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Someo Therguy View Drop Down
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Points: 274 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 18:44
Originally posted by lightbulb_son lightbulb_son wrote:

My favorite use of poetry is from Ambrosia's self-titled album. At a lull in the music, this guy with an extremely scary voice (he sounds like the guy that does the intro to Maiden's The Number of the Beast) recites "Jabberwocky".

And of course, Maiden has a song on Powerslave named "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
 
Since you mentioned Ambrosia, the lyrics to their song "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" come from a poem in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s book "Cat's Cradle"
 
Another one I like, though it isn't strictly poetry per se, is on Bill Brufords "One of a Kind". The beginning of "Fainting in Coils" is part of the Mock Turtle's speach in Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland".
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Points: 274 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 19:01
I pulled this off of Wikipedia. While I don't think Bellew actually quotes the poetry of the beat writers, I think the references are none the less noteworthy for this thread.
 

Beat is an album by the band King Crimson, released in 1982.

Its title is partly inspired by the writings of the beat generation:

  • Track 1, "Neal and Jack and Me", is the track on the album most obviously inspired by beat writers. The 'Jack' of the title is beat writer Jack Kerouac, and the 'Neal' of the title is Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady.
  • Track 3, "Sartori [sic] in Tangier", also derives its title from beat influences including the Jack Kerouac novel Satori in Paris, and the city of Tangier in Morocco, where a number of beat writers resided and which they often used as a setting for their writing. Writer Paul Bowles was associated with the beats, and his novel The Sheltering Sky, which provided the title for a track on King Crimson's previous studio album, Discipline, is partly set in Tangier.
  • Track 7, "The Howler", may refer to the beat poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
  • According to the Trouser Press Record Guide, the album focused on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's On the Road.

 
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Points: 10266 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 19:05
Originally posted by bhikkhu bhikkhu wrote:

      The most obvious choice is The Alan Parsons Project "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." I know there are more, but nothing comes to mind. In non-prog, Donovan does a cool tune with Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle" on his 2004 album, "Beat Cafe."
    
Alan Parson's Project is NOT an obvious choice; the songs are based on stories plus a poem by Poe, but the actual words of these stories were not used for the songs that relate to them, not even of the poem ("The Raven").
Between use several texts by Hermann Hesse for their "Hesse Between Music" album.
Agitation Free use a poem by Poe ("Dreamland") on their second album.
Mother Gong use a lot of excerpts of Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" on their album "Fairy Tales".
The Third Ear Band (or Roman Polanski, take your pick) use the words of a song Fleance, the son of Banquo, sings in Shakespeare's "Macbeth", for their music to the movie adaption by Roman Polanski; the character that plays Fleance (Keith Chegwin) sings it, accompanied by the Third Ear Band, of course.



Edited by BaldFriede - June 28 2006 at 19:30


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Points: 4202 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 19:20
Novalis: Wundershätze (words by romantic era poet Novalis 1772-1801) on the album Sommerabend.

And Es Farbte Sich die Wiees Grün (also Novalis) on the album Novalis.

Both are very good imo.


Edited by Rocktopus - June 28 2006 at 19:24
Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
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Points: 4202 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 19:26
Both Ulver and fellow norwegian Finn Coren (proggy) has an album each with songs based on William Blakes poetry. 
Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Points: 10266 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 19:35
Originally posted by Rocktopus Rocktopus wrote:

Novalis: Wundershätze (words by romantic era poet Novalis 1772-1801) on the album Sommerabend.

And Es Farbte Sich die Wiees Grün (also Novalis) on the album Novalis.

Both are very good imo.

Just to correct the spelling of the German titles: It is "Wunderschätze, with a "c" ("Wonderous Treasures")" and "Es färbte sich die Wiese grün" ("The meadow tinted green").


Edited by BaldFriede - June 28 2006 at 19:36


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Points: 5109 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 20:55
Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:


Originally posted by bhikkhu bhikkhu wrote:

      The most obvious
choice is The Alan Parsons Project "Tales of Mystery and Imagination."
I know there are more, but nothing comes to mind. In non-prog, Donovan
does a cool tune with Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle" on his 2004
album, "Beat Cafe."
    
Alan Parson's Project is NOT an
obvious choice; the songs are based on stories plus a poem by Poe, but
the actual words of these stories were not used for the songs that
relate to them, not even of the poem ("The Raven").
Between use several texts by Hermann Hesse for their "Hesse Between Music" album.
Agitation Free use a poem by Poe ("Dreamland") on their second album.
Mother Gong use a lot of excerpts of Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" on their album "Fairy Tales".
The Third Ear Band (or Roman Polanski, take your pick) use the words of
a song Fleance, the son of Banquo, sings in Shakespeare's "Macbeth",
for their music to the movie adaption by Roman Polanski; the character
that plays Fleance (Keith Chegwin) sings it, accompanied by the Third
Ear Band, of course.



Terribly sorry. How could I have overlooked those selections?
a.k.a. H.T.

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reality View Drop Down
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Points: 318 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2006 at 23:33
Originally posted by Ghost Rider Ghost Rider wrote:

Great thread for a lover of literature like me! Thumbs Up There's a few examples that come to my mind, though there may be a million others:

William Blake's "Jerusalem" in the ELP song of the same name (not to mention in Bruce Dickinson's "The Chemical Wedding" album, which is based on Blake's work)

S.T. Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" in Rush's "Xanadu"

From the same author, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in the Iron Maiden song of the same name (yes, OK, they're not prog, but I love them all the same Tongue)
 
Maidens "Rime" is one of the best (if not the best) musical interpretation of an epic poem I have ever heard! Maiden has the gift of being so visual in their music. ELP does a good "Jerusalem" based on the choral work but I am partial to Dickinson's "Jerusalem" just brilliant! Finaly Rush's Xanadu is just a classic...
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Points: 10094 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2006 at 00:35
I'm surprised no one mentioned Symphony X's "King of Terrors," which is not only about "The Pit and the Pendelum" (Poe), but actually features and uses a few lines verbatim from it


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Points: 192 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2006 at 01:21
In the song Dreams by vertigo band Still Life, the opening is a quotation from a shakespeare's play. Don't remember which.
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Points: 500 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2006 at 03:50

Another Rime of the Ancient Mariner record is the prog/experimental David Bedford one he mad with Mike Oldfield on guitars. In fact, it didn't use the poem per se, but some narrative explanations by the author that appeared from the second edition (I think) on.

 
Also, Mike Oldfield used Hiawatha by Wadsworth and Hymn to Diana by Ben Jonsosn in 'Incantations'
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Points: 67451 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2006 at 03:50
There's a James Joyce poem "Golden Hair" on Syd Barrett's first solo album.
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Points: 3497 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2006 at 02:22
Ladies and gentlemen!!!
 
I have revealed that there is an ultimative album for this thread. It's on my shelf for many, many years, but I didn't even think about it when I have sent the opening message of the thread.
 
This album is not included into PA and , in my opinion, it has no chance to be included. The story goes as follows:
circa 1975 the Soviet composer David Tukhmanov recruited a number of musicians and singers and created a one-shot album "By the Wave of My Memory", where the classical verses were sung. I don't think the music was too progressive (BTW, Tukhmanov himself played all keyboards, the other instruments used were - guitar, bass, violin, drums). But the spirit of the album was very progressive, I don't think somebody did something like this in the Soviet Union in the mid-70's. The cover is also exstremely progressive, featuring (probably) fragments of classical painting. At least, I recognise there Albrecht Duerer's St. Antonius.
 
Look now at the list of the poems used in the album (translations are partly mine, therefore they may not fit the right translations; my apologies).
 
1. Maximilian Voloshin "Mindly I Enter Your Cabinet"  -- sung in Russian.
 
2. From Sappho (no title)  -- sung in Russian.
 
3. From vagantes (no title)  -- sung in Russian.
 
4. Charles Baudelaire "L'invitation au Voyage" ("Invitation to the Voyage")  -- sung in Russian.
 
5. Percy Bysshe Shelley "Good Night"  -- sung in English.
 
6. Nicolas Guillen "By the Wave of My Memory"  -- sung in Russian.
 
7. Paul Verlaine "Promenade Sentimentale" ("Sentimental Stroll") -- sung in Russian, with a couple of original lines sung in French.
 
8. Johann Wolfgang Goethe "Herz, mein Herz" ("Heart, my Heart")  -- sung in Russian, with a couple of original lines sung in German.
 
9. Anna Akhmatova "Confusion" (or "Commotion")  -- sung in Russian.
 
10. Adam Mickiewicz "A Devotion to the Album"  -- sung in Polish, then in Russian.
 
Looks impressive, doesn't it?
 
One of the most favourite albums, for some personal reasons.


Edited by Fassbinder - July 02 2006 at 05:22
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Aaron View Drop Down
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Points: 395 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2006 at 10:45
The Haunted Palace (i think that's what it is) is "sung" by Agitation Free on there 2nd album and it is just awesome.  It has unbelievable atmosphere.
 
Aaron
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Points: 854 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2006 at 16:30
Novalis is the obvious choice, as was said above.

Also Hölderlin is named after a German poet, but I'm not sure if they actually quote him in their songs.
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Points: 3497 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2006 at 16:54
That's another thread: bands named after the names of writers or after the names of their stories.
Hermann Hesse leads: (Der) Steppenwulf, Siddhartha, Igra Staklenih Perli.
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Points: 10266 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2006 at 21:19
Originally posted by Aaron Aaron wrote:

The Haunted Palace (i think that's what it is) is "sung" by Agitation Free on there 2nd album and it is just awesome.  It has unbelievable atmosphere.
 
Aaron

It's "Dreamland"; look at my post. Smile


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Points: 1509 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 03 2006 at 00:31
Originally posted by Ghost Rider Ghost Rider wrote:

Not strictly poetry, but literature in general: Yes' "The Gates of Delirium" was inspired by Tolstoy's masterpiece "War and Peace".
 
This is true, but more importantly I think it was inspired by all the bad ink that Tales was getting. LOL
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Points: 24429 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 03 2006 at 00:46
Yesterday I was watching the Iron Maiden "Death on the Road" DVD, in which the song "Paschendale" (about World War One - and a very proggy track to boot!) was introduced by some lines of Wilfred Owen's poignant "Anthem for Doomed Youth". I thought it was an especially nice touch on the part of the band. So much for heavy metal being music for blockheads!Wink
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Points: 1509 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 03 2006 at 01:00
Originally posted by Ghost Rider Ghost Rider wrote:

Yesterday I was watching the Iron Maiden "Death on the Road" DVD, in which the song "Paschendale" (about World War One - and a very proggy track to boot!) was introduced by some lines of Wilfred Owen's poignant "Anthem for Doomed Youth". I thought it was an especially nice touch on the part of the band. So much for heavy metal being music for blockheads!Wink
 
Only if they get it, and only if they get it. Smile
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