Lou Reed released a double CD concept album called The Raven in 2003 that featured a number of musical and spoken-word interpretations of Poe. Not to mention the wonderfully-titled song by the late Warren Zevon, “Lord Byron’s Luggage”.Īnother writer who has been a great source of inspiration to musicians is Edgar Allen Poe. Led Zeppelin wrote a number of songs inspired by Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street” is based around the work of the poet Anne Sexton and then, there’s the most obvious example, Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”. Literature has inspired many songs and even entire albums. The same applies when it comes to music inspired by literature, and vice versa. (And, there was a also a band called the “Rock Bottom Remainders”, that featured Stephen King, Amy Tan and Rick Moody, amongst others). On the flip side, there aren’t as many examples of writers-turned-musicians, but there are a few, such as Michel Houellebecq and Neal Pollack. Some examples of musicians-turned-writers include Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith. Now writers are rock stars and rock stars are writers. Writers were solitary, reclusive individuals who shuffled around in their pyjamas mumbling to themselves, while musicians were rock gods who strutted the stage, ingested massive quantities of illegal substances, and … well, shall we say, got better acquainted with their fans. There was time when being a writer and being a musician were two completely separate things.

Edgar allan poe music