(This article was originally posted on myalternatereality.com)
Here’s my highly opinionated, idiosyncratic list of the best comic book songs. This list is sure to betray my musical preferences (my taste runs toward punk, new wave, Indy. Alternative, jazz, and classic rock with a small c. (which is different from the tripe/swill that they play on classic rock stations). I am generally less enthused about country, metal and corporate rock (I can go either way on rap and dance music). The list is roughly in the order of quality.
I have been quite inclusive here and I spotlighted songs inspired by comics, named after comics, and in one case (Blue Oyster Cult) a song that directly inspired comics. I also put in songs about superheroes and ones that referenced comics. I resisted the temptation to include Snoop Dogg’s love song to Sookie from “True Blood” (even though h there is a True Blood comic), but it is a great song.
I also left out songs about Disney characters or characters associated mostly with cartoons or comic strips (so regrettably I had to leave out Grinderman’s terrific song which mentions Mickey Mouse in the title.)
I did not include the cure-like Chameleon UK song “Swamp Thing” or the Fugs’ “Supergirl,” or Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” because they obviously are not about the comics they share names with. I also did not include comic themed songs by Jethro Tull, Styx, Duran Duran and Vanilla Ice (sorry TMNT fans) because I tried to limit the list to performers I actually like.
In order to narrow down the field, I have only included one song by each artist. The songs are ordered roughly in terms of quality and significance.
I have provided links to the first 25 songs. I ended up discussing 55 songs because I started to run out of steam and good songs at that point.
1) Ghost Rider (Suicide) 1977-This band comprised of a singer and keyboard player was actually named after a ghost rider comic story title (“Satan Suicide “), and their forward looking music pointed the way towards electronica, krautrock, and punk. This rather minimalist droning song talks about a motorcycle hero who looks cute in his blue suit. MIA had the good taste to sample the song and she even had the original synthesizer player perform the song live with her onstage on David Letterman. Go here to see the duo live. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WqOMPakGCg and to hear the studio version go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGLJoXpKo4U&feature=related
2) D.C. Comics and Chocolate Milk Shake (Art Brut) 2009-This lively, infectious piece of pop- punk heaven celebrates the joys of innocence and extended adolescence. The song’s narrator is a 28 year old who is accused of having arrested development (the condition not the group) because he frequents comic shops, and he’s even in love with a girl who works there. The band’s performance of the song was one of the highlights of a recent Hideout’s block party. Seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhelBTjRYcE
3) Precious (The Pretenders) 1980-This furious, ecstatic rocking number appeared on the ill-fated band’s first LP and it includes the line “Now Howard the Duck and Mr. Stress both stayed/trapped in a world he never made.” The movie (released years later) wasn’t all it was quacked up to be, but at least the band didn’t fowl up the song.
Hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YA3hZEDPNI.
4) O Superman (Laurie Anderson) 1981-The comic connection is tenuous since only the title refers to the character, but I could not resist including this astonishingly avant-garde, robotic and futuristic single. Anderson is scheduled to come to the Humanities Festival this year.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIqA3i2zQw.
5) The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Sufjan Stevens) 2005-This gorgeous, irresistible, and vaguely nostalgic ballad appeared on “Come on Feel the Illinoise,” a concept album about our state. The CD was once of the best of its year. This song is about an alien sighting, and it examines the idea of Superman as an American symbol (sometimes I think Lobo would be a better choice). See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5AL5rlbzSA.
6) Mambo Sun-(T Rex) 1971 The narrator has “hot knees” for a girl, and at one point to impress her he sings “on a mountain range/ I am Dr.Strange for you.” I can see why the cosmically obsessed Marc Bolan would see Strange as the ultimate hero. “Electric Warrior,” the record it’s from is in the running for the best ever glam release. Marc Bolan has rarely sounded this androgynous or freaky, but it was mostly downhill after this CD and “The Slider.”
Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmSKPxGPnKg.
7) Johnny Thunders (The Kinks) 1968-This soft kinks song comes off of one of their greatest and worst selling albums (Village Green Preservation Society) and it works best in the context of the album. But by the time the same band did “Superman” in 1979, they sounded tired and washed up.
8) The Continuing Story of Bungalo Bill (The Beatles) 1968-Captain Marvel shows up (presumably the DC/Fawcett one) and zaps a murderer/bad role model for kids in this obscure but worthwhile cut from the must have “The White Album.” The double record musical smorgasbord may be of the fab four’s most diverse recordings.
Here’s the re-mastered version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwby-XvzpH8
9) Sgt. Rock (is Going to Help Me)-XTC, 1980-Predictably quirky and hummable single celebrates the DC war hero.
Go here to hear it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8ldywLXvQ.
The same band also did “Really Super, Supergirl,” – which is included on “Skylarking.” It’s a love song to the maid of steel that even mentions kryptonite.
10) Revenge of Vera Gemini (Blue Oyster Cult) 1976-Dave Kraft based a whole series of Defenders books on this atmospheric song as well as the rest of Agents of Fortune (which was BOC’s last great LP.) Vera Gemini (in both the song and the LP) is a human/demon hybrid that is a member of (you’ll never guess) the Agents of Fortune. The song opens with some spoken word by punk poetry princess, Patti Smith and she also duets with the lead singer.
See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH8nsquhPqo
11) Batdance (Prince) 1989-It was done by Prince in the 80’s when he could do no wrong (except “Around the World in a Day”.) Need I say more? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2W6w47hV1U
12) Astonomy Domine (Pink Floyd) 1967-The original lineup of Pink Floyd (with Sid Barrett singing and writing the lyrics) contains a reference to Dan Dare (Garth Ennis recently wrote a series using the character.) It’s from “Piper from the Gates of Dawn,” arguably the band’s best LP. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Tne92jfxo. The ground breaking use of overdubbed sounds predated rap by a decade.
13) Superman (Eminem), 2003-Irreverent but fascinating song contains the line “They call me Superman/Leap tall hoes in a single bound,” and it’s really about the (at the risk of sounding pedantic) power dynamics in relationships. It’s also probably a put down of Mariah Carey. See the somewhat risqué video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kYkciD9VjU&ob=av2e
14) Batman and Robin (Snoop Dog)-This campy rap song samples the theme from the ‘60s TV show, and it mentions Two Face, Robin, Clayface, and Catwoman (but no Cluemaster). This is the only superhero song I know that refers to narcotics (“Sally is smoking crack in a Gotham city alley”), and it’s fairly amusing. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x1rZgZUXd0Snoop also collaborated with country singer, Willie Nelson on a song titled “Superman” on his 2011 album, ‘Doggumentary.’
15) Dan Dare (The Mekons)-Furiously paced and anarchic single by the fine Chicago based post punk band is about an obscure British comic character (Elton John also wrote a song about him). Incidentally, the main villain of Dan Dare is The Mekon (of Mekonta).
Go here for the live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a46Mah_4XzI
16) D.J. (David Bowie) 1979-This song from “Lodger” has some wonderfully raw sounds in it, and it includes the phrase “feel like Dan Dare.” The character must be huge in the UKhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADuBMcLkHP4
17) The Supreme Being Teaches Spiderman How to Love (Flaming Lips) 1997-This song quotes the Spiderman theme to the ‘60s TV show, and it pits the wall crawler against non-other than Mohammed Ali. This song was created for the Spiderman 3 film (which was a convoluted mess), but it is superior to the film.
18) I’m Gonna Unmask the Batman (Sun Ra and his Inter Galactic Orchestra)-The flamboyant and often brilliant free jazz musician/bandleader penned this bizarre tribute to the Dark Knight (it’s on “The Singles’)
19) Metal Man has Gotten His Wings (Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa)-There’s several different versions of this daffy song and all of them refer directly to the DC team. Then there’s also Debra Kadabra by the same duo. This wild chord changing song appears on Bongo Fury and free association probably produced the line “Make me grow Brainiac fingers but with more hair.” According to Rolling Stone magazine Captain Beefheart is the worse selling classic rock artist ever. What an honor. But he was still a mad genius.
20) Nobody Loves the Hulk (The Traits), 1969-Pleasant garage band/British invasion influenced band‘s song is sympathetic towards the fictional green giant. If I recall correctly the lyrics were included in a Hulk Annual. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2OI7sogwqY
21) Challengers (New Pornographers)-Excellent song by the melodic alt country band lionizes DC’s supernatural crime fighters. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KuHQs858Y andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KuHQs858Y
22) Matter Eater Lad (Guided by Voices)-Weird, wacky and short single about the strange z list character from the Legion of Superheroes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZUCYmtLYvI
23) Evangeline (Matthew Sweet)-Tuneful love song about Chuck Dixon’s gun toting nun. I listened to song a million times in the ‘90s, but I never connected it with the comic character until recently. The narrator wants her to forget her vows to God to have a relationship with him.
Here’s a live version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cip5M3q4vrE
24) The Ballad of Barry Allen (Jim’s Big Ego)-Surprisingly thoughtful song told from the perspective of D.C’s scarlet speedster “I’d like to get to know you/but you keep talking so slow.”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2lW9QEnAm8
25) Can You Dig It? (Pop Will Eat Itself)-This song is a basically a musical list of things that the band “digs” which includes Alan Moore, The Fabulous Fury Freak Brothers, Marvel, and DC comics as well as Bruce Wayne and V for Vendetta. Remember: “Alan Moore knows the score.”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6oSCng12xQ
26) Ghost World (Aimee Mann)-Tunefully soft song about the slacker art student in Dan Clowe’s Indy comic classic (the movie’s pretty terrific too.) from the former Till Tuesday singer.
27) In the Garage (Weezer)-This sentimental, nostalgic song mentions Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler
28) Comic Book Heroes (The Tearjerkers)-A million comic characters are mentioned in the band (including Cyclops, Angel and Dr . Strange. The singer sounds a bit like Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, and the main riff hooked me right away
29) I Whipped Spiderman’s Ass (Wesley Willis)-The narrator throttles the web slinger because he “tried to cut my [his girlfriend] out of seventy dollars.” I used to see Willis walking around Wicker Park in the 90’s. He used to sing to himself and he’d occasionally yell out obscenities at me. I don’t think we were good friends, but his outsider art was fascinating. Willis also wrote about beating up Batman.
30) Stop Talking about Comic Books or I’ll Kill You (Ookla The Mok)-The group berates someone for talking about comics too much (going so far as to say their actions will condemn them to a life of loneliness). But the same group also wrote a song about the Super Skrull and Aquaman (“Less than Art). Go figure. The group has won awards for their contributions to film music (sci-fi oriented music.)
31) Break’in the Law (Anthrax)-This fun punk influenced metal song is about British comic anti-hero, Judge Dredd. The song tells us he’s “A man so hard, his veins bleed ice.“
32) Sidekick (Rancid)-Violent tale of a vigilante sidekick starts at midtempo then gets more furious. The song seems to be about Tim Drake, and also mentions Wolverine who (surprise gets mad.)
33.) Ghost Rider (Rollins band)-this heavy metallic/ jazzy song is definitely about the Johnny Blaze era comic character (“Riding through your town with his head on fire”), but it appears on The Crow soundtrack of all places.
34) Superbird (Country Joe and the Fish)-The folky psychedelic band mentions a plethora of comic characters. The fantastic four, Dr. Strange and even Superdog show up in the song (perhaps during a drug trip) . Also LBJ is strangely critiqued (probably for the Viet Nam war) in this forgotten gem from “Electric Music for the Mind and Body”
35) Spiderman-(The Ramones) 1995-Leave it to the Ramones to do the definitive version of the 1960s Spiderman TV show theme song. It sounds like all of the rest of their songs but it’s still great. This was originally included on “Saturday Morning: Cartoon’s Greatest Hits.”
36) Ballad of Aqua Man (the social bedders) this song is actually critical of the sea king and compares him negatively to the big guns of the justice league. It might be a good soundtrack for reading the new 54 first issue of the sea king’s new series.
37) Attack of the Ghost Riders (The Raveonettes)-This Jane and the Mary Chain influenced band from Scandinavia always manages to sound both old fashioned and fresh at the same time. This video has a cameo by a skull faced motorcycle rider.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQEvupSrRY
38) Paradise City-The song by the phenomenally popular hard rock trio contains the line:“Captain America’s Been Torn Apart/Now he’s a court jester with a broken heart.”
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbm6GXllBiw&ob=av2e.
39) Vampirella (Julia’s Rain)-Named after a band member’s favorite comic character. The female lead singer’s vocals sound positively sinister.
40) Superboy (Nina Hagen)-I included this 1978 song and clip link for all you fans of German theatre/shock rock (I love her clothes). No need to thank me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX0yL2Lq6n0
42) Raise the Roof (Public Enemy)-Early song from their first LP “Bum Rush the Show” sounds more like Run DMC than public enemy (they hadn’t quite found their style yet.) It contains a reference to Prince Namor.
43) The Joker is Wild (Jan and Dean)-This beach boys like song (from a concept album about Batman) from the duo is interesting, but it contains the worst Joker laugh ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-wrk6vEYM4
44) Tear in Your Hand (Tori Amos)-Tori and Neil Gaiman have been friends for years (she was an early choice to play his creation, Death in a film.) In this song she sings: “If you need me, me and Neil’ll be hangin’ out with the dream king”
45) Magneto and the Titanium Man (Paul McCarthy) A pair of villains gossip about how the narrator’s love was involved in a robbery, but the story turns out to be a lie. The song was allegedly inspired by a pic that jack “king” Kirby) gave the future to Paul. Crimson Dynamo also makes an appearance. Unlike much of Pauls’ solo work (technically he’s with wings) this song is somewhat listenable.
46) Superman (REM)-This was one of the major bands of the 80’s and 90’s but this was catchy but not particularly innovative. It was not one of their most memorable works, and it’s a cover.
47) Sunshine Superman (Donovan)- Donavan never quite got beyond being a second rate Dylan, but this song which contains the line: “Superman and Green Lantern am not got nothin on me” was one of his best and most popular. Written for the singer’s future wife in 1966.
48) (Tie) Batman Theme (the Who)-One of the greatest bands of the British Invasion tackled the theme from the campy ‘60s show. I’m pretty sure the kinks also did it. Batman theme (the jam) –The Who influenced jam also recorded a revved up version of the song, which has more bite than The Who’s cover. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXmPEsuipUw
49) Dead Milkmen-“If You Love Someone set them on Fire,” a song from Metaphysical Graffiti”includes the immortal line, “Your dad called me the Human Torch.” This reggae influenced tribute to arson is not recommended for extremely young or overly literal comic fans.
50) Ego the Living Planet (Monster Magnet)-There aren’t too many words in this otherworldly instrumental but one of the members screams “I Talk to Planets Baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Mqj9X-xLk
51) Brother Voodoo vs.The Wolfman (Loungeclash)-Presumably this rocking instrumental was named after Marvel’s late, lamented mystic (Check out Rick Remender’s recent series.) The Theremin makes the song sound spooky.
52) Mutants in Mega City One (Fink Brothers)-Song from former madness members seems to be about Judge Dredd rather than the Xmen.
53) Edge of the Blade (Mystical)-This hip-hop song was written for one of the blade films, and it refers to vampires.
54) This Vicious Cabaret (David J.)-This solo song by the former member of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets (named after a comic series) was based on concepts from Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta.”
55) Comic Books (Debbie Harry) 1989-Not bad solo effort from the former singer of Blondie refers to the Batman TV show, and how the narrator wanted to be a superhero (“It’s all I ever wanted to be.”) See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqR3sxVoFc
