Music inspired by classic literature/poems/art: William Blake

[Jerome]

Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Inspired by the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. My favourite work of Wakeman's.

[Jerome]

Camel - Dust and Dreams - inspired by John Steinbeck's magnificent novel 'The Grapes of Wrath'
Likewise Bruce Springsteen's 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' - some tracks were inspired by the same book.

[Jerome]

Neil Diamond - Jonathan Livingstone Seagull - a musical adaption of the book of the same name. Good book too!

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Vincent - Don McLean - some of the lyrics are derived from scenes and titles of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and are then woven together to describe the story of his life. IMO one of the finest examples of songwriting ever. In the VVG museum in Amsterdam there are about three floors of his paintings with the ground floor reserved for unknown artists. My favourite of his was a spinning wheel in the moonlight.

and IMO also Jerome....

McLean wrote two of the greatest pop songs of all time, the other, obviously "American Pie"

[Jerome]

and IMO also Jerome....

McLean wrote two of the greatest pop songs of all time, the other, obviously "American Pie"

Someone once asked him what the song 'American Pie' means. His answer; 'It means I never have to work again'.

[bob_32_116]

Camel - The Snow Goose - inspired by the novel by Paul Gallico.

...and according to what I have read, Paul Gallico, a non-smoker and a crusader against smoking, was not pleased by the fact that this band, with whom he came to be associated, shared the name of a popular brand of cigarettes, and in fact one of their album covers features an image obviously based on the Camel cigarettes logo.

[bob_32_116]

The most ambitious albums I can think of that was based around a work of literature are "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by David Bedford, based on the poem of the same name by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and "The Odyssey", also by Bedford, based on the Greek epic of that name by Homer.

[video=youtube;ZljJBAvQzUo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZljJBAvQzUo[/video]

[Ruby]

...and according to what I have read, Paul Gallico, a non-smoker and a crusader against smoking, was not pleased by the fact that this band, with whom he came to be associated, shared the name of a popular brand of cigarettes, and in fact one of their album covers features an image obviously based on the Camel cigarettes logo.

That was Mirage and their "White Rider" is on it - inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

[video=youtube;dBWGjT-XV6g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWGjT-XV6g[/video]

[Ruby]

Kate Bush’s song inspired by Emily Brontë's only novel – Wuthering Heights. She died the year after the book was published, at the age of 30, and coincidentally, she and Kate Bush share a birthday (give or take about 140 years!).

[video=youtube;-1pMMIe4hb4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4[/video]

[Ruby]

Back to Paul Weller's take on The Lady of Shalott – she has fascinated a few people! Loreena McKennit put the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem to music …

[video=youtube;k0rVNQw1DQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0rVNQw1DQM[/video]