# Songs With a Plot **URL:** \ **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:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/41 "2009-07-24T16:48:28Z")
Date Rape by Sublime has a plot… and it’s pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/42 "2009-07-25T01:09:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Isaac’s Lament… Ah, but don’t forget Cream’s over-cockneyed **Mother’s Lament**. Some of you have heard that my twisted little toddlers HAD to have it sung in the tub each night: _A muvver was warshing her bayby one night, The youngest of ten and a delicate mite. The muvver was poor and the baby was thin, 'Twas naught but an skellingtin covered with skin. [snip]_ And, yes, the immoral anklebiters always giggled at the part: _Ohhh, your bayby has gone down the plug 'ole. Oh, your bayby has gone down the plug. The poor little thing was so skinny and thin, He should 'ave been washed in a jug (in a juuuug…)_ … ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/43 "2009-07-25T13:23:47Z")
Kinda depends on how you define ‘plot’, too; if you count “boy meets girl” as a plot then every other song has a plot. Dylan has quite a few, as well as the aforementioned Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts and Tangled up in Blue, you could also add Black Diamond Bay, Changing of the Guards, most of his “Ballad of…” songs, Who Killed Davy Moore, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and about a billion more. Most songs from The Alan Parsons Project’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination also do, being based on Poe stories. House of the Rising Sun. Black Sabbath have one or two; The Wizard and Iron Man spring to mind. The Clash have Rock the Casbah, Spanish Bombs. David Bowie’s Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes and Peter Schilling’s Major Tom. Land Ho! by The Doors. Hotel California by The Eagles. Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden. Led Zep’s Ramble On, Gallows Pole, Fool in the Rain, Going to California, Battle of Evermore. 99 Luft Balloons by Nena. Don’t Stand So Close To Me by The Police. The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkle. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/44 "2009-07-26T11:00:48Z")
The Pina Colada Song,cant remember the artist. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/45 "2009-07-26T13:46:23Z")
Bad Company’s Shooting Star ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/46 "2009-07-26T14:28:47Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Weird Al Yankovic: The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota; The Saga Begins …and the ultimate Weird Al story songs, [Trapped In The Drive-Thru](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGVYki-oyQ) and [Albuquerque](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29JSyIVd7E). Also, [Family Snapshot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp1j1R8jKyY) by Peter Gabriel. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/47 "2009-07-26T16:04:55Z")
More from the 70s: [Chevy Van](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiEIToOWr64) - Sammy Johns [Ariel](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFW9jCFml4) - Dean Friedman [Uneasy Rider](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMN7fGZW_BY) -Charlie Daniels [I Do It for Your Love](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8v2j4lJJZY&feature=PlayList&p=E377CDC4B95778B6&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41) - Paul Simon [Convoy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyK1zbYV9BE&feature=related) - C.W. McCall ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/48 "2009-07-26T17:07:50Z")
I’ll add two of my favorites. Paul Revere - Beastie Boys The Mariner’s Revenge Song - The Decemberists. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/49 "2009-07-26T17:14:00Z")
Tons of songs from musicals. The point of many songs from musicals is to carry the plot along. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024/50 "2009-07-26T17:35:46Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Tons of songs from musicals. The point of many songs from musicals is to carry the plot along. Yes, but I think a distinction can be made between songs that have a plot—where the song itself tells a story—and songs that have a backstory, where the song grows out of or comments on elements of the story. Many of the songs in musicals, as well as a few that have been mentioned in this thread, are of the latter kind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-plot/504024.md?page=2)