|
|
posted 03-09-2010 02:03
|
|
I'm on the hunt for examples. There are multiples of a few poems of course, Jerusalem for one, though I'm only aware of one musical arrangement. Blake generally seems a favourite to add a melody to. Allen Ginsberg catches his maniacal aspect nicely on The Sick Rose.
There are several treatments of Yeats's The Stolen Child as well, I imagine The Waterboys is the best known, but Loreena McKennitt's done a version and I believe there are others. Poe is another biggy here's Marissa Nadler's Annabelle Lee.
Oddly the musical poem I probably listen to the most often is The Fugs doing Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. Strange because they're the most musically bereft group of musicians I've ever heard, not bad you understand just...well...limited. Here I think they get it just right. Wonderful poem, brilliant adaptation.
|
|
|
|
 Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 03-09-2010 02:04 By Amor de Cosmos.
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 02:28
|
|
|
Does Ginsberg's Ghetto Defendant on Combat Rock count?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 02:51
|
|
|
Donovan recorded musical versions of W.B.Yeats' poetry on some album in the seventies...I recall "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was one.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 03:00
|
|
|
Amor, are you looking only for "pop" examples?
There are a large number of lieder examples, not to mention warhorses like the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth (text from a Schiller poem).
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 05:04
|
|
|
Not necessarily, but I'd like to be able to understand the words which probably limits things to English — or simple French.
Donovan recorded musical versions of W.B.Yeats' poetry on some album in the seventies...I recall "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was one.
I don't know that I've heard anything by Donovan since the late 60s, I'll see if I can track it down.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 06:29
|
|
A couple of examples I can think of:
Natalie Merchant's new album 'Leave Your Sleep' is a collection of American poetry set to music. I haven't heard much of it yet but it seems to have got positive reviews. Here's one track from it:
The Man In The Wilderness
The Byrds did a couple of poems set to music too - Bells of Rhymney and Turn! Turn! Turn!
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 08:57
|
|
|
PM for you, Amor.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 09:16
|
|
|
Mike Read and David Essex did a load of songs with lyrics from John Betjeman poems. Myfanwy, for example.
I think that The Smallest Church In England by British Sea Power is a Betjeman poem, too.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 09:25
|
|
Basically...
In the Nursery - Whole albums dedicated to the stuff, in a variety of languages.
Anne Clark - Teen-angst for grown-up(?) Goths.
C (real name Leslie Winer) - Political 'tone poetry' from a kind of modern beatnik pissed-off feminist, set to proto-Trip Hop beats (from 1990-92). That description sounds like an utter nightmare, but it's actually far from it and rather unique. She's also quite a character. I think she even did some time, which might have been for killing a bloke, although I can't be certain of that!
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 09:27
|
|
|
By the way, I should probably point out that when I say Mike Read, I mean Mike Read the former radio 1 DJ, not Mike Read the washing machine.
He's got lovely breath, you know.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 09:33
|
|
|
Purves Grundy wrote:
He's got lovely breath, you know.
Did you capture some of it in a small vial, so you could wear it around your neck as a pendant from which to insufflate in moments of weakness or despair?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 10:53
|
|
|
Syd Barrett did a version of Joyce's "Poem V". "Lean out of the window, Goldenhair," and all that.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 11:00
|
|
|
Mike Westbrook did an album of settings of Blake poems called Bright As Fire.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 03-09-2010 11:01 By Andy C.
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 11:11
|
|
|
I know this isn’t going to help much, but I can remember a review of (what I think was) the first Funkdoobiest album stating “vital, urgent urban poetry or three men shouting about drugs – you decide?”
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 11:41
|
|
|
The Beach Boys have a couple of songs on the Holland album. 'All this is that' borrows most of the lyrics from Robert Frost's 'The Road not taken', while, as far as I can recall, 'The beaks of eagles' was an entire poem read by Mike Love over a backing track. Better than it sounds, though.
The Byrd's 'Turn Turn Turn' is from the Book of Ecclesiastes, so not sure if it really counts as a poem.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
Last Edit: 03-09-2010 12:17 By henry.
Reason: finally figured out how to spell Ecclesiastes
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 11:54
|
|
here are a large number of lieder examples, not to mention warhorses like the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth (text from a Schiller poem)
That was Pamela's coming down the aisle tune at our wedding. Albeit an instrumental version.
We left to a heavy metal guitar version.
We thought it was funny, anyway.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 12:10
|
|
|
I think James Brown's King Heroin was an adaptation of a poem though the original author is supposed to be a mystery.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 12:20
|
|
|
The Beach Boys have a couple of songs on the Holland album. 'All this is that' borrows most of the lyrics from Robert Frost's 'The Road not taken'
That's on Carl and the Passions - So Tough.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 12:24
|
|
|
Strange Fruit was originally written as a poem; it was only later that the author himself set it to music.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
posted 03-09-2010 12:56
|
|
|
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a pleasure dome e-RECT!"
(Slight misquote, I grant you.)
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
MESSAGE BOARD 
