songs about books!

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Oh I have been out searching with the black book in my hand
And I've looked between the lines that lie on the pages that I tread
I met the walking dude,religious, in his wom down cowboy boots
He walked liked no man on earth
I swear he had no name (had no name)
I swear he had no name

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down & make the stand.

As I crawled beneath the searchlights
Looking through the floorboards of this life
I met Doctor Strangeloves cousin
He bore the marks of time
"Hey! Trashcan where you going boy
Your eyes are feet apart
Is that the end you're carrying Shall I play the funeral march" (play the march)
"Play the funeral march"

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down, we'll make the stand.

When I looked out the window
On the hardship that had struck I saw the seven phials open
The plague claimed man and son
Four men at a grave in silence
With hats bowed down in grace
A simple wooden cross,
It had no epitaph engraved

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

OK let's get the obnoxiously literal stuff outa the way ...

Talking Heads, "The Book I Read"

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Nas - Book of Rhymes

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 06:14 (twenty-two years ago)

echo and the bunnymen - read it in books

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello, "Everyday I Write The Book"
Manfred Mann, "My Little Red Book"

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 11:04 (twenty-two years ago)

XTC - Books Are Burning
The Beatles - Paperback Writer
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Iron Maiden - To Tame A Land
Pink Floyd - Chapter 24

― James Larcombe, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Yertle the Turtle

― BrianB, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

About specific books....

"Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush
"Grapes of Wrath" by the Mission
"Killing an Arab" by the Cure

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Caetano Veloso - "Livros"

"Books are transcendental things
But we can hold them in our hands"

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

"Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana. (I think Kurt even thanks Patrick Suskind in the liner notes).

― Jacobo, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

husker du - books about ufos

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello, "Less Than Zero". Crap song, just what exactly do depression-era Brit fascists have to do with LA parties!?

― dave q, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

"Book of Love"

― Sam J. (samjeff), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hell's Ditch" by the Pogues --> "Our Lady of the Flowers" by Jean Genet
"Down all the Days" by the Pogues --> "Down all the Days" by Christie Brown

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

re: Elvis Costello Less than Zero, I'm pretty sure the song was released years before the book....so maybe the book was named after the song.

also, "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello, "Less Than Zero". Crap song, just what exactly do depression-era Brit fascists have to do with LA parties!?

You are joking, right Dave?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen

footnote: springsteen has made clear the song was inspired by the movie version of "the grapes of wrath," not the book. not that it matters. but just in case anyone's keeping score.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

"friendly fascism" and "the sexual politics of meat" by consolidated, and im sure they have a few more
"refusing to be a man" by propagandhi, at least in part inspired by the book
of course, when you open the doors of political punk, you're really just opening the floodgates.

― Felcher (Felcher), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

10,000 Maniacs-Hey Jack Kerouac
Tom Waits-Jack and Neal: California Here I Come
Peter Laughner(& also Ryan Adams)-Sylvia Plath

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 23:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's Where The Story End's by The Sundays.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

JG Ballard specific:

The Normal-"Warm Leatherette"
Joy Division-"Atrocity Exhibition"
Hawkwind-"High Rise"
The Sisters of Mercy-"Black Planet" (The Drought)
Jawbox-"Motorist" (Concrete Island)

― fcussen (Burger), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

In both "Dancing in the Dark" and "Baby Boomerang," the artists refer to their novel-in-progress. I like to think, thanks to a wormhole or timeloop or something, that it's the same book.

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Thursday, 18 September 2003 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Belle and Sebastian "Put the Book Back on the Shelf" and "Wrapped Up in Books".

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 18 September 2003 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Bowie - "1984" and "Big Brother" (actually most of Diamond Dogs, to some extent).

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Thursday, 18 September 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"the book lovers" by broadcast

― your null fame (yournullfame), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"Lovecraft" - The Vaselines
"3-Minute Rule" - Beastie Boys (for the line 'you slip you slack you clock me you lack / While I'm reading On The Road by my man Jack Kerouac')

― Paul Marfleet, Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

"Book of the Month" Lovage

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"A Great Drinker" by the Wonder Stuff (an homage to Chuck Bukowski)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

McCarthy: "Should the Bible Be Banned?"

― OleM (OleM), Friday, 19 September 2003 07:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Bomb The Bass - Bug Powder Dust

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 19 September 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The Cure's "Killing An Arab" and "Charlotte Sometimes" are reputedly retellings of Albert Camus and Penelope Farmer books respectively, no?

Also, I guess The Smiths' "Cemetry Gates" is mostly about bookwormdom.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Friday, 19 September 2003 08:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Camera Obscura - "Books written for girls"

― cis (cis), Friday, 19 September 2003 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Anthrax, "Among The Living."

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

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