The story was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843. Some people think that the man is strange, perhaps that his vulture eye represents some sort of veiled secret. Some people think that the old man is a father figure.

No one knows if the old man and the killer are related. The killer feels guilty about the murder, and the guilt makes him imagine that he can hear the dead man's heart still beating under the floor. The murder is carefully planned, and the killer killed the old man's by pulling his bed on top of the man and hiding the body under the floor. Detectives capture a man who admits to the killing of the old man with a strange eye. What's that, Alan? You want to make your first album? And you want it to be a concept piece inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, including a 15-minute rock symphony based on 'The Fall of the House of Usher?' Gee, we guess that's all right, seeing as how you just engineered one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.Ī throwaway line in a sea of throwaway lines, 'Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe' nevertheless gives significant credence to the theory that the author's death was, in fact, the result of 'cooping.' Possibly at the hands of someone named 'Semolina Pilchard.'The Tell-Tale Heart' is an 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. This one is from Killers, the band's second album, and who else but the Irons could write a song about the classic story told from the Ourang-Outang's point of view?Īlan Parsons Project, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (1976) Iron Maiden, 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1981) We have to give props to anyone who can rhyme ' Milton' and 'Paris Hilton' and give shout out to Michael Moore and somehow make it all work. The guest list is pretty impressive, with contributions from Ornette Coleman, Jane Scarpantoni, Laurie Anderson, Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe, giving his best Norman Osborn treatment to the titular poem.

This double CD (or truncated single disc, if you're in a hurry) features songs and spoken-word pieces inspired by the Poester. You gotta hand it to Lou, he isn't exactly hemmed in by convention. Innumerable musical acts cite the author or The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart as an influence as well. Why do we care? Because Poe's legacy isn't just confined to the literary. That's why Rocks Off is happy to report that this weekend, 160 years after the fact, Edgar Allan Poe is finally getting a proper funeral. But getting buried in an unmarked grave after a three minute 'service' is an indignity usually reserved for pet rabbits that escape from their hutch and die under the sofa. Kicking the bucket at the age of 40 is bad enough, especially when, to this day, nobody's really sure how you died (everything from syphillis to rabies to political 'cooping' has been thrown out there as a possible cause).

Song by Edgar Allan Poe