Story songs

people don't seem to write them anymore. You know, like "Ode To Billy Joe", "Harper Valley PTA", "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Are there any recent examples?

B Gentry
• FANCY!

• ^ Not a recent example.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dq4ZCrMESar8

• Not that recent, but Avril Lavigne's Skaterboy was pretty popular.

• Story songs are also known as ballads, OP. Listen to the concept album "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensryche. Full of story songs and put together they are like a movie telling a whole story.

• Try country music. Lots of songs about trucks, dogs, whiskey and women.

• R4, it's nice to know I'm not the only fan of "Operation Mindcrime." An incredible album.

• "Stan" by Eminem

• r6 It's nice to know I am not alone either! Geoff Tate was so great back then, no album (from anyone) will ever compare.

  r4%20Suite%20Sister%20Mary

• Here ya go. It's hip hop, but give it a chance.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DhlVBg7_08n0

• Most of Macklemore's stuff is fairly autobiographical. "Wings", "Victory Lap". Tells HIS story.

• Geoff Tate really was great, and I agree, no other album comes close to OM. It's been years since I've listened to it, but I've got it playing in my office now. The looks I'm getting from others has me laughing on the inside.

  R6, Not the Priest

• I loved the story of "Don't You Want Me" by Human League in the 80's. It is sad, wistful, angry, and creepy at the same time. I liked that it told both sides of the story. The Gotye song that is all over the radio now reminds me of it in some ways but the Gotye song doesn't have much as much going for it lyrically.

• Anyone else think Tears for Fears' "Woman in Chains," fits this category?

• I don't know if it fits r13 but I know it's a fucking awesome song! I thought I was the only Queensryche loving TFF fan and that is their best song.

• Any freakin Taylor Swift song.

• R15, I love the story that goes along with them discovering Oleta Adams in a Kansas City hotel bar and asking her to join them on the album. Not afraid to admit, there are days when I turn it on, turn it up and sing along to "Woman in Chains."

  I know, MARY!

• "Timothy" -- The Buoys Written And Arranged By Rupert Holmes Who Is Famous For The "Pina Colada Song." A CONTROVERSIAL #1 Hit In 1979 about cannibalism.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DDGNdvKvbxYQ

• Check out Sheryl Crow. Her CD Detours has a lot of these kinds of songs.

• Common - Testify Uses a great Honey Cone sample

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2TgRcFkhw

• "Fast Car" - Tracy Chapman

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6475u0wEG0

• I think that you need to get out more, OP! Iain "Fred" Smith - Dust of Uruzgan Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Age of Miracles Two recent albums with 'story songs'.

• "Waterfalls" by TLC has three stories in it.

• "Rabbit Fur Coat" - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhP_8MUS-ro

• Dylan did a couple of albums-full in the mid-70s, but that was when they last seemed the thing in rock.

• Judy Collins - The Little Road to Bethlehem

• Paul Simon - "Train in the Distance"

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98H5xrUhqp8

• "Sunny Came Home" "Night the Lights Went out in Georgia" "Take This Job and Shove It" "Take a Letter, Maria" "Jack and Diane"

• There are still singer songwriters and story songs. They just don't have the visibility that they had years ago.

• The absolute best recent story song is Jens Lekman's "Postcard to Nina." It's also very funny.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DDmq3GXsMcHM

• "Polly" by Nirvana. The apathetic story of a poorly executed rape.

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• "Rabbit Fur Coat" is indeed excellent. Oh, and then there's Branigan's "Spanish Eddie"...

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• You all know the proper term for "story songs" is ballads, right.

  Your%20English%20Teacher

• The 70s were the best years for the story song.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DNaTH3a7u8kU

• "Uneasy Rider" and "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band.

• Yep r32, I mentioned it at r4.

• Not recent but Aerosmith's Janie Got a Gun and Pearl Jam's Jeremy.

• I don't like Pearl Jam anymore r36 but Jeremy is an excellent song. It reminds me of the Stephen King story 'Rage", read it if you haven't. It is very timely in light of all the school violence lately.

• OP you made me go watch the Ode to Bully Joe video. Creeepy. I didn't remember the full story and had never seen the bizarre video. Not all ballads are story songs. Some just sing about their feelings about a situation or if they are telling a story it's done vaguely, not like the OP's examples.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCZt5Q-u4crc

• Detachable Penis

• It's a toss up, but this could be the the most depressing story song ever. It's not new though. "Alone Again Naturally"

  https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DD_P-v1BVQn8

• The best: Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning Said James to Red Molly, my hat's off to you It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952 And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme

• Another good, creepy one is the murder ballad, "Where the Wild Roses Grow" by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.

• The day Jilly Jo Lalalister jumped off the Tallahasse River bridge........ The day my mammy socked it to the NAACP... The wreck of the Edmund Fitsimmons I learned the tooth at 17...That my face looked really mean...

• Half breed that's all I ever heard Half breed, breeding 'mos and girl's absurd Half breed, aside me I was torn 'Mos and Norms agin me since the days I was born

• Dark lady laughed and danced and lit the candles one by one Fucked her racist ass, until she did cum Dark lady laughed and danced until the clock struck on the twelve She told me more about the cereal on the shelves.

• "Aliens Invading" by Ke$hit

• 'It Was A Very Good Year' - Frank Sinatra 'One Piece At A Time' - Johnny Cash 'Summer The First Time' - Bobby Goldsboro 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko' - John Lennon 'Oh What A Night' - Four Seasons

• Alanis Morissette - "Hands Clean"

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dH289KxkGw

• The festival was over, and the boys were all plannin' for a fall The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall. The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down, Anyone with any sense had already left town. He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily%2C_Rosemary_and_the_Jack_of_Hearts

• As the island slowly sank The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room The dealer said "It's too late now You can take you money, but I don't know how You'll spend it in the tomb" The tiny man bit the soldier's ear As the floor caved in and the boiler in the basemen blew While she's out on the balcony where a stranger tell her "My darling je vous aime beacoup" She sheds a tear and then begins to pray As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away From Black Diamond Bay.     I was siting home alone one night in LA Watching old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news It seems there was an earthquake that Left nothing but a Panama hat And a pair of old Greek shoes Didn't seem like much was happening So I turned it off and went to grab another beer Seems like every time you turn around There's another hard-luck story that you're gonna hear And there's really nothing anyone can say And I never did plan to go anyway To Black Diamond Bay.

• OP, Emmylou is a great storyteller

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

• "King of the Jailhouse" - Aimee Mann

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

• "No Anchovies Please" - The J. Geils Band

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dj-SgGHlZXQc

• the Ballad of Alice's Restaurant

• "L.A. International Airport," Susan Raye

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAj8f30Iguw0

• Story songs are not synonymous with ballads, what a silly statement. Might just as well say that any song with lyrics tells some kind of story. And some of the songs mentioned here are just songs. Story songs, with some exceptions are kind of gimmicky and often don't have so many choruses, usually more repeated hooks or phrases. "Frankie and Johnny" is a story song, it tells a complete narrative verse after verse. Dylan's "Joey", "Hurricane" and "Black Diamond Bay" are novellas they are so detailed and biographical. "Ode to Billy Joe", of course. "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" "At Seventeen" (barely)

  If%20I%20were%20a%20boy%20doesn%27t%20count%20as%20a%20story

• R5 is right. Lots of story songs in the country music genre. Here's a prime example, complete with whiskey and cheatin' hearts.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DIZbN_nmxAGk

  Whiskey%20Lullaby

• It was dark in June The bug I did moon My friend Ken and his big old log And Carl and Pete smoked reefer And Jimmy the big fat hog I was a pedobear On Eye-1-oh I really wanted to fuck some kid I said, I want to get really piggy And that's exactly what I did Oh we got our message conveyed And we a beautiful site We got our message conveyed Either day or night We got our message conveyed And nothing gonna stand in our way We got our message conveyed Kids are molested by gays Conveyed.

• Jacob's Dream - Alison Krauss

• "Polaroids" by Shawn Colvin.

• it's called R-A-P..even if you don't like the story, it's still a story. the question is why don't they writed GOOD ones anymore?

  anonymous

• Most of the 60s pop songs wove narratives with a beginning, middle, and end and the trend continued through the disco era, e.g. "There But For The Grace of God," to today. Which came first: the story or the song?

• See many of Bruce Springsteen songs, i.e., "The River," "Point Blank", etc....

• Best Story Song - In the Ghetto by Elvis

• R56 is right. Many of you seem to be struggling with the concept of a story song. Even R56 is confused. "At Seventeen" is not a story song. Story songs tell a story from beginning to end.

• All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You by Heart had a lucid narrative with a twist worthy of The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia.

• Many of Stacey Kent's songs tell stories. They aren't melodramatic so I'm not sure Datalounge's melodrama queens would appreciate them.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DJ96S-NZtne0

• Pineola by Lucinda Williams In Color by Jamey Johnson (kinda) Lonely at the top by Jamey Johnson (for sure) Choctow Bingo by James McMurtry. It's hard to call these narrative songs because they are too clever (make a broader point/or act as a character sketch).

• not much of rap is really stories anymore. Biggy Smalls was the best story-teller in rap, and there's just nobody who does it like that anymore, at least in the mainstream. In fact, it's the absence of narrative that unifies modern rap/hip-hop. Why tell a story when you can just repeat the same phrase over and over and make millions.

  106.1%20Hot%20Jamz

• Stacey Kent sings a truly chilling narrative.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DYRYsy9UIoMM

• One more from Stacey Kent en Français.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DtTCLH7UlAyg

• Don't know if I would say it's the "Best" Story Song, but agree that "In the Ghetto" is a great story song, sung fantastically by Elvis and thoughtfully well-written by its composer, Mac Davis.

• Not recent, but I love "Angie Baby" and "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Delta Dawn" (would that be considered a story? Oh, also not recent but I loved Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie" and his "Young Turks" ("Patty gave birth to a ten-pound baby boy, yeah!")

  Anonymous

• And that's why she fell for... the leader of the pack. Vroom, vroom.

• That's the night that the lights went out in Jordan. That's the night the Jews stole all my land Don't trust your soul to nobody who's named Gordon 'Cause the Jews in the town got blood stains on their hand

• are you TRYING to get this thread vanished, r75? I can't believe the Amazing Race thread is disappeared because everyone kept savaging Joey.