The Edgar Allen Poelay List

This is A Playlist Infiltrated and Inspired By The Spirit of Edgar Allen Poe and a conversation with my good friend Lesley. It is on YouTube here.

I’ve loved the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and thanks to eBooks his works are available for next to nothing. They have been the source material for so many films, and very often they are very plausible to happen for real.

I have just re-edited this to include the songs if you don't want to visit the YouTube playlist.

So here is the list, the Edgar Allen Poelay List

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Archangels Thunderbird by Amon Duul II

One of my favorite Amon Duul II songs because of that loping circular chord riff and the fact that I can actually play the music. The song has something to do with any Edgar Allen Poe Story but this is the second verse and that nails its entry for me. It is the lead song for this post because of the awesome video which I have used before, and no doubt will use again. By the way, Amon Duul's name resulted from the original band being called Amon Din, a hill or mountain in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth stories. They split into Amon Din and Amon Duul, then Amon Duul split int Amon Duul and Amon Duul II.

Go to Edgar Allen

In the tower of sleep

He'll tell you a story

Which makes you to creep

The echo of your cries

Is falling so deep

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Lady Eleanore - Lindisfarne

Written by Alan Hull after reading “The Fall of the House of Usher”, This is a ghostly wondrous and magical otherworldly journey in the writer's imagination. You are not sure whether you should be worried or impressed but you probably will listen and be both, I used it as a basis for a poem of mine which you can read here.

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Annabel Lee - Stevie Nicks

From the Stevie Nicks album “In Your Dreams” , based heavily on a Poe “Dead Bride” poem..

“Annabel Lee” is one of Poe’s final poems, published in January 1850, three months after his death in 1849. Like many of his poems “Annabel Lee” tells the tale of a man (the narrator) who falls in love with a beautiful woman, only to lose her to death. The poem reflects Poe’s own bouts with tragedy, including the death of his wife Virginia Clemm

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Nevermore - Queen

The very name of the song from the second side of the album “Queen II ” is a clear reference to the song “The Raven” in which this word is repeated as a refrain:

“Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, with such name as“ Nevermore. ”"

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Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Bob Dylan

This song is influenced by a number of books which can be traced in the lyrics but the Poe reference is “The Murders In The Rue Morgue”.in the first verse.

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez, and it's Easter time too

And your gravity's down and negativity don't pull you

Just don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue

They got some hungry women there and they'll really make a mess outta you

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Murders In The Rue Morgue - Iron Maiden

There’s nothing much to say about this archetypal British Heavy Metal whose lead singer Bruce Dickinson is both a qualified airline pilot who actually flies the band, an Olympic fencer but not a very good novelist.

I Am The Walrus - The Beatles

A reference to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” can be found in The Beatles song “I Am the Walrus”, which John Lennon wrote for the film “Magical Mystery Tour”. The name of Edgar Allan Poe is mentioned in this section

Semolina Pilchard

Climbing up the Eiffel tower

Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna

Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe

On the “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”, Poe’s character is in the top row, between Fred Astaire and Jung.

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All the music is excellent and well worth taking your time to enjoy.