Books about a single song?

There are lots of artist biographies and even books about albums, but does anybody know about any books dedicated to a single song?

And the obvious side question, which songs would you want to read an entire book about?

I’ve read Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads by Greil Marcus some time ago. Interesting read for a Dylan fan like me, and definitely a song worthy of a treatise like this.

Yes, Louie Louie, the world’s most famous rock song.

Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA

Pearl Bryan. I wanted to read a book about this song so much, I wrote the damn thing myself.

Quite a lot of other murder ballads have had also a whole book devoted to them - Tom Dooley and Stagger Lee to name but two. Like my own effort, though, these are as much about the true crime behind the song as the song itself.

As I remember there is at least one book written about Amazing Grace.

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Well, that’s an interesting twist to the examples given so far: not a book about a song, but a song as basis for a novel.

Yeah, I know its not exactly what the OP asked for, but I thought that some of you might be interested…

(I haven’t read it, btw. Copies are soemwhat difficult to obtain this side of The Pond.)

This may not count as a song, but John Cage’s infamous silent compositon 4’33" is a subject of a book.

I remember seeing a book that consisted entirely of commentary on Stairway to Heaven about fifteen years ago in a Barnes and Noble, but I have no idea what it was titled, and can’t find it in a Google search.

I was really hoping it was just 433 blank pages with a title and copyright notice. Oh well.

Several of Tom Paxton’ children’s song have been turned into picture books.

One of my favourite songs ever. I may have to get that.

Another of my favourite songs ever: John Doe No. 24 by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and God Knows His Name, the book about the man, inspired by the song.

Cecil Brown’s *Stagolee Shot Billy *may count here, though the variations on “Stagger Lee” are so numerous that it’s hard to call it a single song. Still a great book. Highly recommended.

I have Meeting Across The River, read it a few years ago and enjoyed it very much, but I am an unabashed Bruce fan. It’s a collection of 20 stories inspired by the song.

Not a good idea. Every time you fail to write something down, you could be accused of plagiarism.

On the other hand, if you did manage to get copyright you could sue everyone who sells notebooks.

In **Keith Richard’s **autobio, Life, he discusses the origins of a few songs, typically within the context of other music topics, like how he discovered that a certain reel-to-reel tape recorder added a certain “something” to the recording of acoustic guitars - which influenced the creation of Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man. Or his move to Open G tuning on the guitar and how that led to Honky Tonk Woman, Gimme Shelter, etc…

There’s Kind of Blue, a book about the making of that all-time-best jazz album…

**Al Kooper’s **Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards has a number of song-specific stories, e.g., not about the writing of Like a Rolling Stone, but a great story about recording it (and Al talking his way into playing organ and contributing that legendary part completely at random…)…

My thoughts for now…

In the spirit of the season, we have White Christmas: The Story of an American Song.

Out of season, we have Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game.