Songs with lyrics that have been stolen/borrowed/inspired by poetry

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My flatmate bought a book of Audens poetry last week, and pointed out that The Pastels had stolen quite a bit of the poem "If I Could Tell You" for their song of the same name. We tried to think of others, but i could only think of Yoko Ono pinching "Who Has Seen the Wind?" from Christina Rossetti.
So, others then?

zappi, Thursday, 11 September 2008 09:55 (sixteen years ago)

There's hundreds of 'em, if not thousands

Tom D., Thursday, 11 September 2008 09:57 (sixteen years ago)

Pearls Before Swine - Footnote (Auden)
Pearls Before Swine - Epitaph (AE Housman)
Pearls Before Swine - Sonnet #65 (Shakey)

Tom D., Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:00 (sixteen years ago)

The Verve - History (William Blake)

The Real Slim Whitman (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:18 (sixteen years ago)

Slapp Happy - Mr Rainbow (Rimbaud)

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:20 (sixteen years ago)

The Doors - End of the Night (Hey it's Blake again I'm detecting a theme here)

The Real Slim Whitman (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:21 (sixteen years ago)

Syd Barrett - Golden Hair (James Joyce)
Incredible String Band - Douglas Traherne Harding (Thomas Traherne)

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:26 (sixteen years ago)

Propaganda: Dream Within a Dream (E A Poe)
Blue Aeroplanes: Journal of an Airman (W H Auden again)

anatol_merklich, Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:50 (sixteen years ago)

The Beach Boys - The Beaks of Eagles (Robinson Jeffers) <-------------- load of rubbish

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 11:01 (sixteen years ago)

Fugs to thread!

Mike McGooney-gal, Thursday, 11 September 2008 11:36 (sixteen years ago)

Oh yes!

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 11:36 (sixteen years ago)

Lindsay Buckingham - Gift of Screws (Emily Dickinson)

dlp9001, Thursday, 11 September 2008 11:53 (sixteen years ago)

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Legend of Xanadu (Coleridge)
Rush - Xanadu (Coleridge)
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Coleridge)

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 12:12 (sixteen years ago)

Iron Maiden-Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge)

Bill Magill, Thursday, 11 September 2008 14:16 (sixteen years ago)

"Slouching Toward Bethlehem," Joni Mitchell, Night Ride Home--"Second Coming," (Yeats)

ellaguru, Thursday, 11 September 2008 15:39 (sixteen years ago)

divine comedy, lucy (wordsworth)

ledge, Thursday, 11 September 2008 15:59 (sixteen years ago)

The Byrds - I Come and Stand At Every Door (Nazım Hikmet)

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:09 (sixteen years ago)

Chumbawamba: "Rage" - lyrics are an excerpt from Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Sweet Night".

Tuomas, Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:10 (sixteen years ago)

John Cale - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:13 (sixteen years ago)

Haha, sorry, it's indeed "good night", not "sweet night".

Tuomas, Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:16 (sixteen years ago)

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/1667/robinwilliamson031wn7.jpg

Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:17 (sixteen years ago)

Sinéad O'Connor, "Troy": borrows liberally from WB Yeats, "No Second Troy"

rogermexico., Thursday, 11 September 2008 16:19 (sixteen years ago)

Farmer in the City!

Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 11 September 2008 20:16 (sixteen years ago)

Sly Stone's "We Can Do It," from Ain't But the One Way, is stolen almost entirely from a Nikki Giovanni poem, I think of the same name.

And then there's that Ambrosia song that borrows a stanza from T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," but I can't think of which one it was ...

Joseph McCombs, Friday, 12 September 2008 05:16 (sixteen years ago)

Dust - fleetwood mac (Rupert Brooke)

velko, Friday, 12 September 2008 05:43 (sixteen years ago)

The Fall - Dog is Life/Jerusalem (W. Blake again)

milling through the grinder, grinding through the mill (S-), Friday, 12 September 2008 06:13 (sixteen years ago)

Your Attention Please - Scars (Peter Porter)

Ward Fowler, Friday, 12 September 2008 06:15 (sixteen years ago)

Björk - Sun in my mouth (E. E. Cummings)
Astor Piazzolla & Ney Matogrosso - 1964 (Jorge Luis Borges)

Moka, Friday, 12 September 2008 07:20 (sixteen years ago)

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit (Abel Meeropol)

Moka, Friday, 12 September 2008 07:22 (sixteen years ago)

Electrelane - "The Valleys" (Siegfried Sassoon)

etc, Friday, 12 September 2008 07:22 (sixteen years ago)

If you must describe in prose and poems,
the words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarize or take on loan

Doctor Casino, Friday, 12 September 2008 11:35 (sixteen years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/gina_mckee_gallery_1.jpg

Rhythm of Cutlery (Noodle Vague), Friday, 12 September 2008 11:39 (sixteen years ago)

The Godz - Crusade (Bertolt Brecht)

Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 September 2008 17:05 (sixteen years ago)

Ambrosia also did Jabberwocky, didn't they?

nickn, Thursday, 18 September 2008 23:53 (sixteen years ago)

Antony - The Lake (Poe)

casino royale with cheese (Roz), Friday, 19 September 2008 14:40 (sixteen years ago)

TMBG - I Should Be Allowed to Think (Ginsberg)

aconner2, Friday, 19 September 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago)

richard buckner - the hill - edgar lee masters

bnw, Friday, 19 September 2008 19:43 (sixteen years ago)


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