Thursday, December 06, 2007

Book related music

Tegan & Sara's addictive Back in Your Head starts out with "Build a wall of books between us in our bed," which got me thinking about book related tunes. Yes, yes, in the case of this song books are a symbol of a decayed relationship, but there aren't that many songs that tie directly to reading and books.

The erudite Morrissey puts out one of the most litero-centric songs of all time in Cemetery Gates. I doubt we will ever see so many poesy references in a pop song again.

For whatever reason, Sting caught flack for his Lo-lee-ta reference in Don't Stand So Close to Me. I suspect this was due to people thinking Sting can be pompous rather than for daring to reference a work of fiction in a pop song. And I think it is an appropriate reference in this case.

In the horror genre, Metallica's the Thing that Should Not Be is entirely about Lovecraft's Cthulhu. The even have an instrumental called Call of Ktulu, referencing Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu.

In Weezer's nerd anthem, In the Garage, Rivers Cuomo gives us not only Nightcrawler but also Kitty Pryde.

6 comments:

kwandongbrian said...

Moxy Fruvous, a Canadian group, had a song similar in theme to Tegan & Sara's entry. A number of Canadian, as well as more international authors are named in the song.
"My baby loves a bunch of authors"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J9F_XHb81N0

Tripp said...

Wow, that is some serious literary name checking. I side with his baby, preferring authors over dancing.

Anonymous said...

How about "Life and How to Live It."

Vague book references in there, upon which Stipe expounds in the Document Tour bootlegs.

Note that I won't even mention "The NeverEnding Story" by Limahl.

Well, I'll mention it but that's it.

Tripp said...

And how did he expound HLK?

Curse you for bringing up Limahl

Anonymous said...

Essentially (from what I recall) there was an eccentric old man somewhere (Georgia? Aren't they all?) who had divided his house into two sections - they had the same rooms, but were decorated completely differently, different colors, pictures, everything. He would move back and forth between the sides, depending on his mood.

No one knew this until he died . . when people came into his house, they found this design . They also found that he had written a book called Life and How to Live It, and that he had hundreds of copies of the book shoved in his closet.

I hear that, occasionally, copies of the book are found. Strangely enough, it's a racist screed, apparently.

That would be an interesting find - though I still dig the fact that I found "The Joy of Knowing Jesus" by the Revelaires.

Tripp said...

That's a really good story.

Your discovery of the songs of the Revelaires ranks amongst the greatest finds of all time.