All I can think of right now is all the Zeps that were inspired or made allusions to Lord of the Rings and Pink Floyd's Animals being based on Orwell's Animal Farm. I know there is a Rush inspired by LotR but I can't seem to remember at the moment.
I know there's more!
What are some songs/albums that you enjoy that were inspired by books?
2007-11-15 13:08:23 · 23 answers · asked by meep meep 7 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music ➔ Rock and Pop
Fonzie: There we go! Thanks :0)
2007-11-15 13:15:18 · update #1
Will: The Wind in the Willows! Thank you for reminding me!
2007-11-15 14:53:00 · update #2
Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses ..........Odysseus/The Odyssey
Sting - Moon Over Bourbon Street.......inspired by Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
The Smithereens - William Wilson.....based on the E.A.Poe story of the same name
The Cure - Killing an Arab.........Albert Camus' The Stranger
Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad.....The Grapes of Wrath
Radiohead - Pyramid Song......has Dante's Inferno allusions
wow.....can't belive I forgot Bat Country.......good call
2007-11-15 14:13:59 · answer #1 · answered by Dani G 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
"Diamond Dogs" by David Bowie, at one stage intended to be a musical based on Orwell's "1984". It's not a uniformly great album but it's worth hearing. People tend to overlook it for some reason, and thus miss the, ummmmmm, classic "Chant Of The Ever-Circling Skeletal Family"!
It has an arresting beginning for an album: just a desolate wolf howl and then he speaks/sings this before the riff of "Diamond Dogs" comes in:
"And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher's Hill
And red mutant eyes gazed down on Hunger City
No more big wheels
Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue..."
2007-11-15 13:21:46 · answer #2 · answered by Bowzer 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Among The Living by Anthrax was inspired by the Stephen King book The Stand. A Skeleton in the Closet was also inspired by the King story Apt Pupil.
2007-11-15 22:43:53 · answer #3 · answered by ike white 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Romeo and Juliet ~ Dire Straits
inspired by... Romeo & Juliet
Rhiannon ~ Fleetwood Mac
inspired by the book 'Triad' by Mary Leader
Beauty and the Beast ~ Stevie Nicks
actually inspired by the 1946 film by Jean Cocteau, but it's based on a fairy tale.
Two of the main Led Zeppelin 'Lord of the Rings' ones are :~
The Battle of Evermore
Ramble On
2007-11-15 22:50:24 · answer #4 · answered by Lady Silver Rose * Wolf 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The album Something Real by Meg & Dia was mostly inspired by books.
For example, East of Eden inspired the song Monster.
It's a really great album too and it's the first thing that came to mind when I read this question.
2007-11-15 13:19:54 · answer #5 · answered by . 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
One - Metallica is likewise from a e book Johnny have been given His Gun - Dalton Trumbo Rime Of the classic Mariner - Iron Maiden relies off the poem via Samuel Coleridge Murders on the Rue Morgue - Iron Maiden inspired via the quick tale via Edger Allan Poe. the full album Paradise lost - Symphony X relies off the poem via John Milton.
2016-10-02 11:15:42 · answer #6 · answered by ansell 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Doors had several, but then again, their name came from a literary quote by William Blake that was used as part of a book title by Aldous Huxley. Still, "Ship of Fools" was based on the Katherine Anne Porter book of the same name, while "End of the Night" directly lifts from one of Blake's poems.
RE: Metallica "One," that was based on the book by Dalton Trumbo, "Johnny Got His Gun." Harrowing literature, that one.
On the opposite end, how about books inspired by songs/albums? Stephen King and S.M. Stirling have both lifted the concept of the "Crimson King" from King Crimson....
2007-11-15 13:34:46 · answer #7 · answered by Switters 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The first one that comes to mind is "Venus In Furs" by the Velvet Underground based on a book about sado-masochism called Venus In Furs.
And the name the Velvet Underground is also taken from a book of the same name about sexual experimentation.
2007-11-16 09:27:40 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Don't Stand So Close To Me by the Police
inspired by Nabokov's, Lolita
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
inspired by Lewis Carrol's-Alice in Wonderland (on acid anyway)
The End by the Doors
inspired by Oedipus from Homer's Iliad & the Odyseey
that's all i can think of
2007-11-15 13:28:46 · answer #9 · answered by Jem 6 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Someone else already said Meg & Dia, but yeah, a lot of their songs are based off of books.
East Of Eden by John Steinbeck inspired "Monster." Indiana by George Sand inspired "Indiana." Mary by Vladimir Nabokov inspired "Tell Mary." Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier inspired the song "Rebecca." =]
2007-11-15 13:48:38 · answer #10 · answered by Jay 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋