Edgar Allan Poe

Whether for study or for pleasure, I often find myself leafing through the works of Edgar Allan Poe – always with the same enthusiasm. And just as often, I happen to see a film, a TV series, or artists from the visual and figurative arts devote their efforts to the genius born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Having virtually shaped much of the DNA of contemporary literature (from the deductive detective novel with Dupin, forerunner of a certain Sherlock Holmes, to the adventure novel, to horror in both its more psychological and complex forms and its more grotesque and gothic ones), not to mention his poetic output, Poe's legacy is boundless. And it has been embraced wholeheartedly by an endless list of more or less devoted followers. From the unforgettable adaptations/reimaginings with Vincent Price to Mike Flanagan's anxious mind as he directed “The Fall of the House of Usher.” A telling case is Eggers's “The Lighthouse,” inspired by an unfinished, same-titled tale by Poe (a story also featured in the TV series “The Following”), never completed due to his untimely death. Poe as a pop icon, in short (perhaps even too much so), as the Simpsons have made plain.

And what about the world of music? Fortunately, just as often, with headphones on, you happen to hear songs more or less inspired by the works of the genius from Baltimore. Mister Edgar A. Perry, as he had himself registered for military conscription, whose verses were translated by Baudelaire (who called him Edgarpò), left his mark on the universe of the seven notes too. The playlist will make room both for musicians who briefly cited a Poe composition in a lyric or title, and for artists behind an entire album or song tied to the writer's work. Not forgetting those who, as the ultimate act of devotion, chose a Poe reference as their stage name.

Obviously the playlist isn't a list of every composition that references the American writer, but a targeted selection that includes both the most interesting covers and choices able to span as many genres as possible, ranging across styles and decades, between songs where the writer is directly mentioned and others where his words echo evocatively. For the first case, here's the narrator par excellence Bob Dylan and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" cited in "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and the Beatles, in a psychedelic-Lennonesque vein, with "I Am the Walrus":

"Semolina Pilchard

Climbing up the Eiffel tower

Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna

Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe”

For the second front, there stands the famous line — echoed in a historic quip by agent Phillip Jeffries/David Bowie — taken as the title of the poem "A Dream Within A Dream", whose aura resurfaces in "The Reflecting God" by Marilyn Manson, the climax of "Antichrist Superstar", and in "Sweat" by Tool.

"The Raven" has leapt into the world of rock more than once: from more "hidden" tracks such as "Nevermore" by Queen, entirely conceived by Freddie Mercury, to the milestone by The Stranglers, where "the cover, with an unsettling black raven that seems to have stepped straight out of a novel by Edgar Allan Poe, already hints at the atmosphere you'll find throughout the album". With "The Raven" we also arrive at the concept album by Lou Reed from 2003. The release came three years after the theatrical piece titled "POEtry", in which the leader of The Velvet Underground and Robert Wilson brought the writer's poems and writings to the stage. Among the many tracks featured (some introduced by actors of the caliber of Willem Dafoe and Steve Buscemi), we've chosen the duet with David Bowie: "Hop Frog".

Connected to the making of Reed's double album are Antony and the Johnsons and the EP "The Lake". The title of Antony Hegarty's release is taken from Poe's poem of the same name, one of his finest, where beauty and love coexist with death and a sense of unease and cold terror, rendered in the unmistakable style of the American writer. Another widely referenced poem is the splendid "Annabel Lee", published two days after Poe's death in the New York Tribune. Numerous musical reinterpretations of it exist, a testament to its beauty, from Joan Baez to Claudio Baglioni, who drew on the text for his very first composition. Among all the covers, we've chosen the one by Marissa Nadler.

Another major concept album is the one by The Alan Parsons Project. Their 1976 debut "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination" is devoted entirely to Poe: worth noting, the 1987 reissue also features narration by Orson Welles. Staying within the prog realm, there's Peter Hammill, founder of Van Der Graaf Generator, who in 1991 released a self-titled work centered on "The Fall of the House of Usher".

There are also numerous references to Poe's short stories: "The Masque of the Red Death" runs through the music of the White Stripes as well as Iron Maiden and, later, Arcturus, while an entire extreme-music scene will claim its own connection to Poe: the legendary Rotting Christ, Cultus Sabbati and the electronic project Maelstrom, whose name can't help but recall "A Descent Into The Maelström", right up to the album "Imps Of Perversion" by Pop. 1280, indebted to "The Imp Of The Perverse".

And from Italy? After the young Baglioni, some have chosen Poe right from their name, like the dark, psychedelic Tuscan trio Metzengerstein; others have dedicated whole albums to him, like Florence's GOAD, led by Maurilio Rossi ("Tribute To Edgar Allan Poe", 1994); some sing of him alongside Rimbaud, like Management; right up to the "Cristina" immortalized in the splendid "Fantasma" by Baustelle, where:

Ghosts dwell in gothic mansions,

as happens in Edgar Allan Poe.

But the ones that frighten most are here,

reminding mankind of time.

Ghosts stir historical consciences,

epoch-making events, small-scale massacres,

faults, sins, trails of ash.

What frightens us is ourselves.

Not to mention the live score performed by Massimo Volume for the silent-film masterpiece “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Jean Epstein, from 1928. In short, any musical pretext will do when approaching Poe's work.

P.S. If I've forgotten one just as good, don't hesitate to let us know.

Signed, The Tomahawk (the name Our Man used to sign his merciless reviews...).

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

11/01/2026