Some nice songs quoting or referencing famous authors or poets
The ones that aren’t obvious, so you don’t have to dig:
Ballad of a Thin Man: “you’ve been through all of those F Scott Fitzgerald books”
NFWMB: the first lines, “when I first saw you, the end was soon / to Bethlehem it slouched and then must’ve got a good look at you”, are a reference to WB Yeats’ The Second Coming: “and what rough beats, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
Baudelaire: lyrics consist of quotes from Baudelaire’s poems
You’re gonna make me lonesome: “Relationships have all been bad / mine have been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud’s”
A Simple Desultory Philippic: mentions loads, such as “He’s so unhip, when you say Dylan / he thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas”
Francesca: reference to Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, doomed lovers in Dante’s Inferno
La Chanson de Prevert: Jacques Prevert is the poet/lyricist of the song Les Feuilles Mortes”, which this song is about
L’Aérogramme de Los Angeles: “Sur ces collines près de la mer j’ai vu Henry Miller“