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Songs Inspired by Literature

The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale : Volume 1 (by Melville, Herman)
The Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Frank L.)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Wuthering Heights (by Bronte, Emily)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Wilde, Oscar)
The Iliad and the Odyssey (by Williams, Marcia)
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock (by Eliot, T. S.)

Great songs, ballads in particular, tell stories. Many songs employ poetic devices such as restricted line length, specific meter, and rhymes. However, songwriters, famous and not, find inspiration from literature. Wikipedia and other sites list myriad songs that retell in part or in whole works of literature. The vast list includes:

“We Are Dead” and “Big Brother” by David Bowie, inspired by 1984 by George Orwell
“Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush, inspired by Emily Bronte’s book of the same title
“Hurricane” by Thirty Seconds to Mars, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven
“Afternoons and Coffeespoons" by Crash Test Dummies, inspired by "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot
“Ahab” by MC Lars and “Beneath the Waves” by Demons & Wizards, inspired by Herman Melville’s epic Moby Dick
“And Your Little Dog Too” by Hanna Fury, inspired by The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
“A Picture of Dorian Gray” by The Television Personalities, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“Animal in Man” by dead prez, inspired by Animal Farm by George Orwell
“Barefoot Children in the Rain” by Jimmy Buffet, inspired by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The popularized theme song for the movie 2001 Space Odyssey was the song, tone poem by Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra, inspired by the book Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Songwriters and musicians mine centuries of literature, from Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey to books by horror novelist Stephen King. Poetry and short stories aren’t exempt, either. As shown in the above list, lyrics based on literature span of musical genres (rock ‘n roll to country) and literary genres (political drama to science fiction).

Beyond telling stories, music has been used to promote literacy. Launched in 2000 by Artists for Literacy, the Songs Inspired by Literature Project sells CDs to raise money which pays for tutoring programs for “the 45 million adults who read below a 4th grade level.” The project has attracted contributions--songs written about books--from not notable artists as Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Rosanne Cash, and Suzanne Vega. NPR, the New York Times, Rolling Stone magazine, and the BBC also got in on the act to promote the program.

In oral tradition, songs improve the memorization of stories. Books intimidate people with low-level literacy; however, the easy access of music and the words put to the score open new vistas for those people who may never crack open a book. Such songs entice people to pursue the story and read.

The World Library offers a collection of sheet music—over 13,000 tunes—that also span musical genres. From Chopin and Schubert to Gioacchino Rossini and James McFadyen, from ancient and modern Scottish ballads to the music of Spain, readers and musicians alike will find stories to please both the imagination and the ear.

By Karen M. Smith