Another DNTO piece
My latest DNTO piece — "Changing Jackets: When Books Become Music" — will be running for a full hour from 3 - 4 pm on Saturday, December 3, 2005. Be sure to check www.cbc.ca/dnto for specific show details; they usually update their site on Fridays, the day before broadcast. Don't know where CBC is on your local dial? Check out www.cbc.ca.
"Changing Jackets: When Books Become Music"
Everybody knows that a good book can make a great movie, but you'd be surprised just how often the same can be said about popular music. And while they many not realize it at first, almost anybody can name a song based on a piece of literature. In fact, some songs — like "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" — have become such household tunes that we often forget they were ever anything else . . . but I'm sure L. Frank Baum would be very surprised indeed to discover his "Wizard of Oz" inspired not one but three completely different musical interpretations.
But we're not just talking American standards or Broadway shows here: artists ranging from Jefferson Airplane and Kate Bush to Loreena McKennit, The Rheostatics, Cat Power, 54-40 and Badly Drawn Boy have tackled works by the likes of James Joyce, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, Paul Quarrington, Michael Turner, Chaucer and Lord Tennyson . . . not to mention an entire album of indie rock based exclusively on the haikus of Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet George Seferis.
Throw in a few classics like Jane Eyre, The Lord of the Rings, The War of the Worlds, Les Miserables and Alice in Wonderland, plus some rare grooves by the likes of Cameron Crowe and Nick Hornby, and you've got an hour of great music that can't help but inspire you to pick up a book.
"Changing Jackets: When Books Become Music"
Everybody knows that a good book can make a great movie, but you'd be surprised just how often the same can be said about popular music. And while they many not realize it at first, almost anybody can name a song based on a piece of literature. In fact, some songs — like "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" — have become such household tunes that we often forget they were ever anything else . . . but I'm sure L. Frank Baum would be very surprised indeed to discover his "Wizard of Oz" inspired not one but three completely different musical interpretations.
But we're not just talking American standards or Broadway shows here: artists ranging from Jefferson Airplane and Kate Bush to Loreena McKennit, The Rheostatics, Cat Power, 54-40 and Badly Drawn Boy have tackled works by the likes of James Joyce, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, Paul Quarrington, Michael Turner, Chaucer and Lord Tennyson . . . not to mention an entire album of indie rock based exclusively on the haikus of Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet George Seferis.
Throw in a few classics like Jane Eyre, The Lord of the Rings, The War of the Worlds, Les Miserables and Alice in Wonderland, plus some rare grooves by the likes of Cameron Crowe and Nick Hornby, and you've got an hour of great music that can't help but inspire you to pick up a book.
posted by John T. @ 10:04 PM
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