Would your favorite song be a great novel?

Every time I listen to the Desperado album by the Eagles, I feel like I'm listening to a movie soundtrack. The whole darned record tells one long, coherent story, that I love to hear every so often.

Oh, and as for my favorite song, it would also make a good novel. That song is More Than A Feeling by Boston. Sadly, I don't have the words ready with me and I have never fully memorized them. Only the gist of the song have I truly figured out.

But what I have figured out, really speaks to me in the same way that a good novel would.

Having seen the movie Ode to Billy Joe, I think that songs should probably be left as songs.

I like songs that are brief glimpses of something. "Hoover Factory" by Elvis Costello, for instance. That couldn't be a novel--it's already the right shape exactly.

juneafternoon said:

Songs make me invision scenes within a story (no structure, really, just imagery) that inspires me to incorporate said scene in a plot.

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I owe a whole bunch of scenes in Unbecoming to The Slackers for that very reason.

John Darnielle's (see sig) songs are already like tiny little novels. Tiny little amazing and awesome novels.

Thanks for the link!

So here's my favorite song in the whole wide world, which I don't think would be a cool novel, after all:

More Than a Feeling

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away

Chorus:
It's more than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)
'till I see Marianne walk away
I see my Marianne walkin' away

So many people have come and gone
Their faces fade as the years go by
Yet I still recall as I wander on
as clear as the sun in the summer sky

(Chorus)

When I'm tired and thinking cold
I hide in my music, forget the day
and dream of a girl I used to know
I closed my eyes and she slipped away
She slipped away. She slipped away

(Chorus)

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I agree with Desperado... also,
The Night the Lights went out in Georgia.

Turkey Lurkey said:

I agree with Desperado... also,
The Night the Lights went out in Georgia.

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I think another good one would be Take The Money And Run by the Steve Miller Band, taken from the Fly Like An Eagle album.

Hmm...

Forgive Me by Missy Higgins.

IOh my God how you make it hard
Not to pick the apple
Pick the apple
And Lord I long to give it back

And I was on shakey land
Lost and unsure I opened my hand
And she held it like sinking sand

And all, all, all of my light is for you
And home, home's anywhere you are too
So take this one fallen man on his knees
Saying please

All, all, all of my light is for you
And home, home's anywhere you are too
So take this one fallen man on his knees
Saying please forgive me
Forgive me

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I also always thought that Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley would make a great novel. The Kingston Trio recorded it in the 1950s. It's about a guy getting hung for stabbing his girlfriend (Laura Foster) to death, and is based on a true story. Of course, his name was Tom Dula in real life. What's cool is that I'm related to poor Laura...she's a great-great-great Aunt or something.

Hmm. Maybe I should write that novel?

I'll list a few songs that I'd love to see as a novel:

The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson
I'd love to read a novel about this, it's so amazing.

Rainbowarriors - Cocorosie
That would be one hell of a trippy novel.

Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour - Enter Shikari
Could go either way, maye good, maybe horrible.

The Con (album) - Tegan and Sara
The whole story of the album centres around it being some form of written story (look at the cover art).

DWSTXS said:

I know everyone has favorite songs.......and if you have some favorites that would make a great novel.....let's hear about them....

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Well, since I write romance...U2's ...Trip Through Your Wire...I love the, 'I'm down on my knees for you,' quality of the song...gotta love a guy who's down on his knees...

And just about anything by Robbie Robertson (of the Band). Now there's a storyteller for you... Unbound, Broken Arrow, Down the Lazy River, etc.

EM

Not the whole song, but a snippet from one of my faves helped shape my MC's character.

"It's a fool who plays it cool."

I ended up basing a lot of my subplot for a novel on some parts of Blue Piccadilly by The Feeling. I know I've done similar things with other songs but I can't remember which at the moment. I like the idea of using a song as a prompt / basic outline for a novel though. I must pay more attention to my iPod...

I don't know about a novel, but I've always thought The Dixie Chicks' "Travelin' Soldier" would make a beautiful short story. The first time I heard that song, it made me cry.

Paichka said:

Hmm...

Forgive Me by Missy Higgins.



I also always thought that Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley would make a great novel. The Kingston Trio recorded it in the 1950s. It's about a guy getting hung for stabbing his girlfriend (Laura Foster) to death, and is based on a true story. Of course, his name was Tom Dula in real life. What's cool is that I'm related to poor Laura...she's a great-great-great Aunt or something.

Hmm. Maybe I should write that novel?

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Sharyn McCrumb's used several folk ballads as novel themes.

I'd have to say
Love Song-Sara Bareilles

Head under water
And they tell me to breathe easy for a while
The breathing gets harder, even I know that
You made room for me but it's too soon to see
If I'm happy in your hands
I'm unusually hard to hold on to

Blank stares at blank pages
No easy way to say this
You mean well,
but you make this hard on me

I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you asked for it
'cause you need one, you see
I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you tell me it's
Make or break in this
If you're on your way
I'm not gonna write you to stay
If all you have is leaving I'm gonna need a better
Reason to write you a love song today

I learned the hard way
That they all say things you want to hear
And my heavy heart sinks deep down under you and
Your twisted words,
Your help just hurts
You are not what I thought you were
Hello to high and dry

Convinced me to please you
Made me think that I need this too
I'm trying to let you hear me as I am

[Love Song lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you asked for it
'cause you need one, you see
I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you tell me it's
Make or break in this
If you're on your way
I'm not gonna write you to stay
If all you have is leaving I'm gonna need a better
Reason to write you a love song today

Promise me that you'll leave the light on
To help me see with daylight, my guide, gone
'cause I believe there's a way you can love me
Because I say

I won't write you a love song
'cause you asked for it
'cause you need one, you see
I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you tell me it's make or break in this

Is that why you wanted a love song
'cause you asked for it
'cause you need one, you see
I'm not gonna write you a love song
'cause you tell me it's make or break in this
If you're on your way
I'm not gonna write you to stay

If your heart is nowhere in it
I don't want it for a minute
Babe, I'll walk the seven seas when I believe that
There's a reason to
Write you a love song today

I can totally see this being made into a book, then a movie.

My two favorite songs--well, one of them is already a story-song, of a soldier in a WWI battle, and the other one would definitely make at least a good scene, maybe a short story.

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, by Eric Bogle (my favorite version is by the Pogues)

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?


aaaand

Sunday Morning Coming Down, by Kris Kristofferson and immortalized by Johnny Cash

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin' at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the canyons,
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

Paichka said:

I also always thought that Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley would make a great novel. The Kingston Trio recorded it in the 1950s. It's about a guy getting hung for stabbing his girlfriend (Laura Foster) to death, and is based on a true story. Of course, his name was Tom Dula in real life. What's cool is that I'm related to poor Laura...she's a great-great-great Aunt or something.

Hmm. Maybe I should write that novel?

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Oh, I like that idea!!



Also, "Long Black Veil" would make a good novel. I appear to be in a Johnny Cash kinda mood.

An early Roy Orbison song gave my novel its title and is woven into the plot. Unfortunately, the novel is nowhere as great as the song.

"Hero" by Enrique Iglesias was the inspiration for a short story of mine that I may expand into a novel someday.

most any John Prine song...

TPCSWR said:

The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson
I'd love to read a novel about this, it's so amazing.

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Do you know, I'm not positive, but I think this is actually based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. The Crimson King is The Big Bad in those books.