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Amazon on Display
by Lore Sjöberg
Amazon.com, the online supplier of books, music, and soon pretty
much anything you can stuff in a UPS truck, has recently added a new feature
linking popular books to popular music.
The idea, apparently, is that not only can you pick up a book
of Neruda poetry, but you can also see what sort of music your fellow
Neruda fans (or "Nerudies") are digging on. In this case, you'd be
led to the latest Lucinda Williams album, and you'd get some folksy,
dobro-laced musical action to accompany your South American love poetry.
Fair enough.
Unfortunately, the connection between the two is not always so clear.
Why, for instance, do readers of the latest Tom Clancy novel also
pick up the Squirrel Nut Zippers? Why would purchasers of "9 Steps to
Financial Freedom" also want to listen to "Songs from Ally McBeal"?
(That last question being secondary, however,
to "Why would anyone want to listen to "Songs from Ally McBeal"?)
At any rate, we're attempting, as usual, to clear a path of reason
through the cluttered dorm room of information by presenting a guide
to various Amazon book-album connections. Because completely pointless
and misleading information wants to be free, too.
| Book | Associated Album | Revealing Lyric | Considerably Less-revealing Lyric |
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Lolita
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Garbage, Version 2.0
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"You can look but you can't touch/I don't think I like you much/Heaven knows what a girl can do/Heaven knows what you've got to prove."
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"Happy hours/Golden showers/On a cruise to freak you out."
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Atlas Shrugged
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The Beastie Boys, Hello Nasty
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"Money makin' money money makin'"
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"Sometimes I like to brag, sometimes I'm soft-spoken/When I'm in Holland I eat the pannekoeken."
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Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
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Fastball, All the Pain Money Can Buy
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"An exit to eternal summer slacking/But where were they going without ever/Knowing the way?"
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"A place to hide and room to move/My electric boogaloo"
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The Lord of the Rings
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The Barenaked Ladies, Stunt
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"Watching X-Files with no lights on [...] Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon"
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"I like vanilla, it's the finest of the flavors"
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The Cat in the Hat
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The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Zoot Suit Riot
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"Fat cat came to play/Now he can't run fast enough"
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"He could not restrain himself when he saw a nice caboose"
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Moby Dick
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Madonna, Ray of Light
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"Crash to the other shore/Swim to the ocean floor"
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"Vunde gurunam caranaravinde/Sandarsita svatma sukhavabodhe"
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