"Whichever I choose it amounts to the same;
I'm alive, I'm dead, I'm the stranger killing an Arab"
Photo by Alfred T. Palmer
The Cure are a happy bunch, so it's no surprise they'd be inspired to write a song based on Camus' novel L’Étranger (The Stranger). The novel centers around sociopath Meursault's murdering of an Arab and subsequent execution. Because that wouldn't be bleak enough by itself, Camus' novel also serves as a metaphor for the absence of meaning and value in a cruel uncaring universe. The Cure's song, which centers around the book's murder scene, features similarly bleak existential woes.
"Hear the crushing steel,
feel the steering wheel.
Warm Leatherette"
Photo by Dwayne MacGowan
J. G. Ballard's controversial novel Crash, about people who get sexual thrills from re-enacting the car crashes of famous celebrities, was labelled by one publisher as "The author is beyond psychiatric help. DO NOT PUBLISH!". That didn't stop Daniel Miller (A.k.a. The Normal) from reading it however, who worked on a film script version of the book that was later scrapped and turned into a song. The result was the brilliant violent Warm Leatherette that perfectly captures the detached perversion of the book's subjects.
What's creepier than clowns rapping? Clown's rapping out a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's legendarily chilling short story, The Tell Tale Heart. That's exactly what you get in Insane Clown Posse's Ol' Evil Eye which featuring Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope fantasising about murdering an old man because of his haunting eye. And yes, it's every bit as twisted as it sounds in that description.
1. Velvet Underground- Venus in Furs (Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch- Venus in Furs)
"Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark"
"In the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair
But Gollum and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her"
2. Insane Clown Posse- Ol' Evil Eye (Edgar Allen Poe- The Tell Tale Heart)
"Creepers, where'd you get that ball
And tell me how it even fits in your skull?"
Photo by John Liu
Photo by Ronnie Faienza
For a band that has done a lot of really dumb stuff over the years, Led Zeppelin are pretty well read. Alongside their well known reference to Melville's literary classic Moby Dick, is Ramble On, which is based on Tolkien's three book tale of questing, Lord of the Rings. Robert Plant makes explicit mention of Mordor and Gollum, although the actual events he describes (including Gollum stealing his girlfriend) don't actually occur in any of the books.
"Creepers, where'd you get that ball
And tell me how it even fits in your skull?"
What's creepier than clowns rapping? Clown's rapping out a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's legendarily chilling short story, The Tell Tale Heart. That's exactly what you get in Insane Clown Posse's Ol' Evil Eye which featuring Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope fantasising about murdering an old man because of his haunting eye. And yes, it's every bit as twisted as it sounds in that description.
1. Velvet Underground- Venus in Furs (Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch- Venus in Furs)
"Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark"
Photo by Hannah-
In terms of literature meets music, art rockers Velvet Underground's mystic abrasiveness and Sacher-Masoch's (whom after masochism is named) novella filled with mythology and dream sequences in the perfect mix. Both the story and song focus on protagonists Severin's submissive love affair with his mistress Wanda. The song is a cacophonous spiral of whirling noise that perfectly complements the exotic madness from Sacher-Masoch's masterpiece.
Those are the top five, but if you still haven't got you're fix of lit-rock here's some honorable mentions;
The Blue Airplanes- The Applicant, David Bowie- 1984, The Field Mice- So Said Kay, Hawkwind- Steppenwolf, Sonic Youth- Sister, The Smiths- William, It was Really Nothing
The Blue Airplanes- The Applicant, David Bowie- 1984, The Field Mice- So Said Kay, Hawkwind- Steppenwolf, Sonic Youth- Sister, The Smiths- William, It was Really Nothing
