From Book to Great Song

Did you know Kate was born on the exact same day and month as Emily Brontë, 140 years apart?



The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Russian satire about the devil and the Soviet Union, first by the Rollling Stones, then by Guns' n 'Roses - my favourite:




The following text is from Billboard magazine.

George Orwell’s legendary dystopian novel 1984 was the central thesis for Bowie’s 1974 glam rock album Diamond Dogs. It’s present in tracks such as “Big Brother” and, of course, “1984.” It’s haunting, timely and ahead of its time -- just like the book it was inspired by.




Led Zeppelin are hardly the only J.R.R. Tolkien nerds in rock n’ roll history (Rush certainly gives them a run for their money) but The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit soundtracks could have very well been set to the sounds of “The Battle of Evermore,” “Misty Mountain Top,” and, of course, “Ramble On.” Gollum with that precious name drop from Jimmy Page and Robert Plant!



Like Papa before him, James Hetfield has had some things to say about war. In addition to the song “One” (which took cues from Dalton Trumbo’s film Johnny Got His Gun), Metallica paid homage to Ernest Hemingway’s honored Spanish Civil War novel with their own hard rocking take on who time marches on for.



For a children’s book released in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s legendary fantasy novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has some seriously trippy elements. The book, which raises some pretty heady questions about life and death and time and space (and, you know, features a hookah-smoking caterpillar), has inspired countless artists over the centuries. However, nothing captures the “Whooooooa” nature of Alice and her wild adventures quite like Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic tune.  



Named after the seventh chapter of William Golding’s essential novel Lord of the Flies, U2 closed out their 1980 classic Boy with this rattling musical translation of youth and chaos.