# Songs With a Plot
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 23, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024 "2009-07-23T18:22:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/1 "2009-07-23T18:22:22Z")
This morning, for some inexplicable reason, I had this really awful story song stuck in my head, **The Last Game of the Season** by David Geddes. ([link to lyrics](http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Last_Game_of_the_Season(The_Blind_Man_in_the_Bleachers).htm), try not to vomit)
I was just wondering what other songs you can think of that are more like a narrative and tell a story.
Another cheesy one I thought of was **Run, Joey, Run**.
And I think there’s a story in the song about the Tallahatchee bridge, **Ode to Billie Joe**.
**Up the Junction** by Squeeze
**Auld Lang Syne** by Dan Fogleberg
What else ya got?
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### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/2 "2009-07-23T18:23:53Z")
Pretty much every ballad fits the bill. A few by Nick Cave sprang to mind, especially from his album _Murder Ballads_.
And many folk songs, protest and otherwise.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/3 "2009-07-23T18:28:49Z")
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/4 "2009-07-23T18:29:39Z")
Almost everything by The Decemberists.
Up The Junction - that’s a good one! Kudos to the OP for even remembering it.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/5 "2009-07-23T18:29:54Z")
_Little Red Corvette_ by Prince would also fit.
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### Author:  [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/6 "2009-07-23T18:30:46Z")
Rocky Raccoon.
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. Esp the Brenda and Eddie bit.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/7 "2009-07-23T18:35:09Z")
The 70s were the golden age of ballads. Just a few:
[Brandy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-tRXewCAmU) - Looking Glass
[Patches](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1swk0fcIIsk&feature=related) - Clarence Carter
[The Ballad of Curtis Loew](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1swk0fcIIsk&feature=related) - Lynyrd Skynyrd
[Papa Was a Rolling Stone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2QkgMvTtM) - The Temptations
[Night Moves](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTgLQgpwRvQ) - Bob Seger
It’s a shame more artists aren’t doing ballads today.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/8 "2009-07-23T18:36:25Z")
[Tweeter and the Monkey Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweeter_and_the_Monkey_Man), by the Traveling Wilburys.
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/9 "2009-07-23T18:41:08Z")
The first song that popped into my mind was _[Timothy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_(song))_ by the Buoys. It’s “the unnerving story of three men trapped in a collapsed mine, two of whom apparently resort to cannibalism against the third (the titular character Timothy).”
Gah, why do I remember this? I probably need to see somebody.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/10 "2009-07-23T18:41:23Z")
My favorite plot song is “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”. It’s got adultery, murder and corruption.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/11 "2009-07-23T18:42:21Z")
[Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily,_Rosemary_and_the_Jack_of_Hearts) - Bob Dylan
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/12 "2009-07-23T18:44:34Z")
Lots of Jim Croce–_Bad Leroy Brown_, _You Don’t Mess Around with Jim_, _Operator_ etc
Harry Chapin–_Taxi_, _Cat’s in the Cradle_
Kenny Rogers –_The Gambler_, _Coward of the County_
Charlie Daniels–_The Devil Went Down to Georgia_, _Uneasy Rider_
Lynyrd Skynyrd –_The Ballad of Curtis Lowe_
Steve Earl–_Copperhead Road_
Johnny Horton–_The Battle of New Orleans_,_Sink the Bismark_
Don McClean–_American Pie_
Peter, Paul, & Mary–_Puff the Magic Dragon_
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/13 "2009-07-23T18:51:02Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> [Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily,_Rosemary_and_the_Jack_of_Hearts) - Bob Dylan
That’s just the song I was going to cite. I’m surprised someone has not yet turned it into a movie.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/14 "2009-07-23T18:55:08Z")
The Who: **Sally Simpson, A Quick One While He’s Away, Magic Bus, I Can See for Miles, 905, My Wife, Cousin Kevin,**
The Kinks: **Lola, Sitting in the Noonday Sun**
The Beatles: **She’s Leaving Home, Rocky Raccoon.**
The Byrds: **Chestnut Mare**
Lyle Lovett: **Nobody Knows Me, L.A. County, She’s No Lady, Church, San Antonio Girl, On Saturday Night, If I Had a Boat**
Little Feet: **Dixie Chicken**
Loudon Wainwright III: **The Man Who Couldn’t Cry**
Hayes Carll: **She Left Me For Jesus**
The Band: **The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Weight, Acadian Driftwood**
Procol Harum: **Something Following Me, The Milk of Human Kindness, She Wandered through the Garden Fence, Something Following Me**
Traffic: **Feelin’ Alright**
Warren Zevon: **Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, Lawyers Guns and Money, Excitable Boy**
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/15 "2009-07-23T19:08:18Z")
Weird Al Yankovic: The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota; The Saga Begins
The Kinks: Holiday Romance
Mono Puff: The Devil Went Down To Newport (Totally Rocking)
And more are mentioned in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=518816), which reminded me of the greatest one of all: Barry Manilow’s Copacabana.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/16 "2009-07-23T19:22:06Z")
Marty Robbins: _El Paso_
Jan and Dean: _Dead Man’s Curve_
Shangri-La’s: _Leader of the Pack_
Jeannie C. Riley _Harper Valley PTA_
O.C. Smith _The Son of Hickory Hollow’s Tramp_
Janis Ian: _Society’s Child_
Bobbie Gentry _Ode to Billie Joe_
Meat Loaf _Paradise By the Dashboard Light_
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/17 "2009-07-23T19:25:26Z")
Also from the _sultry_ Bobbie Gentry, _Fancy_.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/18 "2009-07-23T19:25:59Z")
Bruce Springsteen has many songs that fit this, but I’ll offer an [overlooked one.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_Across_the_River)
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/19 "2009-07-23T19:26:58Z")
A few Country songs have been mentioned. Let’s include pretty much the songbook of Tom T. Hall. There was a reason his band was nicknamed “The Storytellers.”
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/20 "2009-07-23T19:32:14Z")
Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gimme Three Steps
Heard a cover of this by some local band. They got the verses out of order. So the guy was running from the bar screaming, then staring down the barrel of a 44. 😕
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