# Are there any story songs with happy endings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592 "2015-04-02T04:50:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/61 "2015-04-02T22:06:14Z")
> [@sweetie pea](#): > > And speaking of Johnny Cash (although he didn’t actually write A Boy Named Sue), I believe the auto factory worker in One Piece At A Time who smuggled out Cadillac parts in his lunch box did eventually manage to build himself a car. The Psychobilly Cadillac, which a fan in Tennessee actually built for Cash. And Shel Silverstein wrote “A Boy Called Sue”. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Oh, and Harry Chapin’s Sequel seems to have at least the possibility of happy ending. Maybe Harry and Sue can make it work this time. > > I guess only time will tell. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Harry Chapin’s _A Better Place To Be_ > > And the little man > Looked at the empty glass in his hand > And he smiled a crooked grin > He said, “I guess I’m out of gin > And I know we both have been so lonely > And if you want me to come with you that’s all right with me > ‘Cause I know I’m goin’ nowhere and anywhere’s a better place to be’” I’d say that Harry Chapin wrote the most honest happy ending songs. The protagonists of “Sequel” don’t go back to being the young dreamers they were when they were dating; they’ve been scarred by their experiences, they’re battered by life, but they’ve gotten some wisdom and some strength. Likewise the little man of “A Better Place To Be” still has his empty job and lonely boardinghouse room, but he’s going to at least offer the barmaid, the big ol’ friendly girl, the same comfort that the lovely lady offered him. Chapin’s heroes get imperfectly happy endings. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/62 "2015-04-03T00:46:30Z")
Finnegan’s Wake – Tim Finnegan is alive! The Jolly Tinker – The tinker got 20 pounds for blocking a rusty hole. Twice! The Old Woman from Wexford – The old woman’s murder plot backfires on her. ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/63 "2015-04-03T01:18:49Z")
_Judy’s Turn to Cry_ has a happy ending for the singer and Johnny, but not so much for Judy. _The Battle of New Orleans_ has a happy ending for Andrew Jackson, again, not so much for the British. The same holds for _Timothy_ – a happy ending for all but one. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/64 "2015-04-03T01:47:51Z")
_The Ballad of the Asian Massage Parlor._ ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/65 "2015-04-03T03:48:54Z")
“Jackaroe” – she heals his wounds and they get married. “Silhouettes”, if you count that as a story song. Shel Silverstein’s “The Winner.” Charlie Daniels’ “Ballad of the Uneasy Rider”. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/66 "2015-04-03T05:01:31Z")
Killer Mike- JoJo’s Chillin’ ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/67 "2015-04-03T06:01:28Z")
Talkin’ Vietnam Potluck Blues has a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/68 "2015-04-03T11:44:20Z")
“Every Picture Tells a Story” by Rod Stewart ends with the narrator finding true love with a Chinese girl. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/69 "2015-04-03T11:47:47Z")
Unlike many country music story songs Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” has a happy ending. The middle-aged narrator meets the girl who’d broken his heart years earlier. He realizes at last that they were wrong for each other in the first place, and is glad he married someone else. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/70 "2015-04-03T11:51:11Z")
In a strange sense, Michael McDonald’s “What a Fool Believes” has a happy ending, but only because the song is about a fool who’s too blind to see that his beloved has just given him the brushoff! The fool is happy, and think he still has a shot with her! ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/71 "2015-04-03T14:30:03Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > “Every Picture Tells a Story” by Rod Stewart ends with the narrator finding true love with a Chinese girl. And in “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” the narrator and the woman he brought home get it on and then watch a movie. It does turn out that he is out of coffee, though, so perhaps that ending should be considered “mixed.” ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/72 "2015-04-03T14:49:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > And in “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” the narrator and the woman he brought home get it on and then watch a movie. It does turn out that he is out of coffee, though, so perhaps that ending should be considered “mixed.” Out of milk AND coffee, you mean. Unmitigated disaster. It’s like something off of Springsteen’s _Nebraska_ album. Makes “When The Levee Breaks” sound like “Got My Mind Set On You.” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/73 "2015-04-03T16:18:33Z")
Decemberists - The Mariner’s Revenge. While not altogether happy tale, the protagonist gets his revenge on the debt ridden drunken mess that he’s been searching for all his life. At least, before he gets digested by a whale. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/74 "2015-04-03T16:54:56Z")
We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin. But there wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they began to runnin’ down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/75 "2015-04-03T17:27:22Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Hell, by that standard, Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts” has a happy ending. Rosemary "was lookin’ to do just one good deed before she died,’ and in putting the penknife into Big Jim’s back, she apparently felt she had accomplished that: “Rosemary on the gallows, she didn’t even blink.” > > I’ve always been of two minds about the verse that’s in [the official lyrics](http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/lily-rosemary-and-jack-hearts), but not on the _Blood on the Tracks_ recorded version, but if we include that verse, Big Jim was surely, for Lily, “the man she couldn’t stand who hounded her so much,” so she’s free of him at last. > > And is it a happy ending for the Jack of Hearts? Hell if we know. We don’t even know whether he got killed by Big Jim and/or his bodyguards, or whether he got off with his co-conspirators waiting by the riverbed, or what. Remember the gambler said: “And the best that you can hope for Is to die in your sleep” The gambler got the best ending he could hope for and the singer got an ace that he could keep. Not perfect, but not the worst either. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/76 "2015-04-03T21:12:33Z")
_Harper Valley PTA_ What do I win? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/77 "2015-04-03T21:20:09Z")
Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” The neighborhood is freed from the bully’s tyranny. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/78 "2015-04-03T21:59:58Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” The neighborhood is freed from the bully’s tyranny. Wow, I just realized how similar that song is, in lyrical theme, (to say nothing of the music) to Bad Bad Leroy Brown. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592/79 "2015-04-03T22:31:30Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Wow, I just realized how similar that song is, in lyrical theme, (to say nothing of the music) to Bad Bad Leroy Brown. If Jim Croce had lived longer, how many more songs would he have written about tough guys getting their asses kicked? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-story-songs-with-happy-endings/716592.md?page=3)