List of songs that retell a work of literature

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This is a list of songs which retell, in whole or in part, a work of literature. Albums listed here consist entirely of songs retelling a work of literature.

Contents

1 0-9 2 A 3 B 4 C 5 D 6 E 7 F 8 G 9 H 10 I 11 J 12 K 13 L 14 M 15 N 16 O 17 P 18 Q 19 R 20 S 21 T 22 U 23 V 24 W 25 X 26 Y 27 Z 28 External links

0-9

• "1984" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984, meant to be a song in a 1984 musical.

A

• "Animal in Man" by Dead Prez from Let's Get Free is a retelling of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
• "Animals" is an album by Pink Floyd which is a parody of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
• "A Rose for Emily" by The Zombies is based off of William Faulkner's short story A Rose for Emily.

B

• "Barefoot Children in the Rain" by Jimmy Buffett partially retells the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
• "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy retells J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
• "Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin retells J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, including "Ringwraiths" by name.
• "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by The Divine Comedy is based on the short story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• "Big Brother" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984, meant to be a song in a 1984 musical.
• "Bowling in the Hills" by Eddie From Ohio retells Washington Irving's short story Rip Van Winkle.

C

• "Las Batallas" by Café Tacuba retells Jose Emilio Pacheco's Las batallas en el desierto.
• "Cándido & América" by Eddie From Ohio retells parts of T.C. Boyle's novel The Tortilla Curtain.
• "Chronicle of the Black Sword" by Hawkwind is based on Michael Moorcock's Elric novels
• "Cornflake Girl" by Tori Amos is about a character in Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy

D

E

F

• "From the Underworld" by The Herd is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice

G

• "Grendel" by Marillion is a retelling of John Gardner's novel Grendel, which is a retelling of Beowulf
• "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen is about The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

H

• "Highway 61 Revisited" (from Highway 61 Revisited) by Bob Dylan retells the story of Abraham and his son from Genesis, Chapter 22
• "The Highwayman" is a Loreena McKennitt song which recounts a poem by Alfred Noyes. Phil Ochs also performed a different musical interpretation of the poem.
• "Home at Last" by Steely Dan retells Ulysses' encounter with the Sirens from the Odyssey

I

• I Robot is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project which retells several Isaac Asimov stories
• "I Robot" by the UK Subs is based on I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
• "I'm That Type of Guy" by LL Cool J interpolates some movie quotes from Wizard of Oz which is a movie based off of the storybook Wizard of Oz.

J

• "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Rick Wakeman is an LP which retells Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

K

• "Killing an Arab" by The Cure is closely related to Albert Camus's The Stranger

L

• "Lay Down" by The Strawbs is based on Psalm 23
• "The Lady of Shallott" by Loreena McKennitt is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• "Lucy" by The Divine Comedy is a poem by William Wordsworth
• "Lullaby" by Lagwagon is based on Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

M

• "Moon over Bourbon Street" by Sting is describing a character from Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire

N

• "Narnia" by Steve Hackett is based on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
• "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" is an album by Blind Guardian that retells J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

O

• "One" by Metallica is based on the novel/movie Johnny Got His Gun.
• "Oor Hamlet" by Adam McNaughtan retells Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
• "Out of the Silent Planet" by Iron Maiden is based on the movie Forbidden Planet, not the science-fiction novel by C.S. Lewis

P

• "Prince Caspian" by Phish is about C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian, one of the Chronicles of Narnia, which retells the Bible in fantasy-allegory; hence, this song is also a retelling of the story of Moses in Exodus

Q

R

• "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin retells parts of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, including "Mordor" and "Gollum" by name.
• "ReJoyce" by Jefferson Airplane offers Grace Slick's own psychedelic version of James Joyces Ulysses.
• "Richard Cory" by Paul Simon is about the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem "Richard Cory."
• "Ride A White Swan" by T.Rex refers to plot details from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
• "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden is a retelling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

S

• "Sahara" by Eddie From Ohio retells Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book Into The Wild.
• "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana tells the story of Perfume by Patrick Süskind.
• "The Seventh Seal" by Scott Walker is a retelling of Ingmar Bergman's movie The Seventh Seal
• "So Said Kay" by The Field Mice is based on "Desert of the Heart" by Jane Rule.
• "The Stranger" by Tuxedomoon quotes Albert Camus' novel "L'etranger".

T

• "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project which retells several Edgar Allan Poe stories
• "Tea in the Sahara" by The Police is about The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. King Crimson also has a song called "The Sheltering Sky" about the same book, although it is an instrumental work.
• "The Tomahawk Kid" by Alex Harvey (The Sensational Alex Harvey Band), is based on characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island"
• "To Tame A Land" by Iron Maiden tells the story of Dune by Frank Herbert
• "Tom Joad, Parts 1 and 2" by Woody Guthrie retells The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

U

V

• "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground is about the two main characters from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel of the same name.

W

• "The War of the Worlds" by Jeff Wayne is a big budget retelling of the novel by H. G. Wells in music and dramatization
• "We Are the Dead" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984, meant to be a song in a 1984 musical.
• "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane partially retells Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush is a re-telling of Emily Brontë's novel.

X

• "Xanadu" by Rush is based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan.

Y

Z

External links

• The Sibl Project (http://www.siblproject.org) has a similar goal that is more inclusive, creating a list of songs which simply refer to a work of literature