1. “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush
Inspired by the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
Bad dreams in the night.
They told me I was going to lose the fight,
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights.
2. “Testify” by Rage Against the Machine
With notable references to 1984 by George Orwell.
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?
3. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin
Inspired by Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
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.
Also “The Battle of Evermore,” based on the Battle of Pellennor Fields in The Return of the King.
4. “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane
Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small
5. “Thieves in the Night” by Black Star
An homage to the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Not strong (Only aggressive)
Not free (We only licensed)
Not compassionate, only polite (Now who the nicest?)
Not good but well behaved
(Chasing after death, so we can call ourselves brave?)
Still living like mental slaves
Hiding like thieves in the night from life
6. “Brave New World” by Iron Maiden
Inspired by the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
What you see is not real, those who know will not tell
All is lost sold your souls to this brave new world
And Iron Maiden was a pretty literary band in general.
Tons of literary adaptations and references throughout their discography, including: “Seventh Son” (based on the book by Orson Scott Card), “Flight of Icarus” (based on the Icarus myth), “The Lord of the Flies” (based on the book by William Golding), “Strange in a Strange Land” (based on the book by Robert A. Heinlein), “To Tame a Land” (based on Dune by Frank Herbert), “The Trooper” (based on The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson), “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (based on the book by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (based on the book by Edgar Allen Poe).
7. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” by Pink Floyd
Based on Animal Farm by George Orwell. And in fact pretty much the entire Animals album.
Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha, charade you are
8. “Sympathy for the Devil ” by The Rolling Stones
Inspired by The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, given to Mick Jagger by his girlfriend at the time. Jagger also suggests that some of the lyrics are also inspired by the world by Charles Baudelaire.
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith
And I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
9. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica
Based on the book For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.
Take a look to the sky just before you die
It is the last time you will
Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Also by Metallica, don’t forget “The Thing That Should Not Be and The Call of Cthulu” inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s mythology and “One” based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
Now that the war is through with me
I’m waking up, I cannot see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now
10. “Killing An Arab” by The Cure
Inspired by The Stranger (or The Outsider) by Albert Camus.
Standing on a beach with a gun in my hand
Staring at the sea, staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel at the Arab on the ground
11. “Richard Cory” by Simon and Garfunkel
Based on the poem “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson.
They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town,
With political connections to spread his wealth around.
Born into society, a banker’s only child,
He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style.
12. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen
Inspired by the hero of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
The highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom Joad
13. “Whip It” by Devo
Inspired by the novel Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
Jerry Casale:
“‘Whip It,’ like many Devo songs, had a long gestation, a long process. The lyrics were written by me as an imitation of Thomas Pynchon’s parodies in his book Gravity’s Rainbow. He had parodied limericks and poems of kind of all-American, obsessive, cult of personality ideas like Horatio Alger and ‘You’re #1, there’s nobody else like you’ kind of poems that were very funny and very clever. I thought, ‘I’d like to do one like Thomas Pynchon,’ so I wrote down ‘Whip It’ one night.”
14. “Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream
Inspired by The Odyssey by Homer.
Her name is Aphrodite and she rides a crimson shell,
And you know you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses, how his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.
15. “Tom Sawyer” by Rush
Inspired by Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
Though his mind is not for rent
Don’t put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day’s events
The river
Also by Rush, “2112” based on Anthem by Ayn Rand, “Rivendell” inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and “Xanadu” based on Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan.”
16. “Blood and Thunder” by Mastodon
Inspired by the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville. And in fact, the entire album Leviathan is a concept album based around Moby Dick.
This ivory leg is what propels me
Harpoons thrust in the sky
Aim directly for his crooked brow
And look him straight in the eye
17. “The Catcher in the Rye” by Guns N’ Roses
Inspired by the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
Oooh, the Catcher In The Rye Again
Won’t let ya get away from him
(Tomorrow never comes)
It’s just another day…
Like today
18. “Home At Last” by Steely Dan
Inspired by The Odyssey by Homer.
Well the danger on the rocks is surely past
Still I remain tied to the mast
Could it be that I have found my home at last
19. ” A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Sufjan Stevens
Inspired by the short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor.
Hold to your gun, man
And put off all your peace
Put off all the beast
Paid a full of these, I wait for it
But someone’s once like me
She was once like me
20. “Ahab” by MC Lars
Inspired by Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Call me Ahab, what, monomaniac
Obsessed with success unlike Steve Wozniak
On the hunt for this mammal that once took my leg
With my warn down crew and my man Queequeg
Also “Mr. Raven” (based on “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe) and “Rapbeth (Foul is Fair)” (based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth).
21. “Annabel Lee” by Stevie Nicks
Based on the story “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe.
That the wind came out
Of the cloud that night
Killing my, my Annabel Lee
22. “House at Pooh Corner” and “Return to Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins
Based on The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne.
Christopher Robin and I walked along
Under branches lit up by the moon
Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore
As our days disappeared all too soon
23. “The Bard’s Song (The Hobbit)” by Blind Guardian
Inspired by The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Where the old dragon sleeps
Blind in the dark dungeon’s night
So God please take me away from here
And Gollum shows the way right out
Also, “Guardian of the Blind” (based on It by Stephen King), “Lord of the Rings” (based on The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien), “And Then There Was Silence” (based on The Iliad), “Somewhere Far Beyond (based on The Dark Tower by Stephen King), and “Traveler in Time” (inspired by Dune by Frank Herbert).
24. “Me Gustas Cuando Callas” by the Brazilian Girls
Based on the poem “Me Gustas Cuando Callas” by Pablo Neruda.
Me gustas cuando callas porque estas como ausente
Me gustas cuando callas porque estas como ausente
y me oyes desde lejos y mi voz no te toca
parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado
y parece qu e un beso te cerrara la boca
parece qu e un beso te cerrara la boca
25. “Frankenstein” by Iced Earth
Based on the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
The Doctor’s work is now obsession
What is life? What’s beyond?
He wants to know what it’s like to be God
Creating life with his own hands
Also”Dante’s Inferno” (which retells Dante’s Inferno), “Dracula” (based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula), “Jekyll & Hyde” (based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson), and “The Phantom of the Opera Ghost” (based on Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera)
And check out this list for tons more songs based on literature.
