MUSICAL HOMAGES

Which book inspired this Led Zeppelin classic? 10 book-inspired songs

Image: Alan Alves

Music and literature have always intertwined, and musicians have a long tradition of drawing inspiration from their favorite books to create musical homages. From timeless classics to modern novels, these songs pay homage to the written word in their own way, attempting to capture the ideas behind each book in a melodic form.

Join us to find out the inspiration behind 10 popular songs that celebrate literature through music.

Image: Abigail Keenan

Kate Bush's haunting ballad "Wuthering Heights" is inspired by Emily Brontë's classic novel of the same name. The song - written by Bush at age 18 - was her debut single and strived to capture the tumultuous love between the novel characters Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, echoing the book’s gothic themes through an ethereal composition punctuated by a gliding guitar solo. Even more, some of Catherine's dialogue from the novel is directly quoted in the lyrics.

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Iron Maiden's lyrics for "The Trooper" are inspired by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's epic poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" - which, in turn, was inspired by a historical cavalry charge that took place in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, during the Crimean War.

With a galloping rhythm that evokes the fast-paced action of the soldiers of the Light Brigade and powerful lyrics that pay homage to Tennyson’s prose, "The Trooper" transcended genre boundaries, and is now one of the most popular songs of the band.

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One of the band’s many rock’n roll anthems, The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" is mostly penned by Mick Jagger, but it draws inspiration from a couple of sources. In particular, the song derives ideas from the writings of French poet Baudelaire and a novel by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov called The Master and Margarita, a satirical dark comedy where the devil visits the Soviet Union. Interestingly, it was English singer Marianne Faithfull who gave Bulgakov’s book to Jagger, believing he could be interested.

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As you would guess, David Bowie's "1984" is inspired by George Orwell's dystopian novel of the same name. Originally, Bowie intended to produce a full-fledged musical out of the novel’s plot, but the owners of Orwell’s state never authorized it. The song's lyrics obliquely hint at the novel’s plot, while playing with the themes of surveillance and government oppression.

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Bruce Springsteen's folk-rock ballad "The Ghost of Tom Joad" references John Steinbeck's 1939 classic novel The Grapes of Wrath. Besides borrowing the title character of Tom Joad from the book, the song's lyrics depict the struggles of the working class, echoing the novel's portrayal of poverty and social injustice in the Great Depression era. Springsteen also drew inspiration from Woody Guthrie’s similar song "The Ballad of Tom Joad", trying to stay within the protest song tradition.

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Led Zeppelin was known for often finding inspiration in classic fantasy novels, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that their folk-rock hit "Ramble On" was directly influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The song's lyrics reference characters and locations from the novels with a modern twist, cleverly leading the audience to realize that Middle Earth’s dangers and delights are both closer than they seem.

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Inspired by the character Mrs. Robinson from Charles Webb's novel The Graduate, the song was first composed for the 1967 movie of the same name. Film director Mike Nichols was obsessed with the duo, and reached out to ask them if they could write one or two songs for the film’s soundtrack. While initially doubtful, the band eventually went through with the request, delivering one of their most iconic songs in the process.

Image: Victor Larracuente

Borrowing imagery from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic anthem was an instant hit among the hippie crowd of the late 60s, and reached the top of the charts soon after being released. The song's lyrics mirror the surreal and nonsensical elements of Carroll's iconic works while reframing the White Rabbit character as a symbol of countercultural exploration and curiosity.

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Rush's "Tom Sawyer" is a loving exploration of the main character of Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The song's lyrics celebrate the adventurous spirit and autonomy of Twain's iconic character while implying that it is referring to an adult - hypothetical version - of the character, who is thus posed as a role model for confronting modernity’s hardships. The iconic song was acclaimed by both critics and fans, and is still one of the most recognized songs from the Canadian rock titans.

Image: ROBIN WORRALL

The Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me" draws inspiration from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. The song deals with a controversial topic that mirrors the theme of Nabokov’s novel and references the novel directly in the lyrics. While the song received some backlash for both the subject matter and using some off-putting rhyme techniques (like rhyming "shake and cough" with Nabokov) it still reached the top of the charts, and was the best-selling single of 1980 in the UK.

THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

All The Ways Ancient Greece Influenced The Modern World

Image: Aleksandar Pasaric

Ancient Greece stands as a beacon of civilization, a cradle of democracy, philosophy, arts, and more and it continues to blow our minds centuries later.

This captivating country has come a long, long way, and it has evolved over thousands of years influencing the world as we know it today in more than one way: political structures, sports events, scientific discoveries, everything we take for granted today was once a breakthrough made by this civilization.

Read on and delve into some of the most influential aspects of Ancient Greece!

Image: Arnaud Jaegers

Democracy is probably among the most important contributions from Ancient Greece. Even if it was exercised differently, the essence of democracy still remains.

According to its Greek roots, democracy means "government by the people" and it is a form of government by means of which the power is vested in the people who, directly or indirectly, choose their representatives through elections.

The difference between democracy then and democracy as we know it today, is that only a small portion of the population was allowed to participate. In Ancient Greece, the democratic government consisted of an assembly of 6,000 adult male citizens who voted on all kinds of issues. Similar to today’s system, a majority of votes were needed for laws to be passed.

Thanks to the evolution of societies and the system itself, men and women from all walks of life are allowed to vote and contribute to democratic governments today.

Image: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA

The institution of trial by jury is a cornerstone of modern legal systems, but it can be traced back to the democratic principles discussed before. This concept back then was not so different from today’s: it was a judicial process that aimed to provide a resolution to conflicts and justice in civil and criminal matters.

The jurors were chosen through a random allocation among the citizenry and they were in charge of hearing the evidence, assessing the testimonies, and determining the innocence (or not) of the accused.

This breakthrough shaped legal systems and principles that are still set in stone today and it remains a fundamental way to cherish the principles of justice and democracy.

Image: Bryan Turner

No Gods are honored in the present, but we still hold some of the traditions of this ancient sports event. The Olympic Games, which receive their name after the city they were held in, Olympia, were much more than just a sporting event back then.

First and foremost, the Olympics were a sacred ritual to honor Zeus, the God of the Sky and Thunder, they were held every four years and all kinds of (sometimes dangerous) sports were played. Swimming, gymnastics, and "pankration" a hybrid between wrestling and boxing, that could turn the place into a bloodbath in a matter of minutes.

Today, the Olympics aim to bring the nations together to feature their sports stars, but some traditions are still displayed: the olive leaf crowns, the opening and closing ceremonies, and, of course, the great lightning of the flame.

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Zeus, Hercules, Hera, Hades, you probably know all of these names. That is because Greek mythology and its stories are some of the best-known in the whole world. Not only served us with legendary myths of every topic we can imagine, but it has inspired thousands of versions of those myths and their main figures.

Greek mythology inspired iconic pieces of art, like The Birth of Venus, a painting by Sandro Botticelli that depicts the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and desire.

On the other end of inspiration, Greek Mythology made it all the way to Disney movies, considering that their version of "Hercules" is one of the most famous adaptations of the myth.

The variety of universal topics dealt with in Greek mythology has permeated and there is no sign this will stop anytime soon.

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Ancient Greece contributed to medical advancements that represented a pivotal moment in the evolution of healthcare practices. Medicine as a discipline was already a common practice in places like China or Egypt, but the standardization of it can be attributed to the Greeks. In this sense, modern medicine is very similar to ancient medicine since it consists of a diagnosis and a consequent treatment.

Moreover, Hippocrates, a well-known physician of the time, made contributions in terms of work ethics. For this reason, he is known as the "Father of Medicine" and his name is still honored with the title of the oath made by doctors today, the Hippocratic Oath. We have him to thank for the categorization of diseases and the use of prognosis too.

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The concept of beauty and proportion of the ancient Greeks is probably one of their most characteristic features. Even if we think of the time, the architectural achievements are a true testament to the artistic prowess of this civilization.

At the heart of this field, we will find Doric, Ionic, and Corinthians orders. Each of these had distinctive features and proportions and they all exemplified different things. The Parthenon, a masterpiece of Doric design, for example, was praised for its harmonious proportions and mind-blowing craftsmanship.

Temples, theaters, stadiums, agoras, and all kinds of civic buildings were just the beginning of architecture as we know it today. Together with democracy, the principles embodied in their view of architecture can be easily considered to keep inspiring us centuries later.

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Ancient Greece and philosophy are one and the same. And that is because the philosophical heritage of the Greeks was a true cradle of civilization.

This doesn’t mean they invented "thinking," but they surely came up with a name for the art of it. Philosophy comes from two Greek words, philos, which means "love" and sophia****, "wisdom." In essence, the discipline was in the quest for knowledge and tried to systematically answer existential questions.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the fathers of philosophy, responsible for laying the foundations of a comprehensive system. Their work has shaped thousands of studies and sciences around the world and throughout history offering deep insights on the human condition and reality itself. Academic knowledge as we know it today, especially in the Western world, wouldn’t exist were it not for these key figures.

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This ancient civilization has left a mark also through words and lexicon. Fields like mathematics, astronomy, medicine and, as we said, philosophy are full of terminology with roots in the Greek language.

The ancient Greek language is unparalleled in terms of precision and clarity, and its grammar had a profound impact on the development of linguistic theories and analysis of today. Needless to say, our understanding of language structure, morphology, and syntax wouldn’t be the same without the influence of the ancient Greeks.

In the same way, literary contributions were the way to preserve all these cultural elements we discuss today. Books like the Iliad and the Odyssey, which depict the Homeric epics, laid the groundwork for narrative conventions that are still present in Western literature today.

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Ancient Greek art stands today as a testament to their ceaseless pursuit of beauty, symmetry, and the human form. The art of this civilization encompassed a wide range of media including pottery, painting, and sculpture.

The most iconic features were the mastery of technique and, again, an acute sense of proportion which was an innovation back then. And quite impressive today when you come across any of their sculptures. In terms of topics, the Greeks were concerned with universal themes in all fields: human nature, beauty, and truth.

They have undeniably influenced all kinds of artistic movements throughout history and this is a legacy that continues to inspire artists and art lovers today.

Image: Pixabay

The naval innovations of the ancient Greeks are also a defining chapter in maritime history. At the forefront of this revolution stood the trireme warship which, as its name indicates, was powered by three rows of oarsmen arranged in tires. This ship boasted unparalleled speed and agility and enabled the Greeks to assert control over strategic points and trade routes in the Mediterranean.

Their expertise showcased a sense of innovation and they became pioneers in shipbuilding which ultimately shaped the evolution of sea voyages and traditions to come.