Most pretentious literary reference in a song

my votes are for "Cemetry Gates" by The Smiths and "The Dangling Conversation" by Simon and Garfunkel

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The Smiths, "Cemetry Gates"

A dreaded sunny day
I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people all those lives
Where are they now ?
With loves, with hates
With passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died
It seems so unfair
Oh, I want to cry

You say : "'Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn"
And you claim these words as your own
But I've read well, and I've heard them said
A hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
If you must write prose and poems
The word you use should be your own
Don't plagiarise or take "on loan"
There's always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh
When you fall

You say : "Long done do does did"
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text
From whence was ripped
(Some dizzy whore, 1804)

A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're happy
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Oh, Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're wanted
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose
'Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine

Sure !
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Simon and Garfunkel, "The Dangling Conversation"

And you read your emily dickinson,
And I my robert frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what weâ??ve lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.

I agree with you on the smiths. I love them but usually turn off my brain when listening to moz singing about oscar wilde.

It is ironic that moz steals the words for his song about someone stealing the words. Does the song list Keats Yeats and Wilde as writers in the credits?

Just like the old man in that famous book by Nabokov

"Killing an Arab" by The Cure is the most pretentious literary song, period. So much so that most people when they heard it didn't realize it was about the main character from Camus' L'Estrange. (And I'm totally being a pretentious literary snob by referring to the book by its original French title :p ).

Any of the 70's classic rock/prog rock references to Middle Earth would definitely have to be up there.On the flip side of the coin I always enjoyed the Red Hot Chili Peppers nod to Dr.Seuss with Yertle the Turtle.

Originally posted by j_lee:
"Killing an Arab" by The Cure is the most pretentious literary song, period. So much so that most people when they heard it didn't realize it was about the main character from Camus' L'Estrange. (And I'm totally being a pretentious literary snob by referring to the book by its original French title :p ).

good call, i'd pop that up to the top of the list.

Originally posted by j_lee:
"Killing an Arab" by The Cure is the most pretentious literary song, period. So much so that most people when they heard it didn't realize it was about the main character from Camus' L'Estrange. (And I'm totally being a pretentious literary snob by referring to the book by its original French title :p ).

i'm going to top your literary snobbery by pointing out that it's actually titled l'etranger..

Originally posted by Sir HC:
It is ironic that moz steals the words for his song about someone stealing the words. Does the song list Keats Yeats and Wilde as writers in the credits?

He gives credit to them both in the song itself, ya wallie!

Originally posted by j_lee:
"Killing an Arab" by The Cure is the most pretentious literary song, period. So much so that most people when they heard it didn't realize it was about the main character from Camus' L'Estrange. (And I'm totally being a pretentious literary snob by referring to the book by its original French title :p ).

It would be even more pretentious had you spelled it correctly.

Sting or The Police:
"just like the /old man in/that book by Nabokov"

Originally posted by keithstg:
It would be even more pretentious had you spelled it correctly.

I know, but by the time I realized it wouldn't let me edit the post anymore…d'oh.

"read Norman Mailor or get a new tailor"

Llloyd Cole, are you ready to be heartbroken?


Can we include plagiarism?

"In a river the colour of lead"

Smiths, this night has opened my eyes
from
Sheilagh Delaneys taste of honey
from
Conrad heart of Darkness

Rush is full of them. 2112 was an 18 minute rehash of Ayn Rand's book "Anthem". And let's not forget Xanadu, which stole almost directly from Coleridge's poem "Kublai Khan". At least the music rawked. ;)

But when all is said and done, any literary reference by solo era Sting wins since he's possibly the most pretentious and pompous jackass in music. And to think I thought he was so cool when he was in the Police.

the go-betweens have had their moments

from their first single Karen

â??Helps me find Hemingway/Helps me find Genet/Helps me find Brecht/Helps me find James Joyce/She always makes the right choice.â??

and

'The House that Jack Kerouac built'

how about the decemberists the tain

and

John Vanderslice Celllar Door, which is about some poem or other. Pollard will remember, he is pretentious.

I know a song off of Rhett Miller's The Instigator name drops Don Dellilo, as does Gold Mine Gutted off the Bright Eyes Digital Ash CD…..cant get anymore pretentious than that

Originally posted by stu47:
I know a song off of Rhett Miller's The Instigator name drops Don Dellilo, as does Gold Mine Gutted off the Bright Eyes Digital Ash CD…..cant get anymore pretentious than that

the rhett miller dellilo reference is in "world inside the world." great song.

Originally posted by Deepak Chopra:
John Vanderslice Cellar Door, which is about some poem or other. Pollard will remember, he is pretentious.

One Song, Pale Horse, features lyrics adapted from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Mask of Anarchy".

Like, dude, you know, like, that Pink Roid album where it's all really about, like, the Wizard Of Oz, and stuff…