Great story songs.

[Dendarii_Dame]

Has anybody said “Ride Forever” yet?

[Dougula]

I got one Harry Chapin - Cats in the Cradle .

[chiroptera]

@Labdad

Steve Earle has a ton of them. I recommend “Taneytown,” “Tom Ames’ Prayer,” and “The Week of Living Dangerously.”

You forgot Copperhead Road.

And the Pogues Waltzing Matilda, still on the “what happened after I came back from war” theme.

[running_coach]

@chiroptera

And the Pogues Waltzing Matilda, still on the “what happened after I came back from war” theme.

Son Of A Rich posted that in #6.

Actual title “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”

[running_coach]

Waltzing Matilda-Slim Dusty.

[chiroptera]

@running_coach

Son Of A Rich posted that in #6.

Actual title “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”

:smack: Missed that!
Yeah, lots of excellent covers of that song.

[Sam_Stone]

John Prine has a zillion of them:

A few of my favorites:

Sam Stone
Hello in There
Paradise
The Great Compromise
Six O’Clock News
Donald and Lydia

[terentii]

One of my favorites: “Louise” by The Human League.

The Human League - Louise, By EMI

[Weedy]

To Her Door - Paul Kelly

[breezman]

“X Offender” and “Susie and Jeffry” by Blondie.

“Take the Money and Run” by Steve Miller Band.

“Here I Go” by Syd Barrett.

[Oakminster]

“American Pie”-Don McLean

“Convoy”-C.W. McCall

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”-Jim Croce

“You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”-Jim Croce

[Bridget_Burke]

@CheshireKat

Two of my favorites:

Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Riley

Pancho and Lefty - Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

Of course, Townes van Zandt wrote Pancho & Lefty. He appear in the “official” video of Willie & Merle’s version (which I could not find on YouTube).

Joe Ely didn’t write The Road Goes On Forever but he tends to make any song “his.” Here, Townes sings Joe’s Indian Cowboy. (From Townes’s Roadsongs album; all “covers” that he included in his shows.) Joe does his own Me & Billy The Kid. (Need to watch the rest of that show–with Lyle Lovett & John Hyatt sharing the stage.)

Steve Earle & his son Justin Townes Earle sing Townes’s Mr Gold & Mr Mudd; first, Steve Earle tells A Townes Story. Steve tells another story here & sings his own Dixieland.

Why not end with Don’t Take Your Guns to Town by Mr Cash?

ETA: The reason not to end yet is Townes singing Peter LaFarge’s Ballad of Ira Hayes…

[CheshireKat]

@Bridget_Burke

Of course, Townes van Zandt wrote Pancho & Lefty. He appear in the “official” video of Willie & Merle’s version (which I could not find on YouTube).

I love Townes van Zandt’s guitar opening and playing in his versionof Pancho and Lefty. I wish it had been used in the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard cover.

[Voyager]

@Son_of_a_Rich

I’m really surprised the thread has gotten this far without mention of Ode to Billie Joe.

And Dylan wrote a kind of parody/response to it Clothes Line Saga available on both Basement Tapes sets.

Lots of Dylan story songs - besides the ones mentioned we have Black Diamond Bay, not to mention Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream and Talkin’ World War III Blues.

[usedtobe]

The River - Springsteen

Come Dancing - Kinks

[Sam_Stone]

Warren Zevon had some great story songs:

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
Excitable Boy
Frank and Jesse James
Jeannie Needs a Shooter
And many others.

[needscoffee]

@CheshireKat

Two of my favorites:

Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Riley

Pancho and Lefty - Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

@Bridget_Burke

Of course, Townes van Zandt wrote Pancho & Lefty. He appear in the “official” video of Willie & Merle’s version (which I could not find on YouTube).

Joe Ely didn’t write The Road Goes On Forever but he tends to make any song “his.” Here, Townes sings Joe’s Indian Cowboy. (From Townes’s Roadsongs album; all “covers” that he included in his shows.) Joe does his own Me & Billy The Kid. (Need to watch the rest of that show–with Lyle Lovett & John Hyatt sharing the stage.)

Steve Earle & his son Justin Townes Earle sing Townes’s Mr Gold & Mr Mudd; first, Steve Earle tells A Townes Story. Steve tells another story here & sings his own Dixieland.

Why not end with Don’t Take Your Guns to Town by Mr Cash?

ETA: The reason not to end yet is Townes singing Peter LaFarge’s Ballad of Ira Hayes…

And Harper Valley PTA was written by Tom T. Hall:

Tom T. had planned a career as a journalist or novelist almost until ‘Harper Valley PTA’ won the 1968 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Vocal Performance and the CMA award for Single of the Year. Tom T. recently talked to The Boot about this hit song and what inspired him to write it:

**
The story is a true story. I didn’t make the story up. I chose the story to make a statement but I changed the names to protect the innocent. There were 10 kids in our family. We’d get up in the morning and my mother and father would get bored with us running around and we’d go terrorize the neighbors up and down this little road we lived on. After we had done our chores, of course.

I was just hanging around downtown when I was about nine years old and heard the story and got to know this lady. I was fascinated by her grit. To see this very insignificant, socially disenfranchised lady — a single mother — who was willing to march down to the local aristocracy read them the riot act so to speak, was fascinating.

I wrote the song 30 years later. That song was my novel. I had been reading Sinclair Lewis. As a young man I read Lewis’ novels ‘Babbitt’ and ‘Elmer Gantry,’ which is about hypocrisy. Babbitt is, of course, about the social structure of the small town. So being a big Sinclair Lewis fan, when I wrote ‘Harper Valley’ I incorporated elements of ‘Elmer Gantry’ into the song.

From Story Behind the Song: Jeannie C. Riley, 'Harper Valley PTA'

[Waymore]

Seems to be quite a few country songs in this category.

Off the top of my head:

Ballad of $40 by Tom T. Hall
Week In A County Jail by Tom T. Hall
Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern by Todd Snider
Easy Money by Todd Snider
Choctaw Bingo By Ray Wylie Hubbard
Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton
Streets of Bakersfield by Dwight Yokam and Buck Ownes

[Chefguy]

The Ballad of Hollis Brown, Bob Dylan

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery

Uneasy Rider by Charlie Daniels.

I’d never heard of that song before (it’s from 1973), but just heard it on the radio. I loved it!