Story Inspirations ... Songs?

I am always looking for stories to inspire short animations, lots of collections of short stories, etc.  One source that may be a lttle obscure is songs, the sub genre of "story songs".  I did one below based on a Paul Simon version of a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson titled "Richard Cory".  The song and the lyric are still in copyright, but the poem is not so I used that.  Here are a few that are still in copyright but I think coud inspire a short animation - let me know if you have others:

Todd Snider, "America's Favorite Pasttime":

Robert Earl Keen, "The Road Goes On Forever":

Townes Van Zandt, "Pancho & Lefty":

The Beatles, "Rocky Raccoon":

Rod Stewart, "Maggie May" (an alltime favorite, close to home):

Here is the one I did, "Richard Cory":

 

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Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited May 2021

    Listening to my older (18 months) Brother practice his Bass Guitar to Led Zeppelin inspired my to play drums in a very John Bonham style.

    In that, I've always loved the artistic visuals summoned by this song. After college he and I ended up in a band in Chicago and performed this song together, which was a real honor for me. 

    He recently came to watch one of my shows and, this time I inspired him to pick up the Bass Guitar again, join a band and get back into it!

     

    Here is how another person was inspired by the song and put togther a little video using History Channel footage and the remastered version of the music

    Here is a reinvisioning of the song by Karen O for the movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"

    Here's a chopped up version of it for "Thor - Ragnarok"

    And without further ado, here's Led Zeppelin performing it live back in 1972! Rock On!!!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    "wake up maggie, rod the ole crooner. heart

     

    i've been carraring to Kix all week.

    i have to lay off the caffeine, Kix does the job  lol

    give me visions of aiko dancing in my head

     

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Dartanbeck said:

    ...  I've always loved the artistic visuals summoned by this song. 

    Indeed, especially that first one, very impressive.  My Houston suburb had a centennial a few years back, with Shell Oil (big plant in town) footing most of the bills for the big setup in the highschool stadium parking lot.  A large concert stage with big honkin' sound equipment and a bunch of Shell employees warming up.  Typical engineer types, I'm expecting George Strait or some such (this is Texas, after all), then they open up with Led Zep's "Rock and Roll", those Bonham signature drum riffs, and nailed it  I almost fell out of my folding chair.

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Mystiarra said:

    ... i've been carraring to Kix all week.

    First time I've heard Kix (I don't get out much).  Impressive stuff, especially that last one.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    Steve K said:

    Mystiarra said:

    ... i've been carraring to Kix all week.

    First time I've heard Kix (I don't get out much).  Impressive stuff, especially that last one.

    they were 90s.  wow has it been that long?  to me 80s music was like yesterday and Happy Days was the oldies. rock around the clock. american graffiti 

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    Brit brit would so get her butt kicked in a bring it on with beyonce

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Mystiarra said:

    Brit brit would so get her butt kicked in a bring it on with beyonce

    A perfect example of a song inspiring a story!  Great post! (I've never seen it before)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited May 2021
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    songs that desparately need new videos

     

     

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Headwax said:

    well comedy is en  light en ing :)

    (3) King Missile- Detachable Penis - YouTube

    (3) Cows With Guns - The Original Animation - YouTube

    Yes!  Humor above all!  Another example:

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    scary.  not much scarier than the law gone bad

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,173
    edited May 2021

    She is a sad tomato.

    Her tears flow like wine.

    From the tomato challenge WIP thread.  1st is render inspired by song, 2nd is youtube of Lauren Becall performing

     

     

     

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,173

    song inspired the full story

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    Another one that always make me laugh ... "Excuse Me?!?"  (My 140 lb self learned long ago to stay out of tough bars)

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,235

    And on the subject of tough bars ... "I ain't even got a garage, you can call home and ask my wife!" ...

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

    Headwax said:

    well comedy is en  light en ing :)

    (3) King Missile- Detachable Penis - YouTube

    Wow! My brother and I played that in a band we were in together. Love this song!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

    Awww... we need to figure out what we can render to make Diomede's Tomato feel better!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

    Their first several albums except the first were defying the rules set forth by their publishers, being epic stories. 

     

    Written by the drummer who joined the band during the release of the first album, Neil Peart, those great works that followed were written on the road as they rocked out more than 200 shows per year - and they did that for quite a few years, bless their hearts.

     

    These long album stories are really great to listen to - especially since the three musicians in the band are among the highest ranked in the world, their stories have always charged my imagination. In fact I still often get the notion to animate the visual story of their songs.

     

    Anyway, during their 30th Anninersary celebration, they opened their shows with this:

    Rush R30 Opening Sequence and Overature

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited May 2021

    Xanadu is one such song. After a long and excellent instrumental intro, the lyrics unravel a really cool story -

    Xanadu

    ...and the next album, Hemispheres, was so difficult for them to complete that they promised themselves to stop doing these epics ;)

    I've always loved this story about trees warring amongst each other!

    The Trees

    Before all of that, this multi-part song from their fourth album of the same name took up the whole side of an album. But why not? Jethro Tull and Yes did stuff like that too!

    2112

    Edit: I really think it's cool how Alex can tune his guitar while he's in the middle of playing it! :)

    Attention All Planets of the Solar Federation

                                                             We Have Asumed Control

    ​                                                         We Have Asumed Control

    ​                                                         We Have Asumed Control

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    RUSH.  the gods of balance.  Cygnus you will be

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    2 very different music pieces, both give me wild mental visions. 
    space related.  event horizons.tesseracting time dilations

     

     

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited May 2021

    a really sad one

     

    this one's sad cuz he knocked over hid beer

    didnt help vegemite catch on in the states.  but i remember being curious about it

    Post edited by Mistara on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    i had the of this song.  half the song was on the b side

     

    i love those 3 chords

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989

    watched Jewell who will save your soul at 1999 (?) woodstock , very good!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

    Headwax said:

    watched Jewell who will save your soul at 1999 (?) woodstock , very good!

    yes

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    Dragon dudes !!  omg, was feeling soggy and cold, long rainy day.  feel warmer nows. lol  thanks for posting that song
    https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hb+SlezFL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    for the magic

     

     

     

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675

    surface replication

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583

    Mystiara said:

    Dragon dudes !!  omg, was feeling soggy and cold, long rainy day.  feel warmer nows. lol  thanks for posting that song
    https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hb+SlezFL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    The movie is Spectacular!!!

    I keep (accidentally! LOL) watching it over and over again!

     

    I tell myself that I'm watching it for CG and cinematography inspiration, because it truly is that. The photography is breathtaking and the CG matches it so seemlessly that we forget that certain things aren't actually captured on film. But the truth is that the story has me swept up. Sure, I know it by now. The take on dragonkind is perfect and the romance (and I don't usually go for romantic flicks at all!) of it is s deep and magnificent that I just don't want to stop watching it... being a part of it!

     

    Anyway, watching it yet again while I wait for a simulation to finish I'm reminded of how a certain part of the movie uses a classic example from one of PhilW's courses - Advanced Carrara Techniques, where he uses particle emitters to flow hearts from a girl's hand into the scene, and they drift into the air - but in this case it's the dragon showing the girl how to 'see the wind' by flowing rose pedals into the stream. It's a lovely scene! :)

     

    She's beautiful, he's beautiful and yes! The dragon animation is Spot Freaking On!!!

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