Stephen King’s favourite songs of all time: “Rock on brothers and sisters”
Stephen King is widely regarded as the king of horror, a title that can hardly be disputed when we take a look at the impact of his literary creations on the frameworks of popular culture. Sniggers may precede any notion of suggesting that King may be the ultimate novelist, but one need only look at the author’s incredible reach and undeniable affect on popular culture to see that his claim to the throne is one of the most substantiated in the literary world.
While his books have broken record numbers in terms of commercial success, King’s legacy has also been immortalised through the adaptations of his works. It’s a unique spot in the world of literature that has meant King’s opinion on all forms of culture is well regarded and greedily received.
King’s cinematic adaptations are some of the finest book-to-screen showings in the last 100 years. Cinematic pioneers such as Stanley Kubrick and Brian De Palma have stepped up to translate his vision to the visual medium. Although those adaptations have more of the filmmakers’ flair in them than King’s artistic intentions, the widespread popularity of gems like The Shining have urged many readers to pick up King’s books and embark on various literary adventures.
The trend of Stephen King adaptations into TV shows no signs of slowing down, with HBO and Netflix having lined up multiple projects. That’s the case with his 2020 collection of short stories as well. Titled If It Bleeds, it received critical acclaim and now Netflix has chosen to adapt one of the novellas from the book with Donald Sutherland already attached to the production.
In addition to his experiments with the horror genre, King has always been deeply interested in the elements of popular culture. He is an avid cinephile and enjoys the television format as well, expressing his love for the latest Netflix shows as well as all-time greats like The Wire and Breaking Bad. The master of horror is also a huge fan of all kinds of music genres and has shared his eclectic taste with fans on multiple occasions.
When King worked as a columnist, he once took the opportunity to compile an ultimate playlist of the songs he considered to be essential. In it, he included amazing works by the likes of James McMurtry whom he called “alt-country’s poet laureate”. Picking Sam Cooke’s classic ‘Shake’, King noted: “Uptempo, sexy soul music of the finest kind; if this doesn’t run your motor, you need a tune-up.”
While describing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Seeds’ he shared: “I originally meant to put the new Springsteen song ‘Wrecking Ball’ on my mix, but then I listened to this again. It’s one of the best live rock & roll tracks ever laid down.”
But he saved his strongest superlative for AC/DC, sayng of their song ‘Stiff Upper Lip’: “No mix would be complete without the Young brothers and gravel-voiced vocalist Brian Johnson. This is my favourite AC/DC track — powerhouse rock combined with gleeful double entendres.”
Check out the full list of songs from his ultimate playlist below, compiled by one of the most iconic horror writers in the history of the genre.
