Five Songs Inspired by Classic Novels
Literary references take center stage in music and film
Literature abounds in pop culture, if you know where to look. Sometimes, it’s simply a novel placed on a nightstand in the scene of a hit TV show. Other times, books take centerstage and become the subject of the art itself.
With this list, I focus on songs inspired by best-selling classic novels. I also include one spicy number in case you’re feeling extra adventurous.
These picks are in no way exhaustive. Those lists already exist. But this list is unique because it’s curated to my taste. I figure that’s okay because that’s partly why you’re reading it—if you’re a subscriber I figure you may appreciate my individual perspective. The list includes songs I’ve covered for other publications, as well as new ones I haven’t written about yet.
If you enjoy this piece, I’ll most likely cover this subject again in the future in various new editions.
Check out the songs as you read about the backstories and how the songs were inspired by some of our favorite classics.
Some picks may surprise you 🙂
1. “Gentle on My Mind” by Glen Campbell
As a classic country music fan, Glen Campbell’s “Gentle on My Mind” is one of my favorite songs. Its lines are pure poetry. Written by song-poet John Hartford, he was inspired to pen this flowing, feel-good tune after seeing the film, Dr. Zhivago, based on the book by the same name.
The film was directed by David Lean and released to much fan-fare in 1965. The book was written by Boris Pasternak and released in 1957—though it wouldn’t debut in his native Russia until the waning years of Soviet rule in 1987.
The book and film tell the story of Yuri Zhivago and his life during the Russian Revolution, with a love story at the core of the tale.
Though “Gentle on My Mind” is based on Dr. Zhivago, you wouldn’t realize it by simply listening to the lyrics. But a closer look at the backstory reveals its inspiration.
Hartford used to refer to his songs as “word-movies,” making cinema the perfect muse for his music. One evening, after seeing Dr. Zhivago in theaters, he sat down and wrote the song because he couldn’t get the film’s love story between Zhivago and the beautiful Lara Antipova off his mind.
What began as a song inspired by one of Russia’s celebrated works turned into a story-filled, meandering tune about a drifter who is still love-struck despite traveling many miles away from his former flame.
Even long after the song debuted, Hartford remained surprised that Campbell’s rendition of “Gentle on My Mind” made him, according to the St. Lous Post-Dispatch and many others, a “folk hero.”
2. “All the Gold in California” by The Gatlin Brothers
When musician and quarterback Larry Gatlin was assigned a book report as extra credit by his high school English teacher, he almost didn’t complete it. But after a little nudge by Ms. Jones, he read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and turned in his report. But music and football called his name and he soon forgot about the Joad family’s journey to California while trying to escape the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression.
But when stuck in traffic one day in Los Angeles, the novel and its struggling main characters came flooding back to him. The car in front of him closely resembled the Joads, with an Oklahoma license plate, and children and the entire contents of their house stuffed inside the family station wagon. He pondered what they were doing in the Golden State, and what their fate would be.
Suddenly, the first few lyrics to a song came to him, so he grabbed a pencil and wrote as quickly as he could.
Gatlin once referred to “All the Gold in California,” a song about the dangers of pursuing material gain during desperate times, as “the most important three minutes” of his musical life. It is interesting the traffic jam lasted longer than the song. It’s a running theme among musicians—generally, a hit single comes like a bolt of lightning. If you don’t catch it right then and there, it’s nearly impossible to recreate.
Luckily, like any serious lyricist, Gatlin had his trusty pencil and paper in the car, ready for whenever inspiration struck.
3. “Rocket Man” by Elton John
As America dominated and ultimately won the “space race” throughout the 1960s, culminating in the first-ever trip to the moon in 1969, artists were equally as intrigued with the cosmos as those working on Project Apollo, the NASA program that launched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin into space, and landed the astronauts on the moon days later.
Songwriter Bernie Taupin, who famously worked with Elton John throughout the performer’s career, had a penchant for sci-fi. He especially loved Ray Bradbury’s short story collection, The Illustrated Man. One story in particular, “The Rocket Man,” served as inspiration behind John’s top 10 hit by the same name.
He spoke about the origin of the chart-climber with Ultimate Classic Rock, and said, “[That story] was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job. So I kind of took that idea and ran with it.”
He also joked, in essence thanking Bradbury for the idea, “It’s common knowledge that songwriters are great thieves, and this is a perfect example.”
Remember when I said hit songs often strike like lightning? “Rocket Man” came together in a similar fashion.
According to American Songwriter magazine, “In mid-1971, Taupin, who had moved to the United States a year prior, was visiting his parents. Making his way up to Lincolnshire, England, the song’s opening lyrics sprang into his mind, so he wove through back roads as quickly as he could, repeating the lyrics over and over in his head. Soon, he arrived and jotted down what would blossom into one of pop’s most iconic ballads.”
4. “Venus in Furs” by Velvet Underground
I promised you a spicy selection, and I’m delivering with this one. If you want to venture outside much-traversed territory, check out the song “Venus in Furs” by one of my favorite bands, Velvet Underground, headed up by the enigmatic Lou Reed.
Like many song interpretations of the classics, the tune bears the same name as the book. Exploring themes of love, desire, and sexuality, gender roles in relationships, and the psychology of some who wander outside the accepted views of intimacy, the novella gripped many pearl-clutchers after its release in Victorian-era-1870. But it continued to attract the attention of artists like Lou Reed into the 1960s.
The novel was written by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose book left such a mark on readers that the label “masochism” was derived from his name.
To me, Velvet Underground's interpretation of what Reed referred to as a “trashy novel” is spot on. Though I wouldn’t consider the book to be “trashy” in the modern sense. The song is haunting, ethereal, and at times gritty—just like the story.
Though it was considered wildly inappropriate for its time and was often banned, the book could actually be seen as vanilla compared to another popular “trash” novel series of today—50 Shades of Grey. Though, I think a lot more artistic thought went into Venus in Furs than the E.L. James series. Here are some thought-provoking lines from Masoch’s book:
“I now had the leisure to muse about the riddle of human existence, and about its greatest riddle of all— woman.”
"The battle of the spirit with the senses is the gospel of modern man. I do not care to have a share in it."
“I have a vague feeling now that such a thing as beauty without thorn and love of the senses without torment does exist.”
5. “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones
“Pleased to meet you / Hope you guess my name”
One of my favorite songs is “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones. It’s one of those songs for me, like Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”, that transports me to another dimension no matter what I’m doing. Maybe it’s the perfect introduction with syncopated acoustic percussion, or the spacious melody, or Jagger’s ideal vocal swagger.
No matter the reason, the truth is, every time I hear that song my head starts bobbing and my spirit gets a little fiery.
The song has been featured in so many films, one Reddit commenter once said, “I mean, what movie was Sympathy for the Devil not in?” Tropic Thunder, Focus, Suicide Squad and countless other movies and TV shows have used the expressive but airy song in many different contexts.
The song was written by lead Stones singer Mick Jagger and his ageless wonder of a guitarist and writing partner, Keith Richards, who’s still going strong despite falling out of a coconut tree almost twenty years ago.
The popular tune was penned in honor of one of my favorite novels, the Russian classic The Master and Margarita, written by Mikhail Bulgakov. The tale centers around the devil paying a visit to atheist Russia during the reign of the communist Soviet Union. The song is told from his perspective, and includes references to the book itself, including when he “Stuck around St. Petersburg.” The song also gives a nod to the book’s second interwoven plot by referencing Jesus and his executioner, Pontius Pilate.
Jagger’s literary collection also included a lot of the French poet Charles Baudelaire, and he credits his work as inspiration for the funky tune as well.
Read more about Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, and other celebrated Russian artists who defied Soviet rule, by checking out my article “Music on the Ribs” here:
“Music on the Ribs”
While on tour several years ago, musician Stephen Coates did what so many artists do when they find themselves with down time before a show. He spent an afternoon immersed in local culture, perusing a flea market in St. Petersburg, Russia. One item in particular caught …
Do you have any favorite songs based on classic novels? Let me know in the comments below. And as always, thanks for reading!
Good article. The songs of Al Stewart come to mind.
This is just the kind of thing I like to know about the art I enjoy! Thanks!