Literature: the album

[Diceman]

I was wondering how far I would get if I tried to fill a CD with songs inspired by works of literature. Here's how far I got:

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights. Well, obviously.
The Cure - Killing An Arab. Obviously inspired by Albert Camus' L'Etranger
The The - Perfect. Some of the lyrics are plucked out of Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea, I swear.
Talk Talk - Such A Shame. This is supposed to be inspired by Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man.
The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me. Makes a reference to Lolita.

Can anyone think of some more?

[bjortan]

Eurythmics - Sexcrime (Orwell's "1984")
Ramones - Pet Sematary (King's book of the same title)
The Byrds - Chestnut Mare (Ibsen's "Peer Gynt")
Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs (Sacher-Masoch's book of the same title)
Laurie Anderson - Gravity's Angel (Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow")
Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost Of Tom Joad (Steinbeck's "The Grapes Of Wrath")
Dead Prez - Animal In A Man (Orwell's "Animal Farm")
Pink Floyd - Animals (the whole album is "Animal Farm")
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (Carroll, "Alice In Wonderland")
Nick Cave - Saint Huck (Twain's "Huckleberry Finn")
Nick Cave - The Weeping Song (Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov")
Nick Cave - Do You Love Me? Part 2 (a short story by Peter Straub)
Patti Smith - Birdland AND Kate Bush - Cloudbusting (Peter Reich's "A Book Of Dreams")

[Isagel]

"Nick Cave - Do You Love Me? Part 2 (a short story by Peter Straub) "
- I had no idea, I have read the short story but not until now I see the connection.
Johnny Cash - The man comes around - Revelations, The Bible

[bjortan]

"Nick Cave - Do You Love Me? Part 2 (a short story by Peter Straub) "
- I had no idea, I have read the short story but not until now I see the connection.


It's a fascinating rewrite, isn't it? The story is called "The Juniper Tree", btw, and can be found in Straub's excellent collection "Houses Without Doors" which I really ought to re-read some day.

One or two more:
John Cale - A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas)
Electrelane - This Deed (Nietzsche's "The Gay Sciences")

[papayahed]

I might be showing my age here, but:

Anthrax - Among the Living: Stephen King's The Stand
Anthrax - Skeleton's in the Closet: Stephen King's One of the short stories in four Past midnight

[crisaor]

A few more:
Iron Maiden - Brave New World. Inspired by the book of the same name written by Aldous Huxley.
The Strokes - Soma. Same as above.
Led Zeppelin - No Quarter. Inspired by Major and Minor Eddas.
Garbage - The Trick is to Keep Breathing. Inspired by the book of the same name written by Janice Galloway.
The Police - Ghosts in the Machine. The whole album is inspired by the book of the same name written by Arhtur Koestler.

[mono]

Though this doesn't contribute to "soundtracks in literature," apparently there exists some rock band called Uriah Heep: the same name as a creepy and allegedly "humble" character in Charles Dickens' classic novel David Copperfield. Nice thread, by the way - very unique and witty.

[poehee99]

the ground beneath her feet by U2. Lyrics written by salman rushdie.
it also in his book the ground beneath her feet

[Koa]

I love this thread but all the ones I know have been mentioned and I'm thinking hard to find new ones...
There's a song by The Smiths called Suffer Little Children that mentions Hindley so it might be a Wuthering Heights reference...

[poehee99]

Does Sailing to philadelphia by Mark Knopfler count? Although I can't find any evidence of reference in the text of the song, the titel clearly refers to Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats

[subterranean]

well i dont know whether this is count also...

Rage against the Machine's Testify (from the Battle of the LA)..some lines are from Orwell's 1984..

[hugo_fan24601]

Iron Maiden- phnatom of the opera (we all know that one)

[Tiresias]

bob dylan claimed to have based the song "black diamond bay" on nostromo by joseph conrad - you make the connection!

[Jean-Baptiste]

Radiohead's "Pyramid Song"--Dante's _Inferno_

[aeroport]

Rush - "Anthem" and "2112" album ("Anthem" by Ayn Rand)
Bloodhag - "Gene Wolfe"
"Robert Silverberg"
"Douglas Adams"
"James Blish"
"Anne M. Gaffrey"
"Orson Scott Gard"
"Iain M. Banks"
"Edgar Allen Poe"
"Philip Jose Farmer"
"Michael Swanwick"
"Frederik Pohl"
"Thomas M. Disch"
"Greg Bear"
"Franz Kafka"
"Madeline L'Engle"
"Jack Womack"
(no, folks, I'm not making Bloodhag up - this is really the stuff their songs are about. They are comprised of a bunch of sci-fi authors if I'm not mistaken)

Led Zeppelin - "Ramble On" (LOTR)
Blind Guardian - "Nightfall on Middle Earth" album (The Silmarillion)
Metallica - "The Call of Ktulu" (obvious, though the spelling is jacked up; also, I think "The Thing that Should Not Be" and "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" seem to have Lovecraft connections, but I've not heard anything about this, so I don't really know.)

[cuppajoe_9]

Radiohead's "Exit Music (for a Film)" was composed for Baz Lurman's Romeo and Juliet and "2+2=5" (and, in fact, the entire Hail to the Thief album) makes refernce to 1984. The lyrics for 'Submarine' by Björk are the entire text of an e.e. cummings poem. Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited", "Desolation Row", "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" and "Ballad of a Thin Man" all make references to various historical and literary characters.

[Arguendo]

More The Cure - How Beautiful You Are is based on a short story by Baudelaire; The Eyes of the Poor.

[TEND]

Well as a David Bowie fan I'm surprised no one mentioned a bunch of songs off of his album 'Diamond Dogs,' which were inspired/about 1984 (Bowie was attempting to create a 1984 musical), some obvious ones are....
1984 (Mind blowing I know:D )
Big Brother
Candidate
We Are the Dead

[Scheherazade]

I remember reading that Sting's Album 'Nothing Like the Sun' took the title from:

SONNET #130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

[Niamh]

Yeats poems made into songs etc.
Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" has inspired many works including
Joni Mitchell's song "Slouching toward Bethlehem"

A number of other songs have been inspired by Yeats and his poems:
Elvis Costello recorded a version of "A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety", where he set the poem to music.

Loreena McKennitt songs "Stolen Child" and "The Two Trees"

Keane's song "Bad Dream", inspired by "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"

In "Yeats' Grave", The Cranberries sing of Yeats, Maude Gonne and John MacBride, and quote from "No Second Troy".

In "Cemetry Gates" The Smiths sing "Keats and Yeats are on your side / While Wilde is on mine".

Clandestine's song "Innisfree" is taken from "Lake Isle of Innisfree"

Agalloch's song "A Poem By Yeats" uses parts of "The Sorrow of Love"


There is a musical tribute to the works of WB Yeats, called Now And In A Time To Be.


His poem, "The Stolen Child," was used in a song of the same name released by The Waterboys, it was also featured in the Spielberg movie A.I.


Van Morrison mentions Yeats in his song, "Summertime In England," with the line "Yeats and Lady Gregory corresponded ..."

The New Pornographers mention Yeats' poem "Leda and the Swan" in their song, "It's Only Divine Right."

Also Yeats poem Down by the sally gardens is now a recognisable trad song in Ireland and has even been recorded by Clannad.

I think you could do an album on yeats alone.:)

[Pendragon]

The Eagles ~ Get Over It contains this interesting line:

The more I think about it, old Billy was right!
"Let's kill all the lawyers!" Kill them tonight!

An obvious reference to Shakespeare's line in Henry VI where one of the characters, “Dick The Butcher" said, “First thing we do, is kill all the lawyers." :D

[AimusSage]

Rime Of the Ancient MAriner - IRON MAIDEN :D
Murders In The Rue Morgue - IRON MAIDEN :D
To Tame A Land - IRON MAIDEN :D (based on Dune by Frank Herbert)
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son - IRON MAIDEN :D (based on Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son)
Lord Of The Flies - IRON MAIDEN :D

Brave New World was already mentioned. All by one band. Not just any band though, IRON MAIDEN!!!!: :D:D:

[Koa]

I'm into a Hungarian band called Bonanza Banzai that has one song called 1984 and one called (the translation of) Room 101, guess to what they refer to :D

[Idril]

I was wondering how far I would get if I tried to fill a CD with songs inspired by works of literature. Here's how far I got:

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights. Well, obviously.


You know, Pat Benetar does a cover of that song that is simply amazing. It's not often I say such things, but I like it even better than the original.

Led Zepplin's Misty Mountain Hop is also a LOTR reference, The Battle of Evermore sound eerily like The Battle of Pelennor Fields. There's even a line in Stairway to Heaven that has some ties to Tolkien: "There’s a feeling I get, when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts I have seen, rings of smoke through the trees, and the voices of those who stand looking”, if you're familar with the mythology of LOTR, that will ring a bell.

[Shalot]

Led Zepplin's Misty Mountain Hop is also a LOTR reference, The Battle of Evermore sound eerily like The Battle of Pelennor Fields. There's even a line in Stairway to Heaven that has some ties to Tolkien: "There’s a feeling I get, when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts I have seen, rings of smoke through the trees, and the voices of those who stand looking”, if you're familar with the mythology of LOTR, that will ring a bell.

Also Led Zeppelin's Ramble On:


Mines a tale that cant be told,
My freedom I hold dear;
How years ago in days of old
When magic filled the air,
Twas in the darkest depths of mordor
I met a girl so fair,
But gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her.
Her, her....yea.
Aint nothing I can do, no.

(sort of --- they mention gollum and mordor)

:)

[Niamh]

Led Zepplin did an intire album dedicated to Lotr

[TEND]

Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever - Bad Religion (1984)
A Streetkid Named Desire - Bad Religion (Streetcar Named Desire)
Sorrow - Bad Religion (Book of Job)
Stranger Than Fiction - Bad Religion (References to, Hemingway, Kerouac, Wolfe and Vonnegut)

[Idril]

I almost forgot, The Gnome by Pink Floyd was inspired by Bilbo Baggins and his adventures in The Hobbit.

[Koa]

You know, Pat Benetar does a cover of that song that is simply amazing. It's not often I say such things, but I like it even better than the original.


Placebo's cover of it is also amazing and competing with the original.

[Idril]

Placebo's cover of it is also amazing and competing with the original.

Oh, I didn't know they had done one too. It's sounds like an odd song for them to cover but I'll have to check it out. :thumbs_up


...I couldn't find Wuthering Heights but I did find a version of them doing Running Up That Hill with Kate and I also found a cover they did of a Syd Barrett song, Dark Globe, I liked that one a lot!

[Shalot]

Led Zepplin did an intire album dedicated to Lotr



Hi Niamhking

I like your signature. The Waterboys put out an album a long time ago and they sang The Stolen Child. It was the last song on the album. It was quite good I thought.

(I just read through the thread and you already mentioned that --- if I had actually read before posting I would have known that. Also, Loreena McKennitt sang The Lady of Shalott on The Visit)

[Melisanda]

PJ Harvey has a few songs inspired by works of literature too:
(all from the album Is This Desire)
Angelene (Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes by Salinger)
A Perfect Day Elise (A Perfect Day For Bananafish by Salinger)
The River (The River by Flannery O'Connor)
Joy (Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor)
No Girl So Sweet (The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O'Connor)

[crisaor]

Some more:

Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick (can't believe I forgot that one)
Dire Straits - Rome and Juliet (ditto above)
Elefant - Lo lita
Sting - Moon over Bourbon Street (inspired by Interview with a Vampire)

[certiorari]

Cream's "Tale of Brave Ulysses" tells about the journey of Odysseus.

One line is: "The sirens sweetly singing"

[Vedrana]

Whether it was inspired by the book or not, there is a note (excuse the pun) of similarity between Metalica's "Sanitarium" and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. Although they are probably not related in any way.

Michael Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" is named after a poem by Emily Dickinson.

[alhara]

ok this more book themed than album themes
These are all sng inspired but anne rices novels
concrete blond bloodletting CD
sting Moon over Bourbon Street
and a friend of mine told me that a son by gatsbys american dream was inspire by interview with a vampire but I don´t remember the name and can´t find it on the internet

[Niamh]

Whether it was inspired by the book or not, there is a note (excuse the pun) of similarity between Metalica's "Sanitarium" and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. Although they are probably not related in any way.


Wasn't one of there other songs not based on a novel? I think the song was called 'One'. i could be wrong. it might have been a film.

[Shalot]

Metallica used clips from the movie version of Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun in their video that came out when I was still in grade school and MTV (the original) still played vidoes --- Dial MTV was my favorite after-school show.

Does this count? I guess the song was inspired by or influenced by the content of that book (which I enjoyed reading as a teenager).

Has someone already posted this?

And I think the content of that book is still relevant today. Medical advances that don't do much more than prolong a miserable life, and well, war. I hope that doesn't count as politics. Delete it if it does admins and moderators.

[Vedrana]

And I forgot, one of the most obvious songs that quotes from a text, "Turn, Turn, Turn" by the Byrds, which follows that passage from Ecclesiates in the Bible, pretty much word for word.

[MilksABadChoice]

The Lawrence Arms' album "The Greatest Story Ever Told" is partially a concept album of Bulgakov's The Master and The Margarita. Probably my favorite album of all time.

"Bukowski" by Modest Mouse is obvious.

"1984" by Anti-Flag compares the novel to present day America.

[Mariamosis]

Led Zeppelin was also inspired by J.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'

There is a band Uriah Heep (The name obviously inspired by Uriah Heep in Charles Dicken's 'David Copperfield' although I am unsure if the actual music referred to this)

[sixsmith]

Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (album) - The Grapes of Wrath
The Cure's "Killing an Arab"- The Outsider

[prendrelemick]

Well all I thought of have one by one been mentioned, apart from;

By the Rivers of Babylon--Boney M----The Bible
A winters Tale-----David Essex--------Shakespeare.

wasn't there a song called Generation X by one of the spice girls?