Albums and Books that make the perfect combination

What album perfectly compliments a novel?

I've found that 'Round about Midnight-Miles Davis and On the Road work well together.

I'm interested to see where you lot fall on this one.

No Beatles please.

Perhaps listening to Johann Bach's C minor cello concerto while reading Mark Salzman's The Soloist might work.

I can't listen to music while I'm reading, too distracting.

I agree with # 3.

Maybe not so much listening and reading at the same time as listening to an album over and over during a time your particularly transfixed by a certain book.

My selection of The Soloist was based on the good possibility the music might have been played by someone in the book. So, it's possible to get a different feel for the book.

I don't think most books necessarily have a musical analog. But a piece of music might run parallel with life experiences. I associate Sibelius' Karelia Suite with riding a trolley in the early 1960's in a rural/suburban area of Pittsburgh.

Why "No Beatles?"

Sorry to disobey the "no Beatles" clause (well, really, I'm not). But the first time I read The Return of the King, Abbey Road had just come out. Forever after, the dark, grinding guitar dirge at the end of "She's So Heavy" will make me think of Frodo and Sam painfully plodding their way across Mordor.

No Beatles in the same sense that I would say No Harry Potter. Since everyone seems to have a relatively complete knowledge of the Beatles discography (and it is the only band they have a complete knowledge of) they tend to wrongly, or inappropriately relate everything musical to the Beatles.

The Great Gatsby listening to Louis Armstrong's Hot 5's and Hot 7's

Dodsworth listening to Paul Whiteman's Orchastra play Gershwin.

Well you have to admit The Beatles did start a Musical Revolution when The British Invasion began with them. I hate to imagine what might've happened if The British Invasion had been a total bust and failure. And everyone knows that for many years afterwards they influnced Rock Bands that came after them. They had Perfect Timing with their Harmony and Vocals plus the whole BeatleMania effect they had on the whole World at the time. The time was right for someone like The Beatles to come along and create a Global Mass Hysteria that has not been seen by any other Rock Band or Performer since then. The Beatles are Rock Icons and Gods. And their Music like almost everything else from the decade of the 60s has stood the test of time and their Music still sounds as great and fresh today then it originally did when they first came on the scene. I seriously doubt that a lot if today's Performers will be able to say the same thing many years down the road. The Beatles deserve a lot of the credit for saving Pop Music of the day. John and Paul were two of the best Singer/Songwriters to come along in years.

beatles1964

I have a playlist on my mp3 player labeled "Reading"-it's a bunch of soft music, light on lyrics-Enigma and the like. I can't stand being in the quiet, but I need background music, not foreground music.

Beatles1964

Yes, you are right, the Beatles invented Rock and Roll. But they did it after years of listening to Robert Johnson’s blues and R&B similar to what Louis Jordan started playing in the 1940’s with his Tympany Five. Yes, the Beatles filled a void. However it was a void that opened up after a plane crash Febuary of 1959 in Clear Lake Iowa, ‘the day the music died’. Yes, they have influnced bands that came after them, just as they were influnced by all the music that came before them.

Please don’t take offense, my wife almost went into shock when I broke the news to her. Thank God a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame backed me up. I would love to hear the Beatles performance of “The Sheik of Araby” but I don’t dare suggest that she buy another Beatle’s album, uh, CD.

As for Lennon and McCartney being the best song writers of the century. Duh. You bet they were. Have you ever heard Joan Baez do “Imagine” or Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings sing “Yesterday”? Both are great performances.

I hate to get even farther from the topic but do you know if it is true that there is an early demo tape of the Beatles doing Blind Blake’s “Diddy Wa Diddie”?

"John and Paul were two of the best Singer/Songwriters to come along in years."

This is simply true.

"As for Lennon and McCartney being the best song writers of the century."

Nobody said they were.

I did.

The best songwriter is a very opinionated topic, one that cannot be answered, but to suggest that Lennon and McCartney are the best of all time is nothing short of ignorant. To say they were the best songwriters of the 60's is even inappropriate, Ray Davies, Captain Beefheart, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt etc etc the list goes on.

Lennon and McCartney are responsible for recognizing the Merseybeat, and popularizing it. The british invasion would have happened anyway, it just might not have been so goddamn commercial without the Beatles. With bands like the Zombies, Kinks, Stones, it was bound to happen.

Beatles never played rock n roll anyway. After Twist and Shout they lost all mojo and simply played good pop music, a kaleidoscope of what was already popular. (see the Beach Boys)

For the inventor of "rock n roll" look no further than Chuck Berry. His influences were a mix of country singers and their style and R&B and the blues. Jerry Lee Lewis, Robert Johnson, the list goes on.

The reason the Beatles don't go well with any books is because at the end of the day many, even well-educated and well acquainted, people only know their music album to album. There's would be an incredibly unnecessary bias to pick any "quintessential" Beatles album (abbey road anyone?) and associate with whatever book X person happened to be reading when they were in love with that album. There's no connection at all between LOTR and She's So Heavy, just one that has been implanted in your brain by excessively jamming both into your head at the same time.

Point of saying no Beatles was that, well, they don't really have much to do with anything other than being "the world's greatest band." Whatever that means.

#15> Sorry, my friend. I wholly misinterpreted your post. My bad.

#16> Going by the wording of your original post: "What album perfectly compliments a novel? I've found that 'Round about Midnight-Miles Davis and On the Road work well together. I'm interested to see where you lot fall on this one."

My response is that I've found that "She's So Heavy" perfectly compliments the part of "Return of the King" where Sam and Frodo are painfully plodding their way across Mordor.

I really didn't "excessively {jam} both into {my} head at the same time." I just listened to one while I read the other. There was no "jamming" going on at all, and nothing excessive about it.

At any rate, when you said "I'm interested to see where you lot fall on this one," I assumed you were looking for individual associations. If what you mean is, "What album and book do you think everybody on earth would find perfectly complimentary," well then I guess I misunderstood.

You asked "what album goes with what book?" So why would I need to pick a "quintessential Beatles album" to be able to tell you that there's one Beatles album that goes with one book for me? I guess I don't get the distinction you're making.

The music of a particular period goes well with a book set in that period. Fine. If all other associations are out of bounds because "there's no connection at all" between books and albums that are not clearly related in that way, but are instead related in some other fashion by the experience of the individual LT member, I would suggest you should have mentioned that.

No need to be sorry. I truly am an asshole, and know it.

I never said that John and Paul were the best song writers of the century. I would never be so arrogant to even think something like that. Besides I never said they invented Rock 'n Roll either. I said they saved the Pop Music of the day so I am not clear where everyone is getting all this stuff about John and Paul being the best song writers of the century or even inventing Rock'n Roll. And that everyone followed on their coat tails in The British Invasion. I also never said they were the best singer/song writers of the 60s either. I agree with #16 The British Invasion still would've happened but maybe not as on as large a scale as it did with The Beatles. Maybe people are reading things into my earlier statements that I never intended.

beatles1964

I only said that John and Paul were two of the best Singer/Songwriters to come along in years. And I see nothing wrong with that statement. I am not taking anything away from Carole King, Elton John, Carly Simon, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Ray Davies or anybody else. There were a lot of great Singer/Songwriters in the 60s. Remember like a lot of Boomers I grew listening to their Music and in fact I still own a lot of their LP's and 45's. And I am Sorry if people took my statements form post#11 any other way than the way I originally intended.

beatles1964

An Island Away by Daniel Putkowski and just about any song or album from the Gypsy Kings