end of the second book, The Drawing of the Three, Roland Deschain of Gilead finds himself more or less on his own in New York City, racing against time to restock ammunition for his ancestral guns and find medication strong enough to kill the infection raging in his veins from a lobstrosity's bite, while also simultaneously trying to save the lives, minds and souls of his three traveling companions.

After consulting the mind of the monstrous Jack Mort, whose body he hijacked byway of a mystical door, Roland hops into a cab and tells the driver to take him to Seventh Avenue and Forty-ninth Street where, as we soon learn, Clements Guns and Sporting Goods is located.

In the New York of our where and when, Seventh Ave and Forty-ninth St. is home to The Playwright Tavern & Restaurant where Niki and I decided to grab a bite. The second story windows offered a great view looking out over the intersection, but the food ended up not treating us so well.

Roland had his own problems at this address. Shortly after he enters the shop he asks the clerk, "Fat Johnny" Holden, if he has a caliber chart he can look at. Fat Johnny offers up a dog-eared Shooter's Bible.

Roland thinks to himself that the book's title is very noble sounding before flipping through and finding the Fottergraff of the ammunition he requires: Winchester .45 pistol shells. But Fat Johnny tells Roland that without a handgun permit, there's no way he can sell the ammo to him legally.

It takes a little guile, finesse and the involvement of two of "New York's Finest" before Roland can lay his hands on those precious gun shells, but - true gunslinger that he is - he eventually wins through and before long he's striding down the street towards his next objective . . .

Long days, pleasant nights!

-DE