By which I mean songs where the lyrics are written as a letter sent to someone.
examples:
Anchorage by Michelle Shocked
Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen
Anyone know of any others? I really like those two songs, maybe I’ll like others in that style.
I was going to post Take A Letter, Maria by R.B. Greaves, but it’s actually only partly the narrator dictating a letter, rather than being the letter itself.
“Letter to a John,” Ani DiFranco
Sonny’s Lettah by Linton Kwesi Johnson
Dear Diary, by The Moody Blues
Your Woman by White Town
Word of the day: epistolary
I was going to chime in with “The Letter” by the Box Tops. But it’s more about receiving a letter than writing one.
So that I don’t seem like I’m just threadshitting, Emimem/Dido’s “Stan” is another one.
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
There are about a half-dozen songs named Dear John. In the best known country song, the woman went office and married his brother, Don.
Dear I thought I’d drop a line
The weather’s cool
The folks are fine
I’m in bed each night at 9
PS: I Love You
–Johnny Mercer (lyric), Gordon Jenkins (music), 1934.
This is NOT the song on the back of Love Me Do by the Beatles.
Lennon & McCartney wrote that themselves.
That really depressing Kilkelly, Ireland one.
XTC, Dear God
“Sunny Road” by Emiliana Torrini.
But the Beatles song would certainly qualify.
There’s also “Postcard” by the Bonzo Dog Band
At least one of the songs in the musical 1776 are sung as letters written between John and Abagail Adams. Yours, Yours, Yours, for instance.
Stan, by Marshall Mathers (a.k.a. eminem) is a series of correspondence with Dido singing the hook.
SSG Schwartz
“Dear Penis” by Rodney Carrington
Beat me to it1 Great, great song.
Saint Nicholas Hall by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is in the form of a solicitation from a Catholic school for donations. It ends:
I was going to suggest that one also - I always want to get on the phone and call all my out-of-town family after listening to that song.
“Unsent” by Alanis Morisette is a series of letters. Beautiful song.