Literary Music

hmmm... That's not really what I'm looking for.  I'm looking for popular music that uses some literary work or even author (maybe in the same way Don McClean used Van Gogh in his song "Vincent," only that was an artist, not an author) as its inspiration. 

I suppose we could list a few hundred hymns, folk songs, blues, etc. that are influenced by the Bible. Here's Noel Paul Stuckey's "Wedding Song"

If comic books are included as literature there's Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and Wing's "Magneto and Titanium Man".

The Pretenders did a song called "Thumbelina" but I don't think it has much to do with the fairy tale.

Led Zeppelin did a song called "Moby Dick" and Electric Light Orchestra did one called "The Whale". I'm not sure if either were inspired by Melville but at least ELO has whale song in theirs.

Another song that popped into mind is "The Friends of Mr. Cairo" by Jon Anderson of Yes and composer Vangelis. It might be inspired by the noir movies but the characters started in novels.

Well here is an obvious one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk&ab_channel=RushVEVO

Sarah, I saw Renaissance perform that entire album in February 1976,  It was the only time that that band played "A Trip to the Fair" live.  The Annie Haslam version of Renaissance did a tour in 2011 where they played both "A Turn of the Cards" and "Scheherazade" live and put it on a dvd in which there are several shots of my brother and I in the audience.  So I am one of the few people in the world that can say that I saw the entire "Scheherazade" album done live twice.  And "Ocean Gypsy" is probably my favorite song by them.

one of the best Led Zeppelin songs is inspired from the Lord of the Rings

for music inspired by Tolkien's work, I suggest this album too

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha  written by Miguel de Cervantes

Song by Gordon Lightfoot.  

One of his Greatest Hits

Alan Parsons was a recording engineer for the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Wings.

Pink Floyd album, "Animals"

While it did not quote directly from the book, I'd say this musical work resides directly beside the literary spirit of "Animal Farm".

I like Alan Parsons quite a lot. The work he's done as a recording engineer always seems so clear and well balanced. I love his "Eye in the Sky" album. The music is good and there are also some insightful lyrics as in "Old and Wise".

this reminded me how I once loved Xanadu by this band. Rush were really unique

Kate Bush was a sort of guilty pleasure of mine back in the day:

I tried to come up with something profound but all that I came up with was "Dracula Hates Photoshoots" by Messer Chups. Try to imagine rockabilly surf music inspired by old sci-fi and horror films. I'm still infatuated with this band. They're very creative and seem like they're having an awful lot of fun.

Metallica did a few tunes inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft:

And of course:

Of course there was a band named Lovecraft in the early 70s:

Then of course there are bands named after characters from literature like:

All good stuff.

Since we're on the subject; I should not fail to mention the Parsons Project album release, " I Robot". Like the Poe album this work weaves faithfully through the literary work by Asimov that shares the same title.

Inspired by Ian Fleming's James Bond character

Back around 1980 a radio station in Columbus, Ohio, where I was attending college, collected songs from some of the best local bands and put out an album. This one is about Superman taking a break.