Songs from Literary Masterpieces [Video]

Songs find their way into literary masterpieces often times, adding context, capturing the mood of the story, allowing the reader to enjoy an external frame of reference grounded in the real world.  I love discovering new music via literature, and I find it helps to understand the author better as well. Certainly music inspires everyone, so why would writers be any different?

This is the first installment in a little experiment I call Songs from Literary Masterpieces. When I come across songs in books I often put the book down for a brief moment and listen to the song on the Internet.  It provides a great break from reading if your eyes are tired, and helps add new meaning to the story. Try it some time.

Here are a few I found in my reading sessions:

Songs from Literary Masterpieces

1. Everglades- The Kingston Trio from Tobias Wolff’s, “This Boy’s Life“

This Boy’s Life is one of my favorite books. Wolff is a great storyteller and his ability to capture the trials of youth in a small town is brilliant. This song tells of a man who murders someone and runs away into the Everglades. As the song progresses, you discover that his case was ruled in self defense, making his escape pointless. I’ll leave it to you to discover how it relates to the story. I’d hate to spoil it.

2. (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue- Louis Armstrong from Ralph Ellison’s, “Invisible Man“

Ralph Ellison’s book is full of terrific musical references. This song’s appearance in the book adds to the theme of invisibility and the many difficulties involved in being seen as a human being at the height of racial discrimination in our nation’s history. Louis Armstrong is a national treasure and this song is absolutely brilliant.

3. The Sheik of Araby- Fats Waller from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby“

There are so many references to Jazz music in The Great Gatsby, that you’ll be hard pressed to find a book written about the Jazz Age which better captures the quality of music in the era. With all the buzz surrounding the recent film, hopefully many new readers will discover the book and the music as well.

http://youtu.be/wDy7BihCag4

What are some songs you’ve encountered while reading? Let us know. Perhaps we’ll include them in our next blog post. Happy reading!