Check out Tobias Wolff rocking out to John Darnielle singing his much-beloved Mountain Goats song “Woke Up New.”
Via GalleyCat, where there’s a brief disussion of song lyrics as literature. “What have song writers learned from regular writers?” it asks, but when it comes to song writers like John Darnielle, I think there is a great deal “regular writers” can learn from them. A song like “Woke Up New” distills a moment and a barrage of emotions into something compelling and touching. I suppose there is a kind of John-Cheever-like profound simplicity that is both specific and general enough for the listener to empathize.
Songs are often inspirations for me when I write, whether it’s just a matter of mood or more explicit appropriation. Of the latter is my story “Minx Mouse Monster,” inspired by the Rasputina song “The New Zero” 
The story is based on the song, “The Model,”
Brian and I have another story based on a song coming out in an Image Comics anthology, This Is a Souvenir, the Songs of Spearmint and Shirley Lee. The song is called “A Leopard“
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