If he ever gets out of jail, he's never coming back to Tillamook County. 16. Riley then reveals, in the big finish, that this "really… happened just this way / The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA." Jawbreaker, "Chesterfield King" 4. In an unspecified Chicago ghetto, "a poor little baby child is born" to a mother who can't deal with another mouth to feed. After an extended, somber piano intro, the narrator spends two verses remembering a collegial argument she had in a bar back in 1968—only three years before this song was recorded. End of story Ice Prince Zamani End of story Sam Clef noni End of story chocolatety End of story chocolatety End of story uh uh uh End of story Ice. Somewhere in between, Lola and her bartender boyfriend Tony work at the Copacabana nightclub until a rich rival for Lola's affections takes Tony down. TI – Memories Back Then. This song is fantastic, and (personally) a great example of a song that tells a story. ", 24. Panicked, he rushes back to his old apartment and demands the paper from the new resident, leading to a situation so dire that Burnett himself has to step in to straighten things out. 1. His ex-wife, for instance, dies of stretch marks. And in fact, Dylan tried at least once to get a screenplay based on "Lily" off the ground. It spans decades and touches upon multiple genres, such as folk, blues, outlaw country, and rock. and Cold Mountain, T-Bone Burnett was a performer in his own right, churning out terrific quirky songs like "The Strange Case Of Frank Cash And The Morning Paper," in which a down-on-his-luck hustler living on "lonely street" discovers that his daily newspaper lists the scores for next week's football games. "People often change," goes the wise, crushing conclusion, "but memories of people can remain."). In broad strokes, Young tells the story of conquistador Hernán Cortés, who conquered Mexico for Spain in the early 1500s. ", 8. The punchline? Todd Snider… Kenny Rogers, "Coward Of The County" 3. The Temptations, "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"After the high-profile 1968 departure of Temptations singer David Ruffin, Motown songwriter-producer Norman Whitfield helped reinvent the group in his own image. 9 on the Hot 100 and received a 1985 Grammy nom for record of the year. It's almost as though Eminem is suggesting that celebrities occasionally don't know whether to be flattered or horrified by their most ardent fans. Neil Young, "Cortez The Killer"The soaring mini-epic anchor to Neil Young's 1975 album Zuma opens with an extended Crazy Horse jam session before segueing into a delicate, occasionally cryptic mix of the historical and personal. Rap/Hip-Hop Songs, That Tell A Story? The great part about music is that you can write a song about anything, but for this list we're ranking the best songs about stories. The mother promptly shows up at the PTA's next meeting to call out every member by name and publicly reveal their cheatin', drinkin', sneakin'-around ways, winding up with the line "this is just a little Peyton Place, and you're all Harper Valley hypocrites." Bright Eyes, "Light Pollution" Conor Oberst takes his time setting the scene for this simultaneously sad and triumphant character sketch, starting by remembering a friend who "loaned him books and mic stands" and taught him all about the human wreckage left behind by the free-market system. At the same time, he gives reverential treatment to the Aztec figure Montezuma, "with his cocoa leaves and pearls," presiding over a world where "the women all were beautiful and the men stood straight and tall." But she did, which sets up Hood's devastating finale: "Last night you had a dream about a Lord so forgiving / He might show compassion for a heathen he damned / You awoke in a jail cell, alone and so lonely / Seven years in Michigan. Do you have a favorite story song? Also if you can specifically name some that are at least under 4-5 minutes long as I may need to present the song and it sadly can't exceed that limit. Barry Manilow, "Copacabana" Barry Manilow's irrepressibly catchy, annoyingly enduring Billboard Top 10 hit had a strong enough storyline that it eventually became a musical, though ask any 10 people on the street, and they'll probably be able to sing the first line (Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl") and the chorus, and not much else. As his mother panics, the bystanders and the cops take the opportunity to dismiss today's youth as disrespectful, irresponsible druggies. The 50 Greatest Rock Memoirs … Shel Silverstein's dense, witty lyrics follow the titular character on a hunt for the deadbeat dad who gave him his awful name and abandoned him in childhood. The song's cinematic sweep makes it feel like it might have been a great film in the hands of a director like Howard Hawks or Dylan's friend Sam Peckinpah. "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band.1976. He updated the traditional highwayman ballad with this song from 1991's Rumor And Sigh, spinning the tale of a dashingly dangerous robber who bonds with a red-haired beauty over their shared love for the classic motorcycle of the title. Here, the song's narrator remembers "the local palais," where his sister went on chaste dates with boys, while the narrator and their mother stayed up waiting for her to come home. Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. 15. Cut to 30 years later, when Lola sits alone in her old showgirl outfit "and drinks herself half-blind" at the Copa, now a disco that presumably plays songs like this one. Loudon Wainwright III, "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" Loudon Wainwright III pulls off a tough trick with his country-music parody "The Man Who Couldn't Cry"—he pokes fun at tear-in-your-beer story ballads while also making his stoic protagonist genuinely sympathetic, resulting in a song that's both funny and surprisingly moving. "Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band. 10. B.o.B., Kendrick Lamar - YouTube. First, the song has story in the title or lyrics, or some close variation of that word. 1 spot on the Modern Rock Tracks chart where it stayed for seven weeks. The story in the song is about a “fancy girl” or a prostitute flagging down flashy cars. Brett Sparks' understated performance and Rennie's deadpan sense of humor make the song something of an anti-epic, with an increasing sense of twilit mystery as the survivors disappear one by one into the darkness and the silent waves, never to be seen again. Indie rock, folk, and pop are the preferred genre It was their first big hit but had a tragic inspiration. The Temptations, "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" 5. Peppered with "like" and "totally," and sung in a cheerfully shallow bubblegum style that makes the song's horrible events amusing, the lyrics explain how Julie's best friend Debbie goes from bouquet-carrying, float-riding, pink-chiffon-wearing homecoming queen to cold-blooded mass murderer, "picking off cheerleaders one by one." His sister had left a diary entry after repeatedly trying to end her life, and she succeeded the ninth time around. Then again, it's also true. Ignoring police warnings, Debbie keeps shooting until the cops gun her down: "She hit the ground and did a flip, it was real acrobatic / But I was crying so hard I couldn't work my Instamatic." A series of bad things happen to him—his dog is run over, his wife leaves him, he loses his job, he's laughed at by a whore—but there's "still not a sniffle or a sob." With plainspoken yet vivid lucidity, Schwarzenbach opens the story in medias res, with himself and a female friend on the brink of romantic revelation. By the time summer begins "packing its bags as it prepare[s] to leave town" it's clear that no other season will live so vividly in the imagination. It reached No. (This is especially true of Johnny Cash's memorable cover on 1994's American Recordings.) But "Come Dancing" is of a piece with Ray Davies' formidable body of songs about a vanishing England. Maybe the song's impact has something to with its ironically jaunty melodica solo and bouncy beat. ... listen to the lyrics better lmao. - Ken Kesey . 26. Finally, after he's sent to a mental hospital, he finally cries when it rains, and ends up crying for 40 days and 40 nights. Or sometimes the story becomes so bogged down in hidden meanings and literary allusion that the actual meaning is lost on future generations. 23. Not only were the lyrics of this trippy-as-fuck ’60s rock classic inspired by ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (witness the line about the hookah smoking caterpillar), but so was the song’s structure. 11. Popular songs Beginning With A from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's - Favorite Rock 'n' Roll, Ballads, Soul . The lyrics (words) to a song can cover any subject matter, ranging from the virtues of a rock-and-roll lifestyle to social and political issues. But that tension isn't audible in "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone," an expansive track—the full version runs for 12 minutes—in which the singers take turns asking about the father they never knew, only to receive the same answer, "Papa was a rollin' stone." I'm doing this as part of a music based assignment, I'm focusing on rock(all sub genres included) music and I really need a rock song which tells a story. He'll just raise hell someplace else. You probably could have guessed that “Elizabeth on The Bathroom Floor” by Eels has a sad story behind it. With one foot planted in the classic Motown sound, and one stretching toward the new, hippie-friendly funk of Sly And The Family Stone, Whitfield worked with the Tempts to pioneer a trippy, socially conscious brand of psychedelic soul. Like "Boy Named Sue," "Coward" follows a young man dealing with a bad paternal legacy—in this case, his father's prison-deathbed command to stay out of fights, 'cause "You don't have to fight to be a man." 168 Favorite Pop, Rock, and Country Songs That Tell a Story. Some of the most famous examples include stories that have been exaggerated and made popular by the media. Fear chases him out of her house, after which he shares a smoke and a beer with a homeless woman outside a 7-11. "Only a phase, these dark café days," she concludes. Inventory: 26 Songs that are just as good as short stories 1. Try this amazing Quiz: What Song Tells The Story Of Your Life? The main songs I can think of for what I'm talking about are: Devil goes down to Georgia. The Best of Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers (1988-1993) 1997. First you need to find an appropriate story, and then figure out the best places to insert the singing. "Blackbeard's Ghost"-- by Chase Rice -- About a North Carolina ghost story stating you can see Blackbeard's Ghost, the song also references Blackbeard's death and journey in the state. He makes so much money on sports betting that he moves out of his crummy apartment and into "a sprawling estate on the lake / And by that, I don't mean by the lake, I mean ON. Emboldened by the moment—and the bracing caress of autumn air, this being emo and all—he races back to his girl's house to seal the deal, poetically and inconclusively, of course. Loudon Wainwright III, "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" 6. There's no reference to the conflict itself; it's more a reverie for a lost world and a lost people, connected ever so delicately to a stanza about lost love. Elvis Presley, "In The Ghetto" "In The Ghetto" might be a more soulful song if Elvis Presley didn't sound entirely aware of how very, very soulful he sounds, but the material is still mighty sad—and general enough to be an iconic illustration rather than the story of any one specific person. 13. #17 of 39 Great Country Songs About Falling in Love#17 of 37 A Definitive Ranking of Basic B*tch Songs, #78 of 110 The Best Songs with Street in the Title#70 of 101 The Best Leonard Cohen Songs of All Time. "To **bleep** with facts! Johnny Cash, "A Boy Named Sue" 2. Here are my picks for ten of the best rap storytelling songs. Growing up impoverished and hungry, he also grows up mad and desperate, leading to a tragedy that Mac Davis' lyrics present as inevitable. Whether it's rock, rap, country, or anything in between, we want you to vote up your favorites on this list of songs that tell stories. "After We Shot The Grizzly," from last year's Last Days Of Wonder, follows the grim misadventures of a group of plane-crash survivors who struggle in vain against their inevitable descent into savagery and death—sort of Lost as portrayed by the Donner party. Or maybe it's the simple yearning of the repeated chorus, "I want to see my family.". 7. Specifically, I think a strong, storytelling base, but a stronger, repeating chorus, that tells a story with a satisfying progression is what matters. Rock music is littered with hundreds of myths about musicians. Finally, he tries to explain what got him here—it started with a fight with a guy on the highway, who said the protagonist "did some things that I didn't do." In the third verse, Mitchell sums up what happened next: Richard got married and "drinks at home now most nights with the TV on," while she still haunts the bars, though she'd rather be left alone. It’s a heartbreaking yet optimistic song about dreaming of a better life and actually trying to do something to achieve it. As Rolling Stone describes, both songs were actually inspired by the same, insane concert Queen played at a U.K. venue called Bingley Hall on May 29, 1977.The band was already accustomed to gigs where fans were singing along, but Bingley Hall was a game-changer. Neil Young’s mournful song “The Needle and the Damage Done” clearly relates the tragic tale of Neil Young’s friend and colleague from his backing band Crazy Horse, Daniel Ray Whitten, who was riddled with heroin T.I. (He's even sent off to jail—"you guessed it, no bail," Wainwright adds.) 1. Turns out there was method to daddy's madness, which "Sue" accepts in the end, though not to such a degree that he's willing to repeat the process with his own theoretical future kids. 2. 20. Just before dying, Debbie confesses that she "did it for Johnny," but, like, nobody actually knows who Johnny is. Ol red. I'm looking For some songs that tell a story. first, im not talking about country music because they ALL tell a story for the most part. This rock opera follows Jim and Caroline, a drug-addled and ultimately doomed couple who lose everything, including, in … Top 10 Songs That Tell a Story. Fast Car is a folk-rock song that tells the story of a poor working woman trying to change her life for the better. tell a story or b.) 3. 3. By 1972, the group had experienced even more turnover and was beginning to resent Whitfield's auteurist approach. Kenny Rogers, "Coward Of The County" In his heyday, Kenny Rogers also intermittently donned a wise-country-storyteller persona, though his story-songs tend to be less wryly funny than Cash's, and more tragic. For example, some songs I like are "Stan", And "Dance With The Devil" Is there any more good story songs? We need stories!" Davis' much-covered (even on American Idol) song could stand to be subtler—the bridge where Presley demands "People, don't you understand / The child needs a helping hand / Or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day"—is particularly overwrought. One of the things that can inspire someone is a personal experience in their life. (Davies finds the past similarly bittersweet in the classic story-song "Do You Remember Walter? Then, out of nowhere, Oberst starts piling up the imagery from one particular night. The irony, of course, is that the kid spent his childhood saying "I'm going to be just like dad when I grow up," and of course, he's right. Todd Snider, "Tillamook County Jail" Singer-songwriter Todd Snider crafts a slyly humorous, Raymond Carver-esque snapshot of a slowly disintegrating loser in "Tillamook County Jail." quiz which has been attempted 54130 times by avid quiz takers. Some, however, do tell a good, strong story. A lonesome young soldier, barely 18 years old, stops by a ... 2. The unnamed man loses the ability to cry after his tear ducts run dry during childhood. Songs for people who listen to the lyrics. Need some of your help. im talking about songs like Avenged sevenfold- a little peice of heaven or flash of the blade also by avenged sevenfold. This rock opera follows Jim and Caroline, a drug-addled and ultimately doomed couple who lose everything, including, in … On "Nowalaters," Riley lends his gift for novelistic detail and messy humanism to a first-person coming-of-age story about a teen player whose backseat bumping and grinding leads to an unwanted premature pregnancy. In most rap songs, this final twist would lead to a regressive moral about the innate duplicity of women, but Riley ends the song on a heartbreakingly gracious, tender note by sincerely telling the double-timing temptress, "Thank you for letting me go.". A song can qualify to be on this in two ways. Jawbreaker, "Chesterfield King" Viewed through the lens of all the lame emo that's followed it, Jawbreaker's "Chesterfield King" seems kind of quaint. New Order, "Love Vigilantes" Though not generally known for story-songs, New Order kicked off the classic 1985 dance-pop album Low Life with this fantastical tale of a soldier who gets his discharge orders and heads home, only to find his wife crumpled over in grief on their floor because—get this—he's actually dead! ), part a standard entry in Julie Brown's Valley Girl character lexicon, and part just an enthusiastic novelty song, Brown's biggest radio hit told the story of a massacre at the big homecoming parade. Strangely enough, after the song became a hit, such country luminaries as Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Billie Jo Spears all recorded cover versions, indicating that the exact same thing "really" happened to their mamas, too. The setting may be different, but all the elements that lifted the Louvins to the pinnacle of the country world were already in place by the time these recordings were made. The songs on this list are all about true stories, tall tales, and any other story you can think of. ", in which he recalls an old classmate who he assumes is now "fat and married," and decides he's best left in the past. 10 Albums That Tell a Great Story. Harry Chapin, "Cat's In The Cradle"Another weepy classic that's overwrought and true at the same time, Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle" is a morality tale for absentee parents who have priorities other than their kids. In 1998, American alternative rock band Fastball released a song called “The Way.” It reached the No. Bob Dylan, "Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts" Dylan has so many story-songs under his belt, from the surrealist goof of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" to the ripped-from-the-headlines "Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll," that it's hard to single out just one. Well, if you like Carrie Underwood, a lot of her songs tell stories. Pulp, "David's Last Summer"Another songwriter with a skeptical attitude about the future and a keen eye for detail, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker packs the seven minutes of "David's Last Summer" with details of a summer filled with cider, late-night parties, and a sharply remembered "small pale-skin bikini," the last before the responsibilities of adulthood kick in. We asked our readers to dig up some surprising facts on some of your favorite songs. By Judy Berman. 25. Some of the songs below include "Tradin War Stories" by Tupac Shakur, "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, and "Wonderous Stories" by Yes. The protagonist prepares himself for the solemn responsibility of fatherhood, but then discovers he isn't the baby's father after all. This kind of folky, circular, stoned-sounding double-talk explains why the song takes upward of 20 minutes to perform. Their brother-sister common-law marriage might've lasted, if only the sister hadn't brought four more inbred kids into the world. 9 on the Hot 100 and received a 1985 Grammy nom for record of the year. reference a fairy tale? The 50 songs below manage all of this — or, at least, they're funny and/or catchy enough for the rest of that stuff not to matter. The song was released as the third single from Springsteen's blockbuster album of the same name. 138 Favorite Pop, Rock, and Country Songs That Tell a Story posted by Iris Gambol at 1:07 PM on June 11, 2018 . Harper Valley PTA. Eventually, the boy learns that poppa was wrong, and he proves to everyone in his judgmental little county that he ain't yellow after all. Story telling lyrics: You got a fast car I … Guthrie starts off "This song is called 'Alice's Restaurant,' and it's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song 'Alice's Restaurant.'" Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Songs That Tell a Story - George Jones on AllMusic Love it or hate it, it pretty well sums up the '60s. Lines like "I took my car and drove it down the hill by your house / I drove so fast" might sound a little too much like an, um, dashboard confessional, but "Chesterfield King" remains a perfect, roughhewn chunk of prose sunk into one of the catchiest punk tunes of all time. But lo and behold, when the football season starts up again, "the damned paper had ceased to prognosticate." His story sounds fishy, but he remains unrepentant. The lyric is as awkwardly phrased as a junior-high poetry assignment—"You just can't believe / The joy I did receive" is one particularly egregious line—but the ending remains a sucker-punch. 22. By Judy Berman. Too bad it takes the love of his life getting gang-raped to get him off his butt. THE. One taught us about love, patience and pain...and one taught us about whatever "poopy-di scoop" is. This song, Harper Valley PTA, sung by Jeannie C. Riley, was based upon a true story when Jeannie was only 9 years old. The narrative of the song is perhaps its best feature, for it is told as if it were a written letter, but listening closely to the lyrics, we realize that it is … The band hosted a variety show, "The Starland Vocal Band Show," that ran on CBS for six weeks in the summer of 1977. reference a fairy tale? I'm trying to put together a playlist. The busy electronic track drops to a hush, and Oberst repeats "at the end" softly over a wisp of electric piano, remembering a man killed by the unchecked corporate sprawl he railed against in life. Then "Lyrics" . When the narrator's son is a child, he idolizes his dad, "But there were planes to catch and bills to pay… He learned to walk while I was away." ("He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns / looking for the New World in that palace in the sun.") She happened to meet a single mother in her small town, and like most small towns, there was the telegraph, the telephone, and tell a neighbor. Stan's clueless desperation veers between laughable and miserable; his life as he describes it is truly awful, and it's sad to think that he's pouring all his energy into reaching out to a celebrity who doesn't know he exists. - Memories Back Then ft. Still, it's easy to laugh as he repeatedly goes over the top in his assumptions and demands. The saga begins when a child comes home with a note suggesting that the Parent Teachers' Association of her provincial school district finds her mother's short skirts and carousing ways inappropriate. Cohen's song, which is based based on the Bible's tale of Cain and Abel, tells the story of a love triangle that ends in murder. 18. "And maybe he lost control fucking with the radio," Oberst wails, "But I bet the stars seemed so close at the end." Here is a playlist I just created that contains 275 songs that tell a story. 6. Joe Henry's Ohio Air Show Plane Crash has verses that tell the story of a plane crash from different points of view, but has a chorus bringing them together. The songs on this list are all about true stories, tall tales, and any other story you can think of. tell a story or b.) Also, the song isn't really about Alice or the restaurant, it's about (to cut to the punchline) how Guthrie supposedly was rejected as a draftee because he was a litterbug. 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