I’m making a playlist. Nominations welcome. All genres.
Do they have to be true to reality?
Hurricane by Bob Dylan. Reserving judgement as to it’s truthiness but … great song.
Taxi and Sequel by Harry Chapin.
El Paso by Marty Robbins
The Highwayman by Loreena McKennitt (based on the poem by Alfred Noyes)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot
The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald–Gordon Lightfoot
One Tin Soldier-as performed by Coven
The Ballad of Curtis Lowe–Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ode to Billie Joe–Bobbie Gentry
*
American Pie*–Don McLean
The Gambler and* Coward of the County*–Kenny Rogers
Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
Piano Man - Billy Joel
Just about anything by Harry Chapin… Taxi, Cats in the Cradle, 60,000 pounds of bananas.
Alice’s Restaurant.
Battle Of Evermore by Zeppelin.
Seconded, and adding Big Iron and Ballad of the Alamo by same.
Lots of train wreck songs, Wreck of the Old 97 and Casey Jones being two of the most famous.
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, Dark Lady, and (to a slightly lesser degree) Bang Bang by Cher.
For comedy: Cow Patty by Jim Stafford
For folksiness: The Arkansas Traveler
Medieval: Gae and bar the door
Loreena McKennitt has many of these, but most (e.g. The Highwayman, The Lady of Shallott) are long poems put to music.
From the Classic Rock jukebox in my brain (and some YouTube links) -
Lola, The Kinks
Duncan, Paul Simon
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Billy Joel
The Ballad of Billy The Kid, Billy Joel
Miami 2017 (I Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway), Billy Joel
Tweeter and the Monkeyman, The Traveling Wilburys
Rocky Raccoon, The Beatles
Jungleland, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin
1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be…), Jimi Hendrix
Josh Ritter’s The Curse (with it’s gorgeous marionette video)
Pretty much everything by Tom Lehrer and John Forster.
Lots by Phil Ochs. (I hum “The Ringing of Revolution” a lot these days.)
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer by either JLH or George Thorogood.
The Decemberists - Mariner’s Revenge Song
I listen to this song ALL the time.
Dylan’s Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts
Wanna tell you a story,
about the house-man blues . . .
One bourbon, one scotch, one beer by George Thorogood
Though I always thought it was “the house rent blues”
Devil Came Down to Georgia
Hot Rod Lincoln
A Man Called Sue
Beep, Beep
They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore - Kinky Friedman
Sam Stone by John Prine.