With a huge array of contemporary artists turning the unfinished writings of Johnny Cash into new original music on ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’, we look at some other times when the pen was mightier than the chord…

‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’ is available everywhere now.

Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad

Inspired by John Steinbeck’s classic 1939 novel, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, Bruce Springsteen turns his eye on an America seemingly only too willing to re-live the worst aspect of its recent history.

David Bowie – 1984

Denied permission by George Orwell’s widow to write a musical version of the classic dystopian novel, the songs written for the show were used on the flipside of the ‘Diamond Dogs’ album.

Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit

The imagery contained within this 1967 psychedelic gem owes much to Lewis Carroll’s books ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’.

Leonard Cohen – Alexandra Leaving

Co-written and performed by Sharon Robinson, this deep cut was inspired by Constantine P. Cavefy’s 1911 poem, ‘The Gods Abandon Antony’.

Pink Floyd – Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

With the exception of the title, all the lyrics here are taken from ‘Poems Of The Late T’ang’, a book of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty.

Rush – Xanadu

Double necked guitars and prog rock in excelsis as Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem ‘Kubla Khan’ is given an extravagant overhaul.

The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil

Mick Jagger was moved to write the lyrics after his girlfriend Marianne Faithful lent him her copy of Mikhail Bulgakov, wherein the Devil pays a visit to Soviet Moscow.

Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights

Arguably the most famous song to have been inspired by a literary endeavour, Kate Bush tells the story of Emily Bronte’s novel of the same name. And did you know that Kate Bush and Emily Bronte share the same birthday?

The Velvet Underground – Venus In Furs

Rock’n’roll and the avant garde collide in this paean to S&M takes its name and theme from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novella.

Led Zeppelin – Ramble On

JRR Tolkien’s fantasy epic is re-imagined in which the narrator’s woman and not the One Ring is stolen by Gollum.