# 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:** 3
### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/41 "2006-11-28T17:16:06Z")
In the same vein, Steeleye Span’s [The Brisk Young Butcher](http://stout.hampshire.edu/~jcr00/span/ss/best.htm):
…
He called for liquor of the best, he being a roving blade
And quickly fixed his eyes upon the lovely chambermaid
…
“One sovereign I will give to you all to enjoy your charms”
And this fair maid all night did sleep all in the butcher’s arms
'Twas early the next morning he prepared to go away
The landlord said “Your reckoning, sir, you have forgot to pay”
“Oh no”, the butcher did reply “pray do not think it strange
One sovereign I gave your maid and I haven’t got the change”
They straight way called the chambermaid and charged her with the same
The golden sovereign she laid down, prepared she’d get the blame…
'Twas in a twelve months after he came to town again
And then as he had done before he stopped at that same inn
'Twas then the buxom chambermaid she chanced him for to see
She brought a babe just three months old and placed him on his knee
…
She said “Kind sir, it is your own, pray do not think it strange
One sovereign you gave to me and here I’ve brought your change”
---
### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/42 "2006-11-28T17:30:39Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke]
"Townes van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley” is another fine one.
[/QUOTE]
Steve Earle covered that on “Train a Comin’”, which has two of my favorite story songs, Tom Ames Prayer, and Ben McCulloch.
Both amazing story songs.
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/43 "2006-11-28T17:46:00Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Good choice there.
---
### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/44 "2006-11-28T17:58:24Z")
I’d say Jungleland, by Springsteen.
---
### Author:  [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/45 "2006-11-28T18:46:22Z")
Several songs by _The Decemberists_ fall into the category of ‘story songs’, but my two favorites are **The Mariner’s Revenge Song** and **Yankee Bayonette**.
One of my favorite songs that I think would count is _Regina Spektor_’s song **Samson** which tells an alternate version of the Samson and Delilah story in which Samson falls in love with her and lets her cut his hair leading to a very different ending.
“You couldn’t knock the columns down
You couldn’t destroy a single one
And the history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn’t mention us
Not even once.”
---
### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/46 "2006-11-28T19:10:24Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio]
**[Jukebox Hero](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/foreigner/juke+box+hero_20054920.html)** – Foriegner
[/QUOTE]
And “Shooting Star” by Bad Company.
---
### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/47 "2006-11-28T19:19:30Z")
[QUOTE=gigi]
I started to wonder if the watchman made up the first story just to get the waitress to go home with him.
[/QUOTE]
It’s possible, I suppose, but somehow, I don’t think so.
They know each other somewhat already (“Hey, bub, it’s been a while since you been around…”), and he totally ignores her. At least for a minute or two. If he wanted the waitress at the beginning, I think he’d be a little more aware of her, instead of paying more attention to his drink.
Remember also that its the waitress who comes onto him by the end of the song, and he actually seems to stop and think about it (“And the little man looked at the empty glass in his hand/And he smiled a crooked grin/He said, ‘I guess I’m outta gin/And I know we both have been so lonely…’”)
Like I said, it’s possible, but (to me, anyway) it seems that the man’s story is simply the man’s story–not a ruse.
---
### Author:  [@JacksonRoykirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacksonRoykirk)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/48 "2006-11-28T19:33:49Z")
[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]
“Billy Don’t Be A Hero” was originally recorded by Paper Lace, who also gave us “The Night Chicago Died,” another of the most hated and joked-about songs in rock history. Although I rather like “Billy.” Despite the bouncy tune, it’s actually a protest song of sorts, which had relevance to the Vietnam conflict and today’s conflict in Iraq, with the fiance telling Billy not to risk his ass, to stay safe and come home to her. And of course when she gets the letter telling her she should be proud of Billy for his sacrifice, she throws it away.
I mainly came in to nominate “Uneasy Rider” by the Charlie Daniels Band, though.
---
### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/49 "2006-11-28T19:42:29Z")
“You Never Even Called Me By My Name” by Steve Goodman and performed by David Allen Coe. The whole song isn’t necessarily a story, but there is a great story verse, if nothing else.
It starts out:
I was drunk the day my Mom got out of prison…
---
### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/50 "2006-11-28T20:18:45Z")
Mine is probably **The Golden Vanity** :
Well, she had not been sailing
But two weeks or three
When she was overtaken by the Turkish enemy
As she lay along the lowlands, lowlands low
As she lay along the lowlands sea
You classic story of a ship in danger, heroic effort on the part of the cabin boy to save it, the captain’s duplicity, and a sad ending. Lovely melody, too.
Another – more rousing but just as tragic – song about a ship in danger is **The Mermaid**. My favorite verse:
The up spoke the cook of our gallant ship
And a crazy old butcher was he
Said, “I care far more for me pots and me pans
Than I do for the bottom of the sea, of the sea,
Than I do for the bottom of the sea.”
Chorus:
And the ocean waves do roll
And the stormy winds do blow
And we poor sailors go skippin’ at the top
While the landlubbers lie down below
---
### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/51 "2006-11-28T20:22:16Z")
“Copperhead Road” by Steve Earl.
---
### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/52 "2006-11-28T20:37:47Z")
‘Highwayman’ by the Highwaymen.
Some wonderful choices so far, but surely right up there is:
‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean (‘at the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man…’)
> **[Big Bad John](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bad_John)**
>
> "Big Bad John" is a country song originally performed by Jimmy Dean, who wrote and composed it. It was released in September 1961 and by the beginning of November it had gone to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
> The song and its sequels tell a story typical of American folklore, reminiscent of Paul Bunyan or John Henry. Big Bad John was also the title of a 1990 t...
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/53 "2006-11-29T03:33:42Z")
This is one area where country music beats the hell out of rock.
**Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine** by Tom T. Hall. In fact, damn near anything by Tom T. Hall.
---
### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/54 "2006-11-29T05:50:12Z")
[Cows With Guns](http://www.danalyons.com/lyrics/lyrics_for_public/cows_with_guns_lyrics.html) by Dana Lyons.
---
### Author:  [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/55 "2006-11-29T10:15:02Z")
Story of a life, Harry Chapin
Billy the kid, Billy Joel
515am, mark knopfler
---
### Author:  [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/56 "2006-11-29T10:28:03Z")
…more:
Jack & Dianne
Casey Jones
Take the money & run
The Gambler
---
### Author:  [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/57 "2006-11-29T13:30:15Z")
“Albequerque” by Weird Al Yankovic. Silly, true, but it tells a story. 🙂
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### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/58 "2006-11-29T16:25:42Z")
‘Skin’. A country song whose artist eludes me at the moment. The end chorus always makes me cry a little bit.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/59 "2006-11-29T17:34:47Z")
“Tam Lin,” trad./arr. Fairport Convention.
“1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson.
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” by…you know.
---
### Author:  [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-story-song/382024/60 "2006-11-29T17:48:30Z")
Nick Cave has a fair number of story songs, but for fifteen minutes of bloody revenge, nothing can beat “O’Malley’s Bar.”
I jammed the barrel under her chin
And her face looked raw and vicious
Her head it landed in the sink
With all the dirty dishes
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