{"id":8891,"date":"2018-04-26T12:40:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T11:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/?p=8891"},"modified":"2018-04-26T12:40:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T11:40:47","slug":"murders-robots-and-big-brother-how-novels-inspired-your-favourite-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/04\/26\/murders-robots-and-big-brother-how-novels-inspired-your-favourite-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Murders, robots and Big Brother: how novels inspired your favourite songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Musicians have been inspired by their favourite works of literature for decades. Whilst this isn\u2019t a new concept, you might be surprised how prominent this is in music! We\u2019ve read books, put on CDs and pulled together a list of some of the best songs to be inspired by books!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KNIZofPB8ZM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Police \u201d\u201c Don\u2019t Stand So Close to Me<\/h3>\n<p>Sting is no stranger to a creepy ballad. The lead single from The Police\u2019s third album <em>Zenyatta Mondatta<\/em>, <em>Don\u2019t Stand So Close to Me<\/em>, openly references a schoolgirl\u2019s crush on her teacher. The song has been inspired by the controversial novel <em>Lolita<\/em> by Vladamir Nabokov \u201d\u201c which you\u2019ll recognise from the lines \u201d\u02dcJust like the old man in \/ That book by Nabokov\u2019. Lolita centres around Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged literature professor with an attraction to young girls. He falls for 12 year old Dolores Haze, better known as Lolita, becoming obsessed with her and marries her mother in order to stay close to her. <em>Every Breath You Take<\/em> doesn\u2019t seem as creepy now\u201d\u00a6<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZF4Z6smOrZw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Tubeway Army \u201d\u201c Are Friends Electric?<\/h3>\n<p>The number one single <em>Are Friends Electric?<\/em> by Tubeway Army has been influenced by Philip K. Dick. The song was produced by the band\u2019s lead singer, new wave icon Gary Numan, taking inspiration from the novel <em>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?<\/em> In the novel, John R. Isidore befriends the androids Rick Decker is trying to kill. Decker succeeds and Isidore\u2019s pain is felt through Numan\u2019s lyrics \u201d\u201c \u201cYou know I hate to ask \/ But are \u201d\u02dcfriends\u2019 electric? \/ Mine\u2019s broke down \/ And now I\u2019ve no one to love.\u201d\u009d Philip K. Dick\u2019s novel was also the basis for 1982 film <em>Blade Runner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hnpILIIo9ek\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Smiths \u201d\u201c How Soon Is Now?<\/h3>\n<p>Steven Patrick Morrissey loves literature as we all know. So many of the tracks he wrote for The Smiths are packed full of literature references and <em>How Soon Is Now?<\/em> is no exception. The 1985 single is one of the band\u2019s best-loved and takes inspiration from a novel published more than 100 years earlier. The opening lines \u201cI am the son and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar \/ I am the son and the heir of nothing in particular\u201d\u009d has been adapted from George Eliot\u2019s novel <em>Middlemarch<\/em>. The original line as it appeared in Eliot\u2019s work is \u201cTo be born the son of a Middlemarch manufacturer, and inevitable heir to nothing in particular.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T4sV3lqzKqQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">T\u2019Pau \u201d\u201c China in Your Hand<\/h3>\n<p>T\u2019Pau\u2019s flame-haired singer Carol Decker wrote their most famous song after she was inspired by author Mary Shelley. <em>China in Your Hand<\/em>\u2019s opening lines \u201cIt was a theme she had on a scheme he had \/ Told in a foreign land\u201d\u009d was Decker\u2019s attempt to write Shelley\u2019s story within the wider Frankenstein tale, as she had been inspired by how talented Shelley was; and how her work had far surpassed that of her contemporaries at the time.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZRXGsPBUV5g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Rolling Stones \u201d\u201c Sympathy for the Devil<\/h3>\n<p>One of the band\u2019s most famous tracks, <em>Sympathy for the Devil<\/em>, is seeped in literary influence. Frontman Mick Jagger was given Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s novel <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em> by then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull. It tells the story of a visit by the Devil to the Soviet Union and the lyrics of the track details atrocities in the history of mankind from the point of view of Satan. A nod to the Russian revolution and 1918 shooting of the Romanov family is noted in the lines \u201cI stuck around St. Petersburg \/ When I saw it was a time for a change \/ Killed the czar and his ministers \/ Anastasia screamed in vain\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SaHrqKKFnSA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Blur \u201d\u201c Tender<\/h3>\n<p>Blur\u2019s track, describing Damon Albarn\u2019s breakup with Elastica lead singer Justine Frischmann, has a double literary background! <em>Tender<\/em> references F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s fourth novel, <em>Tender is the Night<\/em>. Fitzgerald\u2019s novel would be the final novel he would complete which he perceived to be his best work. It was written during the darkest times of Fitzgerald\u2019s life, with characters Dick Diver and his wife Nicole somewhat mirroring Fitzgerald\u2019s life with Zelda Sayre who struggled with mental health issues. The title <em>Tender is the Night<\/em> is a quotation from John Keats\u2019 poem <em>Ode to a Nightingale<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wfkTrYwvOKs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">John Lennon and Yoko Ono \u201d\u201c You\u2019re the One<\/h3>\n<p>Lennon and Oko\u2019s relationship was well-documented following the end of The Beatles. The album <em>Milk and Honey<\/em> was the first posthumous release of new Lennon music, released in 1984. Final track, <em>You\u2019re the One<\/em> talks about famous pairings which Yoko and John could be compared to. They reference the renowned Emily Bront\u00c3\u00ab album Wuthering Heights \u201d\u201c which inspired Kate Bush too, bringing her considerable success. You\u2019ll see this in the lines \u201cWe were Heathcliff and Cathy \/ In a moment of wisdom\u201d\u009d, referencing the main character and her love interest.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TPE9uSFFxrI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Muse \u201d\u201c Resistance<\/h3>\n<p>Taken from Muse\u2019s fifth album <em>The Resistance<\/em>, third single <em>Resistance<\/em> reached number one in the UK Rock Chart as well as the US Billboard Alternative Songs. The track was heavily influenced by the hugely cited George Orwell novel <em>1984<\/em>, which has also had a hand in influencing the likes of David Bowie, Annie Lennox and The Jam. Muse lead singer Matt Bellamy has openly said the track is their retelling of the relationship between Winston and Julia.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qdlQyNe_9tE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Metallica \u201d\u201c For Whom the Bell Tolls<\/h3>\n<p>Metal giants Metallica are pretty open on their influence with their track, taken from the album <em>Ride the Lightning<\/em>. <em>For Whom the Bell Tolls<\/em> was inspired by the 1940 novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The novel draws from Hemingway\u2019s own experiences in the Spanish Civil War as a reporter, told through protagonist Robert Jordan. Jordan is a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. \u201cFor whom the bell tolls \/ Time marches on\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/awHWColYQ90\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Arcade Fire \u201d\u201c Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)<\/h3>\n<p>R\u00c3\u00a9gine Chassange lead single, <em>Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)<\/em> came from their Grammy winning album <em>The Suburbs<\/em>. The title has taken inspiration from Tracy Kidder\u2019s book, <em>Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World<\/em>. Kidder met Paul Farmer in Haiti, where Farmer would work with organisation Partners in Health. This has a huge tie to the Canadian band, who are supporters of PIH, as R\u00c3\u00a9gine is the daughter of Haitian immigrants.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RXmj0Ku3rZU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Nirvana \u201d\u201c Scentless Apprentice<\/h3>\n<p>Featured on Nirvana\u2019s 1993 album <em>In Utero<\/em>, <em>Scentless Apprentice<\/em> was inspired by a German novel, <em>Das Parfum<\/em>. <em>Perfume: The Story of a Murderer<\/em> was published eight years before the album, which explored the sense of smell and how there can be emotional meaning to scents. The novel\u2019s protagonist Jean-Baptise Grenouille has an incredible sense of smell, becoming accustomed to all of the smells within his town until he comes across one of a young girl. He kills her in order to preserve her scent; and she would not be his only victim. Jean-Baptiste did not have his own scent, which Kurt Cobain captures in the lyrics. \u201cLike most babies smell like butter \/ His smell smelled like no other\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fHiGbolFFGw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Radiohead \u201d\u201c Paranoid Android<\/h3>\n<p>In 1997, Radiohead released <em>Paranoid Android<\/em>, the lead single of their album <em>OK Computer<\/em>. It debuted at number three in the UK Singles Chart and the title was intended to be funny! <em>Paranoid Android<\/em> comes from the character in Douglas Adams\u2019 novel <em>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy<\/em>, Marvin the Paranoid Android. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke picked the title as a joke because he felt people thought Marvin\u2019s depressed demeanour was how he was viewed as a musician.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vPzS91gGzLM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Divine Comedy \u201d\u201c The Booklovers<\/h3>\n<p>Before Northern Irish band The Divine Comedy released their transportation love-in track <em>National Express<\/em>, Neil Hannon wrote a song that wasn\u2019t just inspired by a singular work of literature but a whole array of authors. <em>The Booklovers<\/em> name checks a vast number of writers dating back centuries including Aphra Benn, Herman Melville, Henry James, Albert Camus and Roddy Doyle. It\u2019s a bit of a who\u2019s who of literature!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Do you want to dig into the literary classics that have shaped the charts? Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/store.musicmagpie.co.uk\/books\/?megamenu_creative=main-books&amp;megamenu_name=main-books-TNB&amp;megamenu_position=L&amp;megamenu_id=TNBL\">musicMagpie Store<\/a> and bag a bargain on books!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musicians have been inspired by their favourite works of literature for decades. Whilst this isn\u2019t a new concept, you might be surprised how prominent this is in music! We\u2019ve read books, put on CDs and pulled together a list of some of the best songs to be inspired by books! &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1796,159],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8891"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8911,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891\/revisions\/8911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}