The public radio program To the Best of our Knowlege this weekend was devoted to the power of the written word. One segment that caught my imagination was about the SIBL (Songs Inspired by Literature) project. Deborah Pardes uses music to connect low-level readers with works of literature. Some of the songs are written expressly for SIBL (there’s an annual songwriting contest), but there are hundreds of well-known songs by successful artists that have the same kind of connection.
I always knew that Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” was as much about Alice in Wonderland as it was about drugs, and it’s pretty obvious that the singer of Sting’s “Moon over Bourbon Street” is either Lestat or Louis from Interview with the Vampire, but I didn’t realize until today that one of my all-time favorite heavy metal tunes, “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” by Blue Oyster Cult, was inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Elric books.
Kewl songs
I’ve got the Volume One of this series and absolutely love it. It’s split about half between new/unknown artists and established/well-known artists.
How to turn 11th grade boys on to Coleridge:
Bring in Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave” album & let them listen to “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Just one of the bits of wisdom my mom has learned during her 35+ years as an English teacher.