List of songs that retell a work of literature

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This is a list of songs that retell, in whole or in part, a work of literature. Albums listed here consist entirely of songs retelling a work of literature.

8thNote.svgThis is a dynamic list of songs and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by with reliably sourced entries.

Albums[]

  • An Alien Heat by Spirits Burning and Michael Moorcock is a concept album that retells An Alien Heat by Michael Moorcock.[citation needed]
  • The Black Halo by Kamelot is a concept album inspired by Goethe's Faust.[citation needed]
  • Epica by Kamelot is a concept album inspired by Goethe's Faust.[citation needed]
  • The Hollow Lands by Spirits Burning and Michael Moorcock is a concept album that retells The Hollow Lands by Michael Moorcock.[citation needed]
  • The House of Atreus Act I and The House of Atreus Act II form a two-part concept album by Virgin Steele based loosely on the Oresteia of Aeschylus.[1]
  • Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne is a concept album that retells the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.[2]
  • I Robot is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project that was inspired by the Isaac Asimov short story collection I, Robot.[3]
  • Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Rick Wakeman is an LP which retells Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne.[4]
  • Leviathan is a concept album by Mastodon which contains songs about Herman Melville's Moby Dick.[5][6][7][8]
  • La Leyenda de la Mancha is a Mägo de Oz album based on Don Quixote.[9]
  • Mack Avenue Skullgame by Big Chief is an album on Sub Pop based on the book Masquerade by Lowell Cauffiel.[citation needed]
  • Nightfall in Middle-Earth is an album by Blind Guardian that retells Tolkien's The Silmarillion.[citation needed]
  • The album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden is based on Orson Scott Card's novel Seventh Son.[10]
  • The album Shakespeare's Macbeth – A Tragedy in Steel by Rebellion is based Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth.[11]
  • The album Smallcreeps's Day by Mike Rutherford is based upon the novel of the same name by Peter Currell Brown.[12]
  • The Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield is based on the novel The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke.[13]
  • Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project which retells several Edgar Allan Poe stories.[14][15]

Songs[]

0–9[]

  • "1984" by David Bowie is one of several songs he wrote about George Orwell's novel 1984; Bowie also hoped to produce a televised musical based on the book.[16]
  • "20 000 ljööd vee all" by Vennaskond is about Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.[citation needed]
  • The song "2112" by Rush shares many themes with the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, such that Neil Peart recognized Rand in the album's liner notes.[17]
  • "40" by U2 is based on the 40th Psalm.[18]

A[]

  • "Abigail" by Motionless In White gives a perspective of the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller.[19]
  • "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts" from the Manowar album The Triumph of Steel is a retelling of the fight between Hector and Achilles in The Iliad.[20]
  • "Adam's Apple" by Aerosmith retells the biblical story of the Fall of man through the perspective of Adam and Eve's discovery of their own sexuality.[21]
  • "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" by Crash Test Dummies adapts elements of the T. S. Eliot poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".[22]
  • "Ahab" by MC Lars retells the story of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville from the perspective of Captain Ahab.[23]
  • "All is Not Well" by Hannah Fury is based on the romance of Elphaba and Fiyero from Wicked by Gregory Maguire.[citation needed]
  • "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Elton John is inspired by the novel of the same title by Erich Maria Remarque.[24]
  • "Alone" by Green Carnation is based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same title.[25] "Alone" by Arcturus is based on the same poem.[citation needed]
  • "Altair-4" by Blind Guardian is about The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.[citation needed]
  • "Among the Living" by Anthrax is about Stephen King's The Stand.[26]
  • "The Ancient Ones" by Morbid Angel is based upon The Call of Cthulhu as well as the other Cthulhu Mythos, all written by H.P. Lovecraft.[citation needed]
  • "And Then There Was Silence" by Blind Guardian is based on The Iliad.[citation needed]
  • "And Your Little Dog Too" by Hannah Fury is told from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[citation needed]
  • "Animal Farm" by Hazel O'Connor is about George Orwell's Animal Farm.[citation needed]
  • "Animal in Man" by dead prez is a retelling of George Orwell's Animal Farm.[27]
  • "Anthem" by Rush is loosely based on the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand. The band would produce a fuller version in 2112.[17]

B[]

  • "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy retells J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.[28][29]
  • "The Ballad of Skip Wiley" by Jimmy Buffett is a song about the character from Carl Hiaasen's 1986 novel Tourist Season.[30]
  • "Banana Co." by Radiohead is based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.[31][32]
  • "The Bard's Song (The Hobbit)" by Blind Guardian retells The Hobbit.[citation needed]
  • "Barefoot Children in the Rain" by Jimmy Buffett partially retells Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[citation needed]
  • "Las Batallas" by Café Tacuba retells José Emilio Pacheco's Las batallas en el desierto.[33]
  • "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin took inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings saga.[34][29]
  • "Behind the Wall of Sleep" by Black Sabbath is based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story Beyond the Wall of Sleep.[35][36]
  • "Beneath These Waves" by Demons & Wizards retells the story of Herman Melville's Moby Dick from Captain Ahab's perspective.[citation needed]
  • "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by The Divine Comedy is based on the short story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald.[37]
  • "Big Brother" by David Bowie is one of several songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984.[16]
  • "Billy Bones And The White Bird" by Elton John is based on the fictional character Billy Bones in the first section of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
  • "Billy Liar" by The Decemberists relates some of the adventures of the title character of Keith Waterhouse's 1959 novel of the same name.[38]
  • "Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult is based on the Elric of Melniboné stories by Michael Moorcock.[39]
  • "Black Corridor" by Hawkwind is based on the book The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock.[40][41]
  • "Brave New World" by Iron Maiden is based on the novel of the same title by Aldous Huxley.[42]

C[]

  • "The Call of Ktulu" by Metallica is based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.[35][36][43]
  • "Calypso" by Suzanne Vega is based on one of the scenes in the Odyssey by Homer.[44]
  • "The Cask Of Amontillado" by The Alan Parsons Project based on "The Cask of Amontillado", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.[14][15]
  • "Cassandra" by ABBA is based on the character in The Iliad by Homer.[45]
  • "Catcher in the Rye" by the Dandy Warhols is inspired by J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye.[46]
  • "Cent'anni di solitudine" by Modena City Ramblers is based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.[32]
  • "Chapter 24" by Pink Floyd is about the I Ching.[47]
  • "Chapter Four" by Avenged Sevenfold is based on the fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis.[48]
  • "Charlotte Sometimes" by The Cure draws from Penelope Farmer's 1969 novel of the same name.[49][50][51][52][53]
  • "Child of the Jago" by Kaiser Chiefs is a song about Arthur Morrison's A Child of the Jago.[54]
  • "Children of the Damned" by Iron Maiden is based on the book Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham and two of the film adaptations of that book: Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned.[55][56]
  • "China in Your Hand“ by T'Pau is based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.[citation needed]
  • "Christabel" by Robert Earl Keen is based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem of the same name.[57]
  • "The Chronicle of the Black Sword" by Hawkwind is based upon the works of Michael Moorcock, including Elric and Jerry Cornelius.[58] Moorcock, who has appeared with the band on numerous occasions, does the narration on "Live Chronicles".[41]
  • "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)" by The Tragically Hip references a passage from Hugh MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night.[59]
  • "Crimson King" by Demons & Wizards, on Touched by the Crimson King, is told from the point of view of Randall Flagg, the main antagonist from The Dark Tower by Stephen King.[citation needed]
  • "Crown of Creation" by Jefferson Airplane draws from the science fiction novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.[60]
  • "Curse of Athena" by The Lord Weird Slough Feg is about Odysseus's return to Ithaca in The Odyssey.[61]
  • "Cute Without the E (Cut From the Team)" by Taking Back Sunday is based on William Shakespeare's play Othello.[citation needed]

D[]

  • "Daedalus" by Thrice is a retelling of the story of Daedalus and Icarus, so well known from Greek mythology.[citation needed]
  • "Dalai Lama" by Rammstein is loosely based on Der Erlkönig by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.[62]
  • "Damnation Alley" by Hawkwind is from the 1960s novel of the same title by Roger Zelazny.[40]
  • "Dante's Inferno" by Iced Earth, retells Dante's Inferno.[63]
  • "Dante's Prayer" by Loreena McKennitt, inspired by Dante's Inferno[citation needed]
  • "The Dark Eternal Night" by Dream Theater is heavily influenced by the short story Nyarlathotep by American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft.[36]
  • "The Dawn of a New Age" by Satyricon is based on the Book of Revelation.[64]
  • "Dead" by Pixies refurbishes the biblical legend of David and Bathsheba.[65]
  • "Don Quixote" by Gordon Lightfoot is based on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.[66]
  • "Done with Bonaparte" by Mark Knopfler is based on "The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier" by Jakob Walter.[citation needed]
  • "Dorian" by Demons & Wizards is based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.[citation needed]
  • "Doublespeak" by Thrice is about George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four.[67]
  • "Dracula" by Iced Earth is about Dracula by Bram Stoker.[citation needed]
  • "The Drowning Man" by The Cure is based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast.[68]

E[]

F[]

  • "Fable" by Gatsbys American Dream is based on William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.[75]
  • "The Face of Dorian Gray" by Robert Marlow is based on Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.[citation needed]
  • "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden is loosely based on the Greek myth of Icarus.[citation needed]
  • "Flower of the Mountain" by Kate Bush is based on Molly Bloom's soliloquy in James Joyce's Ulysses.[76][77]
  • "Footprints" by Half Man Half Biscuit is a parody of "Footprints" by Mary Stevenson, itself adapted from Psalm 77:19.[citation needed]
  • "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica is based on Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel of the same title[43]
  • "Frankenstein" by Iced Earth is about Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.[78]
  • "Franz Kafka" is a fictional rock opera by the fictional band Scäb (from the cartoon series Home Movies) that is about Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.[79]
  • "From the Underworld" by The Herd is loosely based on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.[80]
  • "The Future Is Now" by The Offspring is based on George Orwell's novel 1984.[81]

G[]

  • "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen is about The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.[38][82]
  • "The Giant's Laughter" by Thyrfing is inspired by the poem "Jätten" by Esaias Tegner.[83]
  • "The Gladdest Thing" by Deb Talan incorporates as its chorus the poem "Afternoon on a Hill" by Edna St. Vincent Millay.[citation needed]
  • "Grendel" by Marillion is a retelling of John Gardner's 1971 novel Grendel, which is a retelling of Beowulf.[84]

H[]

  • "Hallelujah", by Leonard Cohen, is based on the biblical story of David and Bathsheba. It also incorporates elements of the story of Samson and Delilah.[65]
  • "Haunted" by Poe and the novel House of Leaves by her brother, Mark Danielewski, both draw heavily on their difficult experiences growing up with their father, Tad Danielewski.[85][86]
  • "Heart Of Love" by Jamie Bond from The Heavenly Kid movie references the story of Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights.
  • "Hedda Gabler" by John Cale is based on Henrik Ibsen's play.[87]
  • "Hell in the Hallways" by Ice Nine Kills retells Carrie by Stephen King.[88]
  • "Hey (rise of the robots)" by The Stranglers is partially inspired by I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.[89]
  • "Hey Ahab" by Elton John & Leon Russell is based on the character Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.[90]
  • "Hey There Ophelia" by MC Lars is a retelling of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.[91]
  • "High Rise" by Hawkwind is based on High-Rise by J.G. Ballard.[40]
  • "The Highwayman" is a Loreena McKennitt song which recounts a poem by Alfred Noyes. Phil Ochs originally wrote the musical interpretation of the poem which was taken and extended by Loreena McKennitt, without attribution.[citation needed]
  • "Home", by Breaking Benjamin, is based on The Wizard of Oz.[citation needed]
  • "Home at Last" by Steely Dan retells Ulysses' encounter with the Sirens from The Odyssey.[92]
  • "Horrorshow", by the Scars, is based on the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange.[93]
  • "House at Pooh Corner" and "Return to Pooh Corner" by Kenny Loggins are about The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne.[94]
  • "House of Leaves" by Circa Survive is based on House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.[95]
  • "How Beautiful You Are" by The Cure is a retelling of "Les Yeux des Pauvres", a poem by Charles Baudelaire from Le Spleen de Paris.[96]

I[]

  • "I Can't Let You In" by Hannah Fury is about Fiyero's tragic affair with Elphaba (told from her point of view) from Gregory Maguire's Wicked.[citation needed]
  • "I Cheat the Hangman" by the Doobie Brothers is a song inspired by the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.[citation needed]
  • "I Have Seen The Future" by The Bravery is a song inspired by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.[citation needed]
  • "I Robot" by the UK Subs is based on I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.[93]
  • "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry based on the poem "Lady of Shallot" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.[citation needed]
  • "If You'd Only Believe" by The Jacksons references Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables.
  • "In Like a Lion (Always Winter)" by Relient K is about C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.[97]
  • "Indiana" by Meg & Dia is based on the George Sand 1832 novel of the same name.[citation needed]
  • "The Inner Light" from The Beatles took its lyrics straight from the Tao Te Ching.[98]
  • "The Insect God" by Monks of Doom sets Edward Gorey's poem/book of the same name to music.[99]
  • "Insener Garini Hüperboloid" by Vennaskond is about The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy.[citation needed]
  • "The Iron Dream" by Hawkwind is based on The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad.[40]

J[]

K[]

L[]

  • "La cruz de Santiago" by Mägo de Oz is inspired by the adventures of Captain Alatriste and is dedicated to his writer, Arturo Pérez-Reverte.[citation needed]
  • "The Lady of Shalott" by Loreena McKennitt is based upon the poem of the same name written by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Momus has a song based on the same poem.[citation needed]
  • "Lay Down" by Strawbs is based on Psalm 23.[103]
  • "Legend of Xanadu" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan".[citation needed]
  • "Let it Show" by Hannah Fury is based on Gregory Maguire's Wicked.[citation needed]
  • "The List" by Hank Green is based on John Green's Paper Towns.[citation needed]
  • "Lolita" by Elefant is in part based on Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.[104]
  • "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Iron Maiden, based on the short story of the same name by Alan Sillitoe.[105]
  • "The Longest Day" by Iron Maiden is named after Cornelius Ryan's non-fiction book about D-Day, The Longest Day, and also explores the themes of D-Day.[106]
  • "Lord of Light" by Hawkwind from the novel by Roger Zelazny.[40]
  • "Lord of the Flies" by Iron Maiden retells Lord of the Flies by William Golding.[107]
  • "Lord of the Flies" by Elton John is based on Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
  • "Lord of the Rings" by Blind Guardian is about The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.[citation needed]
  • "Lost Boy" by Ruth B is based on Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.[108]
  • "Love and Death" by The Waterboys is a setting of the William Butler Yeats' poem.[109]
  • "Love and Destroy" by Franz Ferdinand is based on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.[110]
  • "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox is about Bram Stoker's Dracula.[citation needed]
  • "Love Story" by Taylor Swift is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.[citation needed]
  • "Lucy" by The Divine Comedy is a setting of three poems by William Wordsworth.[37]
  • "Lullaby" by Lagwagon is based on Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk.[citation needed]

M[]

  • "Martin Eden" by Billie Hughes retells the story of the novel of the same title by Jack London.[111]
  • "Magnu" by Hawkwind is based on the poem "Hymn of Apollo" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.[112]
  • "A Man for All Seasons" by Al Stewart was based on Robert Bolt's play.[citation needed]
  • "The Melting Point of Wax" by Thrice retells the story of The Fall of Icarus.[113]
  • "Memory" from the musical Cats is based on lines from a poem by T. S. Eliot.[citation needed]
  • "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Noe Venable speculates about the children's return from Narnia in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.[citation needed]
  • "Misery Loves Company" by Anthrax is about Misery by Stephen King.[citation needed]
  • "Moon over Bourbon Street" by Sting is about the character Louis de Pointe du Lac from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire.[114]
  • "Moonchild" by Iron Maiden is based on the novel of the same title by Aleister Crowley.[citation needed]
  • "Monster" by Meg & Dia is based on Cathy Ames' character in John Steinbeck's "East of Eden".[citation needed]
  • "Mr. Raven" by MC Lars retells "The Raven", a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.[115]
  • "Mrs. Bluebeard" by They Might Be Giants is told from the perspective of one of the wives of Bluebeard.[citation needed]
  • "The Mule" by Deep Purple is based on the character from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.[116]
  • "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Iron Maiden is based on the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.[117]
  • "My Antonia" by Emmylou Harris with Dave Matthews is about the perspective of the character Jim from My Antonia by Willa Cather.[82]
  • "My Name Is Macbeth" by Mitch Benn is Shakespeare's Macbeth reworked in the style of Eminem.[citation needed]

N[]

  • "Narcissist" by The Libertines is loosely based on the character of Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.[118]
  • "Narnia" by Steve Hackett is based on the works of C. S. Lewis.[119]
  • "The Nature of the Beast" by Ice Nine Kills is based on Animal Farm by George Orwell.[120]
  • "The Necromancer" by Rush is loosely based on sections of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.[29]
  • "Nescio" by The Nits is based on De Uitvreter by Nescio.[citation needed]
  • "Never Come Down Again" by Hannah Fury is based on Gregory Maguire's Wicked, told from Elphaba's point of view.[citation needed]
  • "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" by Ambrosia has lyrics taken almost verbatim from the poem in chapter 2 (and the bridge from the one on chapter 58) of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle.[121]
  • "Night ∞ Series" is a series of 4 songs by Hitoshizuku-P x Yama. It tells the story of Bad∞End∞Night: Volume 1 and 2 by Hitoshizuku-P. (It is worth noting that the songs and the books goes hand in hand and the fact that the songs came before the books).[citation needed]
  • "Nights of Arabia" by Kamelot is based on the framing story of Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights.[citation needed]
  • "No Love Lost" by Joy Division is based on and includes quotes from The House of Dolls by Ka-tzetnik 135633.[122]
  • The video for "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses is loosely based on Del James's short story "Without You".[123][124]

O[]

  • "O Médico e o Monstro" by Resgate is based on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.[citation needed]
  • "The Odyssey" by Symphony X is a seven-part song based on Homer's epic of the same name.[125]
  • "Oedipus" by Regina Spektor refers to the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.[citation needed]
  • "Oedipus Rex" by Tom Lehrer also refers to the Sophocles play.[citation needed]
  • "Of Unsound Mind" by Metal Church is based on the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.[117]
  • "Off to the Races" by Lana Del Rey makes references to Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.[126]
  • "Oh! You Pretty Things" by David Bowie contains lyrics that reference Anthem by Ayn Rand.[citation needed]
  • "Ol' Evil Eye" by Insane Clown Posse is based on Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.[127]
  • "Omega Man" by Iron Savior is based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.[citation needed]
  • "One" by Metallica is based on the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.[43]
  • "Oor Hamlet" by Adam McNaughtan retells Hamlet by William Shakespeare.[128]
  • "Out of the Silent Planet" by Iron Maiden is based on the movie Forbidden Planet and the science-fiction novel by C. S. Lewis.[citation needed]
  • "Owen Meaney" by Lagwagon is based on the novel A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving.[129]
  • "Ozymandias" by Jean-Jacques Burnel is a setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet of the same title.[93]

P[]

  • "Pantaraguel's Nativitiy" by Gentle Giant is loosely based on Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.[130]
  • "Patrick Bateman" by the Manic Street Preachers is about the lead character in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.[131]
  • "Pattern Recognition" by Sonic Youth is based on William Gibson's novel of the same name.[132]
  • "The Pearl" by Fleming and John is based on the 1947 novella of the same name by John Steinbeck.[citation needed]
  • "Penelope" by Robi Rosa is based on the character from Homer's Odyssey.[citation needed]
  • "Pennywise" by Pennywise is about the character Pennywise from the novel It by Stephen King.[93]
  • "Pet Sematary" by Ramones is about "Pet Sematary" by Stephen King.[93]
  • "The Phantom of the Opera" by Iron Maiden is about The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.[133]
  • "The Phantom of the Opera Ghost" by Iced Earth is also about Leroux's play.[citation needed]
  • "A Pict Song" by Billy Bragg is based on a poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.[93]
  • "A Picture of Dorian Gray" by The Television Personalities is about Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.[citation needed]
  • "Poet" by Bastille was inspired by Sonnet 81 by William Shakespeare.[citation needed]
  • "Poor Little Rich Boy" by Regina Spektor refers to a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.[citation needed]
  • "Popular" by Nada Surf is based upon the book Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity by Gloria Winters (1964).[134]
  • "Prick! Goes the Scorpion's Tale" By Emilie Autumn is based on the fable "The Toad and the Scorpion".[citation needed]
  • "Prince Caspian" by Phish is about C. S. Lewis' Prince Caspian.[135]
  • "Prince in the Scarlet Robe" by Domine based on Corum Jhaelen Irsei, the main character in a series of books by Michael Moorcock.[citation needed]
  • "The Prophecy" by Iron Maiden is based on the book Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, and appears on the concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.[citation needed]

Q[]

R[]

  • "Raistlin and the Rose" by Lake of Tears is based on Dragonlance Legends trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.[citation needed]
  • "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin mentions characters and places from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including "Mordor" and "Gollum".[31][82][29]
  • "Rebecca" by Meg & Dia is based on the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same title.[137]
  • "ReJoyce" by Jefferson Airplane is Grace Slick's psychedelic version of James Joyce's novel Ulysses.[77]
  • "The Resistance" by Muse is based on 1984 by George Orwell.[citation needed]
  • "Restless" by Elton John is based on George Orwell's novel 1984.[citation needed]
  • "A Revolta dos Dândis" by Engenheiros do Hawaii mirrors the ideas present on "The Dandy's Revolt," a chapter of Albert Camus's The Rebel.[citation needed]
  • "Richard Cory" by Paul Simon is about the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem "Richard Cory".[138]
  • "Ride a White Swan" by T.Rex refers to the plot of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.[citation needed]
  • "Ride into Obsession" by Blind Guardian is inspired by the story of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.[citation needed]
  • "Riki Tiki Tavi" by Donovan is a spoof on the mongoose character from The Jungle Book.[citation needed]
  • "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden is a retelling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner[139]
  • "Rivendell" by Rush is about the fictional place of the same name from The Lord of the Rings.[140]
  • "The River" by PJ Harvey is based upon the Flannery O'Connor story of the same name.[141]
  • "Robot" by Hawkwind refers to the Three Laws of Robotics, conceived by Asimov.[142]
  • "Roderigo" by Seven Mary Three is based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.[citation needed]
  • "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits is inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

S[]

  • "Sahara" by Eddie From Ohio retells Jon Krakauer's 1996 nonfiction book Into the Wild.[citation needed]
  • "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler is based upon Thomas Pynchon's book Mason & Dixon.[143]
  • "Saint Veronika" by Billy Talent is based on the novel Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho.[144]
  • "The Salesman, Denver Max" by The Blood Brothers is based on the Joyce Carol Oates short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"[citation needed]
  • "Samson" by Regina Spektor references the biblical story of Samson and Delilah.[145]
  • "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana retells Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind.[82]
  • "The Sensual World" by Kate Bush is based on the closing paragraphs of James Joyce's Ulysses.[146]
  • "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" by Pink Floyd is based on the I Ching.[citation needed]
  • "Sex Crime (1984)" by The Eurythmics based on George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four".[citation needed]
  • "Shadows and Tall Trees" by U2 is named for a chapter of Lord of the Flies by William Golding.[147]
  • "Shalott" by Emilie Autumn tells the story of "The Lady of Shallot" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.[citation needed]
  • "Sigh No More" by Mumford and Sons is based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and incorporates numerous phrases from that play.[148]
  • "The Sign of the Cross" by Iron Maiden appears to be partly based on Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.[citation needed]
  • "Sirens of Titan" by Al Stewart is based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel The Sirens of Titan.[149]
  • "Skeletons in the Closet" by Anthrax is about Apt Pupil by Stephen King.[26]
  • "The Small Print" by Muse tells the story of Faust from the point of view of the Devil.[citation needed]
  • The Snow Goose by Camel is an album inspired by The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk by Paul Gallico.[150]
  • "Soma" by The Strokes references the fictional drug described in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.[151]
  • "Someone Speaks Softly" by Hannah Fury is based on Wicked by Gregory Maguire.[citation needed]
  • "Something Wicked That Way Went" by Vernian Process is based on Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.[citation needed]
  • "Somewhere Far Beyond" by Blind Guardian is based on The Dark Tower by Stephen King.[citation needed]
  • "Song For Clay" by Bloc Party is inspired by Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis.[31]
  • "The Soulforged" by Blind Guardian talks about Raistlin Majere, a major character in the Dragonlance universe.[citation needed]
  • "Space Is Deep" by Hawkwind is based on the Michael Moorcock book The Black Corridor.[citation needed]
  • "The Stand" by The Alarm is about The Stand by Stephen King.[152]
  • "Steppenwolf" by Hawkwind is based on the novel on the same name by Herman Hesse.[40]
  • "Still Life" by Iron Maiden is about "The Inhabitant of the Lake" by Ramsey Campbell.[153]
  • "Stormbringer" by Deep Purple is about Elric of Melniboné.[citation needed]
  • "The Stranger" by Tuxedomoon quotes Albert Camus's novel L'étranger.[154]
  • "Such a Shame" by Talk Talk is inspired by The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.[155]
  • "Sun and Steel" by Iron Maiden is about "Sun and Steel" by Yukio Mishima, which is in turn about Miyamoto Musashi.[citation needed]
  • "Sweet Thursday" by Matt Costa is based on John Steinbeck's 1954 novel Sweet Thursday.[156] The song also references Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.[citation needed]
  • "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones is inspired by The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.[31][110][82]

T[]

  • The Tain is a song/concept EP by The Decemberists that retells the Irish epic "Táin Bó Cúailnge".[157]
  • "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a single by Cream that retells Homer's The Odyssey.[82]
  • "Talk Shows on Mute" by Incubus is based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as well as Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?[citation needed]
  • "Tea in the Sahara" by The Police is about The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.[158] King Crimson also has an instrumental called "The Sheltering Sky", named for the same book.[159]
  • "Tell Mary" by Meg & Dia is based on the 1926 novel Mary by Vladimir Nabokov.[citation needed]
  • "Tell Your Story Walking" by Deb Talan is based on Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.[160][161]
  • "Terror Train" by Demons & Wizards is sung from the perspective of Blaine the Mono, a character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower, and recalls part of the plot.[citation needed]
  • "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica is based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.[43]
  • "Thumbelina" by Nightmare of You is based on Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins.[citation needed]
  • "Time to Dance" by Panic! at the Disco is based on Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk.[162]
  • "To Be or Not to Be" by BA Robertson is based on William Shakespeare's plays.[citation needed]
  • "To Tame a Land" by Iron Maiden tells the story of Dune by Frank Herbert[31]
  • "To The End" by My Chemical Romance retells the gothic horror story "A Rose for Emily".[citation needed]
  • "Toilet Tisha" by Outkast retells the 18th-century Russian short story "Poor Liza" by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.[citation needed]
  • "tolerate it" by Taylor Swift is inspired by Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca. [163]
  • "Tom Joad, Parts 1 and 2" by Woody Guthrie retells The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.[citation needed]
  • "The Tomahawk Kid" by Alex Harvey is based on characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.[164]
  • "Tommyknockers" by Blind Guardian is about The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.[citation needed]
  • "Traveler in Time" by Blind Guardian is about Dune by Frank Herbert.[citation needed]
  • "A Trick of the Tail" by Genesis is based upon The Inheritors by William Golding.[citation needed]
  • "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden was inspired by "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson.[165]
  • "Turn, Turn, Turn", by Pete Seeger, notably covered by The Byrds, takes its lyrics from chapter three of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible.[166]

U[]

V[]

  • "The Veldt" by Deadmau5 was inspired by the 1950 short story of the same name by Ray Bradbury.[168]
  • "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground is about the two main characters from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 novel of the same name.[38]

W[]

  • "Walking On The Chinese Wall" by Philip Bailey references the I Ching and Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin.[169]
  • "The War I Survived" by Hawkwind refers to Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.[citation needed]
  • "We Are the Dead" by David Bowie is one of several songs he wrote about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.[31][16]
  • "Weight of Living, Pt. I" by Bastille is based on "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[citation needed]
  • "Wheel of Time" by Blind Guardian tells the story of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.[citation needed]
  • "When the War Came" by The Decemberists retells Hunger by Elise Blackwell.[170]
  • "When Two Worlds Collide" by Iron Maiden tells the same story as When Worlds Collide by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer.[citation needed]
  • "Where Eagles Dare" by Iron Maiden is based on Alistair MacLean's novel Where Eagles Dare.[citation needed]
  • "Which Way, Robert Frost?" by Jacky Cheung references the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
  • "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane is based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.[171]
  • "William, It Was Really Nothing" by The Smiths is based on Keith Waterhouse's novel Billy Liar.[172][173]
  • "Windmills" by Toad the Wet Sprocket is based on "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes.[174]
  • "Wings" by BTS is based on Demian by Hermann Hesse.[citation needed]
  • "Winston Smith Takes It on the Jaw" by Utopia tells the story of George Orwell's novel "1984".[citation needed]
  • "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush is about Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.[31][38]

X[]

  • "Xanadu" by Rush is based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan".[175]

Y[]

Z[]

Songs that retell literature-based films[]

Main article: List of songs based on a film

This is a list of songs that retell, in whole or in part, a film that was based on a work of literature.

  • "Into the West" by Annie Lennox is about The Lord of the Rings
  • "So Said Kay" by The Field Mice is based on the film Desert Hearts, which is an adaptation of Jane Rule's novel Desert of the Heart.[177]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Dahlstrom, Tyrell (March 11, 2019). "Virgin Steele: A Retrospective (Part 2)". Death Metal Underground. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  2. ^ Inglis, Sam. "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds". Sound on Sound. Retrieved May 3, 2020. …It turned out there was an agent who represented the estate of HG Wells, and we convinced the estate that we wanted to be true to the story in creating this musical interpretation, and we did a deal. That was 1975, and the whole writing, orchestration, scriptwriting, paintings, recording sessions, everything to do with it, took the better part of two and a half years, between early '75 and June '78. "I still have the original book with all my underlinings and scribbles about things that motivated me to compose something or to chat to the guys that were the lyricists, or our scriptwriter. The truth of it was that I somehow thought I was going to do an instrumental album, no guest artists, no roles being played, virtually all instrumental, no paintings, no script, and a budget that was in one ballpark. And it turned out to be quite the opposite."
  3. ^ Houle, Zachary (3 December 2013). "The Alan Parsons Project: I Robot (Legacy Edition)". PopMatters. Retrieved May 1, 2020. The group's 1976 debut Tales of Mystery and Imagination was focused on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and, for a follow-up, the duo turned their attention to science-fiction author Isaac Asimov's 1950 book of short stories, I, Robot. Although Asimov was encouraging of the project, the book was already optioned to a film and television company, so Woolfson had to fudge the concept a little by making a set of songs that was more generally about the relationship between man and machine, and, though the group used the title of Asimov's book, they had to drop the comma for copyright reasons. And, thus, I Robot was born.
  4. ^ Marshall, Colin (February 27, 2018). "Hear Rick Wakeman's Musical Adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, "One of Prog Rock's Crowning Achievements"". Open Culture. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  5. ^ Paul, Andrew (February 23, 2016). "With Leviathan, Mastodon helped usher in a golden age of heavy metal". AV Club. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  6. ^ Chaplinsky, Joshua (May 4, 2012). "White Whale, Holy Grail: Moby Dick and Mastodon's Leviathan". LitReactor. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  7. ^ Pementel, Michael; Kaufman, Spencer (August 31, 2019). "15 Years Ago, Mastodon's Leviathan Took Fans on a High Seas Metal Adventure". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved May 5, 2020. Speaking to the Leviathan’s concept, Dailor shared, “We had the big idea about the Moby Dick thing, which we all we excited about for the aesthetics, and the ability to do our own concept album that was based off this amazing piece of literature.”
  8. ^ Bennett, J. (December 1, 2013). "Mastodon's 'Leviathan': The Story Behind the Cover Art". Revolver. Retrieved May 5, 2020. At one fateful point during the time when Atlanta's Mastodon were gathering ideas for what would become their 2004 breakthrough album, Leviathan, drummer Brann Dailor found himself on a hellish 30-hour plane trip with nothing to pass the time except a copy of Moby-Dick. He already had a water motif in mind for the disc—Mastodon's previous record, Remission, was fire-themed—but before he read Herman Melville's 1851 maritime classic about Captain Ahab's hunt for the "salt-sea mastodon," Dailor admits that his ideas for what eventually became Leviathan were "pretty fucking vague."
  9. ^ Stavans, Ilan (July 29, 2014). Latin Music: Musicians, Genres, and Themes. ABC-CLIO. p. 233. ISBN 9780313343964. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Hart, Ron (April 11, 2018). "Iron Maiden's 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son' at 30: Artists Reflect on Then-Controversial Metal Classic". Billboard. Retrieved June 30, 2020. Two years later, Maiden would ignore the jeers and double down on the digital experiments with their seventh album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, released 30 years ago on April 11, 1988. It was the first time we heard actual keyboards on a studio recording of theirs, used to supplement the record's concept, whose roots derived from Orson Scott Card's sci-fi novel Seventh Son, which Harris had been reading at the time. And while some metal purists in the press accused the group of becoming Genesis, Seventh Son was largely celebrated as a high watermark in the Iron Maiden lexicon; its lean into progressive rock served as the basis for some of the most revered songs in the band's canon like "The Clairvoyant," "Moonchild," "Can I Play With Madness" and the album's epic title cut.
  11. ^ Rocher, David (March 7, 2002). "Rebellion - _Shakespeare's Macbeth: A Tragedy in Steel_". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  12. ^ Leidolph, Christer. "Mike Rutherford - Smallcreep's Day". Genesis News. Retrieved July 4, 2020. Smallcreep’s Day can actually be called a concept album. It tells the story of a factory worker who does his work every day without actually ever realizing what kind of product he helps to manufacture. He embarks on a journey of discovery into the factory and into himself, into his life, and meets lots of interesting people and new emotions. The story is inspired by Peter Currell Brown’s book of the same title that came out in 1965.
  13. ^ "Happy Anniversary: Mike Oldfield, The Songs of Distant Earth". Rhino Entertainment. December 5, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2020. 20 years ago today, Mike Oldfield released a concept album based on a sci-fi novel by Arthur C. Clarke, one which the author not only approved of but, indeed, enjoyed enough to compose a few words for the liner notes… …In his liner notes, Clarke – who confessed that he’d been particularly impressed with the soundtrack for The Killing Fields – wrote, “I was delighted when Mike Oldfield told me that he wished to compose a suite inspired by (The Songs of Distant Earth)…and now, having played (the album), I feel he has lived up to my expectations. Welcome back into space, Mike: there’s still lots of room out here.”
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Marshall, Colin (April 21, 2015). "Hear Orson Welles Read Edgar Allan Poe on a Cult Classic Album by The Alan Parsons Project". Open Culture. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Little, Michael H. (April 1, 2015). "Graded on a Curve: The Alan Parsons Project, Tales of Mystery and Imagination—Edgar Allen Poe". The Vinyl District. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c Grimm, Beca (June 23, 2017). "Flashback: David Bowie's Failed Attempt to Adapt George Orwell's '1984'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 15, 2020. Bowie wanted a televised musical – or so he told William S. Burroughs in a 1974 Rolling Stone interview. His album Diamond Dogs, which dropped that same year, featured the straight-forward "1984," with lines like, "They’ll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air/ And tell that you're 80, but brother, you won't care," highlighting the novel's revisionism themes and totalitarian government. Other tracks like "Big Brother" and "We Are The Dead" double down on the artist's fascination not just with Orwell's futuristic society, but Surrealism and Dada (which makes his timely interview with the post-modern author all the more fascinating).
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b Bulger, Adam (January 24, 2020). "Struggling With Rush's Ayn Rand Influence". BTRtoday. Retrieved April 15, 2020. The 20-minute epic “2112” relates a dystopian science fiction story so similar to Rand’s novella Anthem Peart felt obligated to acknowledge the influence.
  18. ^ Martens, John W. (July 19, 2016). "Out of the Mire". America: The Jesuit Review. Retrieved April 15, 2020. It is a psalm that inspired Bono and the other members of U2 to write the song "40," a meditation on Psalm 40, for their 1983 album, "War."... ...Bono had said earlier in the conversation with [Eugene] Peterson: "Why do we need art? Why do we need the lyric poetry of the Psalms? Why do we need them? Because the only way we can approach God is if we're honest through metaphor, through symbol. Art becomes essential, not decorative."
  19. ^ Daly, Joe (September 24, 2014). "Chris Motionless on writing Reincarnate". Metal Hammer. Retrieved April 15, 2020. Lyrically, Chris prefers writing songs through the eyes of characters from movies and literature, as on the song Abigail, a single from their 2010 debut, that he wrote about the Salem witch trials from the perspective of the John Proctor character in The Crucible.
  20. ^ Brouwers, Josho (1 October 2015). "Heavy metal Iliad". Ancient World Magazine. Retrieved 16 April 2020. The song, as befitting a musical rendition of Homer's epic, is nearly 29 minutes in length and, as indicated in the title, consists of eight distinct parts (though this doesn't include the prelude and part VII consists of two parts in itself, so it's actually ten parts). The song focuses on the confrontation between Achilles, the Greek champion, and Hector, the Trojan leader, and follows the story in Iliad books 12 through 22.
  21. ^ McPadden, Mike (April 7, 2015). "'Toys in the Attic' Turns 40: Ranking The Songs On Aerosmith's Classic Album". VH1. Retrieved April 16, 2020. It’s certainly one of the most “Aerosmith” of all Aerosmith anthems: a peacocking take on the Biblical creation myth that recreates the fall of humanity as the inevitable byproduct of just how tempting a certain “sweet and bitter fruit” is by its nature, and how just one taste ignites a particular form enlightenment to the point of madness.
  22. ^ Dolen, John (May 1, 1994). "CELEBRATING THE NEW CROP OF GREAT MUSIC-MAKERS". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved April 16, 2020. Not too many other rock bands mention Jean-Paul Sartre or go head-to-head with T.S. Eliot. (Compare Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and their Afternoons and Coffeespoons. Eliot: I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Dummies: Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline/Someday I'll wear 'jamas in the daytime.)
  23. ^ McCracken, Edd (March 9, 2015). "A Simple Tale About Man Who Hates An Animal: MOBY-DICK in Pop Culture". Book Riot. Retrieved April 16, 2020. MC Lars uses the power of hip-hop to pry open Ahab’s inner monologue. For a man who skilfully leapt between narrative styles, if rap had been around in the 1850s, Melville would probably have used it. Choice couplets include: “Call me Ahab, what, monomaniac /Obsessed with success unlike Steve Wozniak”; and “The first one to stop him gets this gold doubloon/Now excuse me while I go be melancholy in my room!”
  24. ^ Rosenthal, Elizabeth J. (2001). His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John. Billboard Books. p. 217. ISBN 9780823088935. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  25. ^ "Green Carnation: The Acoustic Verses". Sputnik Music. March 15, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Jump up to: a b Daly, Joe (February 25, 2019). "Anthrax's Scott Ian takes us inside his insanely rare Stephen King collection". Metal Hammer. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  27. ^ Adler, Sam (March 7, 2014). "Music and Literature: Books that inspired rap and hip-hop". USA Today. Retrieved April 17, 2020. Through a straight retelling of George Orwell's Animal Farm, Dead Prez lays the classic story bare, setting the scene with lines like "Under the leadership of Hannibal, the fattest pig in the pack." But rather than just use the story, Dead Prez embodies the book's spirit. Their chorus "This is the animal in man, this is the animal in you" reveals how fine the line between man and beast is.
  28. ^ Matthews, Dylan (February 27, 2015). "Remember Leonard Nimoy with "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," his greatest musical moment". Vox. Retrieved April 18, 2020. The song — essentially a musical recapitulation of the plot of The Hobbit, but with much better choreography — was originally released as a single in 1967, and it grew into an internet phenomenon long before streaming video became ubiquitous.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Greene, Andy (December 13, 2012). "Ramble On: Rockers Who Love 'The Lord of the Rings'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  30. ^ Nyren, Neil (January 30, 2020). "Carl Hiaasen: A Crime Reader's Guide to the Classics". www.crimereads.com. CrimeReads. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  31. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Kuba Shand-Baptiste. "10 songs you didn't know were inspired by literature". The Guardian.
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b Carter, Caitlin (April 18, 2014). "10 Musical Compositions Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez: Radiohead, Shakira and more". Music Times. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  33. ^ Cocking, Lauren (21 February 2018). "Our Top 11 Book Recommendations Featuring Mexico City". culture trip. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  34. ^ Ramirez, AJ (31 October 2011). "All That Glitters: Led Zeppelin - "The Battle of Evermore"". PopMatters. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  35. ^ Jump up to: a b Dome, Malcolm (August 21, 2014). "Ten Songs Inspired By H.P. Lovecraft". www.loudersound.com. Louder. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  36. ^ Jump up to: a b c Wagner, Wendy N. "When Wizards Rock". Fantasy Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  37. ^ Jump up to: a b Schaefer, Julia. "Album Review: The Divine Comedy - Office Politics". www.thecorefm.com. 90.3 RLC-WVPH FM Piscataway. Retrieved April 18, 2020. Irish chamber pop outfit the Divine Comedy have always been something of an English major's band in my eyes. Never mind the name they cribbed from Dante's epic - their 1993 debut album Promenade featured songs inspired by Fitzgerald short stories ("Bernice Bobs Her Hair"), Wordsworth poems ("Lucy"), and Chekhov’s plays ("Three Sisters").
  38. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Allen, Jim (March 12, 2012). "Hive Five: Literary Songs Not Written by the Decemberists". MTV News. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  39. ^ Heller, Jason (November 8, 2012). "Blue Öyster Cult's "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" is even bigger than the movie that inspired it". AV Club. Retrieved April 18, 2020. BÖC had previously worked with Moorcock on the 1980 song "Black Blade"—a reference to Elric's soul-drinking sword, Stormbringer.
  40. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Hawkwind". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. March 3, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  41. ^ Jump up to: a b Freeman, Phil (December 22, 2010). "Michael Moorcock, Epic Science Fiction Master and Hard Rocker". Gizmodo. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  42. ^ "Brave New World". The Iron Maiden Commentary. 30 May 2000. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  43. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Harlitz-Kern, Erika (April 3, 2016). "Songs by Metallica Inspired by Literature". Book Riot. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  44. ^ Dillon, Cathy (March 8, 2014). "Word for Word: How a classic crosses over into song". The Irish Times. Retrieved April 18, 2020. Vega, a former English major, has often been inspired by literature, not least in her song Calypso, which she included in her set at the Olympia. The song is an airy ballad with a mournful guitar line, written from the point of view of the sea nymph who helps Odysseus after he is shipwrecked in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey: "A long time ago / I watched him struggle with the sea / I knew that he was drowning / And I brought him into me."
  45. ^ Vedantam, Shankar (September 17, 2018). "The Cassandra Curse: Why We Heed Some Warnings, And Ignore Others". Hidden Brain. National Public Radio. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  46. ^ Hilton, Robin (October 4, 2016). "Watch The Dandy Warhols' Take On 'Catcher In The Rye'". All Songs TV. National Public Radio. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  47. ^ Dadamo, Giovanni (10 July 1974). "The Madcap Speaks". The Syd Barrett Archives. Terrapin. Retrieved 19 April 2020. Q: Some of your songs seem rather obscure, like Chapter 24 on Piper. Syd: 'Chapter 24'... that was from the 'I Ching', there was someone around who was very into that, most of the words came straight off that.
  48. ^ Long, Siobhán Dowling; Sawyer, John F. A. (2015). The Bible in Music: A Dictionary of Songs, Works, and More. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 44. ISBN 9780810884526. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  49. ^ Spooner, Catherine (2004). Fashioning Gothic Bodies. Manchester University Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780719064012. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  50. ^ Fairweather, Andrew (February 3, 2016). "Charlotte Sometimes: The Redoubled Subject". New York Public Library. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  51. ^ Gersen, Hannah (August 31, 2015). "How the Brain Forgets: On Penelope Farmer's 'Charlotte Sometimes'". The Millions. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  52. ^ Farmer, Penelope (June 9, 2007). "The Cure(d)". rockpool in the kitchen. Retrieved April 19, 2020. The lyric to the song was on the record sleeve. Not only was it about confused identity, much of it consisted of quotes from the book. The title of the instrumental track on the B side, what's more, was another quote from the book.
  53. ^ Farmer, Penelope (June 12, 2007). "The Cure(d): Robert Smith for ever..." rockpool in the kitchen. Retrieved April 19, 2020. Then he told me the story of how he'd come across the book in the first place. 'My elder brother used to read to us at bedtime,' he said, 'I was about twelve or so and he was still reading books to us. Your book was one of them, it never got out of my head. Once I got into music I wanted to make a song about it. That's how it happened.'
  54. ^ "Kaiser Chiefs on "Child of the Jago"".
  55. ^ Daniels, Neil (2014). Killers: The Origins Of Iron Maiden 1975-1983. Soundcheck Books. pp. 106–107. ISBN 9780957570023. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  56. ^ "Iron Maiden". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. June 18, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  57. ^ Prince, Jeff (May 19, 2015). "Robert Earl Keen Ponders Your Questions, Prepares For Billy Bob's". Fort Worth Weekly. Retrieved April 20, 2020. Keen has read many of the English romantic poets such as Shelley, Keats, and Byron. “I wrote this song sort of based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem,” he said. “He was one of the more fantastic rock stars. You have to think of those poets as rock stars, and they did rock star stuff back then. Coleridge was like the Jim Morrison of the bunch. You could not contain the guy.”
  58. ^ Toland, Michael (March 28, 2019). "Q&A: Michael Moorcock Plays Hawkwind". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  59. ^ McGinnis, Ray (April 27, 2019). "#906: Courage by The Tragically Hip". Vancouver Pop Music Signature Sounds. Retrieved April 20, 2020. It was MacLennan’s final award winning novel that earned his place in the song title “Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)”. The song included lines from The Watch That Ends The Night, where MacLennan states “There is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.” The Tragically Hip stated MacLennan’s thought this way: “There’s no simple explanation for anything important any of us do. And, yeah, the human tragedy consists in the necessity of living with the consequences under pressure.”
  60. ^ Sutherland, Steve (March 5, 2019). "Jefferson Airplane: Crown Of Creation". Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Retrieved April 20, 2020. The album's title is taken directly from The Chrysalids. 'Your work is to survive. Neither his kind, nor his kind of thinking will survive long. They are the crown of creation, they are ambition fulfilled – they have nowhere more to go. But life is change, that is how it differs from rocks. Change is its very nature.' And the title track quotes liberally from its text. The book has 'In loyalty to their kind they cannot tolerate our rise – in loyalty to our kind, we cannot tolerate their obstruction'. The song goes: 'In loyalty to their kind, they cannot tolerate our minds...'. It's strident, punchy, fist-in-the-air Airplane in all their righteous indignant fury and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
  61. ^ Jump up to: a b Korn, Mike. "Interview with Mike Scalzi of Slough Feg From 2005". Music Street Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2020. [Scalzi:] I'd rather talk about real history and mythology. MSJ: That segues pretty neatly into two more songs I had questions about. "Eumaeus the Swineherd" and "Curse of Athena". Are those songs strictly about Homer's Odyssey? [Scalzi:] Absolutely, yeah. One of the newest infatuations I have is The Odyssey. Anybody who wants to read where the songs come from, open up the Odyssey and turn to the chapter about Eumaeus the Swineherd. Odysseus returns to Ithaca after being gone for 20 years and he returns disguised as a slave. Athena puts a curse on him because the suitors are trying to marry his wife Penelope and he has to win her back. Odysseus is welcomed into the humble home of Eumaeus the Swineherd who has no idea who he really is.
  62. ^ Döing, Laura (16 August 2019). "Rammstein: Just what's in those lyrics?". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 April 2020. Not all of the horror comes from Lindemann's pen. Some of the frontman's lyrics are inspired by classical German literature, exemplified by the most prominent poet in the language, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe's famous ballad Erlkönig, for example, translated: Who rides so late through the night and the wind? It is the father with his child. He holds the boy safely in his arms; he holds him tight, he keeps him warm. The mood, rhythm and content of Goethe's poem are echoed in Rammstein's "Dalai Lama": An airplane lies in the evening wind / On board is a man with a child / They sit safely, sit warm / And are lulled into falling asleep. In Goethe's poem, a ghostly apparition, the King of the Elves, whispers seductively to the child and seeks to abduct him into his realm. At the end of the ballad, the son dies in the arms of his father on horseback. In the Rammstein song, the "King of the Winds" endeavors to claim the boy, who finally dies in his father's arms, held too tightly in anticipation of an airplane crash.
  63. ^ Irizarry, Katy (August 15, 2018). "11 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante's 'Inferno'". Loudwire. Retrieved April 23, 2020. There is perhaps no song that portrays such a detailed and comprehensive retelling of Dante’s 'Inferno' as this one. Not only does it follow the epic format with 16-and-a-half minutes of music, but it takes the listener on a musical journey to each layer of hell, just as Dante did for his readers.
  64. ^ Cotterell, Joel (April 9, 2013). "This Is Armageddon: The Dawn Motif and Black Metal's Anti-Christian Project". Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory. punctum books (1): 98. ISBN 9780615758282. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  65. ^ Jump up to: a b Koenig, Sara M. (November 15, 2018). Bathsheba Survives. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 108–110. ISBN 9781611179149. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  66. ^ Stam, Robert (February 18, 2019). World Literature, Transnational Cinema, and Global Media: Towards a Transartistic Commons. Routledge. p. 143. ISBN 9780429767395. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  67. ^ Johnson, Dan (13 September 2009). "Thrice: Beggars". PopMatters. Retrieved 24 April 2020. From humble musings on human nature, Thrice licks into the next track “Doublespeak”, an obvious homage to Orwellian realities where insidious totalitarian hegemony controls consciousness.
  68. ^ "The Cure: Beyond The Hits". The Quietus. June 12, 2019. Retrieved April 24, 2020. ‘The Drowning Man’ is a perfect example. Drawing lyrically from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books, specifically the fraught mental state and accidental death of the character Fuschia and the reaction of her devastated brother Titus, Robert Smith's anguished vocal rises and fades into distances like air bubbles in murky water, his skittering guitar and the spare rhythm section work of Simon Gallup and Lol Tolhurst an audio portrait of utter desolation.
  69. ^ Åkerlund, Pauliina (March 30, 2015). "Nightwish – Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Album Review)". Cryptic Rock: Your Entertainment Odyssey. Retrieved April 24, 2020. The beautiful and melancholic “Edema Ruh” was inspired by fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss’ group of strolling musicians and actors from his books Kingkiller Chronicle, called the Edema Ruh.
  70. ^ Encabo, Enrique (January 29, 2019). Sound in Motion: Cinema, Videogames, Technology and Audiences. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 121. ISBN 9781527527294. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  71. ^ Unterberger, Richie. ""The Doors"—The Doors (1967)" (PDF). www.loc.gov. National Recording Preservation Board. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  72. ^ Matteoli, Alessia (23 November 2010). "Absynthe Minded – Envoi". AAA Music. Retrieved 25 April 2020. Inspired by a Hugo Claus poem, Envoi surprises the listener with its upbeat sound choruses and violin; its magical atmospheres and the ability to set you dreaming of your summer crush.
  73. ^ House, Silas (September 1, 2005). "Nickel Creek – It's about the music". No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music. Retrieved April 25, 2020. ...And they’re performing songs that sound more like poetry than money, especially the one about Joyce’s heartrending character. “Eveline” is one of fourteen tracks on their new album, Why Should The Fire Die?
  74. ^ Flory, Tyler (April 23, 2013). "Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" as a Romeo and Juliet teaching tool". City Pages. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  75. ^ Smith, Eric (March 18, 2013). "Gatsby's American Dream: The Most Literary Band You've Never Heard Of". Book Riot. Retrieved April 25, 2020. The song fifth song on Volcano, Fable, is one of the catchiest on the record, and retells the story of Lord of the Flies. “We came here on a plane, Just a bunch of little boys. Dance around the fire, then we strike him down. We’ll burn the island down. Kill the pig pig, kill the pig pig…”
  76. ^ Jump up to: a b Max, D.T. (April 10, 2011). "Kate Bush's Rewrite: Reason to ReJoyce?". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 15, 2020. Kate Bush... ...has gotten permission to quote some part of Molly’s famous soliloquy in the reissue of a song first released in 1989 as "The Sensual World" and now appropriately renamed "Flower of the Mountain." "Flower of the Mountain" is a phrase in the soliloquy, the most famous part of which goes: “And first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”
  77. ^ Jump up to: a b ""A Man of Genius Makes No Mistakes": A Joycean Playlist Just in Time for Bloomsday 2015". Flood Magazine. June 16, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2020. Kate Bush’s musical homage to James Joyce and Ulysses’s Molly Bloom was a twenty-two-year journey in the making. Originally planned as a musical interpretation of Bloom’s last speech in the novel, Bush had to alter the lyrics after Joyce’s estate wouldn’t allow her to use his words. That track became 1989’s “The Sensual World,” but in 2011 (after the Joyce estate finally realized how amazing the singer-songwriter is) she was granted a license and rereleased the track in its true form as “Flower of the Mountain.” It is more than worth the wait... ...True to its name, the entirety of “Rejoyce” is Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic four-minute retelling of the story of Ulysses. Grace Slick sets scenes from the novel against one of the world’s grooviest bass lines.
  78. ^ Lines, C.J. (January 6, 2018). "Celebrating 200 Years of Frankenstein… with Metal!". Medium. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  79. ^ Gotrich, Lars (April 1, 2015). "Viking's Choice: Sharpless, 'Franz Kafka (Home Movies Cover)'". All Songs Considered. National Public Radio. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  80. ^ Rooksby, Rikky (2001). Inside Classic Rock Tracks: Songwriting and Recording Secrets of 100 Great Songs from 1960 to the Present Day. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 43. ISBN 9780879306540. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  81. ^ "Older, wiser, angrier Offspring". San Francisco Examiner. September 26, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  82. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Conradt, Stacey (August 13, 2012). "11 Songs Inspired by Literature". Mental Floss. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  83. ^ "Thyfring". Voices from the Darkside. Retrieved April 25, 2020. ‘The Giant’s Laughter’ is pretty much Patrik’s English interpretation of Swedish Poet Esaias Tegner’s brilliant poem “Jätten” (the giant). The words paint a fairly depressive view of nationalism and a “lost struggle”… ah, read it damn it
  84. ^ Romano, Will (September 1, 2010). Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781617133763. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  85. ^ Simpson, Dave (17 August 2001). "Haunted house music". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 April 2020. And now comes Haunted, a rock album from Mark's sister, Poe (real name Annie), started long before the book was published. Just as disturbing as House of Leaves, Haunted uses tape recordings of her father's voice, discovered after his death in 1993, to exorcise memories of their difficult relationship.
  86. ^ Biancotti, Deborah (April 2, 2012). "The Weirdness in House of Leaves". Weird Fiction Review. Retrieved April 27, 2020. House of Leaves (Pantheon Books, 2000) is a cluster of stories told more in their metatext than text, a book that took ten years to write and has given rise to another book (The Whalestoe Letters), an album (Haunted, by Danielewski’s sister, Anne – known as Poe), and an author with a reputation for being so ‘experimental’ his next book, Only Revolutions, was shortlisted for the US National Book Prize despite being practically incomprehensible to any but the most dedicated reader. House of Leaves is a cult classic, reviled by some and adored – fiercely – by others.
  87. ^ Bierman, Bryan. "Hidden Gems: John Cale's "Animal Justice" And "Sabotage/Live"". MAGNET. Retrieved April 27, 2020. ...the EP closes with strikingly beautiful ballad “Hedda Gabler.” Loosely based on the Henrik Ibsen play of the same name, the song features Cale’s voice in fine form, and the slow meditation is a welcome resolution to the previous madness...
  88. ^ Barkan, Jonathan (June 10, 2016). "Go Behind-the-Scenes in Ice Nine Kill's 'Carrie'-Inspired "Hell in the Hallways" Music Video (Exclusive)". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved April 28, 2020. The video is a reimagined version of Carrie, the now infamous story from author Stephen King.
  89. ^ Endeacott, Robert (July 1, 2014). Peaches: A Chronicle Of The Stranglers 1974-1990. Soundcheck Books. p. 53. ISBN 9780957570047. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  90. ^ Hunter-Tilney, Ludovic (October 22, 2010). "Elton John and Leon Russell: The Union". Financial Times. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  91. ^ Zemler, Emily (February 17, 2009). "Rapper MC Lars Shares His Favorite Book". Spin. Retrieved April 28, 2020. But one of my favorite [pieces of literature] is Hamlet, and I have that song about Hamlet on the new record, “Hey There, Ophelia,”... ...so I have to give props to that as well.
  92. ^ Huler, Scott (March 11, 2008). No-Man's Lands: One Man's Odyssey Through The Odyssey. Crown. p. 259. ISBN 9780307409782. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  93. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Adler, Sam (April 12, 2014). "Books that inspired punk". USA Today. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  94. ^ Paulson, Dave (September 7, 2014). "Kenny Loggins talks 'Winnie the Pooh'". The Tennessean. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  95. ^ "Lenny Sasso Goes Rogue for Circa Survive on Rockstar Disrupt Festival Tour". Chauvet Professional. August 14, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2020. It’s altogether fitting that Circa Survive drew inspiration for their breakthrough debut album “Juturna” from the novel House of Leaves. Like the powerful Mark Z. Danielewski story, which breaks down literary barriers with its wildly unusual layout (some pages have only one or two words) and multiple storylines, the progressive five-piece band from the Philadelphia area has set its own course weaving in and out of musical lanes to create a unique sound.
  96. ^ Rivkin, Julie; Ryan, Michael, eds. (January 23, 2017). Literary Theory: An Anthology (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118718384. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  97. ^ "CDs: Country, jazz, rock albums in offerings". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. 14 December 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  98. ^ Courrier, Kevin (December 30, 2008). Artificial Paradise: The Dark Side of the Beatles' Utopian Dream. ABC-CLIO. p. 197. ISBN 9780313345876. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  99. ^ "MONKS OF DOOM". Trouser Press. Retrieved May 2, 2020. Seattle's C/Z Records got the consolation prize in the Monks' post-Rough Trade sweepstakes, a five-song EP entitled The Insect God. Although it draws direct inspiration from Edward Gorey's book of the same title ("an admonitory tale of temptation, hapless greed, abduction and unspeakable ritualistic practices"), The Insect God is in many ways a lighter, not to mention more concise, outing.
  100. ^ Caffery, Adrian (11 May 2014). "Tori Amos to play Birmingham's Symphony Hall". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  101. ^ Cummings, Tony (30 March 2008). "Edison Glass: Long Island music graduates become thinking man's rockers". Cross Rhythms. Retrieved May 3, 2020. On 'Time Is Fiction' the band display their characteristically poetic lyrics by making use of Victor Hugo's triumphant fictional character Jean Valjean from the Les Miserables classic to ask "Will good overcome religion? It's a battle between grace and pride. . . Will grace overcome what was done."
  102. ^ Bradshaw, Calum (20 July 2018). "Killing an Arab: The Cure try to reclaim their most controversial single". New Statesman. Retrieved April 15, 2020. The song draws its inspiration from the central action of Albert Camus's novel L'Étranger (The Stranger), which follows a protagonist who murders an Algerian man on a beach after a love dispute involving the victim's sister.
  103. ^ Silverman, Ed (April 11, 2019). "The Strawbs will celebrate 50-year history in New Jersey". NJArts.net. Retrieved May 3, 2020. And the band’s biggest hit — the infectious and ultra-radio-friendly “Lay Down” — has a clear spiritual vibe derived from the 23rd Psalm.
  104. ^ Ollison, Rashod D. (May 11, 2006). "The Elefant evolution". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved May 5, 2020. The danceable lead single, "Lolita," is part homage to Vladimir Nabokov's infamous character and part autobiographical.
  105. ^ Wagner, Jeff (2010). Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. Bazillion Points Books. pp. 35–36. ISBN 9780979616334. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  106. ^ "The Top Iron Maiden Songs With A Military Theme". www.forces.net. British Forces Broadcasting Service. 8 January 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  107. ^ Presley, Nicola (30 June 2013). "William Golding's legacy: His enduring influence on popular culture". www.william-golding.co.uk. Retrieved May 6, 2020. Lord of the Flies has provided inspiration for music by a wide range of artists. Most notable, perhaps, is Iron Maiden’s song, ‘Lord of the Flies’, released in 1996 on their album ‘The X Factor’... ...The ‘I’ of the song is most likely to be Jack with lines such as ‘Who cares what’s right or wrong/it’s reality/killing so we survive’. The chorus alludes to the division between the boys: ‘Saints and sinners/ Something within us/ To be lord of the flies’. Here, the dichotomy of good against evil in the novel is divided as ‘saints and sinners’, although just like the book, the writer acknowledges that there is the potential for evil within all of us: ‘we don’t need a code of morality’.
  108. ^ Ceron, Ella (May 9, 2016). "Watch the Dreamy New Music Video For Ruth B's "Lost Boy"". Teen Vogue. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  109. ^ Catlin, Roger (August 4, 1993). "HE THAT SINGS A LASTING SONG ... MAY HAVE YEATS TO THANK". Hartford Courant. Retrieved May 10, 2020. Yeats is the hottest new name among pop music publishers, yet precious little is known in those circles about him. Still, there is some indication his work has been surfacing in rock albums during the past few years. "I've put Yeats to music before," Mike Scott says in press materials accompanying the Waterboys' new album, "Dream Harder," which includes a Yeats lyric called "Love and Death." "Van Morrison and Bono have done it, too, among others. Wouldn't it be great to do an album of different artists interpreting Yeats?" Scott enthuses. "I love his poetry, and if a poem jumps up at me and I feel the music, I just do it; I don't argue. I grew up in a home full of books and poetry, and it doesn't seem strange to me."
  110. ^ Jump up to: a b Schaefer, John (September 18, 2012). "The Master And Margarita, And Music". New Sounds. WNYC. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  111. ^ "MARTIN EDEN (1979)". BFI. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  112. ^ Jackson, MD (May 3, 2013). "Vinyl Albums, KLAATU and the Warrior at the Edge of Time". Amazing Stories. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  113. ^ Weingarten, Christopher R. (August 2003). "Thrice". CMJ New Music Monthly. p. 39. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  114. ^ "Moon Over Bourbon Street, 12"". www.sting.com. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  115. ^ "Hip-Hop 101 With MC Edgar Allan Poe". Wired. June 19, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  116. ^ Gillan, Ian. "Questions & Answers". Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  117. ^ Jump up to: a b Irizarry, Katy (July 23, 2018). "10 Macabre Rock + Metal Songs Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe". Loudwire. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  118. ^ Howard, Tom (23 July 2019). "Every Libertines song ranked in order of greatness". NME. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  119. ^ Hackett, Steve. "The world behind the wardrobe". www.hackettsongs.com. Retrieved May 23, 2020. I've read many books by CS Lewis... and I've often wondered about the man behind the work and the world around the man. I wrote my song Narnia because of the impact he had on me...
  120. ^ "Ice Nine Kills film a twisted take on 'Animal Farm' in "Nature Of The Beast"—watch". AltPress. March 28, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  121. ^ Smith, Rosa Inocencio (September 9, 2016). "Track of the Day: 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' by Ambrosia". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  122. ^ Fox-Bevilacqua, Marisa (January 14, 2015). "An Unlikely Tribute: How Cult U.K. Band Joy Division Found Inspiration in Auschwitz". Haaretz. Retrieved May 24, 2020. ...Joy Division’s greatest enigma may have been its name — a reference to the brothel at Auschwitz as depicted in the book “House of Dolls” by Ka-Tzetnik 135633 (Yehiel De-Nur)... ...it was Curtis’ sense of compassion that enabled him to come up with the relentless lyrics of “No Love Lost,” about a sex slave’s forced sterilization or abortion: “In the hand of one of the assistants, she saw the same instrument which they had that morning inserted deep into her body, She shuddered instinctively. No life at all in the house of dolls. No love lost. No love lost.” The song also contains a spoken-word part entirely lifted from “House of Dolls.” In “So This Is Permanence,” Curtis’ handwritten notes for the song begin with the heading “House of Dolls.”
  123. ^ Draper, Jason (February 18, 2020). "How 'November Rain' Became One Of Rock's Greatest Ballads". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  124. ^ Dombal, Ryan (April 15, 2016). "Revisiting the Magnificent Excess of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Video Trilogy". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  125. ^ Brouwers, Josho (6 May 2017). "Symphony X's Odyssey". Ancient World Magazine. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  126. ^ Hogan, Marc (December 20, 2011). "Lana Del Rey Plays a 'Hood Lolita in 'Off to the Races'". Spin. Retrieved May 26, 2020. “Lolita gets lost in the ‘hood.”... ...this self-description she gave to a Guardian reporter remains a pretty good way of approaching her music as Lana Del Rey. Especially if you keep in mind that, as critic Nitsuh Abebe pointed out in a Pitchfork column, Del Rey appears to be talking about the actual literary Lolita, from Vladimir Nabokov’s classic novel, rather than the term’s much broader common usage. “Off to the Races,” the latest track to emerge from Del Rey’s upcoming full-length debut, interprets the ‘hood-Lolita angle fairly literally, with results that are intriguing if unlikely to end many arguments... ...the studio version of a song Del Rey has been performing live cleverly combines tropes straight out of Nabokov with those straight outta gangsta rap, though its reach may outstretch its grasp. “Light of your life, fire of your loins,” Del Rey purrs, just like Lolita’s Humbert Humbert, mixing the old-school Hollywood glamor of her vocal with mixtape-ready nods to cocaine and Riker’s Island…
  127. ^ Watson, Elijah (October 23, 2017). "I listened to all of Insane Clown Posse's albums, and now I understand". Daily Dot. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  128. ^ Duncan, Lesley (23 March 2016). "Poem of the Day: Oor Hamlet by Adam McNaughtan". The Herald. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  129. ^ Caffrey, Dan (November 21, 2008). "Instant Indie Classic: Lagwagon – Let's Talk About Feelings". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved May 26, 2020. The album's standout track is "Owen Meaney", the closer that describes the fall of John Irving's title character from A Prayer For Owen Meaney... ...Like the novel, the song is told from the viewpoint of protagonist John Wheelwright as the death of his pint-sized friend causes him to question his faith.
  130. ^ Armstrong, Sam (November 23, 2015). "Acquiring The Taste Of Prog Icons Gentle Giant". udiscovermusic. Retrieved May 27, 2020. Indeed, the only thing blatant about Acquiring The Taste was the group’s refusal to compromise... ...choosing to open the record with ‘Pantagruel’s Nativity’, a seven-minute excursion built around primitive Moog and Gregorian chants, and taking for its inspiration series of 16th-century French novels written by François Rabelais, was hardly a moderate start. (In fact, the song seems to have been so perplexing to some that it’s mis-spelt as ‘Pentagruel’s Nativity’ on the original A-aide label.)
  131. ^ Power, Martin (April 5, 2018). Nailed to History: The Story of Manic Street Preachers. Omnibus Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780857127761. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  132. ^ Smith, Rod (October 9, 2006). "Infinite Variety". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved June 5, 2020. At first, album-opening rocker and undeclared diptych “Pattern Recognition” reads like more of the same new thing. Sneaky guitars wriggle around bassist-turned-guitarist/singer Kim Gordon’s anxious vocal like electric snakes as she coos and yelps through a skeletal synopsis of William Gibson’s latest novel.
  133. ^ Horning, Nicole (December 15, 2018). Metal Music: A History for Headbangers. Greenhaven Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 9781534565272. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  134. ^ Davis, Allison P. (March 8, 2016). "Teens Have So Much to Learn From This One-Hit Wonder". The Cut. The New Yorker. Retrieved June 6, 2020. “Popular,” a ’96 sprechgesang/alt-rock hit, stands out because the video, by Girls director Jesse Peretz, is particularly good. The plot: A high-school cheerleader two-times some quarterbacks at the advice of her nerdy, manic teacher, who appears to teach only one subject, Inappropriate Advice for Teenage Girls 101. The teacher is played by Nada Surf’s lead singer, Matthew Caws, who recites actual text from Penny’s Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity, a 1964 teen advice book by Gloria Winters.
  135. ^ Thompson, Dave (August 18, 2015). Go Phish. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 62. ISBN 9781250094971.
  136. ^ Zaleski, Erin (December 6, 2017). "Johnny Hallyday, We Hardly Knew You!". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  137. ^ Ollison, Rashod D. (February 7, 2008). "The 'Real' deal". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  138. ^ Donaldson, Scott (2007). Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life. Columbia University Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780231138420. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  139. ^ Smith, Rosa Inocencio (September 17, 2016). "Track of the Day: 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Iron Maiden". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 23, 2020. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 626-line tale of a cursed sailor’s sin and redemption is a lot to take in... ...Luckily, bass player Steve Harris’s lyrics provide a pretty straightforward summary, and the music—shifting from shouted lyrics and frantic guitars as Death descends on the mariner’s ship, to a spooky, atmospheric section that recalls a glassy sea—helps to dramatize the mariner’s story.
  140. ^ Burdge, Anthony; Burke, Jessica (2007). Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Taylor & Francis. p. 540. ISBN 9780415969420. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  141. ^ "Greatest Hits: The 23 best PJ Harvey songs". Treble. October 10, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2020. “The River,” in contrast to “50 Ft. Queenie,” is a song that’s best shared a little once newcomers dive a little deeper into Harvey’s catalog. It’s not an outlier per se, but it feels like a genuine haunting in a way that few of her other songs do. That’s in part because it’s based on a story by Flannery O’Connor, famed for her own uniquely macabre storytelling, and part of it is due to the very sound of the song.
  142. ^ Butler, Andrew M. (October 16, 2012). Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s. Liverpool University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9781781389225. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  143. ^ Harrington, Richard (April 20, 2001). "Knopfler's Soundtracks and Stories". Washington Post. Retrieved June 24, 2020. But on the title track of his recent album, "Sailing to Philadelphia," Knopfler's done a dramatic turnaround, in essence condensing Thomas Pynchon's 773-page novel, "Mason & Dixon," into a pop song in which Knopfler plays astronomer Jeremiah Mason to James Taylor's surveyor, Charles Dixon… …"It's a massive book [reduced to] four verses of a song, a two-minute take on a two-ton book," says Knopfler, who first read Pynchon's 1997 novel on one of his many transatlantic flights between London and Nashville. Knopfler's song -- which actually clocks in at 5 1/2 minutes -- addresses the more personal elements of the Mason-Dixon line while underscoring one of Knopfler's ongoing obsessions. " 'Mason & Dixon' is about America, which is one of the most fantastic stories of the last millennium and one that continues," he says. "When Mason and Dixon were in America, it was a turning point because there was the beginning of the rumbles of independence, a very exciting and interesting time. . . . America was a colony of England at the time and then it turned around and colonized the world with its music and films and a great many other things…
  144. ^ Sperounes, Sandra (March 12, 2010). ""He's got more of a twisted mind ..."". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved June 28, 2020. For Billy Talent, Maxxis shot Saint Veronika, a dark, twisted clip starring a family of sock puppets. The song, and the video, are based on Paulo Coelho’s novel, Veronika Decides To Die, about a 24-year-old woman who tries to kill herself. Maxxis admits he was slightly stymied by the concept — until he buried his face in a pillow in a fit of frustration. “You know when you close your eyes and start seeing colours and things?” he says. “I just started visualizing immediately this sock family in this old farmhouse and a sock girl running away from it.”
  145. ^ Rincón, Alessandra (August 7, 2018). "Regina Spektor Gives Chilling Performance Of 'Samson' On 'Late Show'". Billboard. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  146. ^ Dunston, Tyler (November 16, 2019). "Kate Bush Steps Out of the Pages of James Joyce and into The Sensual World". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved June 28, 2020. For the opening, title track of The Sensual World, Bush had originally planned to take an excerpt of Molly Bloom’s final soliloquy from James Joyce’s Ulysses — a continuous, un-punctuated mass of text — and put it to music. However, unable to get the rights from the Joyce estate, she wrote her own version of Molly Bloom’s speech, incorporating elements of the original text while making something that was her own. (In 2011, the Joyce estate actually did grant Bush’s request, and you can hear another version of the song, which quotes Ulysses verbatim, on the 2011 record Director’s Cut.) The song unfolds from Bush’s words. It is rhythmically punctuated by Bush singing, “Mmm, yes,” evoking Molly Bloom’s repetition of yes near the end of the book. Adorning these words, Davy Spillane plays the uilleann pipes, a traditional Irish instrument, the melody adapted from a Macedonian dance. By recontextualizing language in song, Bush gives form to a piece of text by Joyce that is, by its nature, formless (insofar as it lacks punctuation). Bush characterizes this form in terms of moving from text to the real world: “Stepping out of the page into the sensual world.”
  147. ^ Calhoun, Scott (February 8, 2018). U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 9781350032552. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  148. ^ Homan, Sidney (May 15, 2019). How and Why We Teach Shakespeare: College Teachers and Directors Share How They Explore the Playwright's Works with Their Students. Routledge. p. 113. ISBN 9781000011654. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
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  172. ^ Luerssen, John D. (2015). The Smiths FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Most Important British Band of the 1980s. Backbeat Books. p. 201. ISBN 9781480394490. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
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  174. ^ Webber, Brad (June 16, 1994). "Toad the Wet Sprocket Dulcinea (Columbia)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 2, 2021. Cervantes gets a predictable nod with "Windmills." Toad the Wet Sprocket sings of the futility weighing heavily upon their listeners, so they might just have something in pegging Don Quixote as the original Generation X-er.
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  176. ^ Rule, Doug (September 11, 2002). "Getting "Naked" with Amber". Metro Weekly. Retrieved April 15, 2020. The first hit from Naked, "Yes," was inspired by and quotes from James Joyce's Ulysses as Amber rapturously talks of being alone with a man touching her breasts — not surprisingly, a stumbling block to getting radio play.
  177. ^ Fitchett, Alistair. "The Field Mice \ Biography". LTM Recordings. Retrieved March 1, 2001. So Said Kay was written about the movie Desert Hearts, and by association therefore also Jane Rule's 'classic lesbian novel Desert of the Heart on which the movie was based; which essentially means that So Said Kay was a song of a film of a book, which is quite some going when you think about it. You don't need to know either film or book to appreciate the song, but the understanding of the source material certainly lends the song a particularly eloquent quality, makes it work so beautifully as their ultimate sexual political commentary.
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