The Original Epic: The Iliad, Greece, c. 800 B.C.E.
What Happens In It?: Two nations go to war for ten years after Paris, son of Troy, captures the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen, wife to Menelaus of Sparta.
The Modern Hit: Jimmy Soul, “If You Want To Be Happy”
The Theme: “Never make a pretty woman your wife.”
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The Original Epic: The Odyssey, Greece, c. 800 B.C.E.
What Happens In It?: Greek warrior Odysseus spends twenty years trying to return to his faithful wife Penelope after the Trojan War, dodging Poseidon’s curse and enamored nymphs alike.
The Modern Hit: Looking Glass, “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”
The Theme: “You’re a fine girl; what a good wife you would be. But my life, my love, and my lady is the sea.”
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The Original Epic: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Mesopotamia, c. 2100 B.C.E.
What Happens In It?: Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, travels to the Underworld after the loss of his beloved companion Enkidu and learns to value his time on earth while it lasts, because death is inevitable.
The Modern Hit: Paper Lace, “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” (runner-up: Terry Jacks, “Seasons In The Sun”)
The Theme: “Don’t be a fool with your life.”
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The Original Epic: The Tale of The Heike, Japan, c. 13th century
What Happens In It?: The Taira and Minamoto families vie for dominance during the Genpei War; impermanence and chaos are the rule of the day.
The Modern Hit: Kansas, “Dust In The Wind”
The Theme: “The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.”
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The Original Epic: The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer, c. 14th century
What Happens In It?: A group of travelers tells stories at a way station on the road to a destination none of them will ever arrive at.
The Modern Hit: Eagles, “Hotel California”
The Theme: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
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The Original Epic: The Divine Comedy, Dante, c. 14th century
What Happens In It?: A single man travels through every dimension of the afterlife, seeing visions no other living human has ever seen, and glimpses the spirit of his long-dead lover in Heaven.
The Modern Hit: James Taylor, “Fire and Rain”
The Theme: “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again. Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus, You’ve got to help me make a stand. You’ve just got to see me through another day.”
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The Original Epic: The Aeneid, Virgil, c. 20 B.C.E.
What Happens In It?: A soldier abandons his dead wife, his steady girlfriend, and several lovers in order to go traveling and get in fights with strangers.
The Modern Hit: Eagles, “Take It Easy”
The Theme: Whether they want to stone you, own you, or claim they just want to be friends, women only slow you down.
Tags: classical poetry, music, things you wouldn’t expect to be similar
Mallory, you beautiful genius. Never again will I hear Hotel California the same way (or for that matter, the Canterbury Tales). Once I was stuck at a pub listening to the world’s worst rendition of Hotel California being performed by what sounded like three jazz musicians who had never heard the song or possibly any music at all, and I sat there eating a fried pickle and thinking “Yes. This could drive me to a drug addiction, if it would make this song bearable. I’d do it.”
This pairing is total genius. As I almost wrote yesterday, I think if anyone had tried to burn Mallory as a witch back in the day, she would have found a way to outsmart them
An interesting thing, I think, would be if you could stitch together a mashup of pop songs that was like a three-hour retelling of The Odyssey.
Well, it’s already pretty much been done with old-timey music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtgZ5fHOuU
The Iliad 1970s pop jukebox musical
I get the feeling we listen to a lot of the same radio stations.
Honestly I think another appropriate song for the Epic of Gilgamesh is “Fortunate Son” by Creedence. He’s a culture hero pretty much by default, solely on account of his divine ancestry, even though when it comes down to brass tacks, he never actually does much of anything by himself. He begs for help from his sun-god father to help him defeat the giant Humbaba. He basically wrecks his best friend Enkidu’s life, then gets him killed, then goes on a quest to resurrect him, and manages to fail at that too. His biggest claim to success is that he returned from the Underworld with an epic story he learned from another hero. In the Hall of Heroes, Gilgamesh is the drunken, stinky, unemployed slacker crashing on the couch and never paying any rent.
“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” is one of my faaaaaaavorite songs. Whoever is singing those ‘doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doos’ in the background really goes for it. <3
Don’t forget the sort of funky breakdown part! “Now Brandy she would watch his eyes as he told his sailor story. She could FE-EEEL the ocean rise, hear its raging glory”
God I love that dumb, dumb, goofy, glorious song.
I am deelighted to see that someone else knows Jimmy Soul. I LOVE that song, especially the “Hey man, saw your wife the other day. She’s ugleeeeeeeee!” part.
I got my mind blown the other day when I learned that “If You Want to Be Happy” is a cover of a calypso song from 1934 . (The spoken interlude is all Jimmy Soul, though.)
Mermaids!!! That’s how I know that song! That movie was great. You know, my husband and I were trying to decide what Winona Ryder’s greatest hits were. This went along with an ongoing debate about which PG13 type teen 80’s movies we should introduce our 9 year old daughter to, when the time comes (Pretty in Pink, hell yes; sadly, Sixteen Candles, no). Anyway, I said “Heathers?” and my husband was all, “Errrr, I don’t know.” Still haven’t decided. I mean, “I love my dead gay son!” is a line everyone should know and relish. But the school violence thing is just too real. I don’t know!
What was I talking about? Oh, yea, Winona. Anyway, I forgot about Mermaids! Such a funny little movie. So freakin Indie, right? Man, early 90’s. Good times.
Mermaids is the best!!!
What’s wrong with Sixteen Candles?
Well, the making fun of Asians, mostly and oh also the prom queen’s being taken advantage of while passed out drunk. (And liking it.) What can I say, though? I loved it at the time. Revenge of the Nerds, too. Attitudes have changed, though, thankfully, and I don’t want my daughter to think that kind of thing is still normal or acceptable behavior. I sound prudish, but eff it.
And if she decides, as a teenager, that she needs to see every single Hughes movie, that’ll be totally cool and we can sit awkwardly next to each other while Bender asks if Claire is a virgin and while they all get the giggles after smoking pot. And I will love it. And we can also talk about alcohol and drugs and sex and all that (referring to sixteen candles). But this is all probably moot because she won’t give a crap about these movies, worst case, or won’t want to watch them with her mom, best case (so sad 🙁 ).
“yeah, but she sure can cook!”
I LOVE JAMES TAYLOR. It is right that “Fire and Rain” is on par with the Divine Comedy. Also, whenever I hear “Brandy, You’re a Fine Girl,” all I can think of is that Simpsons episode where Lisa’s aunts keep playing it.
Also based on The Divine Comedy: Steve Miller’s “Big Ol’ Jet Airliner”, in which Steve sings, “You’ve got to go though Hell before you get to Heaven”.
I think Bob Dylan’s “Isis” is the theme to H. Rider Haggard’s “She: A History of Adventure.”
Truthfully, “Take It Easy” would work for just about every classical epic referenced here. Odysseus? Um, yes. Helen? Certainly. (And Odysseus again for the Illiad.) Achilles? Def. Gilgamesh? (In the first books, before Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh in every way.)
I maintain that TSwift’s Wildest Dreams is Dido singing to Aeneas:
I thought, “Heaven can’t help me now” NOPE, the machinations of the gods are what made you fall in love with him and will make him leave you in the first place!
I said, “No one has to know what we do” … this is getting good now is about them making sweet love in the cave
You see me in hindsight, tangled up with you all night, burning it down refers to the fact that after he leaves, she makes a funeral pyre out of all his stuff and stabs herself on it and he can see the smoke rising from the palace as he sails away and knows what happened
Someday when you leave me I bet these memories follow you around YEP, he sees her spirit in the underworld and tries to apologize, but she gives him the cold ghost-shoulder.
Scene: Odysseus is on the prow of his ship, Ithaca in sight, and REO Speedwagon’s “I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore” starts playing.
A soldier abandons his dead wife, his steady girlfriend, and several lovers in order to go traveling and get in fights with strangers.
GIGGLESNORT. I hate Aeneas so much, even The Eagles and Ursula Le Guin cannot rehabilitate him in my eyes.
Do Arthurian legends count as epics, because I just heard "Lyin' Eyes" in the car and was like "yeah, this could be Guinevere, Arthur, and Lancelot."
This is going to be a fun new game to play while listening to dad rock.
This went way over my head! I don’t really understand the themes for most of them.
I would like to nominate Kansas’s Carry On Wayward Son for Oedipus.
The Theme: Even if things seem to be going well at first, everything in this life sucks, and you can only pray for the sweet release of death.
I was just thinking that "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is the Grail Quest.
Man of Constant Sorrow = Old English elegy 'The Wanderer' (neither exactly a pop song or an epic but I'll pretend it counts).