For years the conventional wisdom when it came to romance novels was the author might put a musician in a book, but if she did you’d be safe betting the musician — drummer, lead singer, guitarist — would not get the girl.
Yet coming off the deaths of the sultry voiced Leonard Cohen and the rocker troubadour Leon Russell, a lot of women in America sure sound as lovesick as I’ve ever heard them over the passing of these two.
So why not a musician hero?
Few love letters read better than the lyrics to Russell’s poignant “A Song for You.”
I’ve acted out my love on stages
With 10,000 people watching
But we’re alone now and I’m singing this song to you
Whew.
The idea of a man who could have 10,000 women at the crook of his finger wanting just you? Powerful. Seductive. Stuff. The makings, one might say, of a good novel.
And then there is the troubled folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen who gave us such songs as “Hallelujah” and “Suzanne.” The latter of which I dare any woman to resist:
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind
Few poets are more poetic.
Recent years have seen the rocker/musician hero find his way into a few novels. I’m betting this isn’t a trend but simply a coming of age of readers, who in the year 2016 know there are many ways to make a good life with a man (or woman). And some of them can be set to music.
—Jeanne Devlin