(And I mean based on, not just stealing the title or name-checking the book.)
A few I can think of straightaway:
The Cure have done this several times, most famously (for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately) in the case of their “Killing An Arab”, which was based on Camus’s The Stranger.
Their song “Charlotte Sometimes” was based on the children’s book of the same name. Those familiar with the song will recognise the book’s opening line: “All of the faces and voices blurred into one face and one voice” (more or less, don’t have my copy here). I’ve been told that their songs “Primary” and “Hanging Gardens” were also based on books in the same series, but I haven’t read them.
Ride’s “Polar Bear”, or the first two verses anyway, were adapted from J.D. Salinger’s Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters.
I’m not sure how closely it follows the book, but “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis (1996 #2) was “inspired by the H. E. Bates novel Love for Lydia”.
there’s also “House at Pooh Corner”, (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 1971, #53)
r.e.m.'s ‘7 chinese bros.’ from their 1984 album reckoning was derived from a children’s story called ‘five chinese brothers’… i’m not sure why they added the extra two brothers.
No it isn’t. Many people have assumed that the line “as the miller told his tale” is a reference to “The Miller’s Tale”, but lyricist Keith Reid says he never read Chaucer in his life.
There’s a fairly obscure Pearl Jam song called “Angel” that is based on the poem “The Eloping Angels” by William Watson. The concept and art for their Vitalogy album was inspired by a late 19th century health guide of the same name, although the songs were not. According to the band the songs on their album Yield were influenced by their reading of Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, with “Do the Evolution” showing the most obvious mark of this.
Disappointingly, the Kinks’ “Animal Farm” is a simple ditty about the joys of a pastoral life and is not a grim political satire at all.
Yes had a track called “Starship Trooper” on “The Yes Album” in 1970. Presumably, that was based on Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi novel, but as usual, Jon Anderson’s lyrics made no sense to me, so I can’t really say whether he intended the lyrics to correspond in any way to the book!
Rush had “Tom Sawyer,” on the “Moving Pictures” album… though I think Neil Peart missed the boat on that one. Tom Sawyer was just a happy-go-lucky kid. It was Huck Finn who embodied the kind of freedom and self-reliance he was writing about.
One strange case - Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon”. Stevie Nicks got the name out of a novel called “Triad”, and had no knowledge of the the Welsh “Mabinogion” myth cycle when she wrote the song - essentially, she was just riffing on the name, which she found intriguing. A large part of her audience assumed she was referring to the Welsh myth because it seemed close enough to fit.
Given that the Mary Leader novel is set in contemporary Wales, and also has a character called “Branwen”, Leader was undoubtedly filching a lot from the myth cycle.
This is a really good question. I know there are a lot of them, but I can’t think of many right now. Certainly Paul Kelly’s song “So Much Water So Close to Home” based on the Ray Carver story of the same name would qualify, even though, IIRC, he kind of missed the point of the story. Amiee Mann’s song, “Jacob Marley’s Chain” is based, of course, on “A Christmas Carol.” I have a vague recollection of hearing that her about the 1939 worlds fair was based on a book she read, but I can’t confirm that. Brittany Spears "Soda Pop is loosely based on Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise On the Authorship of the Pentateuch. "What’s her name from the Eurythmics did two songs for the movie 1984.
I assume songs based on Shakespeare is another thread.
I know there are others - Elvis Costello, Springsteen, Richard Thompson all seem like potential fertile ground.
**Jefferson Airplane ** used a couple of chunks of dialogue from John Wyndham’s “Re-birth” SF novel as the basis for “Crown of Creation”
You are the Crown of Creation
and you’ve got no place to go.
Soon you’ll attain the stability you strive for
in the only way that it’s granted
in a place among the fossils of our time.
In loyalty to their kind
they cannot tolerate our minds.
In loyalty to our kind
we cannot tolerate their obstruction.
Life is Change
How it differs from the rocks
I’ve seen their ways too often for my liking
New worlds to gain
My life is to survive
and be alive
for you
They previously did the same with James Joyce passages in “Re-Joyce” from the “After Bathing at Baxter’s” album. Lots of kicky surreal images that may be much of the boomer generation’s only interaction with Joycean themes.
**Jimmy Webb ** of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” fame wrote “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” which borrows the title at least from Heinlein’s classic. As near as I can find from AllMusic Guide, it first showed up on Glen Campbell and Joe Cocker albums in 1974, on Judy Collins’ “Judith” album in 1975, and has been recorded by Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt and a 1988 Spencer Davis Group release called 24 hours Live in Germany.
No doubt there are many more examples,
including those like “The Candy Man” made from a musical made from a book (Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory).
Anthrax has done several songs based on the works of Stephen King. “Among the Living” comes from The Stand*, “Lone Justice” is based on The Gunslinger, and my personal favorite, “A Skeleton in the Closet”, comes from Apt Pupil.
Blind Guardian has several songs inspired by the works of Tolkien, and one full album, Nightfall in Middle Earth, based on The Silmarillon.
Iron Maiden’s “To Tame a Land” was based on Frank Herbert’s Dune, and they’ve done songs based on “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Bruce Dickinson (Maiden’s lead singer, for those who don’t know) did a solo album called The Chemical Wedding based on the works of William Blake.
Sting said in an interview that the music video for the song Desert Rose was inspired by the book of the same name. Hmmmm… just looked like a car commercial to me.
(He strangely said the song had nothing to do with the book.)