A lot of writers, both published and unpublished, start out with that semi-autobiographical novel that looks at a young persons coming of age or their early adult years. Colin Wilson, who went on to write some extraordinary books, did that too, with Adrift In Soho. Set in London in 1950, he describes the adventures of a young man who falls in with various beggars, artists, drunks in the pubs and cafés of a very specific part of London. One afternoon walking from the National Gallery to a rendezvous in a café, "I crossed the square, where a four-piece street band was playing Tin Roof Blues, and turned up Charing Cross Road."
The earliest Tin Roof Blues I saw on Youtube was from 1923, but this version is a bit closer to the time CW would have heard it. Usually, if CW mentions music at all, it's to make an intellectual point but that isn't the case here - which actually points to the charm of this book: we see CW as straight-forward guy absorbing the bohemian haunts of London and wondering what to do with his life.
My opinion: For once in this thread, a piece of music from a genre I like. This strikes me as agreeable rather than outstanding, but it's interesting to think that this was a tune CW could recognize in the street and that, presumably, he expected at least some readers to recognize the title.
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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
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