# Songs About Single Works of Art **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822 "2015-10-26T21:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/41 "2015-10-27T23:46:44Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Xanadu, by Rush. > > Relates the problems of being the guy who finds Xanadu. It doesn’t end well for him. How could it not end well? I mean, Olivia Newton-John with rollerskates! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Agothnic\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Agothnic\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agothnic_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/42 "2015-10-28T01:55:50Z")
I’m gonna go with works of art in general, including myths, so here’s all I can think of at the moment. Panic! At The Disco- The Ballad of Mona Lisa S.J. Tucker- Sorrow’s Song (Orphan’s Tales, technically a series of stories compiled into one book) Muse- Resistance (1984) Damh the Bard- Blodeuwedd and Heather Dale has a whole slew of songs based on the King Arthur legends ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/43 "2015-10-28T13:37:09Z")
> [@bup](#): > > _Mona Lisa_ - can’t believe I didn’t think of that one. :smack: Her [sister](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mona_Lisa%27s_Sister) even got her own album ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/44 "2015-10-28T16:55:24Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Mussorsky’s _Pictures at an Exhibition_? > > In the rock-pop world, I seem to remember a deep cut by some early 70s prog rock band about a painting – Yes? King Crimson? Moody Blues? It’ll come to me. I’m pretty sure you’re referring to King Crimson’s “The Night Watch,” which Biffy already mentioned. That song appears on the _ **Starless and Bible Black** _ album, and is a musical description of one of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings. MUCH later, a newer lineup of Crimson put out a song called “Two Hands” (on the _ **Beat** _ album), which is all about two lovers in an erotic painting (but I don’t know if the painting is supposed to be a famous one). If we’re counting works inspired by literature, the Byrds’ “Space Odyssey” is a musical retelling of Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel,” on which the movie \*\*\*2001 \*\*\*was based. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/45 "2015-10-28T16:58:38Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > “Vincent” is about van Gogh’s whole oeuvre, not just Starry Night. Well, the only Van Gogh work cited by name was “Starry Night,” but you’re right- the lyrics allude to other Van Gogh works. When Don McLean sings of “ragged men in ragged clothes,” he may well be referring to “The Potato Eaters.” > **[The Potato Eaters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Potato_Eaters)** > > The Potato Eaters (Dutch: De Aardappeleters) is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands. > It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The original oil sketch is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and he made lithographs of the image, which are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The painting is considered to be one of Van Gogh's masterpieces. > During March and the beginning of April 1885, Van Gogh sk... ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/46 "2015-10-28T17:05:59Z")
[Examples of ecphrasis](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=427612) ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/47 "2015-10-28T17:14:13Z")
The whole **Alan Parsons Project** “Tales of Mystery” album, each track based on a separate Edgar Allen Poe work. The Raven especially rocks on that album. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/48 "2015-10-28T17:26:27Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > MUCH later, a newer lineup of Crimson put out a song called “Two Hands” (on the _ **Beat** _ album), which is all about two lovers in an erotic painting (but I don’t know if the painting is supposed to be a famous one). I believe it was a painting by Crimson singer Adrian Belew’s then-wife, Margaret. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/49 "2015-10-28T19:17:34Z")
Well, if we are including books there’s always Rick Wakeman’s _Journey to the Center of the Earth_… ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/50 "2015-11-04T19:22:58Z")
There was this song called “[Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lucy+in+the+sky+with+diamonds+drawing&view=detailv2&&id=1380382F6742345D43180A5DA64BA23B88506FCC&selectedIndex=0&ccid=g9TKfIg%2f&simid=608039543070852783&thid=OIP.M83d4ca7c883fced6d4e2d0b6f02a971cH0&ajaxhist=0)”… … and from literature, Mott the Hoople’s “The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception”, although I don’t think the song really has anything to do with the Kerouac poem. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/51 "2015-11-04T21:43:14Z")
My all-time favorite song, **Lies** by Stan Rogers, refers to So this is beauty’s finish, like Rodin’s [“Belle Heaulmière”](http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/11.173.3), The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife’s toil and care. … [She] thinks ahead to Friday, 'cause Friday will be fine She’ll look up in that weathered face that loves hers line for line To see that maiden shining in his eyes And Springsteen refers to “She makes Venus de Milo/look like she got no style” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/52 "2015-11-04T23:53:56Z")
Michelle Shocked’s ‘Looks Like Mona Lisa’. (The subtitle, in vey small letters, is ‘smells like tuna fish’.) Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The Indigo Girls cover is better. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822/53 "2015-11-09T12:24:31Z")
\*You’ve been the subject of so many dreams Since I climbed your torso Oohh-ooh-oh-oh My Statue of Liberty Impaled on your hair what do you, do you do to me?\* [XTC - Statue of Liberty](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXhY1GX5dhU) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-single-works-of-art/735822.md?page=2)