Not fade away
Not fade awayThe music, and namely three characters, Joshua, Donna, and the ghost in Not Fade Away, are the most important elements to the book. The title alone is a song by the Grateful Dead, and throughout the entire book, music is present. George Gastin is out on the road the entire book, just like a "rolling stone," and the music is what keeps him upbeat and going. Whether George was chilling out listening to his bud Big Red Loco play the saxophone, or dancing in the car to Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, or Buddy Holly, the music was what made George feel good. George got into the music after a plane crash that claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson. He became aware of them when his true love Kacy came crying to him, distraught, after she heard about the crash. That was what opened George up to their music, and to the Big Bopper, the basis of the novel. The characters as well opened George up to new things: Donna's record player gave George the knowledge of music as well as instant happiness; Joshua's drugs and insanity allowed George to unwind and live a little more; and the ghost's passion for having a good time added for interesting events and conversations in the book. Not only did these things make him feel good, but there was significance as well. When not listening to records on the record player that Donna gave him, George was listening to one of three radio stations, KRZY, KROM, or KRZE. The two stations KRZY, and KRZE obviously represent "crazy," which George was, "Hey you're my ghost,--you've got to be crazy too"(254). The other station, KROM, represents "to roam," and roam is what George did in the Big Bopper's Cadillac El Dorado. Along with the radio stations and their on-air personalities, the music plays a big role in Jim Dodge's novel.
The station KRZE brought George John Seasons, and Captain Midnight, whom George tuned into on All Hallow's Eve, KRZY allowed George to listen to his good friend, the Reverend Double-Gone Johnson, and KROM had a typical run-of-the-mill DJ, but they played the type of music George had been listening to the whole way. When the music was not playing, making George feel good, the crazy, on-air personalities gave George people with whom George could identify.
In George's search for anything on the Big Bopper J.P. Richardson, George...
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