Songs as story tellers

This post looks at songs which tell a story or are inspired by literature. There are writing prompts and inspiration at the end of the post.

Prior to the wider use of the written word, cultures  spanning the globe used oral traditions such as story telling and songs to pass on fables, parables, their history and beliefs. They inform the next generation of what they have learned and how perhaps they can be wiser. Most of us grew up with stories warning us of predatory behaviour. Stories such as 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'The Three Little Pigs' warn us early in our lives not to trust strangers.

Song writers today are often telling the story of their experiences and history. Some use literature and the stories of others to inspire them. Others use the metaphor of a story to illustrate a point. 

The title track 'Crocodile  from my latest EP was inspired by one of the many stories tour guides in Australia tell to warn of the dangers of crocs and give the tourists a good old scare. However this story was in part true. Two women went swimming and realized they were not alone in the water. As the story goes the younger of the two said "he doesn't want you he wants me". She encouraged her friend to swim towards the boat as she swam towards the croc. This part of the story stuck with me. A woman who had bound herself to a crocodile, it reminded me of toxic relationships fuelled by obsession and abuse. Where the abused partner resigns themselves to impending doom by focusing on the intensity of the relationship.

 Through the fear of loss, insecurity and jealousy they will warn off all other rivals condemning themself to what they feel is their fate. This struck a chord with my own and other's experience. So what started as a croc scare story had become a warning about negative emotional patterns and abusive relationships. 

" We are bound for eternity

It's not your time to go he wants me

So you better swim for your life

Cause I am his and he is mine"

Listen to Crocodile by Bower

           Artwork by Laura Daligan

What helped me musically to bring the drama out in this song when recording was working with a producer who composes for film and game. Máté Moldován had a sensibility for painting a picture sonically which matched my lyrical story telling.

(Click here to hear more of his work)

I mentioned before in my post about 'Location Inspiration' how Gerry Raffety had been inspired to write 'Baker Street ' by a book he was reading called 'The Outsider' by Colin Wilson about alienation and creativity.

Pet Shop Boys had quoted directly from both literature and film when writing 'West End Girls'

 The lyrics were inspired by a James Cagney gangster film and TS Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. Songwriter Neil Tennant reflects on what he likes about the poem; 

 ".... the different voices, almost a sort of collage...I've always found that very powerful. So on 'West End Girls' it's different voices."

One of the most famous songs drawing from literature is 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush. Bush draws on the story of Cathy and Heathcliff and their turbulent relationship  taking on the role of Cathy as she sings;

'Heathcliff it's me,Cathy 

Come home now 

I'm so cold

Let me in at your window"

 Setting the scene with lines such as

 

"Out on the wiley, windy moors

We'd roll and fall in green

You had a temper like my jealousy

Too hot, too greedy"

Another of my favourites is 'Romeo and Juliet ' by Dire Straits. Referencing Shakespeare's characters and bringing it up to date with his own experience of a mis timed and ill fated love affair.

"Juliet, when we made love you used to cry

You said 'I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die"

(Dire Straits)

"Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,

 Take him and cut him out in little stars,

 And he will make the face of heaven so fine

 That all the world will be in love with night"

(Shakespeare)

Another writing resource, even older than Shakespeare is mythology. Regina Spektor in her song 'Oedipus' is inspired by the tragic story of Oedipus rex who is left to die in the mountains as his father the king was warned he would kill him. Oedipus ends up unknowingly and unintentionally fulfilling the prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother 

"Someimtes I'd stand by the royal wall

The sky'd be so big that it broke my soul

And I stood on my toes to catch a glimpse

Of my mother's eyes and my mother's skin"

The bible and other religious texts have inspired songwriters for centuries, Spektor retells the story of Samson from the Hebrew bible, about a man with super human power which resides in his hair. He is betrayed by his partner Delilah when she removes his hair and power.  

"Your hair was long when we first met........

Oh, I cut his hair myself one night

A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light"

Other examples of Greek mythology include 'Orestes' by A Perfect Circle about a man who kills both his mother and her movement avenge his father.

"Gotta cut away, clear away
Snip away and sever this
Umbilical residue that's
Keeping me from killing you"

 'Minerva' the Roman goddess is referenced by Deftones here as the Song is about a mature woman of wisdom. 

Writing in character can be a great exercise in empathy. Stepping inside someone else's mindset and experience which to an extent I did with Crocodile and some of my earlier writing in a duo called 'Skuro'. One of my favourite albums is 'Of Red Tooth And Claw' by Murder by Death (who were named after a film). This album was a turning point in Adam Turla's vocal style. His voice is considerably  deeper and more gruff than in their earlier albums to the point you would think it was another vocalist.

Turla commented in an interview with Indy Week:

"...you have an antihero character who is trying to make it home, and encountering all these obstacles along the way..... He’s a real dirtbag and he starts to realize that along the way."

Another anti hero is covered in 'Sympathy for the Devil' by The Rolling Stones and was inspired by 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov. 

The story starts with Satan introducing himself to men discussing Jesus. Mick Jaggar also mentioned the influence of Charles Baudelaire. The devil is the voice of the song and admits he was present through the tragedies, brutality and the darkness in human history 

 "I was there when Jesus Christ

Had his moment of doubt and pain...

I rode a tank

Held a general's rank

When the blitzkrieg raged

And the bodies stank"

Taking on a stage persona or character for Song writing was obviously something that the late great David Bowie did with his character Ziggy Stardust, an egotistical Alien rockstar in 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars' 

Bowie explains in an interview in 1977 that he wanted to consider what a rockstar messiah was like and created an alien rockstar character. Bowie stated this is all he wanted to achieve but after listening to his album his audience  placed extra layers upon the character and Bowie. He reflects it confused people because the album is written from the point of view of three different characters, which is common in literature but not so common in music.

Led Zepplin's 'Stairway To Heaven ' although not necessarily inspired by literature is told like a poetic allegory stating that "not everything that glitters is gold" and there is much illusion in the world.

"In a tree by the brook

There's a songbird who sings

Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven"

Zepplin have however drawn directly from fiction by mentioning characters from Tolkein's 'Lord Of The Rings' in their Song 'Ramble On'. Interestingly Robert Plant grew up in the Midlands where Middle Earth is said to be based on.

 "Twas in the darkest depths of  Mordor

I met a girl so fair

But Gollam, and the evil one crept up

And slipped away with her"

As a songwriter I feel it is important to keep your ear out for stories, indulge in literature and poetry in order to feed the imagination and the soul. Authenticity and honesty is very important to me as a writer and so I understand where writing in character or retelling someone else's story could be uncomfortable. However the stories we think are important and worth telling says a lot about us too. Literature can give us other eyes to see through and experience things we may never experience otherwise. Taking your listener on a journey, providing them with a character, sharing a new world with them still forms a connection between songwriter and listener and connection is for me is one of the most important reasons we create.

Writing Prompts

Write as a character from fiction

Use a quote or phrase from fiction as a song title/first line

Take a book and flick through at random using a phrase or character on that page

Choose a scene in literature/theatre/film summarise in a Song

Which piece of literature does your life or situation resemble? 

Which literary work would you like to be in? Write a song as if you are in it what would you do?

Is there a character in a book you would like to be? What would you do if you could be them for a day? Which attributes do you wish you had?

Choose a period in history you are interested in and write from the standpoint of someone from another time

Write from the viewpoint of a mythical creature such as a Phoenix. 

Write as if you are a God/Goddess legendary hero