poets in songs

[starmack]

I am looking for songs which mention the names of famous poets and writers.
Your help deeply appreciated.

[billy44]

Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions mentions Simone De Beauvoir.
Great song it is too!

[Quizmonkey]

The Smiths song "Cemetry Gates" (Morrissey's spelling!) mentions Keats, Yeats and Oscar Wilde.

[Quizmonkey]

Wordsworth:

You may feel this is a cheat but the chorus of "Wordy Rappinghood" by the Tom Tom Club goes "What are words worth?"...

[Quizmonkey]

And of course Paperback Writer by the Beatles has the line "Based on a novel by a man named Lear" (as in poet Edward Lear).

[Quizmonkey]

For writers (ie, not poets) in songs there are loads! Check out We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel, and The Booklovers by the Divine Comedy. Then there's To Be Or Not To Be by B A Robertson, and Don't Stand So Close To Me by the Police.

[paddywak]

How about Vincent by Don McLean I cann't remember if he is mentioned by name but the song is definatly about VanGogh

[paddywak]

Sorry i'm not thinking straight thought you were after artists

[starmack]

Hi Quizmonkey
Is that BA Robertson song the one we used to hear on the radio about 30 years ago which said "I thought Milton, Burns and Keats" were Scotland's midfield men..."

[Famous5]

Home thoughts from Abroad by Clifford T Ward mentions Keats and William Shakespeare

[Glossopswift]

I'll offer 'Are you ready to be heartbroken?' by Lloyd Cole, which references Norman Mailer.

[Quizmonkey]

No Starmack, To Be Or Not To Be is all about (guess who?) Shakespeare:

Now I'm a little shy
I like to stay home-e-o
Shakespeare's my guy
Julie and Romeo

etc etc

[starmack]

Hi to billy44
See Lawrence Donegan, who played with Lloyd Cole and Commotions, writing in the sports pages of the Guardian today.
Ratrtlesnakes one of my fave albums.

[starmack]

Hi Quizmonkey
You're right. i'm told that BA Robertson song was probably called "Maggie" and that Terry Wogan used play it in the mornings. Ring any bell? I had forgotten it in terms of my own question.

[Zen]

http://lyrics.doheth.co.uk/songs/clifford-t-wa rd/home-thoughts-from-abroad/home-thoughts-fro m-abroad.php

Great song,great artist sadly no longer with us.

[starmack]

Hi, thanks to all. None of these were on my list and quite a lot of surprises. I had forgotten Lloyd Cole, even though I was a big fan. Overnight I added two songs of my own - "Dangling Conversations" by Simon & Garfunkel, which mentions poets Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson and the Beach Boys 1970s hit "California Saga" which name-checks the 1962 Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. I have also thought of an irish band, A House, which name-checked hundreds of poets, writers etc in "Endless Art."
I also posted this teaser on the Quizzes and Puzzles site.
PS - Was it BA Robertson who wrote the theme tune for Terry Wogan's nightly TV slot back in the 1980s???

[starmack]

Posted this query - with further answers on the MUSIC page, nbot the Puzzles page!

[Kingaroo]

from Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"
Situations have ended sad,
Relationships have all been bad.
Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud.
But there's no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

[Kingaroo]

Tim Curry's "I do the Rock" is chock full, this is just the first verse:

Edith Sitwell giving readings
14 Moscow Road
Osbert's giving champagne parties
Sachie's got a cold
Gertrude's hanging pictures
Alice making tea
Me, I do the only thing that still
makes sense to me
I do the Rock
I do the Rock Rock