My song choices for the collaborative group playlist for Self-Made Boys were Compulsive Liar by Ezra Furman, O Sol e a Lua by Pequeno Cidadão, and The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives. These links lead to youtube uploads of each song so you can listen along easily if you like. I intend to do one blog post for each song, so that I can go properly into depth to all the lyrics I wish to cover.

As I said in the presentation, I associate Compulsive Liar with Daisy Fabrego primarily, though the song itself is specifically about living as a closeted trans person, it can also serve well for Daisy’s faked identity as a straight white woman. I think it would work better for Nick if he had come out of the closet later in life, but since he presumably has lives much of his life as a man, being closeted (in terms of gender), it isn’t as much of a problem for him as it is for Daisy, who doesn’t come to terms with her identity until the end of the novel.

I’ve got one fatal flaw / I’m a compulsive liar / If I don’t love you, I will tell you anything

This I feel reflects Daisy’s belief that, beyond or even including her lying, she is a good person who is doing the right thing. “If I don’t love you,” could refer to her lack of feelings for Tom, who she “will tell anything” in order to remain benefiting from his power as a rich white man. The following lyric mirrors this with “And even if I love you / I’ll always be conniving / I’ll always be negotiating with the truth” Which could be seen as referring to Nick, who she does love, but ropes him into her elaborate lie of being from a well-off white family herself, telling Tom that Nick is her maid’s son. She negotiates with the truth with him by putting him in a difficult position, asking him to uphold her lie in return for getting him to New York in the first place.

And I can trace the habit / To when I was eleven / And I thought boys were pretty / And I couldn’t tell no one

In the second verse, Ezra Furman links her habit of “lying” (staying in the closet, living as a man, in order to protect herself.) back to realizing that she was queer when she was eleven. If we simply change out “boys” for “girls”, this can very easily apply to Daisy. I find the idea that she realized at a young age she would benefit from hiding certain parts of herself very interesting. I think it gives her a very strong motivation, the lying as self defense compounding, starting out harmless, until it eventually involves Nick, who is hurt by her lying.

It opens at a young age / That all-protective closet / Just lock the door / And settle in among the raincoats

This continues the themes of the second verse. It also adds on that the closet is all-protective, which I think is very true for Daisy. She suffers not only for being a woman of color, but also for being a closeted lesbian, though she may not fully grasp these feelings until she meets Jordan. “Settle in among the raincoats” could refer to how comfortable Daisy is living as Daisy Fay instead of Daisy Fabrego. It is almost second-nature to her, and she deems it as necessary. Which, arguably, it is, due to the unfair disadvantages she has as a queer woman of color in the 1920s.

The longer you stay in there / The more you’ll get distorted / The more contorted all your lies will have to be

Continuing with the theme of the lies simply compounding, going from something that protects to something that actively harms both the “liar” and the people around them. It grows in complexity, taking over their life entirely, which is Daisy’s central theme in SMB.

Don’t wait a moment longer / Stand up and turn the doorknob / And I’ll tell you my secret if you will tell me yours

I see this, the second half of the final verse, as Jordan speaking to Daisy. In the song itself, my interpretation is that this is the current version of Ezra Furman speaking to her past self, which works well as Jordan. Since Jordan is already comfortable with her identity, and manages to keep her closeted identity separate from her “true” one. Jordan is able to lend Daisy advice in guidance, giving her the confidence to “come out”, as it is, at her debutante ball.