authors' names in songs

[Charlie]

George Pelecanos has a piece in today's Guardian in which he grumbles that no songwriters ever mention living authors in their songs, although many authors refer to singers and bands in their books.

I'm sure he's wrong, but can't immediately think of who has been the exception to his rule. Tom Russell, maybe? And going back in time, surely somebody mentioned Kerouac or Ginsberg in a song during the sixties?

[NormanD]

"And Ezra Pound and TS Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers..."

Charlie, name that song & writer.

Norman

PS They were probably dead when the song was written

[howard male]

Both Sting and Nick Cave have name-dropped Nabokov. OK, so he's dead, but he was still around up until 1977.

I've always got the impression that living writers (never mind songwriters)don't even like to mention each other unless they're pals.

Musicians are far happier to big-up their influences. Writers only do so if the writer they are saying is great is already part of the literary canon.

Now that feels better - I haven't made a good sweeping statement for ages!

[RobHall]

"And Ezra Pound and TS Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers..."

Charlie, name that song & writer.

Norman

PS They were probably dead when the song was written

Easy-peasy Norman: Desolation Row, Bob D

Has Alicia Keys written her autobiography yet? That would count.

[Con Murphy]

I think Lloyd Cole might have just got in under the wire by name-checking Simone de Beauvoir on Rattlesnakes a couple of years before she died.

And didn't Half Man Half Biscuit do a song about Henry Rollins?

[Dominic]

"For the loneliness you foster I suggest Paul Auster, a book called Timbuktu
...
When I was seventeen I followed my dream up into a high rise block
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow was all I had for company"

- Put a Penny in the Slot by Fionn Regan
(from The End of History, recently released by Bella Union)

He's a singer-songwriter from Dublin who I saw supporting Juana Molina at the Ritzy and was impressed by his swagger. The Guardian said: "the usual suspects influence Regan's style - there are the lilting high notes of Damien Rice, the scathing tone of Bob Dylan and the literate lyricism of Nick Drake - but the frozen heart and warm touch belong to Regan alone" which sounds about right to me.

On the other hand, Timbuktu is hardly Auster's best book, nor is it the most appropraite for the lyric. I'm sure The Invention of Solitude could have been made to fit.

http://www.fionnregan.com

[Dominic]

The Guardian piece focuses on crime writers & their use of rock references (just look at Ian Rankin's Rebus books - and not just the titles).
James Johnson & Terry Edwards of the legendary Gallon Drunk made an album called I was Dora Suarez - they provided a musical background for Soho crime writer Derek Raymond reading extracts from his novel.

(Gallon Drunk is surely one of the best band names ever. I'm overjoyed to discover that there's an offshoot band called Bender.)

[NormanD]

[Desolation Row, Bob D

same album: "....been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books..." Manages to make it scan, too. Another dead one, however.

Norman

[Alan]

Don't forget Explainer name-dropping a good friend of ours, celebrating Carnival in Notting Hill...

[Adam Blake]

Delmore Schwartz was still alive when Lou Reed namechecked him on the Velvet Underground's "European Son" - but he's not mentioned in the lyrics!

"Andy Warhol" by David Bowie? Warhol was alive at the time. He was a writer as well as an artist, and a very good one. (I can highly recommend "From A to B and Back Again".) And on the same album: "Song To Bob Dylan" - Dylan was a published prose writer, if you count "Tarantula".

"Man you shoulda seen them kickin' Edgar Allen Poe..."

[NormanD]

After thought:

Having now read, understood, enjoyed and agreed with the article by George Pelecanos, I now withdraw above suggestions. Authors (usually dead ones) are often included in songs, not out of reverence, respect, or inspiration, but to show off the singer's literary credentials; I think this is what Dylan was doing.

"....been through all of George Pelecanos's books..." scans just as well.

norman

[NormanD]

Dylan was a published prose writer, if you count "Tarantula".

Adam, if you've managed to read it....mazeltov! Surely there's only a handful who have. The only thing I'd count "Tarantula" for is a warning about the downside of amphetamine use. Have you ever noticed how little it figures in all of the reams of textual analyses of Dylan's lyrics?

norman

[Adam Blake]

Of course I haven't read it!!! (Laugh out loud...) It's utter gibberish. With the emphasis on gibber-gibber-gibber-gibber etc etc. Likewise, of course I don't condone amphetamine use (who me?) but I think it HAS been responsible for some very good writing over the years... I think poor ol' Bob had completely lost the plot when he wrote "Tarantula". I'm not a Dylanologist but didn't he write it just after what must have been his greatest period of prolonged creativity?

I've just got cross with Dayna and wrote her a rather snotty post. Now I'm wracked with guilt. Am I a bad person?

Worried.
Adam

[Gordon Neill]

Adam Blake worried:

Am I a bad person?

Yes, you are. Now go and send her a copy of 'Tarantula' as an atonement. That'll keep her confused and occupied for a while.