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Gideon CoeΒ  permalink

Literature and Song

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Valour Gull (U1637480) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  I was thinking about cultural triangles that link you, the listener, to a song that has been influenced by a book that you have read.
  
  For example, the brilliant Fanfarlo and 'You are one of the few Outsiders who Really Understands', a line from a Kurt Vonnegut book (Mother Night).
  
  And last night, Marc Riley played 'Tenderness of Wolves' by State Broadcasters, which of course, is the title of a book by Stef Penney.
  
  I like these triangles and I am sure there are many more, it'd be a great theme, Mr Coe.

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• Message 2

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  Posted by Lee1975 (U4412355) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  I was surprised to find that "Stan" by Eminem was actually influenced by the children's book "Flat Stanley".

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  Posted by knerak (U10891878) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  
  Thought about Tunng as i read Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, thought about The Beatles when i read his Norwegian Wood.
  
  

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  Posted by laurencea (U4486044) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  'raymond chandler evening' by Robyn Hitchcock spurred me to read the Marlowe series... and what a treat.
  
  Laurence

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  Posted by U6679583 (U6679583) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  Good thread! A nice cerebral counterpoint to the toilets/pooh one.
  
  I like the song "The World Turned Upside Down" [Brag et al] which I first heard while I was reading the pamphlets of Gerard Winstanley [leader of the Diggers], the Putney Debates, and lots of other Interegnum political writings.
  

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  Posted by Ddik Trebor (U202315) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  I always liked the fact that Orange Juice, around the time they were having hits (well 'hit'), called their label 'Holden Caulfield Universal'
  And Salingers A Perfect Day for Bananafish inspired Fat Bobs' Bananafishbones. Most of Faith by the Cure is inspired by the Mervyn Peake Titus books (though, unfortunately, sting has done songs about Gormenghast as well). The Cure have loads more, the most obvious is Charlotte Sometimes, and, of course 'Killing an Arab', which is based on Albert Camus' book L'etranger (the Stranger).
  Speaking of Camus, Gid is now playing my 3rd Favourite Fall track Bill is Dead.
  More obvious ones include Bowie's 1984 from Diamond Dogs, Kate Bush with both Wuthering Heights, and The Sensual World (Ulysses) and Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles (based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead).
  Gary Numan's Are 'Friends' Electric? is based on the same Phillip K Dick book that Ridley Scott based Bladerunner on.
  And of course White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane, based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

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  Posted by U6679583 (U6679583) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  Is Faith really based on Titus Groan/Gormenghast?
  
  I must read those books again....

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  Posted by Ddik Trebor (U202315) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  Yeah, Fat Bob was a big fan of the books - as am I - The Drowning Man ends with the line 'Fuscia, you leave me breathing like a Drowning Man', which is about an event in the book that caused me to stop reading (that book) for a while, I was about 14 when I first read them, and Fuscia was a captivating character. I'm slightly more cynical these days...

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• Message 9

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  Posted by U6679583 (U6679583) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  He's a hell of a writer. Though the books are plotless, he writes with such an artist's eye, it's hard not to be completely captivated. especially if you are quite, ummmm, 'relaxed.'
  
  I've got a collection of his lesser works - fragment, poems, plays etc, up in the loft somewhere. And another book full of his sketches. He was agreat artist too. There are a series of sketches of a baby crying, which completely capture the total FURY of the newborn.

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• Message 10

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  Posted by Ddik Trebor (U202315) on Thursday, 5th March 2009

  'relaxed'?...I have NO idea what you are talking about.
  
  I wouldn't call them plotless, it's just thinly spread. I think the themes and characters were more important than the whole narrative, but yes he was a fine artist, and I think he wrote like one. In fact he was an official war artist and was one of the first people to see Belsen at the end of the war, I remember a book that came out that contained some of his war art, and it was both shocking and fantastic at the same time - powerful stuff. His children's book was good as well, Captain Slaughterboard, I think it was called.
  I think he's one of the great figures in British art, yet few people know much of his work, the unfinished Titus Alone suggested a really interesting look at the modern world.

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  Posted by U6679583 (U6679583) on Friday, 6th March 2009

  There's a poem he wrote about painting a girl, from Belsen, in the typhus ward, trying to find the exact shade of yellow for her skin, then looking up and realising she's dead. It's a wonderful and haunting exploration of art and beauty and in an evil world.
  
  Captain Slaughteborad is good fun - as is Mr Pye. Did you ever read the short story - 'Captain Slaughterboard drops anchor?'. The writing is so descriptive, with so much lingering attention to detail, so
  evocative that it becomes hyper-real, hallucinatory; the ordinary becomes mystical, magical. Either that or I was slightly too relaxed when I read it.
  
  God, I REALLY have to get up in the loft and find my books. I haven't unpacked them since we moved.
  
  

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• Message 12

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  Posted by the_roofdog (U9532299) on Friday, 6th March 2009

  You could do a thread on Thomas Hardy references in Half Man Half Biscuit songs.
  
  Should any man wish to make himself immortal by painting a picture of wretchedness, then he'd be wasting his time knocking on my door.
  Maybe go to Mr Galbraith's over the road.

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  Posted by CardiffGentleman (U13471703) on Friday, 6th March 2009

  Weren't The fall named after a Camus book?
  
  The you've got Moby Dick by The Zep
  
  A myriad of Clockwork Orange references; Korova records, Heaven 17,spare us the cutter.
  
  And my fave Sympathy for the Devil based on the Master and Mrgarita

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  Posted by CardiffGentleman (U13471703) on Friday, 6th March 2009

  Oh and the Velvet Underground from the book of the same name
  and Joy Division from the book House of Dolls

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• Message 15

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  Posted by Valour Gull (U1637480) on Sunday, 5th April 2009

  
  
  My Latest Novel are my favourite band ever, despite the fact, that they have so few releases. I love that the press release refers to other literary greats.

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  Posted by steve_swift (U2177659) on Sunday, 5th April 2009

  Swansway (Soul Train- '83) had clearly heard of Proust.

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  Posted by tolhurst (U6377463) on Thursday, 30th April 2009

  As for band names:
  
  "Belle and Sebastian" obviously loved their sheepdogs
  
  while "Slowdive" just loved their Siouxsie!
  
  Do those count as literature?
  
  

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• Message 18

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  Posted by U6679583 (U6679583) on Thursday, 30th April 2009

  According to the Guardian last week, JG Ballard wrote every pop song in history.
  Nearly
  

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