# Best Story Songs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 2, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850 "2013-03-02T21:41:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/1 "2013-03-02T21:41:23Z")
I’m making a playlist. Nominations welcome. All genres.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/2 "2013-03-02T21:43:12Z")
Do they have to be true to reality?
_Hurricane_ by Bob Dylan. Reserving judgement as to it’s truthiness but … great song.
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/3 "2013-03-02T21:45:34Z")
Taxi and Sequel by Harry Chapin.
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### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/4 "2013-03-02T21:51:49Z")
_El Paso_ by Marty Robbins
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/5 "2013-03-02T21:59:03Z")
_The Highwayman_ by Loreena McKennitt (based on the poem by Alfred Noyes)
_The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_ by Gordon Lightfoot
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/6 "2013-03-02T22:01:30Z")
_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
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/7 "2013-03-02T22:17:02Z")
Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/8 "2013-03-02T22:19:34Z")
_The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia_ - Vicki Lawrence
_Piano Man_ - Billy Joel
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/9 "2013-03-02T22:21:15Z")
Just about anything by Harry Chapin… Taxi, Cats in the Cradle, 60,000 pounds of bananas.
Alice’s Restaurant.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/10 "2013-03-02T22:24:33Z")
_Battle Of Evermore_ by Zeppelin.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/11 "2013-03-02T22:50:34Z")
> [@Enginerd](#):
>
> _El Paso_ by Marty Robbins
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpapdB-bCFI) by Jim Stafford
For folksiness: [The Arkansas Traveler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTIjap-BmzM)
Medieval: [Gae and bar the door](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBe_vH04ffk)
Loreena McKennitt has many of these, but most (e.g. _[The Highwayman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Y-VBD0kRI)_, _[The Lady of Shallott](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttv0ljOiPSs)_) are long poems put to music.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/12 "2013-03-02T22:51:13Z")
From the Classic Rock jukebox in my brain (and some YouTube links) -
[_Lola_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVXmMMSo47s), The Kinks
[_Duncan_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxdlEGKHSXk), Paul Simon
[_Scenes From An Italian Restaurant_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEO_2eFpSeQ), Billy Joel
[_The Ballad of Billy The Kid_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA0bhQh-yBU), Billy Joel
_[Miami 2017 (I Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThogWesUQog)_, Billy Joel
[_Tweeter and the Monkeyman_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReQsRgQXgQY&noredirect=1), The Traveling Wilburys
[_Rocky Raccoon_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNRH7_Kd5Yc), The Beatles
[_Jungleland_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGU0z1DGO8E), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
[_Me and Bobby McGee_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irU5oihACj4), Janis Joplin
[_1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be…)_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o591slQgirA), Jimi Hendrix
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/13 "2013-03-02T22:57:55Z")
Josh Ritter’s _The Curse_ (with it’s gorgeous [marionette video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXBI2_zH9Js))
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/14 "2013-03-02T23:00:03Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@chinchalinchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chinchalinchin)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/15 "2013-03-02T23:01:36Z")
[The Decemberists - Mariner’s Revenge Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaNV7eCU2R0&feature=youtu.be)
I listen to this song ALL the time.
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### Author:  [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/16 "2013-03-02T23:03:02Z")
Dylan’s _Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts_
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### Author:  [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/17 "2013-03-02T23:03:37Z")
Wanna tell you a story,
about the house-man blues . . .
[One bourbon, one scotch, one beer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmgOrhELXs) by **George Thorogood**
Though I always thought it was “the house rent blues”
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/18 "2013-03-02T23:10:29Z")
Devil Came Down to Georgia
Hot Rod Lincoln
A Man Called Sue
Beep, Beep
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### Author:  [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/19 "2013-03-02T23:17:20Z")
_They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore_ - Kinky Friedman
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### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-songs/651850/20 "2013-03-02T23:24:44Z")
_Sam Stone_ by John Prine.
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