Jimmy Buffett has a number of them (a few off the top of my head):
Death of An Unpopular Poet
He Went To Paris
The Ballad of Spider John
Cuban Crime of Passion
Jolly Mon Sing
The Great Filling Station Holdup
A Pirate Looks at Forty
Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Railroad Lady
Ahh, Bob may not be a sweet-sounding singer, but he does have a way with words.
Add to Bob’s Bodacious Ballads:
Tangled Up In Blue: “She was married when they first met,
To a man four times her age.
He left her penniless in a state of regret –
It was time to bust out of that cage.”
(Yeah, Bob changes the lyrics around when he performs)
And he teamed up with playwright Sam Shepard for the cryptically poetic Brownsville Girl: “Well, the first thing we learned about Henry Porter was that his name wasn’t Henry Porter…”
One of the few songs whose lyrics I’ve actually studied. It was lauded in the “Best First Lines” thread:
*“There was this movie I seen one time, and it starred Gregory Peck.” *
Well, listen as his relationship to the movie changes with each verse… no, I haven’t figured it all out yet.
A BIG MISTAKE by Jeb Loy Nichols (and his old band Fellow Travellers)
Jeb has a number of great stories, including one set to just drums and tuba:
“And they got married, and that was A Big Mistake.
They had a baby, and that was A Big Mistake…”
The bouncy beat and oompa oompa tuba makes the heartache hilarious.
Also check out “Mary, Her Husband, and Tommy, Too” or "New York Tragedy"
THE STRANGE CASE OF FRANK CASH AND THE MORNING PAPER by T-Bone Burnett
has the protagonist on trial for killing a man:
“Your honor and ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
all this has been happening to me because of this guy
named T-Bone Burnett. He’s been making all this up,
and I just want to say I don’t believe in him,
in fact I don’t even think he exists, and not only that
BUT THIS SONG IS OVER.”
Sultry? Really? I’ve heard her music but I always figured she was some overweight-ish Grand Ole Opry lady in a matronly high collar blouse, maybe like June Carter Cash.
Let’s see what Google Images has to say . . . oh. Ahem. Well, then.