Times Review of Poet Songs Left Out Some Other Gems
Okkervil River Was Just One of the Bands That Mentioned the First Poet Named Dylan
As a subscriber to The New York Times, I have the privilege of receiving a weekly online article about music. Appropriately titled The Amplifier, columnist Lindsay Zoladz discusses a list of songs that are all related by some current topic.
She introduced her choices of rainy songs at the beginning of April, and she shared a number of songs related to the eclipse that overtook the country on April 8. Last Friday, in honor of the new Taylor Swift album called The Tortured Poets Department, Lindsay provided seven songs that mention a poet at some point within their lyrics.
Included of course were Simon and Garfunkel's “The Dangling Conversation,” which references both Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. “Cemetery Gates” by the Smiths is an obvious inclusion, since it names both William Butler Yeats, John Keats and Oscar Wilde.
No list of poets in music would be complete without Bob Dylan, whom she includes for his allusion to Verlaine and Rimbaud in “You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Patti Smith and Lana Del Rey are among the female artists mentioned, while Frankie Cosmos rounds out the list because of his musical ode to “Sappho.”
As impressed I was with such eclectic choices, I could not help but consider some of the other songs that were passed over. Here are an additional eight tunes that, just as those of The Amplifier list, all mention a poet in them.
1. Old Futures Gone by John Gorka
Album: Old Futures Gone
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Poet Referenced: “So kiss the joy as it goes by poet William said, Blake the poet said” bemoans the folk singer, citing the British well-known for Songs of Innocence and Experience.
2. A Simple Desultory Philipic by Simon and Garfunkel
Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Release Date: October 24, 1966
Poet Referenced: “When you say Dylan he thinks you mean Dylan Thomas, whoever he was,” Paul Simon jokes on this tribute to contemporary Bob Dylan.
3. Famous Tracheotomies by Okkervil River
Album: After the Rainbow Rain
Release Date: April 27, 2018
Poet Referenced: “Dylan Thomas he had a tracheotomy” states Wil Sheff in this song about others who underwent the same procedure, including Ray Davies, Gary Coleman and Mary Wells.
4. Longfellow Serenade by Neil Diamond
Album: Serenade
Release Date: June 29, 1974
Poet Referenced: As the title might suggest, Diamond dedicate this Top Ten hit to the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
5. A Modest Proposal (A Song for Swift) by Jonathan King
Album: Pandora's Box
Release Date: February 28, 1973
Poet Referenced: Jonathan Swift, the Gulliver's Travels essayist/poet who shares the first name of the artist who recorded this and the last name of the artist who inspired this list.
6. Am the Walrus by The Beatles
Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Release Date: November 27, 1967
Poet Referenced: “You should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe,” says John Lennon, alluding to the American writer known for his fiction as well as some beautiful poems.
7. The Lakes by Taylor Swift
Album: Folklore
Release Date: July 24, 2020
Poet Referenced: “what are my words worth” sings Swift in the last verse, using a play on the beloved British poet William Wordsworth.
8. Strawberry Blonde by the Eels
Album: A Man Called E
Release Date: February 2, 1992
Poet Referenced: “She'll leave cobwebs on my be, EE Cummings coming soon” Mark Oliver Everett predicts, appreciating the influential American poet famous for his lack of punctuation.
