RADIO GA GA’S SONGS INSPIRED BY BOOKS
Radio Ga Ga hits up the mysterious world of literature this Saturday morning. Well, it is pretty mysterious to those of us who limit our reading to comics or the back 4 pages of the Herald-Sun. Some will be easy to pick such as “1984” by David Bowie, “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush and “Romeo & Juliet” by Dire Straits but others are more obscure. For instance, we all know that The Police hit song “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” was about a dodgy school teacher getting a bit toey about a student but The line “Just like the old man in the book by Nabokov” refers to the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which is about an older man who pursues underage girls. Sting based this song on the book. Another interesting song that fits into the category, although with tragic consequences, is “Leaving Las Vegas” by Sheryl Crow. The title came from a book written by John O’Brien, a friend of David Baerwald, who helped write the song. Crow did not know this, and didn’t give the novelist credit for the title. O’Brien killed himself after the song became popular, blaming Crow for his depression. O’Brien’s family knew he was deeply troubled and did not blame Crow for his suicide, but Sheryl was deeply effected by the incident and became a more private person as a result. There will be oodles of interesting stuff like this right throughout this Saturday morning’s RGG so tune in for something different. Alternatively, listen to FOX FM, it is about halfway to the right on your FM dial from where 88.3 is (way over on the left of the dial) and you can hear the same songs you heard last Saturday morning!!