So where would the music world be without the dark world of mystery and horror that Edgar Allan Poe left for us to read with a candle and a bracing shot of absinthe by our arm? Well, everything would probably sound like the Jonas Brothers.įor the love of God, Montresor! Happy birthday, Edgar! Without Lovecraft, there would never have been a whole branch of heavy metal dedicated to Cthulhu and the other elder gods, and we would have lost a pretty big chunk of Metallica's catalog. Without Poe there never would have been H. The number of acts that have done versions simply based on the sad heroine is even longer. Popular recordings of 'Annabel Lee' span more than 60 years of music, starting with Frankie Laine and including country legend Jim Reeves, folk singer Joan Baez and indie-rock band Draught.Īnd that's just the people who performed 'Annabel' whole and unaltered. Then there's his famous poem 'Annabel Lee,' which most of us read in high school. Even Iron Maiden and 30 Seconds to Mars have done tributes to 'The Raven.' The amount musical tributes to and adaptations of Poe's works is huge, with no less a legend than Lou Reed himself dedicated an entire double album to his famous long-form poem 'The Raven,' a record that features readings by Steve Buscemi and Willem Defoe.Ī song based on The Raven was included on an Alan Parsons Project album of tunes based on Poe's work, of which 'The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether' made it into the Top 40. He drank himself to death (shades of Jimi Hendrix), married his 13-year-old cousin (shades of Jerry Lee Lewis), and a lot of people think he may have killed Mary Rogers in a psychotic, drugged out haze (shades of Sid Vicious). Poe gets all this simply for being Poe, not even for the recognition of his works.

You'd hear more about her, but she and Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy are in a corner somewhere bitching about their record labels and not releasing awesome music like they should. Why? Because as a child she once dressed as him for Halloween. Of course, one of the most talented musicians of the late '90s and early '00s was called Poe. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the band loved his romantic, melancholy, emo-kid attitude. Is that good enough for you? The Fab Four name-dropped the man in one of their most famous songs, 'I am the Walrus,': 'Man you should've seen kicking Edgar Allan Poe.' Among their many other heroes, Poe was also on the cover of Sgt.

Music inspired by edgar allan poe