Canadian singer-songwriter Jean Leloup’s “ Edgar” offers one possible version of Poe’s mysterious final days the French singer Mylène Farmer’s album Ainsi Soit Je is a collection of songs inspired by her favorite literary figures, including the Poe homage “Allan.” And in the 1975 musical Snoopy!!!, the Peanuts kids are stressed out after being assigned a book report on “Edgar Allan Poe.” There are a few songs inspired not by specific Poe works, but by the author himself. The Smithereens adapted the doppelganger story “ William Wilson,” and Thrice turned “The Masque of the Red Death” into the song “ The Red Death.” On her album Gemme, French singer-songwriter Nolwenn Leroy gave us musical versions of two Poe poems, “A Dream” and “The Lake ” punk rockers Finch also offered a pair of Poe on Say Hello to Sunshine, turning the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Berenice” into the songs “The Casket of Roderick Usher” and “Reduced to Teeth.” And though it might seem an awfully specific musical niche, two different Norwegian metal bands were moved to write musical versions of Poe’s lament of isolation, “Alone,” Arcturus and Circus Maximus (as “From Childhood’s Hour”).įolksinger Phil Ochs wrote music for the onomatopoetic “ The Bells,” and Canadian metal band Annihilator produced a musical version of “ Ligeia,” a story of love mysteriously reincarnated. The story of a murderer’s guilt, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” was turned to music by New Found Glory and by the Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo (as “Corazón Delator”). The classic poem of midnight dread, “The Raven,” inspired songs by Queen (their version was called “Nevermore”) and by the Greek metal band Rotting Christ. “Annabel Lee,” in which the narrator mourns his long-dead love, has been sung by Frankie Laine, Stevie Nicks, and Joan Baez the Baez version was covered by the Spanish rock band Radio Futura. Several poems and stories have inspired multiple musical versions. Similar Poe-pourris are offered by the psychedelic band The Glass Prism, on 1969’s Poe Through the Glass Prism, and by British art-rockers The Alan Parsons Project, whose 1976 Tales of Mystery and Imagination produced a pair of minor pop hits in “The Raven” and “(The System of) Dr. Trombonist and big-band leader Buddy Morrow came late enough in the big-band era that his music straddled the fields of jazz, pop, and R&B his 1960 album Poe for Moderns is a collection of tunes inspired by several different Poe works. We start in the world of popular music, with a few full albums devoted to Poe.
Today, we took a look at Poe in music, and the many musicians who have been inspired by his poems and stories. In Monday’s “Week to Remember” post, we looked at the life and literary career of Edgar Allan Poe, and some of the books inspired by his work.
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