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Songs Inspired By Literature

L

lies

New Member
I finished Wuthering Heights the other day, and since the whole time I was reading it I was humming Kate Bush' song, I couldn't stop wondering... Are there --many-- other instances where litarature has inspired songwriters?

So far I've only been able to come up with these:

  • Kate Bush -- Wuthering Heights [Emily Brontë]: I guess most of you will know this one
  • Iced Earth -- Jeckyl & Hyde (or Jekyll and Hyde; apparently they changed the name) [Robert Louis Stevenson]
  • Iced Earth -- Frankenstein [Mary Shelley]
  • Iced Earth -- Dracula [Bram Stoker]
(If you're interested: the Iced Earth songs are all on their last album Horror Show, which isn't great, but not bad either.)

Anyone else intrigued by this phenomenon, or anyone else have songs they wish to share? (I'm sure there are more)
 
Ah, I did a paper on Albert Camus... Worked myself a way through L'Etranger as well. (What they make you do in high school, it's unbelievable ;))

I don't know the song though... I'll see if I can find it somewhere... If it's The Cure, it has to be good, right?

Iced Earth is a metal band... power metal if I'm not mistaken. They're good --if you like that kind of music of course.
 
The Stranger might be the Cure's first single. It's from 1979.

It's on their collection of earlier singles, 'Staring at the sea.'

It's really a good disc. It's on lots of best albums lists including Rolling Stone's top 100 of all time.

I'm not too fond of metal but Iced Earth sounds kind of interesting and I like guitar heroics. Are they gothic? Do they more resemble Type 0 Negative or Iron Maiden?
 
I'm afraid I don't have Staring at the Sea. I'll go to the library and see if they got it there though... I'd really love to see what they made of it...

Iced Earth is definitely more Maiden-like. Let's say it's 80s metal with modern touches. If you've got some money to spare, they're certainly worth checking out. (IMHO) ;)

I looked around on the net a bit, looking for more information, and I came accross this:

Artists for Literacy -- Songs Inspired by Literature: Chapter One: I wonder if that's a good way to help promote literature...

And a site which has a list with songs. There are quite a few in the list that I didn't know where inspired by books.

It's really interesting... Maybe I'll even start collecting the info, put it in a database and release it on the net. LOL

--

[edit]Could it be that the title of the song by The Cure is Killing an Arab? The lyrics I found on the net seem to be the right ones...[/edit]
 
Yeah, I do. I couldn't believe I never connected the dots... I feel like a bit of an idiot now... :eek:
 
The first song that came into my head was Iron Maiden's version of Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. After that I hit a blank. It was only after the looking at the links posted that the forehead slapping began. Doh. I have Alan Parson's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and I, Robot. I even had the books these are based on at one time as well. Not only that but I've been to see Cats, and know darn well its based on a book of poems by TS Eliot.

As an aside, I seem to have swamped the board with replies to threads. It is just that Friday is my day off, and about the only time I can get a long term access to a PC. Replying to threads is rather like eating crisps, or smashing windows. Hard to stop after two. I'm sorry if I have been over-enthusiastic.
 
I've been drawing a blank on this one. But thanks to Letterhead, I feel much better...CATS...seen it...heard it! whew.

BTW, Letterhead, feel free to be overenthusiastic. It's..."enthusiastically" allowed. :p
 
Don't worry letterHead... The songs I posted were so obvious (at least for me, who had been reading Wuthering Heights while listening to the Iced Earth album), and they were the only ones I could come up with (I can't believe I couldn't remember Maiden's Son of a Seventh Son!)
 
And there's certainly a lot of Beatles' lyrics which are a homage to Alice in Wonderland and the poems of Edward Lear.
 
Counting Crows' "Rain King" certainly seems to have something to do with Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (they mention "Mr. Henderson" in the lyrics). And, if I remember correctly, Dire Straits did a song about Romeo and Juliet.
 
Dire Straits also did "Telegraph Road", which was taken from a book I read in the 60's. I don't recall the author, but it was set in Australia. It's on the "Love Over Gold" album, and, as a musician, I feel it was the best thing they ever did.
 
1980's group The Eurythmics had a hit with (Sexcrime) 1984, based on George Orwell's novel. Actually, come to think of it, they must have done the soundtrack (d'oh) because I've just remembered they also released a single called Julia.

As an aside, I love Iron Maiden's music (probably been brainwashed by my brother playing it non-stop) :)
 
Song inspired by books, well, I really can't think of many except for the song inspired by some of the Mercedes Lackey books..
Draw The Circle, Kerowyn's Ride, Dark and Stormy Night, as well as some others.
 
There is a song of a group Myslovitz "Love at times of pop culture" (it is also the title of a whole album ), which was probably inspired by Marquez's book "Love at times of cholera".
 
Someone told me Metallica's One was based on Johnny Got His Gun? I haven't read the book though, and it's been a while since I read the lyrics, so...
 
I was just on the website for Jill Tracy (orchestral blues with a burlesque tinge complemented by noir lyrics) to see when she'll have something new coming out and noticed that one of her songs, entitled Evil Night Together, had been awarded the title of 'International Grand Prize Winner' in the Songs Inspired By Literature "competition". Great piece, by the way.

I hadn't realised there was such a "competition" but there's been two albums made, so far, of songs inspired by literature - Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

It's certainly a nicer idea for a compilation CD than most (i.e. NOW 99) and it has the hope that those who enjoy the song may be inspired to read the book. Thoughts? And, if anyone's interested in hearing some Jill Tracy (I think John Self may like it) then there are two minute samplers from her albums (Diabolical Streak and Quintessentially Unreal) on the CD Baby site; a good site for finding obscure independent music that's actually good.
 
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