Literati Playlist: Paste breaks down music inspired by books

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Literati Playlist: Paste breaks down music inspired by books

POSTED: Monday, August 24, 2009, 6:15 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Music Song

Today on the Paste mag blog, Justin Jacobs gives us his top-10 book-inspired songs (including No. 10, "a healthy portion of Led Zeppelin"). Prompted by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard's Kerouac project, Jacobs has cobbled together a healthy list of "odes to the written word."

No. 1, not too surprisingly, is the Decemberists' "Song for Myla Goldberg." Jacobs says of the band that "isn't called 'literate' by a journalist every other day for nothing": "Although Colin Meloy might as well be a librarian of classic folklore, this tune from the band's Her Majesty is about the contemporary author of 2000's Bee Season. Let's hope Meloy doesn't follow it up with 'Ode to Stephenie Meyer.'"

Also on Jacobs' list are The Hold Steady's "Stuck Between Stations," Mastodon's "Blood and Thunder" and "Bukowski" by Modest Mouse.

Watch "Myla Goldberg" below, and in the meantime, what'd be on your literati playlist? Holler in the comments if you've got knowledge to drop.

Jesse D

Posted 2009-08-24 14:54:54

There's not a single song inspired by the Bible on the list; suck it, Creed!

The 10 tracks on Leviathan crush every other song on this list.

Molly Eichel

Posted 2009-08-24 15:12:48

They skewed pretty new with this list. I understand that it's Paste and all so Rush's "Tom Sawyer" isn't expected but what about "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by the Police or "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits?

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay" @ 6:15 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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