Songs Whose Lyrics are Basically a Summary of a Movie, Book, Bio, etc.

I'm listening to "The Cabinet" by Das Kabinette on the Minimal Wave Tapes and it partially tells the story of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Made me think of similar songs like Scott Walker's "The Seventh Seal" and Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Woody Guthrie's "Tom Joad" songs (Grapes of Wrath)--songs that don't just reference books, movies or people but retell stories.

What else is out there?

"The Union Forever" White Stripes (Citizen Kane)

Duh Kate Bush "Wuthering Heights".

'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' by the Divine Comedy is pretty much the F Scott Fitzgerald story.

Weird Al Yankovic - The Saga Begins

Springsteen - Nebraska

I'm sure I read once that Lou Reed claimed "Perfect Day" was based on Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story". Don't believe it for a second, but nice reference, Lou.

Al Stewart, "Sirens of Titan"

The first half of Manowar's "Triumph of Steel" album is a 28-minute song in 8 parts retelling the Iliad. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.

The Cure, "Killing An Arab" (pocket summary of L'Etranger by Camus, esp the last few pages)

the association - goodbye forever
it's more of a plot summary of goodbye columbus than the song of the same name

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraksa
Based on the movie "Badlands"

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - Gordon Lightfoot
"Hurricane" - Dylan

"Hey! Susan" - Mekons (Jude The Obscure)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Ballads

Most awkward instance of this for me might be "The Kelly Affair" by Be Your Own Pet, which tells the story of Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls

Daniel Johnston - King Kong

(amazing song)

Big Audio Dynamite - "E=MC2" is nothing but synopses of several Nicolas Roeg movies.

This is pretty sweet, the illustrated Waits cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhxVx8fskMo

silkworm - contempt

maybe:

Flop - Night of the Hunter

I'm sure there's loads more examples from the Iron Maiden back catalogue : To Tame A Land (based on Dune), Where Eagles Dare, more?

the normal - warm leatherette (jg ballard - crash)
prefab sprout - don't sing (graham greene - the power and the glory)

another obvious Maiden one: The Prisoner

Nas's "U.B.R."

The Smiths - "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"

Thrice - Red Death (Edgar Allen Poe - The Masque of Red Death)
Metallica - Creeping Death (parts of Exodus)
Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway - a chapter from For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Really obvious one:

Venus in Furs

the lyrics to Matilda Mother by Pink Floyd were originally based on stories from Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales. Syd had to rewrite the lyrics when Bellocs estate threatened to sue, so he changed them to a song reminiscing about his mother reading the stories to him as a child.

Walt Mink - "Love in the Dakota" = sunny indie-folkified retelling of Rosemary's Baby

oh yeh and Chapter 24 is a summary of the text for the 24th hexagram of the I Ching

Music Adaptions of literature

Don't the liners on Aja mention that "Home at Last" is your basic Homerian epic, Dan-ified?

silkworm - contempt

Help a culturally illiterate Silkworm fan out. What are the enigmatic lyrics of this song in reference to?

Misfits!

Astro Zombies, Bloodfeast, Return of The Fly, Teenagers from Mars, Horror Business (Psycho), Where Eagles Dare, Braineaters, We Are 138 (THX 1138, supposedly), Hollywood Babylon etc.

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian refers to these as "book report songs," and Anthrax has contributed a shitload of 'em - "Among the Living" is based on Stephen King's The Stand, and "A Skeleton in the Closet" is based on King's story "Apt Pupil," "I Am the Law" is based on Judge Dredd, "Now It's Dark" is based on Blue Velvet, "Misery Loves Company" is another King rip (guess of what), "This is Not an Exit" is taken from American Psycho...

Keep your foot hard on the pedal. Son, never mind them brakes.
Let it all hang out 'cause we got a run to make.
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in Texarcana.
And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Metallica's One: Johnny Got His Gun

Having just seen it performed live, John Cale - Hedda Gabler

Help a culturally illiterate Silkworm fan out. What are the enigmatic lyrics of this song in reference to?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057345/

Bowie's Diamond Dogs album was originally supposed to be an adaptation of 1984, but he couldn't get the rights. So instead it's a barely-disguised adaptation of 1984.

Pink Floyd's Animals has elements of Animal Farm and The Island of Dr. Moreau, but doesn't depict the actual stories, so it really doesn't fit and I don't know why I brought it up. I'll wait in the car.

Scentless Apprentice - Nirvana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_(novel)

John Vanderslice - "A Promising Actress" = Mulholland Drive
John Vanderslice - "When it Hits My Blood" = Requiem for a Dream

I wrote a song called "The Garden of Forking Paths" after the Borges story.

Pixies, "Dead"

Kate Bush, "The Sensual World," Molly Bloom's soliloquy in Ulysses

Cortez the Killer - Neil Young

Seconds - The Human League

Richard Buckner's "The Hill" which takes a number of the poems from Edgar Lee Master's 'Spoon Anthology' and puts them to music. (but perhaps not the OP had in mind)

The Cure - Charlotte Sometimes
The Cure - The drowning man (from Gormenghast)
King's X - Out of the silent planet
Soft Cell - Martin

John Cale, "Norbit"

Would-Be-Goods' "Diminuendo" off Brief Lives* sounds like an Aubrey Beardsley bio to me at least.

*) ok the title is a bio hint obv, amongst the other songs are eg "Richard III" and "Bad Lord Byron"...