Prompt #70 Doo-Wop It

This Christmas my sister gave me the vinyl recording of Paul Simon's final album In the Blue Light. This album re-imagines several of his songs, most of them I'm not too familiar with. He jazzed them up, or added blues touches, improved lyrics. It is a real lesson in refining your work as you age.

One of the songs is called "Darling Lorraine," and it isn't one I know. While listening to it, I recalled I had once read his explanation of how the song was written. He had an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and I had not been able to get to the exhibit, so I bought the exhibition guide to enjoy it anyway.

In the guide, Paul said "Darling Lorraine" is one of his favorites songs. He said it began with the words "The first time I saw her, I couldn't be sure."  He had no idea what the song was about.  He thought of the Doo-Wop song called "Darling Lorraine," so he decided the woman in the song was named Lorraine...and the song went from there.  

Paul likened this process to two things: one, his song "Call Me Al," which begins "A man walks down the street..." and he had to figure it out who the man was and where he was going. He also mentions another song of his named after a Doo-Wop song: "Why Don't You Write Me" (found on the Bridge Over Troubled Water album).

(To learn more about the process of writing "Call Me Al," read Call Me Al-Behind the Song)

CHALLENGE

I thought this would be a good time to use a Doo-Wop title to create a piece. Since I don't think Doo-Wop is one that we are super familiar with, or a genre we listen to much, it gives us a bit of a blank slate. I'm sure some of the songs we know, but in general I feel the titles lend themselves to some fun writing. 

For example, I saw the title "No, No, No."  I can just imagine all the ways that can be approached...a poem where you playfully say NO to all the things you don't want, a short story about a single mother trying to raise a petulant child, or a nonfiction piece on how we have to say no to the toxic things swirling around us.

Here is a list of Doo-Wop titles:

Top 100 Doo Wop Hits 1954-1963

Feel free to look up any other lists as needed.

If you want to challenge yourself further, come up with a rather mundane opening line and see where it takes you!