Songs about books

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Know any songs based on books or about books?

Sarah

― sarah b, Friday, 19 August 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Sarah, do you mean specific books, or just books in general?

John

― john c (jaymc), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

"Books About UFO's" by Husker DU

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

"Everyday I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

For example:

"Wuthering Heights" (Kate Bush) or "Wrapped Up in Books" (Belle and Sebastian)?

John

― john c (jaymc), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

"Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

"Paperback Writer" by the Beatles

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c478/c47815ncc6k.jpg

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

there's some group who recently put verse from famous fiction and poetry maybe.. to music - i caught about 1/4 of terry gross interview will driving so didn't catch their name...but i remember thinking it might be an interesting idea, but the music clips sounded kinda annoying. I THINK DAVE EGGERS WAS INVOLVED

ooooo "wuthering heights"!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Sarah, please write me back so I can respond accordingly.

John

― john c (jaymc), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

"Read some Byron, Shelly, and Keats / Recited it over a hip-hop beat"

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

P.J. Harvey's album "Is This Desire?" makes a number of oblique references to J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories", particularly on the track "Angeline"

― Brock! (Brock!), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit"

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy Durante, "I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book"

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

'death and the maiden' by the verlaines

― Jeremy Fuck, Friday, 19 August 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

talking heads, "the book i read" (covered by the great shaun cassidy!)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

"Books," by Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch, which appears on both the first Teardrop Explodes album and the first Echo and the Bunnymen album (naturally, the Teardrops version crushes the other.) This is actually a great unrecognized TE track in my opinion, among the best on Kilimanjaro.

― Guayaquil, Friday, 19 August 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)

Rollerskate Skinny by the Old '97s is based on Catcher in the Rye

― blownspeakers (lucy), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

"Don't Stand So Close To Me" by the Police alludes to Nabokov's "Lolita" and "Tea in the Sahara" is about "The Sheltering Sky" by Paul Bowels.

"KIlling an Arab" by the Cure is based on Camus' "The Stranger".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 August 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

"Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 August 2005 23:37 (twenty years ago)

"The Death & Resurrection Show" by Killing Joke was inspired by a book of the same name by Rogan Taylor

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 August 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

No Mastodon? The whole Leviathan album? Moby Dick? Huh? Whuh?

― Voodoo Child, Friday, 19 August 2005 23:41 (twenty years ago)

beat to mastodon by one post. im useless on this board

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Saturday, 20 August 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

that more recent thing belle and sebastian did, wasn't it called "Books"? (i only have the ep, and that's named Books.

― bj, Saturday, 20 August 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

'Painted Bird' by Siouxsie and the Banshees - relates to the book of the same name by Jerzy Kosinski

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 20 August 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)

I believe Billy Idol credited the concept for his since-erased-by-history album, CyberPunk to William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer",....only to later admit that he never actually finished reading the book.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 20 August 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

Pete Townshend's "The Iron Man."

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Saturday, 20 August 2005 11:36 (twenty years ago)

jabberwock by boeing duveen and the beautiful soup

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Saturday, 20 August 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

"Animal in man" by Dead Prez is basically "Animal Farm" in rap form.

― Don Rowlando (Sam Rowlands), Saturday, 20 August 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

"Ballad of Tom Joad" by Woody Guthrie.

"Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana seems to be about the protagonist from Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

― wombatX (wombatX), Monday, 22 August 2005 00:17 (twenty years ago)

ride 'polar bear', well a short story

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)

My White Devil by Echo and the Bunnymen, about John Webster's plays The White Devil and Duchess of Malfi.

― wmlynch (wlynch), Monday, 22 August 2005 03:49 (twenty years ago)

Someone mentioned Echo & the Bunnymen, so there might
be a god afterall....

One of the weirdest song based on a book (the Futurist Manifesto)
is "Animals & Men" by Adam & The Ants from their
1st album, "Dirk Wears White Sox".

― James R., Monday, 22 August 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

Sorry - songs about real books, or characters from literature.

― sarah boucher (sarahla), Monday, 22 August 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

lots of songs by the decemberists.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

"Charlotte Sometimes" - The Cure

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

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