Story Songs

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inJeff Dunn, Poetry or Lyrics

Ok, iMonks: time for your publisher to make his confession.

Ready?

I cry when I hear really good stories in songs. They don’t even have to be sad stories, just real. And sung with a gut-wrenching passion. Done right, you can wring a cupful of tears from me.

This week I was perusing the CD collection at my local library when I came upon Harry Chapin’s Greatest Stories Live. A quick check showed me it had the song I wanted, so I checked it out, brought it home, popped it in my MacBook, and cried like a professional onion-cutter. The song? No, not Cat’s In The Cradle. I much prefer Taxi, the story of two lovers reuniting after many years. For some reason, that song just reaches inside of me and pulls out emotions that usually lie still and quiet.

There are other songs that do the same thing for me, but not many. Bob Dylan’s Hurricane will do it to me. And his Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll. Dan Fogelberg’s Same Old Lang Syne. I love great stories sung well.

Other story songs make me smile. Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant should be listened to every Thanksgiving as the leftovers are being put in aluminum foil. The Shel Silverstein-penned, Johnny Cash-sung Boy Named Sue with its great line, “kickin’ and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.” And for the time when you need a really good laugh it’s hard to beat Julie Brown’s The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun.

Story is very important to me. Music is my primary language. So put the two together and you get my attention. The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald is long and slow and ponderous, but Oh! the story it tells. No, you aren’t going to hit repeat on this one over and over, but you will never look at a ship on the lakes the same way again after hearing Gordon Lightfoot tell this tale in song.

My very first “favorite song” was a story. Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron (the Christmas version) was a song I did listen to over and over. I think my dad may have eventually hid the album just to buy a bit of peace, but I found it again. I pictured the great ace Snoopy taking on the evil Red Baron high in the sky, and then heard how the two enemies parted with respect for one another, and that helped shape how I looked at those I didn’t like. Heavy stuff for a six year old.

You’ll notice I have not included any Christian songs in this list. There are Christian story songs, but so many of them are forced and, to be honest, cheesy. But I may have missed some. Sara Groves’ To The Moon is hilarious and oh so true at once. She has other story songs that I love, but then I love anything she writes and sings. Other than her, I am having trouble coming up with Christian story songs that have meant much to me. Ok, I’ll admit that I did like Carmen’s The Champion when it first came out. But I was young and impressionable, and …

So this is where you come in. Share with me stories in songs that have a particular meaning to you. They don’t have to make you cry—maybe they make you laugh. Or just make you think. What story songs stand out in your mind? And why is you think that the combination of words and music is so powerful? Ok, your turn. Oh—and help keep us legal, iMonks. You may quote up to two lines of a song’s lyrics. Anything more and we could be liable for permission rights. And we don’t want to have to pay permission rights, do we?

Sing away!

112 thoughts on “Story Songs”

  2. And some more Story Ballad Momentos from Dr Demento:

    RAY STEVENS. As in…
    “Mississippi Squirrel Revival”
    “Sittin’ Up with the Dead”
    “Shriner’s Convention”
    and his Hurricane Katrina Filk, “Second Battle of New Orleans”.

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  3. What about Weird Al Yankovic?

    “The Saga Begins” retells the first Star Wars prequel, and “Albequerque” is DEFINITELY a story ballad. Totally demented story ballad, but then that’s Weird Al.

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  4. Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, covering the history from the end of WW2 to the time he wrote the song. Written because some kid told him “Nothing important happened in the past 40 years.” Would like to see additional lyrics to bring it up to the present.

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  5. Before Croce’s death, the DJs used to patter about a lot of the subjects of his ballads (Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim) were based on guys he actually encountered while starting out playing in low-end bars and his previous career as a truckdriver. That’s probably the strength of them — the “This Was For Real” grittiness.

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  6. For “historical era… from the American Rev to WW2”, check out Al Stewart sometime.

    From his 1973 Past Present and Future album alone:
    — Old Admirals (story of a British Admiral retired just before WW1 & never seeing the action he trained for his entire career)
    — Roads to Moscow (WW2 Russian Front, from the POV of a Russian soldier; he survives four years of war only for his own side to lock him up in Gulag to die after it’s all over — URRA STALINO! I can still hear that haunting Balalaika bridge as I write this.)
    — Nostradamus (future, back before Nostradamus got trendy; when asked about Nostradamus during a Nostradamus craze, all he’d say about whether Nostradamus DID see the future was “It’s a real interesting concept for a song”.)

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  7. So many good songs :). Snoopy and the Red Baron still chokes me up :). Another one that always did was Mr. Bojangles (I only knew the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version).

    I really think Springstein is the king of the story songs though. My very favorite is “The River”. That song just haunts me.

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  10. Pingback: Articles of Interest 10-16-10 | Onward, Forward, Toward...

  11. Yes, as she did last year, she will do again this year where she will call me during her O Holy Night Christmas Tour from each city she will perform in and we will do a 5 minute interview with me talking about prison ministry, (her grandparents Lloyd and Neta visited the same prison in Springfield, Mo. each week for 40 years), a bit of my testimony (the prison school teacher became my wife – 30 years) and the story of her being smuggled into prison on Christmas Eve.

    The one difference this year, will be that we will be in Springfield, Mo. on Dec 4th for her performance there, which is where everything happened at. We have become close friends with her grandparents over the years and still stay in touch, besides Mary (my wife) being from Springfield herself. Long before Sara use to sing at the prison, Mary sang there as a christian volunteer as well as being a prison employee as a school teacher.

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  12. Would Andrew Peterson’s “The Good Confession” count as a story song? I totally have craving to hear that song when I’m in a funk.

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  13. Red Barchetta.

    Wind
    in my hair,
    shifting and drifting,
    mechanical music,
    adrenaline surge

    Well weathered leather
    hot metal and oil
    the scented country air
    sunlight on chrome
    the blur of the landscape
    every nerve aware

    Good one!!!!

    I’ve always loved how the song starts out with that guitar piece, goes ballistic and ends again with that same guitar piece.

    ———

    I know it’s cheezy but the tv themes “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” also come to mind

    and another song – Berlin-The Metro I think every guy wanted Terri Nunn back then after seeing the video on MTV and System of a Down did a pretty decent cover of the song.

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  15. What was more ironic was that moments after making that post, I was sent a link to an obituary of a fellow church member who died in the local newspaper online. As I clicked on the link and went to the obituaries page, I also noticed the name/link of the mother of a girl I once dated in high school (we never had the sexual contact nor innuendo that the Seger song discusses) and clicked on that obituary. As I read the obituary and saw the girls name (and also the married last name), that verse started playing in my memories again.

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  16. Good one dumb ox. I forgot about the entire 2112 suite

    ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION…….

    Some other good Rush storytelling songs – Nobody’s Hero, Cold Fire, Time Stand Still, Manhattan Project

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  17. I thought the lyrics to The Old Rugged Cross Made The Difference” told the story of my life exactly. A life filled with aimless desperation described the near 20 years I spent in prison precisely. “Mom Carter” (Sara Groves great-grandmother, btw) saw me in a prison chapel one day and told me God had a plan for my life. “Then a hand with a nail print stretched downward” A prison school teacher told me God could change my life. “And a new life began.” My first Christmas in prison as a follower included a smuggled baby brought into the Christmas Eve Service who unexpectedly would be cast in the roll of baby Jesus, though not officially, when she started to cry. The baby was Sara Groves.

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  18. Amen to Steve Bell. Add Carolyn Arends to the list, too …e.g., “Getting Ready for Glory” and others.

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  19. I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Staines on the air when he came through on a concert tour a couple of years ago. He plays a right-handed guitar upside down and left handed. Gives a very different sound to his chording. His song “Lord Fill My Thirst” has an unusual time signature (4/5?) and tells a wonderful story, too. Count me a fan.

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  26. Is Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” the same song as “The Ballad of Thunder Road” sung by Robert MItchum in the 60’s? …a bootlegger song?

    Agree wholeheartedly regarding Andrew Peterson.

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  28. More have sprung to mind, Springsteen has a bunch, but his album “The Rising” is full of stories of loss and anguish. “Meet Me at Mary’s Place” I have always interpreted as his idea of heaven.

    Jackson’s Browne’s “Farther On” is the most spiritual song I have ever encountered. His “My Baby’s Feeling Funny in the Morning” is amusing and touchingly tender in dealing with its subject matter.

    And then there are the old folk songs like “Jesse James” and “John Henry”.

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  29. Heard Ken live maybe……28 yrs ago or so… at a very small venue here in Kc….amen, Eric, amen.

    GregR

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  30. Don’t know if you’d consider it a story song, but “Desperado” sings an essentially Christian message without hitting you between the eyes. Both Linda Ronstadt and Karen Carpenter have done wonderful covers of the song (I have forgotten the identity of the original artist).

    “25 Minutes To Go” by the Brothers Four counts down the hours to the execution by hanging of the singer …interesting how it builds tension from beginning to end.

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  32. John Michael Montgomery’s “The Little Girl” and Blake Shelton’s “Austin” never fail to move me, despite the former being bad theological schmaltz.

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  33. “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen is a great one…The Born to Run album is packed with story songs…”Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, “Backstreets”, etc. Great stuff.

    Andrew Peterson is a great story-teller…the entire “Behold the Lamb of God” album gives the back story leading up to the birth of Christ. I listen to it year-round.

    Then, there’s Otis Redding’s “Change is Gonna Come”…awesome delivery.

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  34. I mentioned this thread to a friend last night and he asked if anyone had brought up Keith Green.. D’oh! “Prodigal Son Suite” and “On the Road to Jericho” should be on this list too!

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  37. So many songs by Tom Paxton come to mind. Also, Luke Kelly of the Dubliners did a very special rendition of a song about a child with a disability called “Scorn not his Simplicity”.

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  39. I would say the greatest ballad singer of my life time(1970s till now) has to be Red Sovine. There is just a haunting felling in all those truck driving songs. C.W. McCall had a great one with “Convoy.” It was a hoot.

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  40. Johnny Cash’s version of “Big Iron” is phenomenal, but the first story song I can remember ever hearing is one I love to this day, “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean. Other excellent story songs would be:

    “Jerusalem Tomorrow” by James King
    “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price
    “The Well” by Pedro the Lion
    “Phantom 309” by Red Sovine

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  41. “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is one of my favorites, and I do hit the repeat button for that one. Also “Matthew” by John Denver, and “Austin” by Blake Shelton — I named my son after Blake Shelton’s song. (Go ahead & laugh) Anything by Jerry Reed makes me laugh.

    I love the old ballads — “Black Jack Davie,” is one of my favorites. Ballads are all stories set to music and a lot of them have their roots in actual events once you get past all the additives.

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  43. Definitely agree with Xanadu. 2112 is also a great story of the individual resistng collective mindset and control. It often reminds me of the struggle of personal faith against the heteronomous forces in evangelicalism that try to force us into dress codes and political parties.

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  45. There was a time when you couldn’t turn the dial without hearing “Seasons In the Sun” . As a result the mere mention of that song makes me twitch…

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  46. “Thief” by Third Day. Not only was it one of the first contemporary Christian songs I had heard after I had put my trust in Christ (at the time I thought there were just hymns and other “church” songs), but I WAS the thief – mocking, stealing, etc. That song is still one of my top fav’s because it tells a story.

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  47. Gary Chapman’s “Sweet Jesus” – about a bridge that fell and the people who lost their lives – always chokes me up :

    …Fishing for luck beneath the bridge that day
    A man in his eighties
    He saw it happen and began to pray
    As he dove in
    He found a mother and a baby boy
    They both wouldn’t make it
    The mama handed him her only joy
    He took the child
    Then he was swimming
    Like he was twenty
    He made shoreline
    Then he died
    And his thoughts were
    Sweet Jesus, please won’t you catch us, save us
    Sweet Jesus, please won’t you hear us crying…

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  48. Jim Croce also is a great storyteller. Some are funny, some touching and some hit home with the working man.

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  50. I’m very surprised no one has mentioned Sting on this thread. He always has at least 2-3 story songs on every album he does, many of them historically based. His albums Soul Cages and Ten Summoner’s Tales are almost all story songs in some fashion. Some favorites: “Why Should I Cry For You?”, “Island Of Souls”, “The Hounds of Winter”, “Something The Boy Said” along with many, many others.

    Some Christian singer-songwrites worthy of note:
    Michael Card – almost every song tells a Biblical story. I love “Basin & The Towel”
    Fernando Ortega – has a poignant story song almost every album
    Billy Crockett – especially on his Watermarks album
    Nicole Nordeman – has several really touching song stories
    Steve Bell – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Great singer/songwriter with many, many song stories.

    Christian singer/storytellers are out there, but usually not on a label because their music isn’t easy to label – worship music/contemporary Christian/Southern Gospel. It’s the same problem many of the artists on this list had with secular music labels. But keep looking – great music by Christians is out there! 🙂

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  51. Chapin’s ‘Mr. Tanner’ is one of my favorites too, and ‘A Better Place to Be’ is also excellent (though a little to earthy for most Christians). Harry sang about broken people with broken dreams. I have often lamented the ‘Happy, Happy Jesus’ nature of most contemporary Christian music. It lacks true-life grit and heart. The only song writer I ever thought came close to Chapin was Rich Mullens. While not story songs per se, they do have real-life grit and wrestle with a God who sometimes seems far away, but is there nonetheless.

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  52. Almost anything by Tom T Hall –simple songs but great storyteller — If I had to pick a fav it would be “Don’t forget the coffee Billy Jo”. Also as someone else mentioned Johnny Horton – another great story teller

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  54. Along the Andrew Petersen vein is Bebo Norman – A page is turned.

    Old school rock from Boston – Rock n’ roll band

    Bill Malonee/Vigilantes of Love – lots of story songs: On to Bethlehem or Where my seed might find purchase.

    and certainly Bruce Cockburn – Peggy’s Kitchen Wall and When you give it away.

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  56. Lots and lots of Neil Young – many of his songs are stories. For example…

    Cortez the Killer
    Sugar Mountain
    Down by the River
    Powderfinger

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  57. Bob Seeger’s Night Moves’ is brilliant and truly moving.

    As for best story in a song, ‘Red Barchetta’ by Rush has got to be close to the top and is almost perfectly phrased.

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  58. Gilbert O’Sullivan: “And when she passed away, I cried and cried all day, alone again, naturally.” Wipes me out every time.

    DSY

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  60. Tom Waits — yes. He’s on the current Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ballot, and while I don’t expect him to make it, it’d sure be sweet if he did.

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  62. And how could I have forgotten Johnny Horton! I don’t think there’s an historical era he missed from the American Rev war to WWII! “We have to sink the Bismark ’cause the world depends on us.”

    And of course, Marty Robbins! And if you want to cry, Willy Nelson’s “Seven Spanish Angels” is a sure thing for me!

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  63. But the original Le Moribund certainly has it some merit.

    I’m also a fan of Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis” and Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue,” and “Brownsville Girl.” Metallica’s “One,” though it doesn’t give the whole story, I suppose, is chilling when you realize just what’s happened. Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” is fun. There are just so many of these…

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  64. Yes, Stonehill! “Charlie the Weatherman” on the “Stories” CD always brings a tear to my eye. Dedicated to the memory of Mark Heard, I swear I can hear Randy choke up himself as he sings of the day that Charlie the weatherman (not what you think) died.

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  65. Lacy J. Dalton, “Crazy Blue Eyes” and “16th Avenue” and Louden Wainwright the 3rd, “Mr. Guilty” because of my rebel past before I came back to be a Jesus Follower.

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  69. This song makes the tears flow every time. Mr Stan Rogers
    First Christmas Away From Home

    * Stan Rogers)

    This day a year ago he was rolling in the snow
    With a younger brother in his father’s yard
    Christmas break, a time for touching home
    The heart of all he’s known, leaving was so hard
    Now three thousand miles away he’s working Christmas Day
    Earning double time for the minding of the store
    He always said he’d make it on his own
    He’s spending Christmas Eve alone
    First Christmas away from home

    She’s standing by the railway station, panhandling for change
    One more dollar buys a decent room and a meal
    Looks like the Sally Ann place after all
    The vast and dreaming hall that echoes like a tomb
    But it’s warm and clean and free, there are worse places to be
    And at least it means no beating from her dad
    And if she cries because it’s Christmas Day
    She hopes it doesn’t show
    First Christmas away from home

    In the hall they’ve got the biggest tree but it looks so small and bare
    Not like it was meant to be
    And the angel on the top it’s not the same old silver star
    You once made for your own
    First Christmas away from home

    In the morning there are prayers, then there’s tea and crafts downstairs
    Then another meal up in his little room
    Hoping that the boys will think to call
    Before the day is done, well it’s best they do it soon
    When the old girl passed away he fell apart more every day
    Each had always kept the other pretty well
    But the boys agreed the nursing home was best
    ‘Cause he couldn’t live alone
    First Christmas away from home

    In the common room they’ve got the biggest tree, it’s huge and lifeless
    Not like it was meant to be
    The Santa Claus on top it’s not the same old silver star
    You once made for your own
    First Christmas away from home

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  71. Ray, sorry to hear that. For me it is a gentle reminder that no matter where we are, the cross is there for us; God’s grace calls us to Him (I’m not a Calvinist BTW). So many pastors do a disservice trying to guilt people into an altar call.
    Peace, Steve

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  74. The song that really get to me is Randy Travis’ “Three Wooden Crosses.” And of course my all time favorite hymn, “Blessed Assurance.”

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  75. That is my favorite Billy Joel song ever, IMO the best he ever wrote.

    Harry Chapin’s “W-O-L-D” about an aging radio DJ hits home for me, since now I am an aging radio DJ.

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  76. Andrew Peterson is an amazing story-song writer. His most recent album is spectacular (albeit a tiny bit less story-oriented, he still has a gift with words).

    Neal Morse’s album called Testimony is the story of his meeting Christ. It’s BEAUTIFUL. Do check it out.

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  77. And did anyone else notice that Dan Fogelberg’s story song “Same Old Lang Syne” was a setup to a D.U.I.?

    – They accidentally meet up in the grocery store… so maybe they both need some food in their stomachs
    – They go out in her car and polish off a six pack between the two of them (on empty stomachs), which turns them into chatterboxes (“the beer was empty and our tongues were tired”)
    – The downer emotions start kicking in (“felt that old familiar pain”)… or is that the booze talking?
    – It’s been snowing outside (below freezing), but now “the snow turned into rain”… now we have the potential for black ice conditions on the road.
    – He “watched her drive away”. Hey, what happened to the designated driver?

    And lest we forget, all this takes place on New Year’s Eve, one of the most dangerous nights of year for the potential of encountering drunk drivers.

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  78. When I was in Jr. High in the early-mid 70s, story songs were all the rage:

    Billy, Don’t Be A Hero
    Kung Fu Fighting
    The Night Chicago Died
    Wildfire (for the girls I knew , any song that had a horse in it was a surefire hit)
    Earache My Eye (Cheech & Chong)
    We’re An American Band
    Radar Love
    Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

    Oh, and does “Seasons In the Sun” count as a story song?

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  80. Does Kate Campbell count? I love her voice – and some of her songs are stories (like “Bear it Away”). She’s really good about locating in a place and time (Tupelo’s too far, Visions of Plenty, etc).

    A story that moves me to tears? “Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens…

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  81. Already did my list of Christian story-songs above. From the pagans, how about Billy Joel’s “Allentown” (really, half the Nylon Curtain LP could qualify)?

    And an all-time favorite — Nanci Griffith’s “Love at the Five-and-Dime,” about a marriage that survives despite the people in it.

    Plus, would “Don’t Stop Believing” Count, or is that pushing it?

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  83. Was just about to mention Mitchell — specifically “Big Yellow Taxi,” a song so great that neither Amy Grant nor Counting Crows could totally ruin it.

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  84. Not to blunt anyone’s admiration of Glenn Frey, but “The Last Worthless Evening” and “The HJeart of the Matter” were by Don Henley. Great songs, as was Glenn’s “Smuggler’s Blues.”

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  85. “Take Me to the Cross” used to devastate me — until the pastor of the congregation I was attending, a man will all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, used it as a beat-people-about-the-head-and-shoulders altar-call lead-in three Sundays running. Ruined it for me.

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  86. Hello? Randy Stonehill has done so many, he finally just compiled some of them all into an album of their own, called (snappy nomenclature here) “Stories.” If there’s a cheesy one in the lot, I must’ve missed it. Seriously, “Rachel Delavoryas,” “Christmas at Denny’s” and “Weight of the Sky” are cheesy?!?

    Likewise:
    *Mark Heard — nuf sed, I think.
    *Rich Mullins had a few — “What Susan Said” and “Jacob + 2 Women” come to mind.
    *Caedmon’s Call — a big chunk of “Share the Well”, including the devastating “The Innocent’s Corner.”
    *Jars of Clay – “Five Candles (You Were There)” hits me every time.
    *Margaret Becker – the title track of “Immigrant’s Daughter”, plus “Steps of Faith”.
    *And while it might be a little treacly, Twila Paris’ “Seventy Years Ago” is at least a true story.

    Now that’s all off the top of my head, so I think ye might be selling the believers a tad short there, Jeff. Okay, end of rant.

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  87. Nilsson’s “The Point”… I had the whole album memorized, and several of the songs could move me to tears, as did the point of the story that the album told.

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  90. 1) I think we officially have our first Tone-Loc reference at iMonk! 😀

    2) The C&W song is actually a folk song — “The Unfortunate Man” by the Chad Mitchell Trio — http://www.lyricsbay.com/the_unfortunate_man_lyrics-chad_mitchell_trio.html.

    This is the same group that gave us “Super Skier” (funniest story-song ever — I will NOT discuss this!) and that paean to young Goldwater supporters, “Barry’s Boys” (“We’re the strong young men … who wanna go back to 1910, we’re … Barry’s boys …”) My parents saw the Mitchell Trio when they (my parents, not the trio) were still dating, at the Hungry I in San Francisco, later bought most of their albums — and years later played them for their young and impressionable son, little realize the chaos that would ensue.

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  91. I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned Joni Mitchell! You could pick many of her songs, but one that breaks me up every time is Little Green, her fictionalised autobiographical account of giving up a child for adoption.

    Also, Dar Williams: most of her songs are stories, and again picking one is hard! But if I had to pick a single song, it would be February, about a love grown so cold and remote that the narrator can’t even remember what a flower is any more. Or When I Was A Boy … oh, that one hurts. I could go on.

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  92. Over the Rhine’s Snow Angel

    Once upon a winter
    It seems so long ago
    My one and only love and I
    Fell down upon the snow…

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  93. glen frey- last lonely evening you’ll ever spend, and – its about forgiveness, even if you don’t love me anymore– be right back i have to go get a tissue! keep fighting the good fight and God bless! kenny

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  94. Amen to Mark Knopfler. “Prairie Wedding” off of Sailing to Philadelphia…WONDERFUL story in song. I also love “Speedway at Nazareth” off the same album.

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  95. Al Densons “Take me to the Cross”
    I quote it in sermons and never make it through without choking up.
    Take me to the cross, high upon the steeple,
    the one where Jesus died for all the hurt people.

    Joy Williams rendition of “How Deep the Fathers love for us.” Again, tears!

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  96. I have a particular fondness for “Time of the Preacher” by Willie Nelson on the Red-headed Stranger concept album. I play it every time I’m about to go into a council meeting.

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  97. “Good Bye Earl” by the Dixie Chicks is a funny song.

    Tom Paxton has a number of them, “Rambling Boy” is probably the most popular. Phil Ochs has stories in some of his songs. Some serious and real like “Another Country” or “On Her Hand a Golden Ring”, some funny like “The Ballad of Alferd Packer”. He’s never gonna be loved by Christians though (“The Cannons of Christianity” was his).

    Arlo also has a story in a song called the “1913 Massacre”.

    Don’t forget Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger they both had a lot of story songs. I like “Pretty Boy Floyd” myself.

    And if it’s stories you want, there some incredible Irish musicians like the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. I like their tale of the “Irish Rover” and also “Quare Bungle Rye” makes me laugh every time I hear it!

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  98. Don Francisco used to sing some great story songs about Jesus and his ministry to people.

    Stan Rogers told stories in folk songs as well as anyone. I’ve also been a longtime fan of Bill Staines and his great story songs.

    Mark Knopfler paints amazing story portraits of colorful characters.

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  100. Another great story songwriter is Bob Seger.

    From Hollywood Nights, Main Street, Like a Rock, to Fire Lake – The stories are interesting. But the one song that really moves me is “Night Moves” and especially the last verse…

    I woke last night to the sound of thunder
    How far off I sat and wondered
    Started humming a song from 1962
    Ain’t it funny how the night moves
    When you just don’t seem to have as much to lose
    Strange how the night moves….
    With autumn closing in

    Powerful reminiscing of many many summers ago.

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  101. I’ll one up your story song with a story album. One of my all time favorite albums is Crane Wife by The Decemberist because every song is a story song, telling the traditional Japanese fable from many different perspectives.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crane_Wife

    I really do wish artists would do this more often. It makes the experience of listening to the whole album so much more fulfilling. As opposed to only listening to the couple songs on an album that are your favorites and never touching the rest again.

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  102. “You’ll notice I have not included any Christian songs in this list. There are Christian story songs, but so many of them are forced and, to be honest, cheesy.”

    What about Derek Webb’s “Heaven”

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  103. “Highway 17” by Rodney Crowell

    “Big Iron” and “El Paso” by Marty Robbins

    Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”

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  104. A Salty Dog by Procol Harum…kind of a haunted sea song….

    A number of Elton John songs before he went bubble gum….

    Billy Joel’s Captain Jack, Billy the Kid and of course Piano Man.

    And all the early accoustic Jethro Tull

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  106. You actually named all the good songs Same Old Lang Syne, Taxi, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

    Johnny Cash – Sunday Morning Coming Down / The realism of what I see much of on Sunday morning

    Lynyrd Skynyrd – Gimme Three Steps / I just love how the dialog fits into being a song and the ending of the story.

    various artists – Harper Valley PTA – I love how she called those PTA members hypocrites.

    Rush – Xanadu – deeply influenced by the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Oh, I will dine on honey dew; and drink the milk of Paradise”

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  107. I don’t normally listen to rap, but found the one that ends “I get PAID to do the WILD THANG” quite witty.

    And I have vague childhood memories of a C&W song about a man who marries a woman for her beauty, only to discover–as she gets ready for bed–that she has “washed all her beauty away.” And then she takes out her glass eye. Surely an important moral lesson lurks therein.

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  109. Oh my! Memories!

    Sequel Harry Chapin. Tells “the rest of the story” to Taxi.
    Seven Island Suite Gordon Lightfoot.
    Another Auld Lang Syne Dan Fogelberg.
    The Boxer Simon & Garfunkel
    Now That I’ve Held Him In My Arms Michael Card…about Simeon, seeing the Christ at the Temple as an Infant, being redeemed as the First-Fruits of Mary, His Mother: “Now that I’ve held Him in my arms, my life can now come to an end…” My late Husband requested this “story song” at his memorial Service, five years ago.

    Yeah. :”)

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  110. Great post! Funny you should mention the late, great Harry Chapin, the master of the story song. I like “Taxi” a lot, too. I’m also partial to his “30,000 Pounds of Bananas.” My favorite Harry Chapin song by far is “Mr. Tanner,” the bittersweet story of a singer’s broken dreams.

    As far as story songs go, my all-time favorite – in any genre – is, in my opinion, the greatest country song of all time: George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” That’s a story song for you! 🙂

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  112. I don’t know if it counts as a story song, but I get teary-eyed every time I hear the song “Murder in the City.”

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