A song is worth a thousand words: World Book Day 2020

This playlist rocks a little more than usual at Folk and Tumble but it just shows how pumped we are to celebrate World Book Day 2020 with some great tunes.

World Book Day 2020

Various Artists

  • Americana
  • Alternative
  • Folk

  1. Heart-Shaped Box - Ramin Djawadi
  2. Great Expectations - Elbow
  3. The Waves - Villagers
  4. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
  5. Slaughterhouse-Five - Ings
  6. Romeo and Juliet - Indigo Girls
  7. Norwegian Wood - Cornershop
  8. Venus In Furs - The Velvet Underground and Nico
  9. Animal Farm - The Kinks
  10. Hard Times - Gillian Welch
  11. Go Tell It On The Mountain - Simon and Garfunkel
  12. East Of Eden - Babyshambles
  13. The Tempest - The Real McKenzies
  14. The Road - Frank Turner
  15. Great Expectations - The Gaslight Anthems

There has long been a deep connection running between music and literature and World Book Day is a great time to explore the two. Generations of songwriters have taken inspiration from literary greats and vice versa throughout history.

Some of my favourite songwriters such as The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson draw heavily on the written word in their work. Recently, I learned that Joni Mitchell took inspiration for ‘Both Sides Now’ from a passage in ‘Henderson The Rain King’ by Saul Bellow.

Well, here we are on World Book Day 2020, and I’ve gone digging for some songs that share a title with well-known books. That, of course, means that Colin, John, and Joni don’t feature. It’s a little heavier than some of our recent playlists with a few tracks thrown in for the folk-punk fans.

Enjoy the tunes and get in touch on our social media to let us know what we missed!