Literary Lyrics

[sodascouts]

This is a great discussion. "Learn to Be still" also has a biblical reference:

"When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd."

Mark 6:30-34

Apparently, it's often used as a metaphor for war or spiritual combat.

I would say it's a metaphor for people who are lost without a leader. This is why Jesus pities them; they're filled with confusion and longing for guidance.

[Freypower]

I appreciate others coming up with Biblical references because I would not have thought of them. It didn't occur to me that the lline about the 23rd Psalm was in fact a literary reference (and yes, I do know it's The Lord Is My Shepherd).

I have one which can't be verified and it's more Shakespeare, I'm afraid. In Wasted Time:

You didn't love the boy too much
No no, you just loved the boy too well

is an echo of Othello's

Then must you speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well.

Act 5 Scene 2.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

It sounds like a reference to me!

I have to wonder how many of these were intentional, or just buried in their subconsciousness?

[Glennsallnighter]

Could be either or VA,

[Freypower]

In the case of Get Over It the reference is quite explicit because of the line 'old Billy was right'.

[sodascouts]

My guess is that the vast majority of the references are deliberate, although sometimes a phrase becomes so commonplace that you use it without realizing where exactly it originates.

I see we're lumping Biblical references with literary ones. Along those lines, there is a "reference" - or more accurately, a line pretty much lifted from a Christian hymn in "The Sad Cafe":

"We would meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by-and-by" is a rearrangement of the line "In the sweet by-and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore" from the popular old hymn "The Sweet By-and-By." Luckily, the estate of lyricist S. Fillmore Bennett didn't sue.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Soda, in my opinion, the Bible is greatest and most important piece of literature ever written! Oh, and it's one of the few I can remember quotes from.

[Freypower]

I agree that many people regard the Bible as literature.

There is a quotation from Joe's Made Your Mind Up that I like. It's not literature, it's another pop song. He says 'feeling two foot small' which comes from the Beatles You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.

And that leads me to 'those captains of industry/and their tools on the hill' from Goodbye To A River which is surely a nod to another Beatles classic, The Fool On The Hill.

While I'm at it, Pretty Maids All In A Row is from a nursery rhyme, Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

I have a huge book about Bob Dylan called Song & Dance Man in which an entire chapter is devoted to Dylan's nursery rhyme references, so why not mention it here?

[Houston Debutante]

Since we're including lyrics from other songs, in Annabel, Don quotes the song Dixie when he uses the phrase 'in the land of cotton.'

[Freypower]

Soda, if you don't think song lyrics are appropriate, please tell us. It's just that I remembered:

Please allow me to introduce myself

Sympathy For The Devil & Big Life!