It’s not surprising that many great song writers are also big book lovers and this can often be seen when examining the lyrics to their songs. Last year we took a look at 10 songs that were inspired by literature, but there are still loads more. Today we’ll take a look at 10 more songs that were inspired by books, from Radiohead to David Bowie and even Katy Perry.
1. Exit Music (For a Film) – Radiohead
It seems lead singer Thom Yorke is really a massive bookworm because there are many Radiohead songs which feature lyrics that reference works of literature. Songs like 2+2=5, Paranoid Android, and Banana Co. could all have made this list but, given that Exit Music is the most obvious reference, it seemed only right that one should make the list.
Exit Music was written when director Baz Luhrman asked the band to write a song to feature in his movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The band was shown the last 30 minutes of the film and then immediately set about writing the song. Lyrics like “pack and get dressed before your father hears us, before all hell breaks loose” are obvious references to the star crossed lover’s forbidden romance. The song ends with the repeating line: “We hope that you choke, that you choke,” emphasising the anger and frustration many feel towards the two tragic lover’s parents.
2. November Rain – Guns N’ Roses
You may not have thought Axl Rose would’ve had much time for reading in between back-brushing his hair and welcoming newcomers to jungles, but it seems even this volatile front man had time for reading.
November Rain was inspired by the short story Without You which was included in a collection of short stories called The Language of Fear by the author Del James. The story focuses on a grieving rock star whose girlfriend has committed suicide. This is very much highlighted in the music video created for the song. Rose’s turbulent relationships have been well documented so it’s no surprise Without You struck a chord (no pun intended) with the singer.
3. Parklife – Blur
Before he was tearing up the charts with Gorillaz, Damon Albarn was the face of 90’s Britpop with his band Blur. When they weren’t fighting with Oasis, Blur released some great albums including the 1994 album Parklife, which was heavily inspired by the Martin Amis novel London Fields.
London Fields shows the seedier side of London and tells the story of several main characters, each living in London and trying to grapple with their darker sides. Albarn was apparently reading the novel during the recording of the album and later described it, saying: “For me, Parklife is like a loosely linked concept album involving all these different stories. It’s the travels of the mystical lager-eater, seeing what’s going on in the world and commenting on it.”
4. Scentless Apprentice – Nirvana
Whilst Oasis and Blur were spearheading the Britpop movement in the UK, Nirvana was dominating the rock scene in North America. Kurt Cobain’s life may have been fast and short, but that didn’t prevent him from occasionally putting down his guitar and picking up a book.
During an interview in 1993, Cobain stated that Perfume by Patrick Suskind was one of his favourite books and the song Scentless Apprentice, featured on the album In Utero, is inspired by the novel. Referring to the book’s main character, Scentless Apprentice includes lines like “Like most babies smell like butter, his smell smelled like no other,” which refers to the fact that a wet nurse states the character smelled strange as a baby. The screaming chorus of “Hey, go away!” is a nod to the protagonist’s aversion to other people and was no doubt something the troubled singer could relate to.
5. Who Wrote Holden Caulfield – Green Day
Featured on their second album Kerplunk!, Who Wrote Holden Caulfield is an obvious nod to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and was written by a young Billie Joe Armstrong many years before he and his band would become rock legends. Many of the songs on Kerplunk! deal with being young, frustrated, and lost, so it’s no surprise that Armstrong felt a connection to Holden Caulfield.
It wasn’t a book that instantly spoke to Armstrong. As the front man recalled in an interview, he was forced to read the book at school but found it incredibly boring. It wasn’t until he was older that he re-read the novel and realised how much it meant to him. He described the book as “punk rock” and the song’s chorus of “There’s a boy who fogs his world and now he’s getting lazy. There’s no motivation and frustration makes him crazy. He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting. Someone help him up or he’s gonna end up quitting,” is a clear reference to the hardships of being a young adult that are so well examined in the book.
6. Helen Burns – Michael “Flea” Balzary
Best known as the energetic bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea created his first solo EP in 2012 called Helen Burns after the character featured in Charlotte Bronte’s Jayne Eyre. When discussing the album’s name, Flea said: “The beauty of Helen Burns is a quality I look for in all human beings. Burns is always someone who is present with me and whose highest ideals resonate in the deepest experiences of my life”.
Most of the EP is instrumental but the track named Helen Burns features the haunting vocals of Patti Smith who sings about the tragic character, singing: “Snow falls.She bids farewell to the source of all her sorrow”. Be sure to check it out the next time you read Jayne Eyre.
7. 1984 – David Bowie
No prizes for guessing which iconic novel David Bowie was reading when he wrote the album Diamond Dogs which featured the tracks 1984 and Big Brother. In fact, Bowie was so influenced by George Orwell’s book that he originally wrote the songs as part of a musical he wanted to write based on the book. Unfortunately the musical never saw the light of day as Orwell’s wife wouldn’t give Bowie the rights, but he did go on to release the songs as part of an album inspired by the book.
The song warns the listener of “the savage jaws of 1984” and what Big Brother will do to dissenters with the line: “They’ll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air. And tell that you’re eighty, but brother, you won’t care”. Making a musical out of 1984 would have been no easy task, and we can understand why the Orwell estate was sceptical, but if anyone could have done it surely Bowie could have?
8. Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
You’ve no doubt heard it a million times and it’s arguably one of the most famous songs ever recorded. The song centres around the Devil as he muses on the history of mankind and the terrible thing we’ve done to one another.
Decades after the song was released, Jagger stated that it was influenced by a book he read called The Master and Margarita which was written by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov and published in 1967. The story revolves around the Devil appearing in the atheist Soviet Union and wreaking havoc. Jagger’s lyrics reference Russia several times with lines such as “I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change. Killed the czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain”.
9. Firework – Katy Perry
Released back in 2010, it seems you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing this hit playing out the radio. For the most part, the song is about discovering your potential and not settling for mediocrity, but did you know it’s also inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road?
Perry later confirmed that the inspiration of a firework representing a person’s spark comes from a passage from On the Road where Kerouac writes: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
10. Off to the Races – Lana Del Rey
In Off to the Races, Lana sings about her romance with a “bad man” whom she loves because he accepts her flaws and sees her for who she is. The song is themed around a destructive love and, if you listen carefully to the lyrics, you might hear a reference to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.
The lyrics in the pre-chorus read: “Light of my life, fire of my loins,” a clear reference to the opening passage of Lolita which begins: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul”. It seems Lana Del Rey also enjoyed Nabokov’s infamous novel.
The Devil all the Time adaptation coming to Netflix
