What is your favorite Story song?
 

You know the type, a song that tells a story. It could be about drugs, I mean dragons (as in Puff, the magic Dragon) or it could be about patriotism and support of the military/industrial complex (The Green Beret), but it has toi have a story, a character(s), a plot, even though it may be a very thin plot, and it has to go somewhere. From my POV, the more manipulative the better, but the best is all up to you.

My favorite story song is Taxi by Harry Chapin.

It has some great lines like (this is from memory, but I am pretty sure its close):

And she said "We must get together",
But I knew it'd never be arranged.
Then she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two-fifty fare, she said:

"Harry, keep the change."

Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.



Close behind Chapin's opus (one of the few story songs to ever lead to a sequel which, like most movie sequels, was nowhere near as good as the original) are these other great stories:

Ode to Billie Joe (by Bobbie Gentry)

"The day Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahachee Bridge."

Say no more, say no more.

El Paso By Marty Robbins

"Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side."

What are your favorites?

Harry Chapin is a great song story teller. WOLD, 30,000 lbs of Bananas, and Dreams Go By are all favorites I grew up listening to.

Ben Fold's Five "Brick" is another good one that takes me back to High School.

Story songs are great, although I think the best of all-time may be Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day".

Richard Cory, by Simon and Garfunkel. Admittedly, probably not obscure enough to be cool, lyrics came from a poem, but I still think it's a cool song.

American Pie by Don Maclean

The night the lights went out in georgia (because of resevoir dogs)

A great song, but I wouldn't really consider it much of a "story".

I was with you on CHapin (you left out Cat's in the Cradle) but Brick is a of a downer and as to Ice Cube, too crude and no style, IMO, but I think you were chain yanking?

Good song. This fits rather nicely with Water's urging doctors to act collectively in the other thread.

Was Cats in the Cradle a Chapin original? That would be his #1 if it was... I always assumed it was a Cat Stevens song.

Brick is a downer, but it is a manipulative downer. I thought your criteria was the more manipulative, the better.

As far as Ice Cube, you cannot deny a song with the line:

"Get me on the court and I'm trouble... messed around last week and got a triple-double".

Yes, that is the edited version, but still. Maybe it is just my generation.

Two I forgot

Paul Revere by the beastie boys

boyz n da hood... NWA or Dynamite Hack

Cat's in the Cradle is a Chapin original. He and his wife Sandy wrote it together. I didn't pick it becaseu I thought Taxi is more of a story.

I'll give you Brick. It works well at what it is doing.

That's a good line from Ice, but the unedited version is far too much for my old man taste, I guess.

How did I ever forget Paul Revere by the Beastie Boys. I am embarrassed.

"I got the gun, you got the brew, you got two choice of what you can do...
It's not a tough decision as you can see, I can blow you away or you can ride with me."

"Hands went up and people hit the floor. He wasted two kids that ran for the door...
I'm Mike D and I get respect. Your cash and your jewelry is what I expect.
MCA was wit it, and he's my ace, so I grabbed the piano player and I punched him in the face.
Piano players out, the music stopped... His boy had beef, and he got dropped.
Mike D grabbed the money, MCA grabbed the gold, I grabbed two girlies and a beer that's cold."

From memory, so sorry if it is off.

I can agree with all those points.

FWIW, I also only have the edited version of the song at the time being. It makes it much easier to stomach.

You can't leave Bad, Bad Leroy Brown off of this list.

Good call. Like Chapin, most of what Croce did was story-telling. Hmmm, both of those guys died young in transportation accidents. Maybe God really likes or really dislikes storytelling.

A Boy Named Sue.

A couple...

Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue

Tangled up in Blue is a great song.

Great topic, Creekster. And I like your three choices.

Some songwriters just have a knack for storytelling. One of my personal favorites is Steve Earle. Tends to pick harsher themes, but they are excellent tunes. A few of my favorites:

Billy Austin - Song about a guy on death row. Live version is best.
(http://music.yahoo.com/Steve-Earle/B.../lyrics/557366)

Tom Ames Prayer - Story about a gunfighter/desperado looking back on his life and pondering whether there is a god.
(http://music.yahoo.com/Steve-Earle/T...lyrics/2000801)

Ben McCulloch - Story of two brothers who fought for Ben McCulloch in the Civil War. I get a kick out of this one because Ben McCulloch is a hero in Austin (and Texas in general), but Steve doesn't paint such a pretty picture.
(http://music.yahoo.com/Steve-Earle/B...lyrics/1021436)

Tecumseh Valley - Sad, yet beautiful song about a miner's daughter. This one has been covered by other artists.
(http://music.yahoo.com/Steve-Earle/T...lyrics/1021424)

Of course, when just reading the lyrics you don't get the full effect.

Cash's version of Tennessee Stud is a good one too.

One of my favorites.

Good stuff. I am not that familair with Steve Earle, although i saw him n concert once and he was very good. Thanks for the links; I'll check them out.

Steely Dan - "Kid Charlemagne"

Why are all the story songs I can name from the '70s or earlier? I can't think of any recent ones that aren't rap or hip hop, not that there is anything with that, but I can't think of anything else current...

"Is there gas in the car? Yes there's gas in the car" Steely Dan has many great ones. My Old School, with a great Horn bridge (love the bari part), although it's a stretch to call it a story, Reelin' in the Years.

I also forgot about Tom Waits. Has a song ever had a more poignant opening line than "Small Change got rained on with his own .38"?

Not sure why, but the 70s is full of this sort of thing. Maybe that's why i like them, coming of age in the 70s and all.

Mariners Revenge Song - Decemberists

I Hung My Head - Sting, but I like Johnny Cash's version better

Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash

Secret Life of Morgan Davis - Ben Folds

Fred Jones pt. 2 - Ben Folds

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Camouflage - Stan Ridgeway

My favorite story teller would be Stan Ridgway:

Camouflage


The Big Heat


Drive She Said (not the official video, but it's a great story)



I could go on and on an on about Ridway's story telling through song. Pretty much every song is a story.

I love Steve Earle

Here are a couple of my favorite story songs:
Fairytale of New York by the Pogues

The Line by Bruce Springsteen

Veronica by the great Irish folk singer Christy Moore

Stan by Eminem is epic.

The River by Bruce Springstein.

Lots of country songs come to mind:

Garth Brooks has a ton. That Summer. Unanswered Prayers. Thunder Rolls is awesome.

I love Whiskey Lullaby by Alison Kraus and Brad Paisley.

Don't Take the Girl by Tim McGraw.

Since my questionable taste in music is already the stuff of legend, I'm not afraid to admit that my favorite story song is Same Old Lang Syne by none other than Dan Fogelberg.

My least favorite - by far - is the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, followed closely by Brandy, which may not actually qualify as a story song, but is so awful it deserves mention nonetheless.

I loved Coward of the County as a kid by Kenny Rogers.

The Gambler is a story song, isn't it?

I'd have to go with any one of a number of songs by Frankie Lane:

Wanted Man
Bowie Knife
High Noon
City Boy

Then there's Sinatra:

It Was A Very Good Year

Billy Joel:

Piano Man
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant

Paul Simon: Graceland ... the entire CD

How can you not like Gordon Lightfoot? I'm crushed!

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is a great song. I had it stuck in my head the other day when I saw the carpet department at Home Depot. "Well, they got an apartment with deep pile carpet and a couple of paintings from Sears..."

Jackson Browne - The Pretender

My favorite Jackson Browne tune.

But it is not a story song.

Pinball Wizard - The Who

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charley Daniels Band

A big water bed they bought with the bread they had saved for a couple of years.

They started to fight when the money got tight, they just didn't count on the tears, whoa, whoa, whoa.

So is the italian restaurant scene Brender and Eddie seeing each other again or some other old friend talking about the old days?

Tommy in general is a story album.

Have to agree with the Big L here; great song, not a story song.