Most pretentious literary reference in a song

[HoyaSaxa03]

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

[palahniukkubrick]

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

[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?

[vansmack]

Just like the old man in that famous book by Nabokov

[lionforce5]

"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  ).

[booradley17]

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.

[HoyaSaxa03]

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.

[malkmess]

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..

[Frank Gallagher]

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!

[keithstg]

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.

[edbert]

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

[lionforce5]

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.

[markie]

"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

[xcanuck]

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.

[brennser]

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'