Sunday Funnies: Songs from Literature

I’ve been caught up all day listening to songs inspired by literature. As a kid growing up in Hawaii, I remember many afternoons listening to a Loggins and Messina song I played over and over again based on a favorite childhood book: Winnie the Pooh. Years later, I thought I was the cutting edge 9th Grade English Teacher with my literature unit on The Odyssey which utilized Suzanne Vega‘s Calypso. After that great success, I should’ve started a non-profit organization focused on helping teachers work literacy into their classrooms through music. Luckily, someone else did that–Artists for Literacy Project–they’ve got students writing songs inspired by novels! Listening to all of these songs, and my own record collection (yes, records) this morning, I had several “ah ha!” moments–as in “Duh, of course that song is based on that book!” Chris Hawkins wrote Choose Your Own Perfume inspired by Fahrenheit 451. I seem to remember, too, the year 1984 being full of songs titled, shockingly, “1984,” based on the novel 1984. Go figure! In fact, didn’t Eurythmics have an entire album inspired by 1984? Sunday is the perfect day to dig into this–with your ears. What about: Springsteen’s take on Grapes of Wrath?; Aimee Mann’s interpretation of Ghost World.; The Smiths getting blue from Tennyson; even The Cure’s little The Stranger rant. (And I still say Robert Smith was the bees knees despite the Poet Laureate of Gambier dissing my 80’s crush). If you’re into it with me, check these out–Allen Parson’s Project/Edgar Allen Poe; Bob Dylan/Mary Shelly; Jewel/Sylvia Plath; Jimmy Eat World/John Irving; Kate Bush/Emily Bronte; Loreena McKennitt/Tennyson; Indigo Girls/William Shakespeare; Tori Amos/Alice Walker. Ain’t literature grand?