The history of music is filled with songs that were inspired in the most weird and wonderful ways. While it might not be immediately obvious when listening to them, plenty of hugely popular songs owe their existence to fantasy books and stories that captured the imagination of the songwriter.
How Fantasy Has Entered the Entertainment Scene in Different Ways
Before looking at specific songs, it’s worth considering how the fantasy genre has now filtered into mainstream entertainment in different ways. The start of the 20th century saw early fantasy movies like A Trip to the Moon and The Thief of Baghdad released. However, it was in the latter half of the century that the likes of Conan the Barbarian and Edward Scissorhands saw this genre reach new heights of popularity. The massive success of the Lord of the Rings series between 2001 and 2003 also helped fantasy movies reach a new, wider audience.
The ideas in fantasy books and movies have appeared in many other ways, such as TV shows including Game of Thrones and Outlander. Since it covers such a wide selection of ideas, the fantasy genre has now reached into many diverse areas like game shows, books and art. The live Adventures Beyond Wonderland game shows how fantasy has arrived in the casino industry. While it’s based on spinning a wheel of fortune, the costume worn by the presenter and the wacky characters in the background reveal the fantastical ideas behind it. It’s part of the live game show category, where Sweet Bonanza Candyland Live and Cash or Crash Live also add fantasy elements.
The Creative Songs That Rock Our Imagination
Led Zeppelin leaned more heavily on fictional worlds for their inspiration than most groups. The Battle of Evermore is a good example of this, as this 1971 folk song takes elements from The Lord of the Rings and turns them into a memorable number. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote it in a single sitting, while Ramble On and Misty Mountain Hop are among their other songs inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendary novel.
Steeleye Span based songs on Terry Pratchett’s books, while Chronicle of the Black Sword by Hawkwind is another example of fictional characters being added to a tune. Elton John sang Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, with writer Bernie Taupin using this term from L. Frank Baum’s novels as a metaphor for the desire to return to a simpler life.
The Beatles relied heavily on their imagination and experiences to create fantasy-based songs like I Am the Walrus and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, while adding snippets from books and movies. This summary shows us that the Beatles included a huge number of literary references from works by Lewis Carroll, as well as Timothy Lear quotes and more.
By digging deeper into songs, we can see that many songwriters over the years have been inspired by fantasy books and movies. The references aren’t always obvious, which makes looking for them a lot of fun — and can even lead to you uncovering some hidden treasures that make you see songs in a new light.
