Songs based on classic literature or nursery rhymes

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I've got a paper due in a few days based on any subject in my lit textbook. So guess what I found in the poetry section? "Peter Piper" by Run DMC! What I need to find quickly are songs that use classic literature (like Shakespeare) or nursery rhymes as their foundation. "Peter Piper" or Biz's "Romeo and Juliet" for example. They don't have to be rap songs. Take it away guys.

― Huey Mescalero (Mescalero), Sunday, 21 November 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Does Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush count?

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, 21 November 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Joanna Newsom - Three Little Babes
perhaps?

― sibsi (sibsi), Sunday, 21 November 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

'Ali Baba' - John Holt

― Edmundo (Edmundo), Sunday, 21 November 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I would think "Wuthering Heights" would count, as would "Turn! Turn! Turn!"

Also, Judy Collins sung a version of Yeats's "Song of Wandering Aengus" called "Golden Apples of the Sun."

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Sunday, 21 November 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

the new Mastodon album, LEVIATHAN, is based on MOBY DICK, from the POV of Captain Ahab. Starts a little cliche (metal-wise), but then gets a lot better.

― don, Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Shane MacGowan, "Skipping Rhymes"

"We put the hood around his head / then we shot the bastard dead" sung to the tune of Knick Knack Paddy Whack, Give the Dog a Bone

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"Killing an Arab" - The Cure

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Devin The Dude's 'The Briar Patch' but, you know, do your own fucking resarch, lame ass.

― Pikmin, Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't Lou Reed to an album based on the Raven by Poe? I never heard it....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Funkadelic "Loose Booty"

― dave q (listerine), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Animals by Pink FLoyd - I guess 'Pigs (three different ones)' could be seen as about the 3 little pigs. I think there are a bunch of songs called Big Bad Wolf. There are also several albums called 1984 (eurythmics, Wakeman, Van Halen).

I imagine there are a fair amount of songs based on Lewis Carrol, though White Rabbit is all that comes to mind at the moment - Oh, and the Damned's Phantasmagoris, perhaps.

Harold Budd and Brian Eno have an album called the Pearl. Which reminds me of 'the Ghost of Tom Joad', by Guthrie, I guess.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Syd Barrett - Golden Hair (James Joyce)

― Black Arkestra (Black Arkestra), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"Golden Hair"--Syd Barrett, a Joyce poem set to psychedelic song
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"--Iron Maiden
"White Rabbit"--Jefferson Airplane
"Xanadu"--Rush
"V"--Golden Smog, insofar as it might be based on Pynchon's debut novel

― harmony money, Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Gainsbourg (I think) and Sonic Youth both use the line "I'm the boy that can enjoy invisibility" fro Ulysses. I think Joyce actually got it from an older Irish source (some play or something) but Sonic Youth at least seem to be under the impression they were quoting Joyce.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, 21 November 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Mike Watt's new album meshes his hospital experiences with The Divine Comedy.

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 21 November 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

THE HUMPTY DANCE

― Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round? (ex machina), Sunday, 21 November 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"Three Little Pigs" by Green Jello

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Sunday, 21 November 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Anomoanon--Mother Goose
1 Wee Willie Winkie 1:10
2 One Misty Moisty Morning :57
3 In Marble Halls as White as Milk 1:32
4 I Had a Little Pony :54
5 If I Had a Donkey That Wouldn't Go 1:00
6 Solomon Grundy 1:01
7 Where Are You Going to My Pretty Maid 2:14
8 There Was a Piper Had a Cow 1:15
9 Tom He Was a Piper's Son 3:01
10 The Dove Said "Coo-Coo" 1:13
11 There Was a Man and His Name Was Dob :38
12 Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater 1:03
13 There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket 2:22
14 There Was an Old Woman Called Nothing at All 1:21
15 I Love Little Pussy :44
16 Barber Barber Shave a Pig 1:28
17 We Are All in the Dumps :37
18 Hinz Minz the Old Witch Winks 1:35
19 In Fir Tar Is 1:18
20 Draw a Pail of Water 2:40
21 Tell Tale Tit :51
22 Johnny Armstrong Killed a Calf 1:50
23 I Won't Be My Father's Jack

― harmony money, Sunday, 21 November 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Dana Dane - Cinderfella

― Mucho, Monday, 22 November 2004 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Bo Diddley's career is based on the Mockingbird rhyme/song.

― Klamm (VampireSubmarine), Monday, 22 November 2004 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fall - Jerusalem/Dog is Life

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 22 November 2004 05:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Beyond Possession "tell tale heart"

― chad (chad), Monday, 22 November 2004 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Is Stevie Wonder's "Big Brother" supposed to be about 1984?

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 22 November 2004 06:22 (twenty-one years ago)

dunno, bowie's 1984 must be tho

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 22 November 2004 08:40 (twenty-one years ago)

magazine's "song from under the floorboards" (dostoyevsky)

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 22 November 2004 08:41 (twenty-one years ago)

whats that lee perry produced thing based on three blind mice...is it max romeo?

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 22 November 2004 08:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Björk's "Sun In My Mouth" (e.e.cummings)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 22 November 2004 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

that korn song where he screams, "knick knack paddy whack, give a dog a bone!"

that was pretty heavy in 8th grade.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 22 November 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

There are probably more of these songs than we really know.

For instance, one of the great lines in "dance hall days" (wang chung)that always stuck with me more or less ("grab your baby by the wrist on her tongue an amethyst"). Why did that line effectively imprint
itself just from hearing it on the radio a few times nearly two decades ago?

Because of what went long before, which was an old old folk tale finally written down in the 15th century by the brothers
Grimm. The line in the song reminded me of the fairy tale about two little girls, one who opened her mouth and had frogs and snakes jump out and another girl who opened her mouth and rubies and jewels fell from her tongue (meaning she said lovely things).

― bflaska, Monday, 22 November 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Funkadelic again, for "Let's Take It To The Stage", which has an "Along came a spider..." bit that was later stolen by hack comedian Andrew "Dice" Clay.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 22 November 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Rather famously:

Sondheim & Bernstein -- West Side Story (all of it)(Romeo & Juliet)
Sondheim & Levine -- Into the Woods (") (Grimm fairy tales)
Sondheim -- The Frogs (") (Aristophanes' The Frogs)
Porter -- Kiss Me Kate (")(The Taming of the Shrew)
Porter -- Out of This World (") (various Greek myths)
Webber & Rice -- Jesus Christ Superstar (")(guess)
Webber -- Cats (")(Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats)

About half of everything Pentangle and Fairport Convention did early in their careers was based on Childe ballads or nursery rhymes. Also Traffic, John Barleycorn.
Many, many people have done versions of "Iko, Iko", a New Orleans' children's game song.
Too many Romeo & Juliet songs to count, including Dire Straits, Steve Forbert.
Hamlet songs by Bob Dylan, Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls (actually, all centered around Ophelia).
Aimee Mann - Humpty Dumpty
The Doors - End of the Night (Blake, Auguries of Innocence)
Modern (serious) literature:
Mark Knopfler - Sailing to Philadelphia (Pynchon's Mason & Dixon)
Rhett Miller is always referring to literature - World Inside the World (Don DeLillo, Underworld); Point Shirley (Sylvia Plath poetry and Hamlet); What We Talk About (Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love); Our Love (Kafka and Wagner letters)
Counting Crows - The Rain King (Saul Bellow, Henderson The Rain King)
Sweet Honey in the Rock - On Children (Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam); Breaths (Birago Diop)

― Vornado (Vornado), Monday, 22 November 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Jefferson Airplane, "Rejoyce" (Ulysses)

Aretha Franklin, "All the King's Horses"

Dusty Springfield, "All the King's Horses" (different song)

Raydio, "Jack and Jill"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 22 November 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Aimee Mann - Choice in the matter

"Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream,
...I hope you drown and never come back"

― papa november (papa november), Monday, 22 November 2004 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The Monkees / Micky Dolenz, "Pillow Time"

The Monkees / Davy Jones, "Goldilocks Sometime"

Paul Revere & the Raiders, "Cinderella Sunshine"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 22 November 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

sam the sham and the pharoahs, "lil' red riding hood"

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 22 November 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Slint's "Good Morning, Captain" was supposedly inspired by "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner". Or maybe it was inspired by Iron Maiden's take on it...

― Bill A, Monday, 22 November 2004 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i have a Jane From Occupied Europe 7" which has 'Annabel Lee' on the b-side (which is, of course, based on the poem by Poe). um. maybe a bit obscure... 8)

http://www.btinternet.com/~birdpoo/janedis.htm
http://www.poedecoder.com/Qrisse/works/annabel.html

oh, 999 did "Li'l Red Riding Hood"

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 22 November 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Dylan - "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum"

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 22 November 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Malcolm McLaren's "Romeo and Juliet" from "Round the Outside! Round the Outside!"

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Monday, 22 November 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Current 93 "all the pretty little horses"
David Axelrod's William Blake albums (Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience). also Jah Wobble's Blake album. and Ulver's.

turned up this link. hope it helps:

http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/misc/ficrep/poprend.html

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Monday, 22 November 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I imagine there are a fair amount of songs based on Lewis Carrol
I Am The Walrus - The Walrus and The Carpenter by Louis Carroll. Also has some King Lear dialogue in the mix

Piggy In the Middle - parody of above, using Hey Diddle Diddle, This Little Piggy Went to Market, (Piggy in the Middle is that a game also?)

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

The Divine Comedy "Lucy" - lyrics by William Wordsworth.

― darren (darren), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 08:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeat's Grave by The Cranberries paraphrases large sections of WB Yeats poem, On the Lake Isle Inisfree

― papa november (papa november), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"matilda mother" by syd-era floyd.

― Lewis Tollani, Tuesday, 23 November 2004 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

and of course the album is called "the piper at the gates of dawn" which is the name of a chapter of "wind in the willows".

― Lewis Tollani, Tuesday, 23 November 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Man, I wish I hadn't misspelled "Lewis."

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

More LEWIS Carroll:
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Elton John)

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

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