The 10 best songs that retell works of literature
For musicians, inspiration is never confined to just one place. Life is always full of surprises, and some of the greatest muses for rock and roll come almost by chance, from the fallout between friends or getting a cup of coffee in the morning. While many artists have been able to channel their personal pain into their songs, artists like Nirvana and Metallica have found ways to subvert expectations by drawing from works of fiction.
Throughout rock history, artists have used literature as a primary resource for inspiration on their biggest hits. Even though the sounds of classic books don’t usually sound like fodder for a number one hit, artists have used their melodic touch to breathe life into these tales, either making songs in tribute to the work or making a glorified soundtrack to the movie version that doesn’t yet exist.
Not every one of the songs has to be a direct retelling, though. As much as some of these artists may have been influenced by some of their favourite books, it also comes down to the way that they inhabit the characters from one line to the next, often taking different perspectives than what the author had originally intended.
Regardless of how they interpreted the book, every artist has been able to balance their own creativity with the works of their favourite muses and come out the other side with some of the greatest songs in their field. For all of the tales of heartbreak on parade throughout music history, there’s a lot more sophistication going on here than many actually realise.
10 songs that retell works of literature:
10. ‘Soma’ – The Strokes
By the early 2000s, the music world desperately needed a band like The Strokes. After being inundated by milquetoast post-grunge for years, the idea of people playing music just because they wanted to do it was practically a breath of fresh air. Although most of Julian Casablancas’s lyrics revolved around the turbulent world of New York City, the band reached deeper into the dystopian world of Brave New World for the lyrics to ‘Soma’.
Written around an uncertain future where people are channelled into thinking a certain way, most of the lyrics revolved around the wonder drug ‘Soma’. Taken from the book, the drug is supposed to implant different emotions into the patient’s brain, as if to simulate the kind of good times that they are supposed to be having out in the real world.
Although the band only leave the references to a handful of lines, Casablancas practically sounds like he’s one of the absent-minded patients, looking to get whatever kind of kick he can from getting fed the same drugs over and over again. Perhaps he’s imagining himself in such a dystopian society, or maybe the dystopia of taking drugs and trying to take the pain anyway is a lot closer to reality.
9. ‘The Sensual World’ – Kate Bush
There was always more going on underneath the hood of Kate Bush’s music than what met the naked eye. Although many fans may have gotten on the bandwagon the minute that Stranger Things used ‘Running Up That Hill’ in their promotion, Bush was painting with a broad brush and working against the typical pop conventions throughout her career. Naturally, that meant that some literary references were bound to slip in sooner or later.
Outside of creating a full narrative for the back half of the album Hounds of Love, The Sensual World begins by referencing the epic tale of Ulysses. Evoking the James Joyce novel centred around the Greek legend, ‘The Sensual World’ focuses on the protagonist Molly Bloom quickly crawling off the page and seeing the surreal life awaiting her in reality.
Even though Bush had planned to just use the end of the novel as the main crux of the lyrics, she would not be able to secure the rights and decided to take the entire song in a different direction. As much as Bush may have been able to create landscapes with her music, ‘The Sensual World’ is about capturing something your mind’s eye can barely form.
8. ‘Doolin-Dalton’ – Eagles
The Eagles always had far more depth than ‘The Dude’ gave them credit for. Compared to the other mindless country boys who wanted to sing rock and roll across California, Don Henley had a vision for the band to be a hybrid of all kinds of American music, whether that was country, rock, soul, or anything else in between. When Glenn Frey was gifted The Book of Gunslingers by JD Souther, he knew what the next vision for their second album would be.
Centred around the rebels of society, Frey told every member of the band to come back with songs that reflected the lives of gunslingers. Although many of the tracks had to do with storylines tangential to the book, ‘Doolin Dalton’ would be a direct lift of the real-life gang that terrorised the West in the 1800s, as Henley sings about their good times up until their sad demise.
The band were also old on the aesthetic of the song as well, getting their own cowboy personas for the photo shoot and eventually being strung up like meat on the back cover of the project. The rest of the world might not have gotten it, but the lifestyle of every member of the band was a lot closer to the modern outlaw than most probably realised.
7. ‘One’ – Metallica
Metallica has never been shy about talking about the terrors of society. Compared to the other metalheads who wanted nothing more than to sing about demons throughout every song, James Hetfield was interested in the evil that existed in every human heart, talking about the atrocities of war and the horrors that come with those who end up surviving. After coming across the movie adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun, Hetfield knew it would lend itself perfectly to a thrash makeover on ‘One’.
After going through a horrific landmine accident, the protagonist is left without any of his limbs and in a state of constant pain. Although he tries to cry out for help, no one can hear him, eventually trying to send the Morse code message of ‘Kill Me’ to those working on his body. While the book only gives him a written voice, Hetfield depicts the torture playing out in real time over eight minutes.
While starting off lowkey and haunting, the back half of the song is where the nightmare really sets in, with the rise of the heavy guitars practically sounding like machine-gun fire as the rest of the song plays out. Whereas most songs at least have a happy ending at some point during their runtime, the protagonist of ‘One’ is praying for solace that is probably never going to come.
6. ‘Rhiannon’ – Fleetwood Mac
Stevie Nicks was never a stranger to the spiritual side of life. Throughout her time in Fleetwood Mac and beyond, Nicks always saw her songs as extensions of what she was doing naturally, making tracks that felt like they were ripped straight from her soul. Outside of the songs about real-life drama like on Rumours, Nicks came across a book that delved into the spiritual tale of Rhiannon.
Telling stories of the mystical spells that the titular witch would put on everyone she saw, Nicks is both warning and praising her works throughout the song, telling everyone not to get sucked into the ways of the witch. Whenever the band played live, though, that witch would come alive, with Nicks turning in some spectacular performances with her ‘Rhiannon’ style persona.
Years after the fact, Nicks had still not lost the initial spark that she had for the song in the first place, eventually motioning to turn the entire plotline into its own motion picture. Maybe it’s because of the enduring power of the song, or maybe Rhiannon is still working her magic from the other side of reality.
5. ‘Venus in Furs’ – The Velvet Underground
Nothing that The Velvet Underground ever did was meant to be easy. From the first time they sat down to play, Lou Reed was looking to make the kind of music that went against every mainstream cliche, telling the story of New York City in the process. While a lot of the songs on the band’s debut album are taken from those years living in the seedy underbelly of Manhattan, ‘Venus in Furs’ is about another kind of dirty reality.
Taken from the book of the same name, Reed latched onto the various allusions to bondage in the lyrics, creating the kind of kinky scenario that some find irresistible under the right circumstances. As opposed to sounding self-assured on the last few songs, Reed is in his element here, practically begging to be whipped by someone who promises to show him a good time.
While not necessarily the most child-friendly song in their catalogue, ‘Venus in Furs’ is still a decent look at what The Velvet Underground stood for. It may not be altogether pleasant to listen to all the time, but when you do decide to take the plunge, there’s a lot of pleasure hidden under the surface.
4. ‘The Battle of Evermore’ – Led Zeppelin
The entire concept of hard rock music probably wouldn’t exist were it not for Led Zeppelin. By the time Jimmy Page broke free from The Yardbirds, they were already ready to reinvent what blues rock was supposed to be, with songs that epitomised what a guitar riff was supposed to sound like. There was a softer side to Zeppelin, and a mandolin provided the perfect backdrop for a song about Lord of the Rings.
Retelling different pieces from the book, ‘The Battle of Evermore’ could be thought of as the spiritual follow-up to ‘Ramble On’, which saw Robert Plant reference Gollum for the first time. As opposed to flirting with the idea of a mandolin here or a string section there, the guitar practically takes a back seat here, as Plant tells the harrowing story of Middle Earth under siege while Sandy Denny provides the voice of the town crier.
Compared to the usual Zeppelin masterpieces, this is the kind of song that lends itself better to a cinematic adaptation than even ‘Stairway to Heaven’. ‘Stairway’ may have had that classic build and one of the most celebrated guitar solos in history, but when you look at the lyrics combined with the music, you can practically see the entire scene of this ferocious battle without even trying.
3. ‘40’ – U2
There’s always been the saying about trying to connect with an audience through politics or religion. Even though people might be on your team at one point, there’s a good chance that they will find a way around your views if you rub them the wrong way. While U2 have been no strangers to politics (and have pissed more than a few people off in the process), Bono thought it was time to pull from the Bible when working on War.
Despite October already having a ton of religious imagery behind it, ‘40’ is one of the first times the band pulled from the good book directly, quoting pieces of Psalm 40. Translating into waiting patiently for the Lord, this is not just some holier-than-thou experiment that the band threw on the album for the hell of it.
When looked at in the context of the record, hearing the song right after hearing about the atrocities going on in songs like ‘New Years Day’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ makes ‘40’ sound like a chilling fallout of what we have already witnessed. To all of those souls lost on those hateful days and those still lost to time, their ghosts are captured in this song whispering from beyond the grave.
2. ‘Scentless Apprentice’ – Nirvana
Nirvana is usually one of the last artists most people go to when talking about in-depth lyrical analysis. Throughout his time in the spotlight, Kurt Cobain was notoriously cagey about his song titles and never usually talked about the inner meanings behind any of his classic songs. For all of his personal emotions crammed into the classics, he did admit to taking a few pages out of the book Perfume when working on ‘Scentless Apprentice’.
Telling the tale of a gifted orphan with a remarkable sense of smell, the song captures the harrowing tales of murder that follow in the book. Re-reading the book relentlessly, Cobain sounds like he’s taking choice phrases from the novel and pairing them with the rhythm of the words, talking about babies smelling like butter and the off-putting smell of semen.
Although the song was meant to be an ode to the book, it’s also hard not to look away when Cobain is screaming the chorus of “GO AWAY”, practically sounding like he’s trying to split his larynx apart every time he opens his mouth. Nirvana should be commended for going in bold new directions, but the tone behind ‘Scentless Apprentice’ was the sound of Cobain showing his first signs of breaking down.
1. ‘1984’ – David Bowie
David Bowie crafted his entire identity out of being an outlier in society. In a world that was supposed to be about going against the status quo, even Bowie was known to be out there by rock star standards, always moving on to the next musical venture depending on how he was feeling at the moment. After coming out of the world of glam rock, Bowie’s farewell to the genre featured him putting music to one of the greatest dystopian novels of all time.
While many artists have made references to 1984 throughout history, Bowie’s take on George Orwell is the glam-rock update of what the book might have been. Since most of Diamond Dogs was already known as a heavy listen, ‘1984’ is the theme song for the conceptual masterpiece that doesn’t exist, as Bowie sings a dark tale of what the world looks like with Big Brother watching you every single day.
Also including the song ‘Big Brother’ on the album, the plan was for Bowie to make an entire album around the book before being denied permission by Orwell’s estate. If this is what we got back in the 1970s, though, there’s no telling what Bowie could have done had he actually been able to get his hands on every chapter of the book.
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