Lyrics Inspired By Movies & Literature
 

In the span of 3 days I saw/read two things that I immediately realized are song lyrics.

I finished reading 1984 (greatest read ever...) and in the middle of it you see "... controls the past now controls the future" ..."who controls the present controls the past," which is used in Rage's Testify.

Then in the White Stripes "The Union Forever," the entire monologuesque piece is Citizen Kane references.

Any other cases?

Both Pink Floyd's album "Animals" and The Beatles' (George's) "Piggies" were loosely based on Orwell's "Animal Farm". I really like Orwell.

Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysess" (sp) is based on Homer's "The Odessey," I think.

Also, alot of stuff on Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd) was taken from books, like most of the lyrics to "Chapter 24," and the name of the album was a chapter in "The Wind in the Willows".

The Doors' "The End" where Morrison is telling the story about the killer is taken from Oedipus (sp) the King. Or Antigone. Pretty sure it was Oedipus.

I can't think of others off the top of my head.

[QUOTE=CantBuyAThrill]Both Pink Floyd's album "Animals" and The Beatles' (George's) "Piggies" were loosely based on Orwell's "Animal Farm". I really like Orwell.

Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysess" (sp) is based on Homer's "The Odessey," I think.

Also, alot of stuff on Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd) was taken from books, like most of the lyrics to "Chapter 24," and the name of the album was a chapter in "The Wind in the Willows".

The Doors' "The End" where Morrison is telling the story about the killer is taken from Oedipus (sp) the King. Or Antigone. Pretty sure it was Oedipus.

I can't think of others off the top of my head.[/QUOTE]

Awesome. Orwell is my favorite author.

And I figured ToBU was based on the Odyssey...

Thanks, good stuff.

I think Radiohead have made a few references to 1984 (the song "2+2=5" comes to mind). And their song Paranoid Android is full of references to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Wait, those are literary references, not movie references. But I guess there's movies of both books, so it sort of counts.

[url]http://nancykeane.com/rl/986.htm[/url]

There's a link you might be interested in. I'm assuming 2112 is based loosely on 1984 or is there another similar book more like 2112? I can't believe I forgot "White Rabbit" and Zeppelin songs that were related to "Lord of the Rings". I also think that "Desolation Row" is only on there because of how many allusions there are in that song. I'm familiar with alot of those songs, but most I've never even heard. Yep.

Is there a movie based on 1984?

[QUOTE]Is there a movie based on 1984?[/QUOTE]

Yeah. The book was better.

I totally forgot that the title was "movies." 1984 just made me think it was supposed to be books.

[QUOTE=Emin3m]I finished reading 1984 (greatest read ever...) and in the middle of it you see "... controls the past now controls the future" ..."who controls the present controls the past," which is used in Rage's Testify.[/QUOTE]
And also Memory War by Asian Dub Foundation.

I can't think of any off the top of my head but Yo La Tengo's "Tom Courtenay" is named after the actor of the same name. And it mentions Julie Christie. Who is an actress.

I've got nothing.

Edit: Oh and the two starred in [I]Billy Liar[/I], which is, coincidentally, a Decemberists song.

Ray Steven's hauntingly beautiful "Guitarzan" is based on the filmed versions of Edgar Rice Borroughs work, I suppose:

Oh, Guitarzan...and his jungle band
He's all you can stand
Give him a hand
Guitarzan.

(the part about the boogie-woogie singing monkeys is just poetry)
:wave:

It can be literature too folks... thanks.

This Charming Man by the Smiths always reminds me of The Great Gatsby. Whether the song was written about Nick and Gatsby, I have no idea.

The lyric 'A jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place' is a direct quote from a film/book too, but god knows which one.

Even though they suck, Pennywise are named after the clown from [I]It[/I]. I also think that they wrote a song about Pennywise the clown on their first album.

The Cure song "Killing an Arab" is entirely based off of a scene in Camus' [I]The Stranger[/I], which is my favorite book.

The band Okkervil River is named after a short story written by Tolstoy's niece (at least I think; I know it was a Russian author, but it could be him or Dostoievski).

We just started reading Animal Farm. When the teacher told us what it was about, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Pink Floyd album Animals.

At another site, everyone said the three pigs were more recent people. But I was just thinking about how on Animal Farm, there's three pigs that are based on Trotsky, Stalin, and someone else that I can't remember.

Theres a Kelly Osborne music video thats based off of the movie Alphaville.

Adventure Today by The Aquabats was inspired by the childhood classic, The Goonies.

[QUOTE=Baliente]At another site, everyone said the three pigs were more recent people. But I was just thinking about how on Animal Farm, there's three pigs that are based on Trotsky, Stalin, and someone else that I can't remember.[/QUOTE]
In the book, theres pigs based on Stalin, Trotsky, Molotov, Lenin/Marx, and maybe some more that I can't remember.

In the song, the 3 pigs are Thatcher (2nd verse), Mary Whitehouse (3rd verse), and I'm not sure who the 1st verse is about. I don't know if it's about anybody in particular.

Does anyone write better books than Orwell?

1984 + Animal Farm
^ gooooood shtit

If you like Orwell, I suggest that you check out Huxley. Also, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.(Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle) and Joseph Heller (Catch 22) are some authors I really liked, and they have a vaguely similar message, though they get it all across in totally different ways. Slaughterhouse Five may be my favorite book ever, (1984 was my favorite right before I read Slaughterhouse.)

To make this relevant to the topic, I'm 99 percent sure that in Animal Farm Lenin/Marx was represented by Old Major, Stalin was Napoleon, Trotsky was Snowball. The dogs were the KGB and the farmers were the west/capitalists. There were quite a few more, and I'm sure you could google it if you're really interested.

Taxi Driver obviously inspired The Clash's "Red Angel Dragnet".

[QUOTE=Emin3m]Does anyone write better books than Orwell?

1984 + Animal Farm
^ gooooood shtit[/QUOTE]
Check out We by Zamyatin.

[QUOTE=Iai]Check out We by Zamyatin.[/QUOTE]

What's it about?

I really love satires and books dealing with history. The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is another great read.

The whole [i]Diamond Dogs[/i] album by David Bowie was inspired by 1984.

Lots of things were.

Talking Heads:
"This is not my beautiful house, and this is not my beautiful wife."

That's from something. Not sure what.

The Bruce Springsteen song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" is based on the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Rage Against The Machine also did a cover of Bruce Springsteen's song for their Renegades album.

[QUOTE=Spat Out Plath]Neil Young - After The Goldrush[/QUOTE]

what movie?

[QUOTE=EightMilesHigh]Talking Heads:
"This is not my beautiful house, and this is not my beautiful wife."

That's from something. Not sure what.[/QUOTE]

[I]Secret Window[/I] (the movie where Johnny Depp plays a psycho writer dude) steals that line. I dunno if it comes up in anywhere else.

We just read a short story by Hawthorne in my English class, "Goodman Brown" or something like that, and my teacher mentioned that it had a connection to the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."