Lights, Camera, Action: 5 Cinematic Rock Songs Based on Iconic Movies

Cinema can be so inspiring. Regardless of your art form of choice, movies have likely inspired you at some point in your life. And plenty of famous musicians have been inspired by different films as well. Let’s dive into five iconic rock songs that are based on movies!

1. “Debaser” by Pixies

Pixies are no strangers to putting out strange and unusual songs. “Debaser”, though, is on another level of bizarre and antagonizing. It’s a killer tune. And it’s also based on a film that was released nearly a century ago.

“Debaser” was inspired by the surrealist 1929 film Un Chien Andalou. Art school nerds might be familiar with it. It was directed by Luis Buñuel with the help of famed artist Salvador Dalí. The lyric “slicing up eyeballs” is the most obvious connection the Pixies song has to the film, but we won’t get into more detail for… obvious reasons. 

2. “Space Oddity” by David Bowie

Out of all the rock songs based on movies that grace our list, this David Bowie classic is probably the most well-known. “Space Oddity” is a legendary track, but not every Bowie fan knows that it was originally inspired by the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Many believe the song was inspired by the moon landing, as it came out around the same time in 1969. There was definitely a connection there, but Bowie himself said that “Space Oddity” was inspired by the film more than anything.

“It was written because of going to see the film 2001, which I found amazing,” said Bowie. “I was out of my gourd anyway, I was very stoned when I went to see it, several times, and it was really a revelation to me. It got the song flowing.”

3. “Matilda” by Alt-J

Film buffs have likely seen the assassin thriller Léon: The Professional from 1994 at least once. If you haven’t, it’s really a great action film. English indie rock band Alt-J penned the song “Matilda” as an ode of sorts to one of the film’s main characters, played by then-12-year-old Natalie Portman. Honestly, the track could have easily made it to the film’s soundtrack if it had been released at the same time.

4. “Red Angel Dragnet” by The Clash

Punk icons The Clash wrote the 1982 song “Red Angel Dragnet” about the murder of Frank Melvin in 1981. However, much of the song seems to take inspiration from the famed Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver. Specifically, the lyrics “Tonight it’s raining on the city / Who could have prophesized these people / Only Travis” are a clear ode to the film.

5. “2HB” by Roxy Music

Rock songs based on movies don’t usually get this hamfisted, but hamfisted lyrics don’t automatically result in a bad song. “2HB” by Roxy Music is a fantastic piece of work that is very clearly inspired by Casablanca. “HB” likely refers to Humphrey Bogart. And the song features the lyrics “Here’s looking at you, kid”. A fine ode to a fine film, we’d say.

Photo by English/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

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