What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Because that novel isn't going to delay itself
Marney
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by Marney » October 1st, 2010, 2:33 pm

Stolen Car by Sting

surrealrain
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by surrealrain » October 1st, 2010, 3:00 pm

He Was Walking Her Home by Mark Schultz. Now that's a heartbreaker.


Mark17
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by Mark17 » October 1st, 2010, 3:11 pm

So many choices. One definitely is "The Curse" by Josh Ritter, a mummy falls in love with the archeologist that finds him. But, of course, he's cursed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9XfFGIwXT8

And you gotta go country for story songs. "Old Red" by Blake Shelton is awesome. The dog gets a happy ending too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=728mujAt7dI

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by RandiS » October 1st, 2010, 4:19 pm

My immediate reaction to this post was to say "Puff the Magic Dragon." As a kid, I LOVED that song, but now I can't get "Meet the Fockers" out of my head. So disturbing. Puffing the magic dragon...childhood fantasies were shattered. So I'm going with another song choice.

Living in a suburb of Nashville, I'm surrounded by country music (like it or not), which most definitely has some of the best story songs. I particularly love this one...if you're in the mood for a tear jerker, you can't beat "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-TXBniRz1g

katya152
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by katya152 » October 1st, 2010, 7:16 pm

Tough question! Lately it's "The Meanest Man in the World" by John Doe

or

pretty much any George Strait song ever recorded.

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by SusanCross » October 1st, 2010, 7:50 pm

Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf

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oldhousejunkie
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by oldhousejunkie » October 1st, 2010, 9:05 pm

At first I was going to go with the Killer's trilogy of songs that follow a relationship that breaks up over an infidelity and ends in murder: "Jenny was a Friend of Mine", "Midnight Show", and "Leave the Whiskey on the Shelf."

BUT...

I thought about "Intervention" by Arcade Fire and "Sometime Around Midnight" by Airborne Toxic Event. Both of those rank up there in my estimation too. So many choices!

ajw31
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by ajw31 » October 1st, 2010, 9:36 pm

Okay, why has no one mentioned Ray Peterson's 'Tell Laura I Love Her'? One of the greatest tear-jerkers of all time. Or it's more modern variation, Pearl Jam's 'The Last Kiss'.

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by Kimmily » October 1st, 2010, 10:03 pm

Billy don't be a Hero.. by someone from the 70's. Can't get it out of my head now, thanks.

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by lisanne » October 1st, 2010, 10:46 pm

I know this isn't exactly what you meant, but I'd have to say this is my new fave that tells a story. :-)

The History of Rap by Jimmy Fallen & Justin Timberlake

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com ... s/1252017/

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by RLS » October 1st, 2010, 11:10 pm

Ode To Billy Joe, by Bobbie Gentry.

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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by k10wnsta » October 2nd, 2010, 4:20 am

My favorite song that tells a story is actually a story told in songs* (three of them, to be exact):

In the first, a boy's mother tells him the abusive man he'd grown up hating wasn't really his father. His real father had been a man the boy knew and respected, but who had died a couple years earlier. The mother then has sex with her son.
The song clearly depicts the young man's inability to come to grips with - in fact his sarcastic indifference to - these events and revelations.


"Son," she said, "have I got a little story for you. What you thought was your daddy, was nothing but a [piece of shit]. While you were sitting home alone at age 13, your real daddy was dying. Sorry you didn't see him. But I'm glad we talked."
Hey, I'm still alive.
As she walked slowly, across a young man's room, she said, "I'm ready [to fuck you]."
Well, I can't remember anything to this very day except the look, the look...oh, you know where. Now I can't see, I just stare.
I'm still alive.
"Is something wrong?" she said.
"Of course there is."
"You're still alive," she said.
"Oh, do I deserve to be? Is that the question? And if so...if so, who answers? Who answers?"
Hey, I'm still alive.


As a result of these events, the boy passes into adulthood having completely detached himself from the world on an emotional level. He drives around picking up prostitutes and murdering them.
The second song embodies his frenetic state of mind, while poetically expressing his vague awareness that, at one time, he could have loved the women instead of killing them.


I admit it, what's to say? I relive it without pain.
Backseat lover on the side of the road, I got a bomb in my temple and it's gonna explode, I got a 16 gauge buried under my clothes. I pray...
Once upon a time I could control myself.
Once upon a time I could lose myself.
Try and mimic what's insane. I am in it, where do I stand?
Indian summer and I hate the heat, I got a backseat lover on the passenger seat, I got my hand in my pocket, so determined, discreet, and I pray...
Once upon a time I could control myself.
Once upon a time I could lose myself.
You think I got my eyes closed, but I'm lookin' at you the whole fuckin' time.
Once upon a time I could control myself.
Once upon a time I could lose myself.
Once upon a time I could love myself.
Once upon a time I could love you.


In the final installment of the story, the young man has been caught and convicted of multiple murders. With his execution only hours away, he reaches out to his mother with first an explanation for his actions and then one final request of her.


Don't even think about reaching me. I won't be home. Don't even think about stopping by. Don't think of me at all.
I did what I had to do. If there was a reason it was you.
Don't even think about getting inside voices in my head. I got scratches all over my arms. One for each day since I fell apart.
I did what I had to do, if there was a reason, it was you.
Footsteps in the hall. It was you...you.
Pictures on my chest. It was you...you.
I did what I had to do, and if there was a reason...oh, there wasn't no reason, no...
But if there's something you'd like to do, just let me continue to blame you.
Footsteps in the hall. It was you...you.
Pictures on my chest. It was you...you.


*Not counting Pink Floyd's The Wall, cuz, I mean, c'mon, if that's not someone's favorite musical tale, then someone needs to get their head checked (because it's obviously broken).
How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.
--Henry David Thoreau

One of the Mad Ones
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by One of the Mad Ones » October 4th, 2010, 1:44 pm

oldhousejunkie wrote: I thought about "Intervention" by Arcade Fire and "Sometime Around Midnight" by Airborne Toxic Event. Both of those rank up there in my estimation too. So many choices!
Ah, yes. I love "Sometime Around Midnight."

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cheekychook
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by cheekychook » October 5th, 2010, 12:17 pm

This one consistently makes me cry. But then I'm a total sap.

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Quill
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Re: What's your favorite song that tells a story?

Post by Quill » October 5th, 2010, 5:21 pm

Yep, cheekychook, that one is high on my list. Along with "The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald" and a few Dylan and Beatles songs.

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