This thread was inspired by “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” thread", and because I love those kinds of tunes.
Mine is “The Carroll County Accident”. There’s no youtube video, and I don’t want to link you a lyrics site, because those damn things are notorious for spyware. Also the mods frown on posting the lyrics as part of a thread, but it was done by Porter Wagoner and tells the story of an affair which ended in a fiery car wreck.
I can think of three “Carroll Counties” in the US, and I used to live in the one in Georgia, where of course the song became an instant hit.
Did it really happen? I don’t think so, but it could have.
I have a lot of respect for songwriters who can fashion a song into a “mini-novel”.
I love Willie Nelson’s version of Red Headed Stranger (written by Carl Stutz and Edith Lindeman). It’s hard not to love a song that contains the line “You can’t hang a man for killin’ a woman who’s tryin’ to steal your horse.”
<b>Ode to Billy Joe</b> and <b>Fancy</b>, both Bobbie Gentry songs come to mind for me first, but there are others, too, hovering around at the back of my mind.
This gives me an idea: I’ll write an song called “Story Song” about a songwriter who writes a story song and watches it shoot up the charts only to spend the rest of his career dealing with the fact that it has become one of the most hated and joked-about songs in rock history.
I love The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer by Johnny Cash - the victory of the luddite over the machine age. Now someone needs to update that song as a ballad on the 1996 Kasparov / Deep Blue match, and change it from country to hip-hop. That’s gold, baby!
“Taxi” and “Sequel” have been mentioned, (great songs, both) but I rather like Harry Chapin’s “Better Place to Be.” It’s a story within a story: the story of the night watchman who picks up a girl, and the story of him telling that story to the bartender at the place he’s stopped for a drink. She’s “a big ol’ friendly girl who tried to fight her empty nights by smilin’ at the world,” and she and the man create their own story that surrounds the telling of the first.
A difficult technique to use in song lyrics, it would seem, but Chapin pulls it off. Chapin also playes with the song’s tempo to get it to evoke various atmospheres, and his voice ranging from quiet (and shy) to loud (and triumphant) bring to mind the emotions of the man himself in the story. Great story song!