Books and literature inspire musicians all the time. And these four famous musicians “stole” lyrics from books for their songs, though we can’t exactly blame them. In the context of the songs themselves, it’s clear their references to famous pieces of literature were lifted and used out of reverence, rather than an attempt to pass the words off as their own. Let’s take a look!
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1. “Firework” by Katy Perry
Well, this one’s kind of surprising. When one thinks of pop star Katy Perry, one doesn’t usually think of Jack Kerouac. Still, Perry did indeed use an altered line from Kerouac’s On The Road for her hit song “Firework”. And she even admitted to it.
“I got it from a really great book, ‘On The Road’,” said Perry at the Grammys back in the day.
The line in question? “Cause baby you’re a firework / Come on show them what you’re worth / make them go aah, aah, aah / As you shoot across the sky” is a reference to the line “[…] The ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes, ‘Awww!’.”
2. “Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Carol Anne McGowan
Carol Anne McGowan nicked the line “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead / I lift my lids and all is born again” for her song “Mad Girl’s Love Song”. The line is originally from a 1953 poem by Sylvia Plath, and McGowan incorporated the words beautifully into her song. There’s so much heartache and eeriness in this track, and you’ll get the same feeling when reading virtually anything by Plath.
3. “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo” by Patti Smith
Patti Smith loves literature, and that much is clear in the song “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo”. The line “Jesus died for somebody’s sin but not mine” is taken almost word-for-word from famed philosopher Albert Camus’s journals. However, Smith never admitted to lifting the line for her own song; but the lines are almost identical, so there’s no real way around that.
4. “Floater” by Bob Dylan
Through the years, musicians stole lyrics from books without intending to own up to it. Bob Dylan, however, didn’t just nick a line or two for his album Love And Theft. Rather, the whole of the album is bursting at the seams with references to and reverence for Confessions Of A Yakuza by Junichi Saga. Though, it is worth noting that some listeners believe he was outright plagiarizing.
“Floater” is just one song with a direct reference, namely the lines “My old man, he’s like some feudal lord / Why don’t you just shove off if it bothers you so much / I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound.”
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