# Your Favorite "Story" Song?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 28, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024 "2006-11-28T03:19:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/21 "2006-11-28T06:29:15Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn]
Does **Alice’s Restaurant** count?
[/QUOTE]
Only if you’re a “Father-Raper”! 😃
I don’t know though, **Dewey**. That one’s kinda “on the cusp”, ya know?
Yeah, it tells a story, but it takes Arlo 15 plus minutes to tell it, and he “talks” a bunch of it.
I consider that one more of a comedy routine with musical accompaniment.
Now if you had menitoned _Last Kiss_ by J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers, you would have shot right up to number one!
😃
Q
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/22 "2006-11-28T07:07:19Z")
[QUOTE=commasense]
For a completely different, almost impressionistic, kind of storytelling, Bob Dylan’s [_Tangled up in Blue_](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/tangled.html).
[/QUOTE]
I came in to mention [Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/lily.html).
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### Author:  [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/23 "2006-11-28T09:49:42Z")
‘The Art Teacher’ by Rufus Wainwright on ‘Want Two’ - amazing (live) performance, great story.
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### Author:  [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/24 "2006-11-28T12:25:31Z")
[_Don’t put pickle on my burger. Cause it reminds me of my girl_](http://members.tripod.com/~agentsel/spronks/week3.html)
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/25 "2006-11-28T12:42:52Z")
[QUOTE=Jophiel]
I came in to mention [Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/lily.html).
[/QUOTE]
Darn you! and you too, **commasense**!
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### Author:  [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/26 "2006-11-28T12:52:15Z")
And 'Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song) by Warren Zevon
And of course ‘Boy Named Sue’
MiM
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/27 "2006-11-28T13:07:46Z")
[QUOTE=drm]
Does a song like ‘Hurricane’ by Bob Dylan count? It’s one of my favorite songs…
[/QUOTE]
When my brother and I were kids, we would “play Hurricane”, which meant that we put on the record and acted out the song. Love it!
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/28 "2006-11-28T13:17:19Z")
“The Blind Man in the Bleachers” by Dave Geddes (although I think the original name might have been “The Last Game of the Season”).
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/29 "2006-11-28T13:36:14Z")
“Long Black Veil” is one of my favorite story songs. I am most familiar with the Johnny Cash version – it really gives me the shivers when I hear it, it is so sad and creepy at the same time.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/30 "2006-11-28T14:13:48Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Harry Chapin has a funny section of the live album where he discusses his attempts at finishing “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”. “Include something about a mother because the song already had a truck”
[QUOTE=Spoons]
“Taxi” and “Sequel” have been mentioned, (great songs, both) but I rather like Harry Chapin’s “[Better Place to Be](http://www.harrychapin.com/music/better.shtml).” 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.
[/QUOTE]
I started to wonder if the watchman made up the first story just to get the waitress to go home with him.
I like all of Harry Chapin’s stuff, particularly “Flowers Are Red”, “The Rock”, “Corey’s Coming”…creepy, moody sad stuff!
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/31 "2006-11-28T16:11:18Z")
I’ll nominate the classic **American Pie** …
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/32 "2006-11-28T16:15:12Z")
**[Jukebox Hero](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/foreigner/juke+box+hero_20054920.html)** – Foriegner
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/33 "2006-11-28T16:20:08Z")
**Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner**!!!
And I’m also partial to **One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer**. (Any time anyone in my immediate circle tells someone else that they’re funny, the other person is sure to respond, “Everybody funny. Now you funny, too.” 😛 )
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### Author:  [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/34 "2006-11-28T16:21:44Z")
_Travelin’ Soldier_ as done by the Dixie Chicks.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/35 "2006-11-28T16:24:36Z")
“The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.” Weird Al.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/36 "2006-11-28T16:41:05Z")
I love an old folk ballad, “The Flower of Northumberland”. A scottish knight is imprisoned by the Earl of Northumberland, and he persuades the earl’s daughter to free him by telling her:
It’s, “Oh, if a lassie would marry me,”
Oh, but her love it was easy won!
“I would make her a lady of high degree
If she’d loose me out of this prison so strong.”
She helps him escape, but:
As they were riding across the scots moor
He said “Oh, but your love it was easy won!
Get you down from my horse, you’re a brazen faced whore
And you need to go back to Northumberland.”
> **[The Fair Flower of Northumberland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fair_Flower_of_Northumberland)**
>
> "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (Roud 25, Child 9) is a folk ballad.
> A Scottish knight is imprisoned by the Earl of Northumberland (or another high official). The knight persuades the Earl's daughter, the titular fair flower, to free him, promising to marry her in Scotland. As soon as they reach his home, he tells her to return to Northumberland as he already has a wife and children. She pleads with him to take her as a servant or to kill her, both of which he refuses. She returns to h...
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### Author:  [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/37 "2006-11-28T16:57:03Z")
I like “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” from Billy Joel.
When I’m naughty, or driving, I also dig “Family Snapshot” from Peter Gabriel and “Three Days” from Jane’s Addiction.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/38 "2006-11-28T16:59:57Z")
Ack…forgot to include **One Tin Soldier**
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/39 "2006-11-28T17:07:22Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866]
I love an old folk ballad, “The Flower of Northumberland”. A scottish knight is imprisoned by the Earl of Northumberland, and he persuades the earl’s daughter to free him by telling her:
[/QUOTE]
Reminds me of Stan Rogers’ [“Oh No, Not I”](http://www.hotlyrics.net/lyrics/S/Stan_Rogers/Oh_No_Not_I.html):
A Newfoundland sailor went walking on the strand
He spied a pretty, fair young maid and took her by the hand
“Oh will you go to Newfoundland along with me?” he cried
But the answer that she gave to him was “Oh no, not I.”
“If I were to marry you, on me 'twould be the blame
Your friends and relations would scorn me to shame
If you were born of noble blood and me of low degree
Do you think that I would marry you? It’s Oh no, not me.”
\
Eight months being over and nine coming on
This pretty fair young maiden she brought forth a son
She wrote a letter to her love to come most speedily
But the answer that he gave to her was “Oh no, not me.”
\
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/40 "2006-11-28T17:08:34Z")
“The Road Goes On Forever” by Robert Earl Keen–which I first heard performed by the great Joe Ely.
Townes van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley” is another fine one. Has anybody mentioned Peter LaFarge’s “Ballad of Ira Hayes”? This is one of the “covers” Townes sang–but Johnny Cash’s version is well known.
The Green Fields of America’s version of “Reynardine” on their _Live_ album is a haunting version of an old tune. And their “Kilkelly”–compiled from Irish letters to relatives in The New World–has been known to bring tears.
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