Certainly, there’s a lot to dislike about the internet these days, even amid being able to look up how old Jeff Probst is (56) or what the national bird of India is (peacock?!?!?!), but sometimes it produces genius the likes of which only written about in stories. We found out about this via Birth.Movies.Death, and it’s just so weird and perfect. The Twitter account Our Worldcomic realized H.P. Lovecraft‘s dark poem “Nemesis” has the same meter as the Billy Joel song “Piano Man.”
https://twitter.com/OurWorldcomic/status/952683144171450368
That in and of itself is hilarious, but BMD wanted to actually hear it, and it turned out, someone had just done this! Julian Velard is a hero.
This is the kind of amazing revelation that only happens with songs. It’s like when I realized Stephen Stills song “Love the One You’re With” has the same meter and general tune as “Down at Fraggle Rock.” Surely Lovecraft, who died in 1937, 12 years before Billy Joel was even born, had no idea one of his many poems about dark and upsetting things would exactly fit in to a song about what a very good piano player William Joel is.
But I think there should be a whole album of Lovecraft/Joel mash-ups! Like “Uptown Ghul” or “Innsmouth State of Mind,” or “Scenes from a Cthulhu Restaurant,” or my personal favorite, “It’s Still Yog-Sothoth to Me.” Maybe some kind internet souls could get on that, because I’m just the idea man, I lack any and all talent. I’m a hack, oh God, the world’s closing in on me its going dark Iä-R’lyeh! Cthulhu fhtagn! Iä! Iä!—
Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments below!
Image: Lucius B. Truesdell/Columbia
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and the host of the horror documentary series One Good Scare. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
More Lovecraft to haunt your nightmares!
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- A guide to Stephen King’s Lovecraftian gods and creatures!
