One of the great modern figures in UK literature, JG Ballard, passed away earlier this week. But his influence was not confined to the publishing world – his work was a huge inspiration for the world of movies, TV and of course music. Ballard’s work infused the output of well-read bands from the simplicity of a borrowed title to full-on lyrical plot borrowings. Here is a small selection from Ballard’s sphere of influence:
The pioneering minimalist electro experiments of The Normal had a clear Ballardian undercurrent, nowhere more so than the single Warm Leatherette – later covered by Grace Jones and, ahem, Duran Duran. Lyrically, it had a debt to the ideas behind Crash, a novel. Here it is set to the visuals from the David Cronenburg movie of the book.
One of Ballard’s most harrowing works was his semi-autobiographical Empire Of The Sun, an exploration of the horrors Ballard endured as a child prisoner of war which was later turned into a film by Steven Spielberg starring top ranter Christian Bale. Here is the musical Empire Of The Sun with Walking On A Dream.
Mercury Prize-winners Klaxons nodded to Ballard with the title of their debut album, and the apocalyptic theme of Golden Skans was certainly in the author’s mould.
Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles was, Trevor Horn has since admitted, inspired by a Ballard work. Ah hell, there’s loads of other stuff but we didn’t have chance to find it on YouTube
The largely unheard, self-financed Leisure Society were a surprise inclusion on the Ivor Novello Awards shortlist this week. Catch a performance of their nominated track Last Of The Melting Snow on one of our new favourite websites Bandstand Busking here.
In the forthcoming edition of Q, Jarvis Cocker questions the need for bands in the near future when you can write an entire album on an iPhone. Here’s someone playing Stairway To Heaven on the iPhone. And here’s Wish You Were Here – but it does beg the question, why go to all that effort when you can just use a guitar?
10:54 AM | 24/04/2009
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