10 Literary Works Set to Music

[Joe Allonby]

"Sympathy for the Devil" was allegedly inspired by Bulgakov's Master and the
Margarita.

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>wrote:

> 10 Literary Works Set to Music
> Brett K
> August 5, 2008
>
> It's not hard to find literary allusions in popular music. From the
> Tolkienesque imagery of Led Zeppelin songs like "The Battle for
> Evermore" and "Ramble On" to more obscure selections, like Laurie
> Anderson's Pynchon-inspired "Gravity's Angel," they're just about
> everywhere. Less common, though, are songs whose lyrics are taken
> directly from literary sources. Here are some of the best.
>
> "Golden Hair" - Syd Barrett: This song comes from Barrett's debut
> album, The Madcap Laughs, released shortly after his departure from
> Pink Floyd. The lyrics come from James Joyce's "Poem V," a selection
> from Chamber Music.
>
> "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" - The Doors: This Bertolt Brecht/Kurt
> Weill song was made popular by The Doors when it appeared on their
> self-titled debut in 1967. It was originally written for the short
> play Mahagonny-Songspiel (The Little Mahagonny).
>
> "Home I'll Never Be" - Tom Waits: Jack Kerouac, the beatnik icon and
> author of On the Road, penned the words to this song. It appears on
> Waits' 2006 collection Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, which
> also features a song with lyrics taken from a Charles Bukowski poem.
>
> "Annabel Lee" - Joan Baez: Composer Peter Schickele worked with Joan
> Baez in 1967 to produce an album of covers. Most of the songs are
> covers of then-popular tunes by Lennon/McCartney, Paul Simon and
> Jacques Brel, but Baez also included an odd duck: a recording of Edgar
> Allan Poe's last poem, "Annabel Lee."
>
> "Sonnets/Unrealities XI" - Björk: The words to this song come from an
> E. E. Cummings poem called "it may not always be so; and i say." It
> was released on Björk's 2004 album Medúlla, described by Rolling Stone
> magazine as "the most extreme record Bjork has ever released and the
> most immediately accessible."
>
> "I Zimbra" - Talking Heads: The opening track to the Talking Heads'
> landmark album Fear of Music, "I Zimbra" probably sounds to most
> people like David Byrne & Co. simply chanting nonsense phrases. Well,
> it's sort of true. The words come from Hugo Ball's dadaist poem "Gadji
> beri bimba."
>
> "Take This Waltz" - Leonard Cohen: The lyrics to this song, from
> 1988's classic I'm Your Man album, are the English translation of
> Federico García Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés." The poem
> originally appeared in Lorca's Poeta en Nueva York.
>
> "Spell" - Patti Smith: Patti Smith has always acknowledged the
> influence of poetry on her music. "Spell," from the album Peace and
> Noise, takes its lyrics from Allen Ginsberg's "Footnote to Howl."
>
> "Amor mio, si muero y tu no mueres" - Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Peter
> Lieberson was in an Albuquerque airport when he found a book of Pablo
> Neruda's love sonnets. Neruda Songs, released several years later,
> features Lieberson's wife Lorraine singing a selection of the sonnets
> with the accompaniment of Peter's music.
>
> "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs" - Hilde Torgersen & Bjørn
> Rabben: Yes, this is one of those John Cage pieces where someone sings
> while someone else taps on the lid of a closed piano. The words come
> from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
>
> Listen to samples ...
>
> http://www.getlisty.com/10-literary-works-set-to-music/
>
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