Bookish Songs

Soooo I love music. A lot. Almost as much as books. And I've wanted to do a post like this for a while, I had actually gotten the idea before I even started my blog, but I wasn't sure if anyone would care to read about music on a book blog. But then I thought about how this is my blog and I can literally do whatever the hell I want with it, so here it is.

A little background. I listen to pretty much all types of music, but mostly rock and all of its subgenres. The only music I don't listen to a lot of is country (I only like 10 or so songs). And it's through listening to different types of music that I've come across what I call 'bookish songs'. Bookish songs are songs that were inspired by books, reference books, or have inspired books. I'll also be including in this list songs that I found/heard of in books because I think it's great when a book can be what helped you find your new favorite song.

*Obviously this is not a list of every song in existence that fits this topic. These are just ones that I personally have listened to and ones that have been inspired by/reference books that I've read.

**I made a Spotify playlist here, which has most of the songs. Any songs I couldn't find on Spotify I have youtube links to down where the songs are individually talked about.

So on to the music.

1. Paw - Lolita

Paw is a lesser-known 90's alt-rock band from Kansas. They are one of my absolute favorite bands and their song Lolita is my favorite song by them. Lolita is, of course, inspired by the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It perfectly depicts some of the events of the novel and, I think, does a great job at adapting the overall idea of the novel into song. The first line of the song goes "Lolita, spread your pretty legs so daddy can see just where he wants to pray". Obviously, this is a super disturbing line, and although it doesn't appear in the actual novel, it is exactly the kind of creepy thing I can imagine Humbert saying to Dolores.

2. Switchfoot - Meant to Live

This is one of those songs that aren't necessarily life-changing or anything, but that you've heard a million times and practically everyone is familiar with it even if they don't know the name of it. There's a line in the song that I always liked, "Dreaming about Providence and whether mice or men have second tries", which references Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The first time I heard this song after reading Of Mice and Men, I got chills when I heard that line, even though it was a song I'd listened to tons of times before.

3. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out 

This is an example of a song I heard about in a book. I read History Is All You left me by Adam Silvera and in it, he mentions several songs (most I already knew) but this one I had never heard of so I listened to it and I absolutely loved it.

4. Pearl Jam - Dirty Frank

This is another one of my favorite songs that I heard about in a book. Well kinda book. I have the Time-Life Most Notorious Serial Killers magazine-book thing and in it, there's a small section on one page that talks about songs that were inspired by/reference serial killers. I'm a fan of Pearl Jam's music but I hadn't heard this song and it's inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer who I find to be one of the more complex and interesting serial killers to read about. Once I heard the song I was in love with it. It's so fun and satirical and clever.

5. Metallica - One 

This is a song I only recently stumbled upon, but have already grown to love. I listen to quite a few other songs by Metallica but hadn't heard this one before. This is a very anti-war song about a soldier who is missing his arms and legs, and is blind and cannot speak. The lyrics alone make it pretty clear that Metallica took inspiration from Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. But to make things even more obvious, the music video for this song is intercut with scenes from the 1971 adaptation of Johnny.

6. Tool - 46 & 2

Probably one of Tool's better-known songs, 46 & 2, is a song believed to be all about evolving into a more harmonious state of being. This is based on an idea, that is better explained here and here, originally conceived by Carl Jung, but was further developed by Drunvalo Melchizedek. Personally, I don't know if any of the songwriters had actually read any books in which this idea is talked about. And I'm sure, like most songs, that this has multiple meanings and inspirations, but the concept that is widely believed to have inspired this song can be found in multiple books and so I consider it a bookish song. Listen here.

7. Silverstein - Your Sword vs. My Dagger

Silverstein is one of those cheesy 'emo' bands that everyone was listening to in middle school (yes, that includes me), but because it was one of my favorite bands then, I still kind of love them. This song specifically references Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in it's last verse. It mentions drinking poison, stabbing yourself, and Verona (a fictional city).

8. Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire 

This entire song is a list of references. It's one of my favorites, it's so upbeat and fun and I really like the historical aspect of the song. It references the novels Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. It also mentions Boris Pasternak - a Russian novelist, Jack Kerouac - an American novelist known for his work in the beat generation genre, and Ernest Hemingway - an American novelist. There are several book-to-screen adaptations referenced as well, but I won't list them all.

✸ If you like music (which I think everyone does) then I highly recommend all of these songs. Feel free to comment with any bookish songs you know or really just any music you like, I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to.