List of songs based on literary works

This is a list of songs that retell, in whole or in part, a work of literature. Albums listed here consist entirely of songs retelling a work of literature.

Albums AlbumMusical artistLiterary workAuthorCommentsCitationsAn Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End Of All Songs - Part 1Spirits Burning & Michael MoorcockThe Dancers at the End of TimeThree albums covering the three books of the trilogy.KamelotFaustThe Black Halo is a concept album based on Faust, Part Two. It is a follow-up to Epica, which was based on Faust, Part One.CacophonyRudimentary PeniAll 30 tracks are related to Lovecraft or his work.HawkwindBased on aspects of the works of Moorcock, including Elric and Jerry Cornelius. Moorcock, who has appeared with the band on numerous occasions, does the narration on Live Chronicles.Dust and DreamsCamel EpicaKamelotFaustEpica is a concept album based on Faust, Part One. It was followed by The Black Halo, which was based on Faust, Part Two.Virgin SteeleOresteiaAeschylusTwo-part concept album based loosely on the Oresteia of AeschylusJeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds I RobotI, Robot Journey to the Centre of the EarthJourney to the Centre of the Earth LeviathanMastodonMoby-Dick Mägo de OzDon Quixote Hawkwind Moby Dick or The WhaleMoby-Dick Concept album from written from the perspective of various characters in the novel Music Inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Seventh Son of a Seventh SonIron MaidenSeventh Son Shakespeare's Macbeth – A Tragedy in SteelRebellionMacbeth Smallcreeps's DaySmallcreep's Day CamelThe Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk The Songs of Distant Earth Tales of Mystery and Imagination RebellionKing Lear

Songs SongAlbumMusical artistLiterary workAuthorCommentsCitations"7th Step"Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter OneAngela's Ashes "40"WarU2 "1984"Diamond DogsNineteen Eighty-FourOne of several songs that Bowie wrote about Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four; Bowie had also hoped to produce a televised musical based on the book."2112"2112RushAnthemSong shares themes with the novel, such that Neil Peart recognized Rand in the album's liner notes."Abigail"CreaturesMotionless in White "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts"ManowarHomerA retelling of the fight between Hector and Achilles"Adam's Apple"Toys in the AtticAerosmith Retells the biblical story of the Fall of man through the perspective of Adam and Eve's discovery of their own sexuality."Afternoons and Coffeespoons"God Shuffled His FeetCrash Test DummiesAdapts elements of the T. S. Eliot poem. "Ahab"MC LarsMoby-DickRetells the story of Moby-Dick from the perspective of Captain Ahab."Alice"Every Trick in the BookIce Nine KillsGo Ask Alice "All I Wanna Do"Tuesday Night Music Club "All Is Not Well"Wicked "All Nightmare Long"Death MagneticMetallica "All Quiet On The Western Front"Jump Up!All Quiet on the Western Front "Alone"Acoustic VersesGreen CarnationAlone "Among the Living"Among the LivingAnthrax Blessed Are the SickMorbid AngelBased on The Call of Cthulhu, as well as the rest of the Cthulhu Mythos. An earlier version of this song, named "Azagthoth", appeared on the band's demo album, Abominations of Desolation."And Your Little Dog Too"Wicked "Animal in Man"Let's Get Freedead prezAnimal Farm "Anthem"Fly by NightRushAnthemLoosely based on the Rand novel; The band would produce a fuller version in 2112.Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter TwoNothing Like It in the WorldRelates the story of "Poker" Alice IversBarometer SoupTourist SeasonA song about the character Skip Wiley from Hiaasen's 1986 novel."Banana Co." RadioheadOne Hundred Years of Solitude "Las Batallas"Café TacubaCafé TacubaLas batallas en el desierto "Ixtepec"Café TacubaReLos recuerdos del porvenirElena GarroLed Zeppelin IVLed Zeppelin "Behind the Wall of Sleep"Black SabbathBlack Sabbath "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"LiberationBernice Bobs Her Hair "Big Brother"Diamond DogsNineteen Eighty-FourOne of several songs that Bowie wrote about Orwell."Billy Liar"Her Majesty the DecemberistsBilly Liar "Birthing Addicts"UnreleasedMelanie MartinezGo Ask AliceBeatrice Sparks"Black Blade"Cultösaurus ErectusBlue Öyster CultElric of Melniboné "Black Corridor"Space RitualHawkwind "Bloodbath & Beyond"Every Trick in the BookIce Nine KillsDracula "Bob's Country"Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter TwoDon't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight "Brave New World"Brave New WorldIron MaidenBrave New World Ride the Lightning Metallica "Calypso"Solitude StandingHomer"Written from the point of view of the sea nymph who helps Odysseus after he is shipwrecked."Tales of Mystery and Imagination "Cassandra" ABBAHomer "Catcher in the Rye"Distortland "Cent'anni di solitudine"Terra e libertàModena City RamblersOne Hundred Years of Solitude "Chapter 24"Pink FloydI Ching "Chapter Four"Waking the FallenAvenged Sevenfold The title refers to the fourth chapter of Genesis."Charlotte Sometimes"FaithCharlotte Sometimes "Child of the Jago"Kaiser Chiefs "Children of the Damned"Iron MaidenMidwich CuckoosAlso based on two of the film adaptations of that book: Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned"Christabel"No Kinda DancerChristabel "Cometh Down Hessian"Blessed Black WingsHigh on Fire "Communion of the Cursed"Every Trick in the BookIce Nine Kills "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)"Fully Completely "Crown of Creation"Crown of CreationJefferson Airplane "Curse of Athena"AtavismHomerAbout Odysseus's return to Ithaca."Dalai Lama"Reise, ReiseRammsteinErlkönig "Damnation Alley"Quark, Strangeness and CharmHawkwindDamnation Alley "Dante's Inferno"Burnt OfferingsIced EarthInferno Systematic ChaosDream Theater Nemesis DivinaSatyricon "Dead"DoolittlePixies Refurbishes the biblical legend of David and Bathsheba."Dixieland" & The Del McCoury Band "Don Quixote"Don QuixoteDon Quixote "Doublespeak"BeggarsThriceNineteen-Eighty-Four FaithGormenghast "Dunwich"Witchcult TodayElectric Wizard "Edema Ruh"Endless Forms Most BeautifulNightwish "Einstein's Brain"Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter OneDriving Mr. Albert "Elvenpath"Angels Fall FirstNightwish "End of the Night"Journey to the End of the Night "Envoi"Absynthe MindedAbsynthe Minded "Eumaeus the Swineherd"AtavismHomer "Eveline"Why Should the Fire Die?Nickel CreekEveline "Exit Music (For a Film)"OK ComputerRadioheadRomeo & Juliet "Fable"VolcanoGatsbys American DreamLord of the Flies "Flower of the Mountain"Director's CutUlyssesThe 1989 Kate Bush song The Sensual World was based on the closing paragraphs of Ulysses. However, the Joyce estate was unwilling to allow direct use of Joyce's words at that time, so she altered the lyrics. By 2011, the Joyce estate was open to licensing his work to her, so she re-worked that song as Flower of the Mountain, using Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses.title="A Man of Genius Makes No Mistakes": A Joycean Playlist Just in Time for Bloomsday 2015 |url=https://floodmagazine.com/16805/a-man-of-genius-makes-no-mistakes-a-joycean-playlist-just-in-time-for-bloomsday-2015/ |access-date=June 23, 2020 |work=Flood Magazine |date=June 16, 2015 |quote=Kate Bush's musical homage to James Joyce and Ulysses'''s Molly Bloom was a twenty-two-year journey in the making. Originally planned as a musical interpretation of Bloom's last speech in the novel, Bush had to alter the lyrics after Joyce's estate wouldn't allow her to use his words. That track became 1989's "The Sensual World," but in 2011 (after the Joyce estate finally realized how amazing the singer-songwriter is) she was granted a license and rereleased the track in its true form as "Flower of the Mountain." It is more than worth the wait... ...True to its name, the entirety of "Rejoyce" is Jefferson Airplane's psychedelic four-minute retelling of the story of Ulysses. Grace Slick sets scenes from the novel against one of the world's grooviest bass lines.}}</ref> |- |"For Whom the Bell Tolls"||Ride the Lightning||Metallica ||For Whom the Bell Tolls|||| || |- |"Frankenstein"||Horror Show||Iced Earth||Frankenstein|||| || |- |"Franz Kafka"|| ||Scäb||||||A fictional rock opera by the fictional band Scäb from the cartoon series Home Movies.|| |- |"From the Underworld"||Paradise Lost|||||| ||Loosely based on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice|| |- |||Days Go By||||Nineteen Eighty-Four|||| || |- |""|||||||||| || |- |||Vansinnesvisor||Thyrfing|||||| || |- |"Golden Hair"|||||||||| || |- |"Grandpa's Groove" | |Parov Stelar |The Old Man and the Sea|Ernest Hemingway

|"Grendel"|| ||Marillion||Grendel||||A retelling of John Gardner's 1971 novel Grendel, which is a retelling of Beowulf.|| |- |"Hallelujah"||Various Positions|||||| ||Based on the biblical story of David and Bathsheba. It also incorporates elements of the story of Samson and Delilah|| |- |"Haunted"||Haunted||Poe||House of Leaves||||"Haunted" by Poe and the novel House of Leaves by her brother, Mark Danielewski, both draw heavily on their difficult experiences growing up with their father, Tad Danielewski.|| |- |"He Can't Come Today"||||||Waiting for Godot|||| || |- |"Hedda Gabler"||Animal Justice||||Hedda Gabler|||| || |- |"Hell in the Hallways"||Every Trick in the Book||Ice Nine Kills||Carrie|||| || |- |"Hey (rise of the robots)"||Black and White||||I, Robot|||| || |- |"Hey Ahab"||||Elton John & Leon Russell||Moby-Dick||||Based on the character Captain Ahab.|| |- |"Hey There Ophelia"||This Gigantic Robot Kills||MC Lars||Hamlet|||| || |- |"High Rise"||PXR5||Hawkwind||High-Rise|||| || |- |"Home at Last"||Aja||Steely Dan||||Homer||Retells Ulysses' encounter with the Sirens.|| |- |"Horrorshow"|| ||Scars|||||| || |- |"House at Pooh Corner"||Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy||Nitty Gritty Dirt Band||||||This song, written by Kenny Loggins, was later performed by Loggins and Messina on their 1971 album Sittin' In. In 1994, Loggins added additional lyrics and re-recorded it with Amy Grant as Return to Pooh Corner for his album Return to Pooh Corner.|| |- |"House of Leaves"||Juturna||Circa Survive||House of Leaves|||| || |- |"How Beautiful You Are"||Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me|||||||| || |- |"Hug Me til You Drug Me"||Here, Here and Here||Meg & Dia||Brave New World|||| || |- |"I Can't Let You In"||||||Wicked|||| || |- |"I Robot"|| ||U.K. Subs||I, Robot|||| || |- |"In Every Dream Home a Heartache"||For Your Pleasure||Roxy Music|||||| || |- |"In Like a Lion (Always Winter)"||Apathetic EP||Relient K|||||| || |- ||| ||||Tao Te Ching|| || || |- |""||||Monks of Doom|||||| || |- |||Quark, Strangeness and Charm||Hawkwind|||||| || |- |"It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose"||||||Wicked|||| || |- |"Jack of Shadows"|| ||Hawkwind||Jack of Shadows|||| || |- |"Jamaica Inn"||||||Jamaica Inn|||| || |- |"Jean Val Jean"|| ||Edison Glass||Les Misérables|||| || |- |"Killing an Arab"|| |||||||| || |- |"Land"||Horses|||||||| || |- |||Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter One||||||Homer|| || |- |"Lay Down"||Bursting at the Seams||Strawbs|||| || || |- |||Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter One|||||||| || |- |"Let it Show"||||||Wicked|||| || |- |"Listen (The Silences)"||Songs Inspired by Literature, Chapter Two||||Raids on the Unspeakable|||| || |- |"Lolita"||||Elefant||Lolita|||| || |- |||Somewhere in Time||Iron Maiden|||||| || |- |||||Iron Maiden|||||| || |- |"Lord of Light"||Doremi Fasol Latido||Hawkwind||Lord of Light|||| || |- |"Lord of the Flies"||||Iron Maiden||Lord of the Flies|||| || |- |"Lost Boy"|| ||||Peter Pan|||| || |- |"Love and Death"||Dream Harder||||Love and Death|||| || |- |"Love and Destroy"|| ||Franz Ferdinand|||||| || |- |"Lucy"||Liberation|||||||| || |- |||Standing in the Light||Level 42|||||| || |- |"Macondo"|| ||||One Hundred Years of Solitude||||Based on the fictional town Macondo, used by Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude and other of his works.|| |- |"Martin Eden"|| ||||Martin Eden|||| || |- |"Magnu"||Warrior on the Edge of Time||Hawkwind|||||| || |- |"Matilda"||Harry's House||||Matilda|||| || |-