Songs inspired by Comic Books
When I first read that Breezeblocks by Alt-J was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are it, for the lack of a better term, blew my mind. It also served as inspiration to compile a list of some of the best comic books inspired songs.
#7 All the Sex Bob-Omb songs in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World by Beck
Scott Pilgrim follows the tale of a 22 year old slacker/musician in Toronto. After falling in love with “the girl of his dreams”, delivery girl Ramona Flowers, he has to defeat her seven evil exes in order to keep dating her. In other words it’s an exercise in awesome! Bryan Lee O’Malley never expected the comic to sell more than a few thousand copies
It is has sold millions of copies and has even been adapted into a movie, which is becoming a cult object in its own right. One of the many things that the movie got right was the sound of Sex Bob-Omb, the fictional band that Scott plays bass for. The dirty garage rock songs with lyrics like “You know you wanna ride on my garbage truck” and “my body’s stupid, stereo putrid, spilling out music into raw sewage” were written by indie musician extraordinaire Beck and performed by the actors themselves. It might not be the cleanest music you hear but it is true to its roots.
#6 Magneto and Titanium Man by Wings
Say what you want about Paul McCartney’s super schmaltzy post Beatles band Wings, they could rock if they wanted to, not very hard but they could still rock.
In this song the singer is told by three separate villains, The Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and Magneto, that his girlfriend is planning to rob a bank. He finds it hard to believe because she is a police officer. I like to picture a seventies incarnation of the villains hanging out, grooving along with a few beers, when they learn about Yoko’s dastardly plan and rush to tell John about it. I might be over-reaching a bit, but it adds to the fun and betrayal.
#5 Spiderman Theme by The Ramones
“Spider-man, spider-man, does whatever a spider can”, everybody knows the Spiderman theme, it’s a classic. What’s really great about The Ramones version is it brings about the image of an under-appreciated hero who enjoys blowing off a little steam at the end of the day by committing minor vandalism and thus becomes your friendly neighborhood punk.