Music Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe
Anyone who has read any of Edgar Allen Poe’s work knows that there is an extraordinary amount of feeling and emotion in his writings. Most people, however, just take it as it is and wonder what was going on in Poe’s head when he wrote that. However, a few talented people have taken it a different way and been inspired to transfer this emotion into music. In this essay I am going to explore how Edgar Allen Poe influenced two completely different modern musicians. The Alan Parsons Project of the seventies takes a more classic rock approach to write their music. And the godfather of punk, Lou Reed who puts a little more hard rock into their attempt at recreating the works of the great Edgar Allen Poe. ... They created this album show in a musical way their perspectives on three poems and four short stories written by Edgar Allen Poe. ... Allen Parsons managed to combine the musical styling of seventies, “soft” progressive rock with writings more than 100 years old at the time. ... The opening track, “A Dream Within a Dream”, is completely instrumental along with an introduction reading by Orson Wells’ making it a perfect fit with Poe’s Poem. ... It finally climaxes with loud drums, which could represent the “roar of the surf-tormented shore” from the middle of Poe’s poem. Then the song progresses back to the original bass line and merges into “The Raven” “Raven” is probably “Tales of Mystery and Imagination’s” most well known songs, which probably had to do with it also being one of Poe’s most popular poems. Alan Parsons also decided to change the original poem, a bit before putting it over music, creating a modernized version of Poe’s “The Raven”. ... Following “Raven” is an eerie interpretation of Poe’s short story “Tell Tale Heart”. ... The album’s fifth track was inspired by one of Poe’s greatest stories, “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”, so it was a natural choice for special attention from the group. Similar to the previous songs, it doesn’t straight out put the story on top of music. ... The next couple tracks were all inspired by Poe’s story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, another of his more famous poems that couldn’t be left out. ... The “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” album comes to a conclusion with a song inspired by a very short poem written by Poe, as part of “Raven and Other Poems” collection published in 1845.