I’m not hip enough for podcasts and Sirius radio and that kind of thing, so I usually listen to reg’lar radio when I’m driving. There’s one station that plays oldies — the biggest hits in the history of the world is their slogan — and they’ve played some real doozies recently. Yesterday, I heard, for the first time in my life, the song “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro. I immediately thought of “God Didn’t Make Little Green Apples” and it turns out it’s by the same songwriter.
What’s your favorite late 60s/70s “story song”? I’ll go with “Ode To Billy Joe”. I also like “Delta Dawn” and “Green, Green Grass of Home” (a bit earlier and not really a story, but what a twist).
germy
“Alone Again, Naturally” is sort of a story song; a guy gets stood up on his wedding day, feels sad, thinks about his past, contemplates ending it all.
“See the tree how big it’s grown” I haven’t heard Bobby’s song in decades.
Nannette
The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia – Vicki Lawrence (1973)
Still know the words by heart.
germy
“Rocky Raccoon” tells a story, as does Paul’s solo “Another Day” (lonely office worker feels smothered by her existence)
Lizzy L
“Me and Bobby McGee” — Janis Joplin’s version, of course. No one better.
lethargytartare
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
which I rewrote to be about my wife killing a stinkbug.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
“What’s your momma’s name, child?” by Tanya Tucker, and who could forget “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” by Paper Lace?
germy
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Serial killer medical student gets his day in court, charms the jury)
Yarrow
Does Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps Thieves” count?
Capri
There is a similar station out of Indianapolis that I listen to – those old songs told a story. Perhaps my favorite is Seasons in the Sun,a very dark song made famous by Terry Jacks, originally written by Jacque Brel. Brel said that it was about a dying man who is sad because his best friend is sleeping with his wife.
Olivia
“Honey” came out shortly after I was married and I hated it from the first note. It is just an updated version of the car crash songs from a few years earlier. I don’t know if they are story songs but I really liked Wichita Lineman and Galveston. I was and still am more into folk music.
efgoldman
You are incredibly lucky to have missed it all these years. It and Goldsboro are/were both awful.
There were lot of really terrible death story songs (I will not search and link) when I was in 7th to 9th grade – late 50’s / early 60s.
Patches, Tell Laura I Love her….
ETA: And while I was doing my usual slow typing, @Olivia: just above was referencing the same thing. I don’t think we ever met.
DougJ
@Yarrow:
Yes it does
germy
@efgoldman: I remember Goldsboro’s frequent TV appearances, and his weird, helmet-like hair.
Brachiator
The 19 minute version of “By the Time I get to Phoenix,” by Isaac Hayes from Hot Buttered Soul
Barbara
@lethargytartare: This is my favorite too. I read a book about the wreck when I was in the boundary waters and I had not realized how much had been left unresolved.
Another Scott
Sea and Sand – by Pete Townshend (the Who).
Cheers,
Scott.
Yarrow
@DougJ: Oh, good! Well, that’s my contribution, then. I’ve got a soft spot for early Cher songs.
M31
Alice’s Restaurant!
“Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage”
Mnemosyne
@Capri:
There were a LOT of ridiculously dark hit songs in the 1970s. “Run, Joey, Run,” anyone?
trollhattan
@Olivia:
Can’t find it on YouTube but the Smothers Brothers did a tour of the Honey house on their show that was a hilarious send-up of that mawkish bit of pop.
Pogonip
Delta dawn
What’s that plant life you have on
Could it be a dandelion from my lawn?
germy
“The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” (song about a lamb who lies down on Broadway)
D58826
@Lizzy L: Has a certain relevance today with the line ‘Freedom is having nothing left to lose’. The GOP version of freedom after they pick the pockets of the 99%.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
I also can’t believe that we all listened to “Rough Boys” without realizing it was about Pete picking up rough trade.
Dissatisfied Customer
When I was on AM radio ages ago, I got in trouble for playing “Honey” with a laugh track on April Fools Day.
zhena gogolia
I wish the Smothers Brothers parody of “Honey” were on YouTube. It was hilarious. They were giving a tour of the “Honey House.” “See the tree, how big it’s grown,” etc.
efgoldman
@germy:
I’m sure I must have seen him, but i really don’t remember. I think I’ve blocked out most of the clothes and hair styles.
germy
John Prine’s “Hello In There” (a genuinely moving song, unlike “Honey”)
Hungry Joe
“The Road Goes on Forever (and the Party Never Ends)” — Robert Earl Keen; best-known cover by Joe Ely
Sherry was a waitress at the only joint in town
She had a reputation as a girl who’d been around
Down Main Street after midnight with a brand new pack of cigs
A fresh one hangin’ from her lips and a beer between her legs
She’d ride down to the river and meet with all her friends
The road goes on forever and the party never ends.
Sonny was a loner he was older than the rest
He was going into the Navy but he couldn’t pass the test
So he hung around town he sold a little pot
The law caught wind of Sonny and one day he got caught
But he was back in business when they set him free again
The road goes on forever and the party never ends
Sonny’s playin’ 8-ball at the joint where Sherry works
When some drunken outta towner put his hand up Sherry’s skirt
Sonny took his pool cue laid the drunk out on the floor
Stuffed a dollar in her tip jar and walked on out the door
She’s runnin’ right behind him reachin’ for his hand
The road goes on forever and the party never ends.
(It goes on … )
Pogonip
@Capri: And given proper attention by Stephen King in The Shining, where a terrified Hallorann is driving through a blizzard trying to get to the Overlook in time to save the Torrances, and as if things weren’t bad enough, the radio plays “Seasons in the Sun.”
Louis
Paper Lace also did The Night Chicago Died.
One Tin Soldier tells a story and was the theme to a Billy Jack movie.
You’re Breaking My Heart by Harry Nillson really tells a heck of a story.
pk
“Love me love my dog” (I love the dog) by Peter Shelly and “Seasons in the sun” by Terry Jacks.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Wait, I think I know that one. It’s the one about a lamb that lies down on Broadway, right? Pretty sure it’s called “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.”
Barbara
Not my favorite by any means ( in fact I hated it) but does anyone remember “Timothy”?
Mnemosyne
Also, we saw the LA touring production of Fun Home last week and there are a couple of songs that are 70s pastiches, complete with singers who are clearly meant to be the Partridge Family even though they couldn’t say so.
zhena gogolia
I like the ones about dead teenagers. I’ll go with Laurie (Strange Things Happen in This World).
Pogonip
@Barbara: I just couldn’t stomach that one.
germy
schrodingers_cat
Don’t all songs tell a story. I don’t understand this thread.
vtr
Beatles: On Our Way Home
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan:
Haha, should have read the thread first.
Bruuuuce
Pretty much anything by Harry Chapin, but if I had to select, the most powerful would probably be “Flowers Are Red”, Not my favorite because of how much I want to strangle someone after hearing it, though. Of the rest of his oevre, the most fun is probably “Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas” (the live version, with all four endings), but I could list ten or thirty of his songs easily. (“Odd Job Man” might be the most satisfying ending of them all.)
Pogonip
@Louis: Daddy was a cop, on the east side of Chicago.
Paper Lace, I believe, were British, and so probably unaware that the east side of Chicago is Lake Michigan.
Lizzy L
@Mnemosyne: Um — some were clueless. Some of us were not.
trollhattan
“Ballad of the Green Beret” was easy to dance to. Also, too
“The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde”
“In the Year 2525.”
“Eve of Destruction”
“Abraham, Martin and John”
Man, there are tons….
germy
@schrodingers_cat: Some songs are simple declarations of love. Other songs are impressionistic glimpses of the singer’s mood. Story songs deal in specific places and people with names; they are little stories set to melody.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
A song like “Ode to Billy Joe” has a narrative arc in a way that “She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” doesn’t.
Gravenstone
I am so sorry for your adverse Goldsboro experience. But please, don’t try to put “Little Green Apples” into the same treacle bucket as “Honey”. The first is a harmless bit of summer AM fluff. The latter makes me want to stab my eardrums out with rusty knitting needles. If you want something comparably wretched, I suggest “Last Kiss” or “Tell Laura I Love Her”. Both of which make me involuntarily wretch and shake, they are so so vile.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Not necessarily. I think the ones people are supposed to be talking about are the ones that have an actual beginning, middle, and end with named characters. You could say that “Born This Way” (for example) is someone telling their story, but it’s not a story song.
Another Scott
@Hungry Joe: Todd Rundgren – A Dream Goes on Forever is also very good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Olivia:
I always thought that this was a perfect song, and a perfectly poetic one. I learned much later that the music mirrors the word structure.
The first part of each lyric talks about the lineman’s actual job. The second part are his reflections on love and longing. And so (from the Wiki)
And when I was a school boy learning about poetry, I was knocked out by how well Jimmy Webb packed in double meaning.
I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road
Searchin’ in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin’ in the wire,
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the lineThe lineman is hanging on emotionally as well as working on the telephone line.
zhena gogolia
@Gravenstone:
somethin warm was runnin in mah eyes
jayboat
Zimmy came along and showed all these posers how to tell a damn story with
Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
Must be a couple dozen story lines running through that thing.
lapassionara
Does the song with the line “someone left the cake out in the rain” qualify as a story song. Vile, vile, vile.
Give me that old time rock n’ roll. Especially Janis Joplin.
zhena gogolia
@lapassionara:
i don’t think that i can take it cause it took so long to make it and i’ll never have that recipe again
zhena gogolia
Reading this thread, I realize that I actually hate story songs.
Barbara
Brenda and Eddie
Captain Jack
The Piano Man (all Billy Joel)
Also “Taxi” by Harry Chapin.
“Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg.
Shell
“A Boy Named Sue”
Betty Cracker
@lethargytartare: Okay, you can’t leave us hanging like that! Please share the lyrics describing the slaying of the stinkbug!
Barbara
@Pogonip: yuk yuk
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
In my defense, I was 11 when the song came out, and Townshend didn’t come out as bisexual until a decade later. (I have 4 older brothers, so I was listening to The Who in 6th and 7th grade.)
I should probably say the general public didn’t realize it was so specifically autobiographical. ;-)
trollhattan
@lapassionara:
Oooh, the bad career decision by Richard Harris–“McArthur Park.” At least there was no follow-up, on account of he couldn’t find the recipe, again. Again!
RandyG
Harry Chapin, “Taxi”
lethargytartare
@Barbara:
unresolved, imagined, or just plain made up – so much so that Gordon Lightfoot decided to change the words in 2011 out of respect for some of the sailors’ kin.
Jeffro
“Hell Bent For Leather” by Judas Priest, definitely
What? That’s a GREAT start to a story-song!
Barbara
@Brachiator: One of my favorite songs of all time, from the first time I heard it.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Speaking of The Partridge Family, “Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque” probably counts for this list.
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: Does in my book! (I heart Cher).
My question – does “Snoopy and the Red Baron” count?
p.a.
Oh to be young enough never to have heard ‘Honey’!
Dead boyfriend/girlfriend songs are, however a valid subset of pop music. ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ is a great song.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, but the first Beatles singles “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Please Please Me” were simple, but not simplistic pop explosions.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
There’s always “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” from The King and I.
I saw the play for the first time back in January (I think) and was surprised at how powerful that scene is within the context of the play. And it helps that they cast actual Asian-Americans in the Asian parts these days.
germy
@Yarrow: I just learned David Cassidy is suffering from dementia.
dc
Dylan’s Hurricane.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
I agree, but I would not call them story songs.
Peale
If I were truthful about what I was actually listening to in the 1970s it would be:
The Gambler
Harper Valley PTA
Don’t Play B-17
The Devil Went Down to Geogia
But I’ll lie and say that I wasn’t l wasn’t born yet.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Yes, but they’re not story songs. “Eleanor Rigby” is a story song.
zhena gogolia
@dc:
That’s a good one, as is the one about the clam bar.
germy
“Ballad of John & Yoko” is a story song.
EBT
Well seeing as I am a spry 33 still and the early 2000s are basically the 1960s as far as I care (save for video games I could probably talk most of you who lived through the pre Atari age under the table about it) so I will suggest “Goodbye Earl” by The Dixie Chicks.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Which reminds me, Every Picture Tells A Story
Some songs emphasize a narrative more than a “standard” pop song about love and romance.
Do You Know the Way to San Jose? may be one of the goofier “narrative songs.”
Woodrowfan
American Pie!
Uneasy Rider, Convoy for humor
Yarrow
@germy: Yeah, it’s sad. He’s hat a lot of drug and alcohol problems through the years, so people thought his recent odd behavior was that. But I caught a bit of an interview where he said his mom had dementia at an early age so he’d kind of been thinking it could be a possibility.
schrodingers_cat
Hurricane by Bob Dylan
Yarrow
@Peale: Oh! “The Gambler!” Classic.
If we’re going the full Kenny Rogers, we should probably add “Lucille” to the list. And “Coward of the County”.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Here I was alluding to how the Beatles’ songwriting evolved from the fun pop stuff.
“She’s Leaving Home” is a classic Beatles story song.
delk
Here we go again, it’s Monday at last,
He’s heading for the Waterloo line.
To catch the 8am fast, its usually dead on time,
Hope it isn’t late, got to be there by nine.
Smithers Jones by The Jam
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Pogonip:
“Back in the streets…back in the bad old days….”
?
Speaking for me, my fave of the era is Brandy.
I’ve always been in love with how I envision Brandy…
dc
@germy: That is sad.
RandyG
Don McLean, “Vincent”
germy
Lots of story songs as themes for TV shows. “Gilligan’s Island” for example, or the “Beverly Hillbillies”
Many decades ago I saw Bobby McFerrin at Carnegie Hall. He did a rousing show, and about halfway through, it got quiet. He sat down on the edge of the stage and crooned very softly and slowly “This .. is… the … story…” We all leaned forward, not knowing what to expect.
And then he continued “…of a man named Jed!” and he sang the entire Beverly Hillbillies theme! It was magical.
gkoutnik
Does Jackson Browne count? “Take it Easy” came out in the early 70’s, along with a lot of less accessible, but nevertheless compelling and engaging, story songs on “Saturate” and “For Everyman.” And “Late for the Sky” (1975) is chock full of powerful stories.
Miss Bianca
@Peale: Ooh, I love those old 70s ones – “Harper Valley PTA”, “Delta Dawn”, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (Joan Baez version was the one playing on the radio long before I knew about The Band). Yes, even “MacArthur Park” – does anyone remember that Donna Summers did a disco cover version of it back in 1978? No? Well, belieeeeve me, It was HUGE on Detroit AM radio.
BruceFromOhio
Devil Went Down to Georgia, and Uneasy Rider, by the Charlie Daniels Band.
Convoy, C.W. McCall
ETA: The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia, Reba McEntire
delk
“Hey boy” they shout, “have you got any money?”
And I said, “I’ve a little money and a takeaway curry
I’m on my way home to my wife
She’ll be lining up the cutlery, you know she’s expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork”
I’m down in the tube station at midnight
Shell
Girl From Ipanema.
lethargytartare
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t have them on me. Perhaps when I get home. :)
geg6
Because it’s so awful, it’s good: Harper Valley PTA.
Shell
“Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”
Mike J
In honor of Sunday’s anniversary, The Gift.
JPL
Proud Mary
Left a good job in the city
Workin’ for the man ev’ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin’
Worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin’
Proud Mary keep on burnin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
‘Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
it’s a story.
gbear
I love ‘Ode To Billy Joe’. Is one of the very few songs that I’ve purchased for my Amazon Cloud library. Those strings and her guitar set the mood so perfectly
I know this song is incredibly corny, but I like Dolly Parton’s ‘Coat Of Many Colors’ as a story song. It’s also a true story. The coat still exists.
Rodney Crowell’s album The Houston Kid is start to finish filled with great story songs. It’s one of my favorite albums.
Darrin Ziliak
@Peale:
Olivia Newton John’s Please, Mister Please?
Booger
@Barbara: Came here looking for this. Great backstory, written by the Pina Colada Song guy.
Miss Bianca
@Miss Bianca: FYWP won’t let me edit this comment, so let me just say: Donna Summer, not Donna Summers. Also, FYWP!
Elmo
“One Tin Soldier,” by a mile. So bitter.
“Eleanor Rigby” hardly counts – because hello, Beatles – but if it does, then of course.
Did anybody else love Roger Whittaker as a kid? Just me then? Okay.
Pogonip
@Miss Bianca: I do! I loved disco!
Aimai
Choctaw bingo
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Best songs of the 60’s and 70’s? That’s hard. There are too many to count. A Simple Game, I’m Just a Singer and Have You Heard I/the Voyage/Have You Heard II by the Moody Blues would be at the top of my list, along with, well, pretty much all the Moody Blues songs from 67-72.
Yeah. And then there’s C.C.R. And Buffalo Springfield. And the Who. And Pink Floyd. And Brewer & Shipley, which for some reason, nobody seems to ever know anything about other than One Toke Over the Line. Leon Russell. Van Morrison. The Eagles, especially their earlier records. E.L.O. There’s–and I know we overuse this word, but it fits here–literally too much to name. I haven’t named a tenth of what there is worth listening to, over and over.
schrodingers_cat
OK this is my contribution, story of how the first war of Indian Independence (British call it the sepoy mutiny) got started. Begins with the hanging of Mangal Pandey. It resulted in booting out the East India Company but further entrenchment of British rule by anointing Victoria as the Queen Empress of India.
Mangal Mangal
Halla Bol! I can try to translate and make that a blog post!
Wake up, why are you still sleeping..
ETA: Sung by Kailash Kher, music by A.R.Rahman from Ketan Mehta’s Mangal Pandey, The Rising.
BruceFromOhio
@BruceFromOhio:
Wait, no, it’s Vicki Lawrence. Reba is rwnj. @Nannette: called it first.
… cuz the judge in the town’s
got bloodstains on his hands … *shivers*
Joeff
@trollhattan: Yes! Yes! Yes! Also, while not a song, the entire character of the husband on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (Tom?) was the HS letter-jacket-wearing 1970’s loser with a heart of gold.
germy
Don McLean was asked what the lyrics to “American Pie” meant, and he replied “It means that I don’t ever have to work again!”
I can go the rest of my life without hearing that song again, but I’ve always liked his composition “Wonderful Baby” (a song he wrote for Fred Astaire)
Peale
One night a wild young cowboy came in
Wild as the West Texas wind
Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing
With wicked Felina, the girl that I loved
(Although when I was young, I though they were singing about the Westchester town of El Paso. Which I think is between Scarsdale and Mamaronek).
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne:
My wife loves that play, and we had the opportunity to see it on Broadway during Yul Brynner’s last series of performances, for which I am grateful.
Pogonip
@trollhattan: He should have kept looking. I recently found Mom’s long-lost gravy recipe.
Yarrow
Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” has to count.
Elmo
@Mike J: Oh no. No, no, no, not getting out of the boat, not for that.
Use this instead.
Brachiator
@Shell:
The Fool on the Hill
(I somehow think of these two songs together)
frosty
@Olivia: re: Wichita Lineman. One of our HS football players got selected for the All-Couny team when that song came out, so of course he went around singing “I am a lineman for the County.”
Coastbound
Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man”- sexy sexy and sexy.
In the early ‘aughts, a friend married a wonderful, vivacious blonde woman. My friend’s father, an Episcopal minister, performed the ceremony. During the reception, I got the wedding band to play “Son of a Preacher Man”. We were treated to the show of the new bride nasty-dancing with her new husband, eyes smoldering and lip-syncing “bein’ good wasn’t always easy, no matter how hard I tried”…
Pogonip
@Peale: Out in the Westchester town of El Paso/I fell in love with a trust fund girl…
BruceFromOhio
Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys Knight.
… I’d rather live in his world
than live without him
in mine …
There is simply no contemporary equivalent to this song, this artist.
And now I got this Georgia thing going, thanks a bunch there, Arkon DougJ.
Miss Bianca
“Long Black Veil” is another goody. Mick Jagger did a surprisingly credible version of it with the Chieftains, as I recall.
Of course, almost any old folk song is a story song, as well. When I was a wee tad, I remember “Barbary Ellen” (or “Barabara Allen”) being a fave rave in my household, also “The Fox and The Goose” and “The Good Reuben James”, and “The Glendale Train Robbery”, and…and…
(OK, so not everyone had a sister and brother-in-law making a living as folk singers?) ; )
Schlemazel
@Olivia:
Boy and howdy. Really anything Goldsboro sang but that one really stunk.
“Tell Laura I Love Her” and Lauras response “Tell Bobby I Miss Him” – the worst pre-BG sludge.
I’d probably say Harry Chapin’s “Taxi” But if we had a little bit more leeway on the definition “Why Was She Born So Black and Blue?” by Christofferson
gbear
@Brachiator: My strongest memory of Wichita Lineman was hearing that Glenn Campbell didn’t know what a lineman was when he recorded the song. I still like it anyway.
zhena gogolia
@Peale:
I love that one.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Marty Robbins El Paso City
Edit: ninja’d by Peale
Schlemazel
@Barbara:
If it makes you feel any better the wreck has been found & they figured out what caused it.
There are some good lines in the song though, they evoke the anxiety of the crew I think.
trollhattan
@lethargytartare:
I’ll bet cash money it includes the rhyme “November dismember.”
Origuy
City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman. He had a number of great story songs.
dexwood
Can’t say I have a favorite, but Richard Thompson’s “52 Vincent” is a good one. Coming in late, haven’t read through all the comments.
Quinerly
I’m sitting in this odd little restaurant in Torrey, Utah (pop. 181) eating perhaps a top 10 best pizza ever (brie cheese, fresh basil, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes, fantastic crust). Can’t tell you how much I love this thread! Brought back all these memories from the 1960’s and 1970’s. I’ll throw out “Midnight at the Oasis” (still remember my father laughing uncontrollably at the Carol Burnett Show parody) and a song that my parents had on a Dean Martin album that made me giggle…”Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians.” So politically incorrect. I grew up with parents who loved Dean. This thread covered everything that came to my mind when I first looked at it. Wow! Thanks!
danielx
Richard Thompson…1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Schlemazel
@M31:
OH HECK! I forgot about that – I change my vote!
“And they all started movin away from me on the group dub-ya bench”
trollhattan
@Peale:
That would probably make Felina the eldest daughter of a very nice dermatologist.
Yarrow
@danielx: Saw him perform it live a few years ago. Solo show. Sounded like he had an entire band backing him up. Amazing.
debit
Marcie by Joni Mitchell
Marcie in a coat of flowers
Steps inside a candy store
Reds are sweet and greens are sour
Still no letter at her door
So she’ll wash her flower curtains
Hang them in the wind to dry
Dust her tables with his shirt and
Wave another day goodbye
Maybe not 70’s am, but for sure a story song.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
There’s a ton of stuff that Buffett was writing between 1973 and 1980 that was great, too.
One Particular Harbor
Chanson Pour Les Petit Enfants
Boat Drinks
Pirate Looks at 40
Changes in Latitudes
Banana Republics
Tampico Trauma
Son of a Son of a Sailor
Havana Daydreamin’
Livin’ and Dyin’ in 3/4 Time
Nautical Wheelers
Tin Cup Chalice
Cuban Crime of Passion
Great Filling Station Holdup
efgoldman
@trollhattan:
Gawds that was hideous, both with and without its context.
japa21
59 is close to the 60’s. I’ll go with Running Bear. Yes it was trite and somewhat stereotypical, but I liked it.
And yes I am weird.
jeannedalbret
The Band
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Long Black Veil
etc…
Pogonip
@Miss Bianca: It certainly should! The Christmas version, too.
debit
Oh, but Paradise by the Dashboard Light definitely qualifies.
justawriter
My favorite genre, so I have a ton of them on my Apple Mind Control Device (TM) Harry Chapin has already been done to death, but I would ad Sniper as his most disturbing. Most of Jim Croce’s work, especially Operator, Mac Davis – Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me, John Prine – Paradise, Barry Manilow – Copacabana, John Denver Leaving on a Jet Plane (he wrote if, Peter Paul and Mary had the hit recording)
Roger Moore
I guess it doesn’t count because it’s 80’s, but I’d have to go with “Creeping Death”.
Alain the site fixer
Classic old time country can be so haunting. The pathos, the pathos.
On the Banks of the Ohio
gratuitous
More Harry Chapin, please. I’ll take his “A Better Place to Be” for this category. Bob Dylan’s “Lilli, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” deserves mention.
Lyrebird
Lighthearted items:
Radar love
Muskrat love
More serious but one I loved even more than that Pina Colada song as a little sprout:
“What do I see? A hundred yellow ribbons ?tied around the old oak tree…”
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
If we’re going that route, “Midnight Train to Georgia” is a classic story song.
As is “Living for the City.”
Quinerly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
You left one out.?
dexwood
@danielx:
Beat you by a minute, but you had the full, correct title and the link. Well done.
Brachiator
@BruceFromOhio: RE: Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys Knight.
Talk about an origin story!
geg6
Can’t believe no one else came up with this one: Hot Rod Lincoln.
Schlemazel
@Dissatisfied Customer:
I got yelled at for playing the Hendrix version of the National Anthem in place of the official version for sign on one morning. Apparently some guy actually listened at 5AM.
danielx
I had forgotten how many of these songs made me want to rip the radio out of the dashboard and hurl it out the window.
pluky
@Mnemosyne: what part of “I want to bite and kiss you” was unclear?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Miss Bianca:
You mean there was another version?
germy
Elton John did a song “Ticking” about a mass murderer.
Fun fact: the long fadeout at the song’s end is the exact same length as the fade out to “A Day In The Life”
maeve
@germy:
Rocky Racoon is a satire of songs that tell a story – but a good one.
I was going to say Folsum Prison Blues but it was released in 1957
MuckJagger
Wouldn’t call it a *favorite*, but as an unrepentant degenerate gambler I confess to having a big ol’ soft spot for Jerry Reed’s “The Uptown Poker Club.”
“You better talk to me in American, son, American so’s I can understand.”
germy
@japa21:
Song written by The Big Bopper.
Schlemazel
@Barbara:
Gawd I had forgotten that one, I laughed so hard when it was played. Yes, it sucked.
Miss Bianca
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Oh-ooh, the snark, it burns!
debit
DUDE. Get out of Denver.
Actually, everything Bob Seger did.
Jacel
@zhena gogolia: And the Honey House tour ended in the gift shop. The sketch ended with Tom and Dick trading roles as the stricken lover and the tour guide before the next tour started. I looked for that clip recently, and it seems to have been rigorously scrubbed from the internets.
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
Have seen a lot of guitarists and probably would only put Frank Zappa up to Richard Thompson’s level. But that’s a TBogg-unit thread of its own.
Schlemazel
@Pogonip:
Goes with growing up in South Detroit, HOPE YOU CAN SWIM!
Shell
“Angel From Montgomery”
Barbara
@germy: Speaking of Elton John, Butterflies Are Free is a great story song.
trollhattan
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Dayumn, if that exists mind=blown.
Miss Bianca
Come on, everyone! No love for “D-I-V-O-R-C-E”? Or “He Stopped Loving Her Today”?
Jacel
@jayboat: Of Dylan’s story songs from that time, my favorite is “Isis”. I’d like to see Josh Whedon derive a movie from that song.
trollhattan
@Barbara:
Not easy to parse (darn you Bernie Taupin) but “Madman Across the Water” is a story of sorts.
And lest we forget “Space Oddity”
efgoldman
Tommy.
The whole thing, or just the title song, plus Pinball Wizard.
MuckJagger
@RandyG: Also liked Chapin’s follow-up, “Sequel,” and (I think) the song he released shortly after “Taxi”, “WOLD.”
Brachiator
@Barbara:
How about Burn Down the Mission
debit
@Miss Bianca: Well, then, madame, if we’re talking country, I counter with Country Bumpkin.
George Spiggott
You want narrative? “Atlantis” by Donovan
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Oh, it exists, all right…what, you think we’d *lie* to you?
maeve
Jolene – Dolly Parton
It’s been a good year for the roses – George Jones
Sunday Morning Coming Down – Kris Kristoferson but a hit for Johnny Cash
PS – Honey makes me gag with a spoon (to use an expression from the past.
George Spiggott
Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Louise by Bonnie Raitt So sad…
pepper
any of a bunch of harry chapin songs–cats in the cradle, taxi, and shooting star come immediately to mine.
les
Springsteen, Born to Run. And certainly others. Too new?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@trollhattan: MacArthur Park, the long version. The only version that counts. Slow dance, then boogie. I must have danced to this a hundred times in college.
OGLiberal
@Nannette: My wife and I watch “Mama’s Family” on reruns all the time. However, my first exposure to Vicki Lawrence was from that song on AM radio as a kid. Love that Lawrence is only now about the age that Mama/Themla was supposed to be.
japa21
@germy: hyep
Schlemazel
@germy:
If we are going in that direction then Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy” wins
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy
Jacel
Some that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
“Lola” — The Kinks (the biggest hit of many story songs by Ray Davies)
“One Part At A Time” — Johnny Cash
“Snoopy vs The Red Baron” — Royal Guardsmen
smintheus
“Tar and Cement” recorded by Verdelle Smith. It was an Italian pop song originally (“Il ragazzo della Via Gluck”); also famously recorded in French by Francoise Hardy (“La maison ou j’ai grandi”).
Miss Bianca
“Love Child” by the Supremes.
@Jacel: Hey, now, I mentioned “Snoopy and the Red Baron”! Also, The Royal Guardsmen’s version of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” – that was actually my favorite song on that album!
maeve
Also – I once (with my family when I was a kid) was driving through Kansas and we turned into a German language radio station which played a translation of “Lucille” by Kenny Rogers – all I remember (perhaps incorrectly) is “Der kinder ist kronkin” (which is not what Google translate sez) – apparently due to US bases in Germany country western became popular there and there were local cover bands.
Quinerly
@maeve:
Kristofferson’s “The Silver Tongue Devil and I.” Lived it, but I digress….
germy
@Barbara:
“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” ?
Based on a true story!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@danielx:
All of them, Katie.
Well, except Richard Thompson’s. I Can’t Wake Up to Save My Life, Sunset Song, the aforementioned 1952 Vincent Black Lightning …
maeve
@Schlemazel:
That was the theme song for one of my dogs (he’s just an excitable boy)
Others include
– “my funny valentine” (her looks were laughable, unphotographable)
– Minnie the moocher (adjusted for his name and gender
Speaking of which – Minnie the Moocher is a story song – literally in the lyrics
germy
For fun, some people like to take the 45 rpm version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and play it at 33 1/3 rpm.
gbear
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Even The Four Tops did a version of MacArthur Park.
smintheus
Surprised nobody has mentioned “Last train to Clarksville”, a big anti-war hit for the Monkees.
Woodrowfan
Lady Marmalade, the original.
germy
Elvis did his own version of MacArthur Park.
Patricia Kayden
Billy Joel
“Piano Man”
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: Oh golly, that song. Mr WereBear claimed to have not heard of it and I made him search Youtube because I was NOT going to sing it!
John from Minneapolis
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: I’m embarrassed to know that “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” was by Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods and Paper Lace did “The Night Chicago Died” (yet another story song from that era).
maeve
Leonard Cohen – Suzanne
Adrian A Lesher
Here are a few:
Indiana Wants Me R Dean Taylor
Wichita Lineman – by Jimmy Webb, sung by Glen Campbell
Rhinestone Cowboy – also sung by Glen Campbell
Sam Stone – John Prine
Cat’s In The Cradle – Harry Chapin
Taxi – Harry Chapin
Operator – Jim Croce
The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel
The Right Profile – The Clash
Son of Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin
Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands
Rainy Night In Georgia – written by Tony Joe White, sung by Brook Benton
WereBear
If anyone hasn’t read Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs… maybe they should :)
If this thread makes you wince, it is for you!
WereBear
@germy: I love that song!
Well, total Peter Gabriel fangirl here.
Bruuuuce
Another master of the form was Peter Gabriel. A bunch of early Genesis material was story songs (“White Mountain”, “The Musical Box”, “Harold the Barrel”…
His solo career later added even more good ones, like “Moribund the Burgermeister” and “Family Snapshot”
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@maeve:
At L. Cohen’s very long shows, that song was always my opportunity to hit the ladies’ room. Famous Blue Raincoat, on the other hand, is a masterpiece of confessional storytelling.
ETA: as is Chelsea Hotel, but it always made me cringe because everyone knew he was talking about Janis Joplin and it seemed so disrespectful to, um, kiss and tell the way he did.
Jim Parene
I’m partial to John Prine. “Paradise”, “Dear Abbey” “Sam Stone” etc.
Also from Steve Earle, “Home to Houston” “Copperhead Road”, to name 2.
Bruuuuce
@WereBear: Heh. Writing my comment as you posted yours, clearly. (I prefer other songs from _The Lamb…_ album, though)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Quinerly:
Because Buffett himself would leave that one out…
I was always sad he never bought the Jim Croce catalogue – totally in his wheelhouse.
germy
@OGLiberal:
We don’t have cable TV, so we watch antenna fare. Svenghooli is on every sat. night playing old horror films along with his usual schtick. Vicki made a recent appearance during one of his comedy skits, in full “Mama’s Family” costume, and she was saltier than I remember. She’s funny as hell.
maeve
Now we’re getting into the difference between a song which implies a story (i.e., with implied background) and one which tells a story
Any song with “Massacre” in the title usually tells a story – including the Alice’s Restaurant Masacree (with four part harmony …. and rhythm)
Kathleen
@Olivia: @efgoldman: Wichita Lineman is brilliant, as is Ode to Billy Joe. My dad was a Top 40 radio announcer back then so I literally grew up with these songs, as well as the Dead Date songs.For the most part AM radio in that time period played a lot of crap. Like you, Olivia, I was heavily into folkd music in the 60’s (Team Kingston Trio, who did a great version of Seasons in the Sun.
Lapassionara
you mean people willingly did other versions of MacArthur Park? Oh, my. The mind, it boggles.
germy
@Kathleen: I didn’t know that Bobby Goldsboro’s version of “Honey” was a cover. The original was recorded by Bob Shane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFDQGUleqyg
Fats Durston
@Barbara: What?!! “Timothy” is greatest or second greatest (“Stranded in the Jungle”) cannibalism song, ever!
maeve
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Jealous – never been to a Leonard Cohen show
WereBear
@Elmo: Did I sing King of the Road all the time? I think I did. I was eight.
John
“Honey” isn’t well remembered these days — because it’s terrible == but it was legitimately a big hit. It was the #1 song in the US for five weeks … a span that included, I am somewhat ashamed to say, the day of my birth. If only I’d been born early, I could’ve claimed “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” as my birthday #1. Alas.
George Spiggott
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Best Live Performance of MacArthur Park
Villago Delenda Est
“Back in the USSR” – the Beatles
Drove the John Birch Society bonkers.
Gravenstone
@pepper: Speaking of “Shooting Star”, how about Bad Company’s song of the same name? Hate it because it’s depressing, but it certainly fits.
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear: The Herman’s Hermits version of “Henry the Eighth.” I was in first or second grade and couldn’t stop singing it.
joel hanes
favorite late 60s/70s “story song”
Harry Chapin “Mr. Tanner”
Jaimie Brockett “The Legend Of The USS Titanic”
Jaime Brockett “Talking Green Beret New Super Yellow Hydraulic Banana Teenie Bopper Blues”
Long John Baldry: intro to “Don’t Try To Lay No Boojie-Woojie On The King Of Rock And Roll”
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
And now it’s the Trump theme song! Who knew?
magurakurin
Uneasy Rider
maeve
@Patricia Kayden:
If we’re doing Billy Joel – Scenes from an Italian Restaurant –
A bottle of red, a bottle of white – Perhaps a bottle of rose instead …
Brender and Eddie were the popular steadies …
efgoldman
@Lapassionara:
It’s a long song; provided necessary filler for both albums and concerts.
Kathleen
@Pogonip: I still love disco.
Villago Delenda Est
@Olivia: “Car crash songs”
“Dead Man’s Curve!”
WereBear
@justawriter: Dr Hook and the Medicine Show: “Sylvia’s Mother”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Look, why are all you liberals in a twist just because Spicer showed up to a White House Press Briefing with Russian flap pinned to his lapel.
It. Was. An. Accident. Just like when Spice ended a briefing with Hail Hydra.
Plus Hillary gets colds, so both sides do it!
JustRuss
I have to vote Witchita Lineman, but Skynyrd’s Gimme 3 Steps is a guilty pleasure.
WereBear
@Brachiator: That’s funny, because the change made it a much better title.
Kathleen
@Peale: I was going to list that also, though it’s a late 50’s song. The arrangement, lyrics, Marty Robbins’ performance, made for a masterful pop story song.
Mike J
@Schlemazel:
In college I was told by my PM that he was sick of having his alarm clock go off with Orgasm Addict playing. By the time I got paid for radio, everything was picked out by Selector.
zhena gogolia
@George Spiggott:
ROFLMAO
randy khan
@Woodrowfan:
Yes! (And no; I mean, that song’s got all sorts of stuff going on.) I’m seeing Don McLean at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, next month, actually.
Other story songs of note, some 70s, some not:
Beatles – She’s Leaving Home. (Not really sure about Eleanor Rigby, but why not?)
Simon & Garfunkel -The Sounds of Silence
Looking Glass – Brandy (their one hit)
Suzanne Vega – tons, but off the top of my head, Tom’s Diner (of course!), Ironbound, 50-50 Chance, The Queen and the Soldier, Calypso, the one about her Paris hotel during her honeymoon (which I don’t remember, but is very funny), Widow’s Walk. Heck, half of her catalog. You even could add Luka, although it’s more descriptive than narrative.
Alain the site fixer
Another great story song Bales of Cocaine
randy khan
@Miss Bianca:
Oh, dear lord, the Donna Summers cover of MP was awful.
Patricia Kayden
@lethargytartare: “If I Could Read Your Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot is also a great story song.
This was a great thread — sometimes very humorous. You all are quite funny which is a good trait to have during the Trump regime.
hovercraft
@WereBear:
That takes me back to when I was a kid, I also loved, “Tell Laura I Love Her”
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca: I used to play guitar and sing folk music in St. Paul when I was in high school and hootenannies were the rage. I even played and sang with a group that campaigned for St. Paul’s Democratic mayor and a popular DFL congressman. For classic popular folk songs, I would pick MTA, Tom Dooley, Reverend Mr. Black, and Raspberries Strawberries, all recorded by The Kingston Trio, of course!
And if you’re all really nice to me I’ll bore you with my when I performed on same bill with Chubby Checker story. (He is a very nice person).
Ruviana
@debit: Lots of 70s Joni. Also, Jackson Browne, and Steely Dan! Hey Nineteen, great song called Third World Man. Goofy pop trivia, Mike McDonald (Doobie Brothers) sang on some of their work and was for a while my landlord!
The Lodger
@germy: Literalist.
randy khan
@Origuy:
Also, a top 5 train song. If you’re ever in an overnight train in the lounge car with train groupies (not that I have any experience there) and they start singing, it will come up.
WereBear
Elvis did “Frankie and Johnny” in the mid-60’s, but that’s not the version I hear in my head.
Patricia Kayden
@maeve: It’s funny because I don’t like many of Billy Joel’s songs but “Piano Man” is a great story song where you pretty much like and empathize with all of the characters.
I’ll have to look up “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” because it doesn’t jump to my mind.
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. Also, too, Papa Was A Rolling Stone.
PPCLI
@Pogonip: It does take a bit of the romance out of it to know that Daddy was in the harbor patrol.
@Schlemazel: and to know that the city boy was from Windsor.
alce_ e_ ardilla
@efgoldman: OMG all those songs were gawdawful, and were maudlin and syrupy enough to cause cavities The worst one, to my mind was “Take a Letter Maria.”…about a clueless businessman who leaves his affection-starved wife, and tries to sleep with his secretary. I always thought her reply would be “Take your own fucking letter…..”
Villago Delenda Est
No one has mentioned Al Stewart (mid to late 70’s, I know) but he’s got a million of them. “Year of the Cat” is probably the most well known, but “Roads to Moscow” is EPIC in its scope.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ruviana: “My Old School” is based on actual real events in Annendale.
PPCLI
@joel hanes: As an undergraduate my pals and I would often see Baldry live at the El Mocambo in Toronto.
He would always do “Don’t you lay no Boogie Woogie…” as his encore, and when he was on a good night it was spectacular.
WereBear
@Villago Delenda Est: The year I moved out and could play any radio station I wanted, “Year of the Cat” was every other song on half the stations.
Matt McIrvin
Not from the 60s/70s, but a great example of the story song as farce: They Might Be Giants’ “Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal” (about an attempt at payola gone sour).
randy khan
@Lapassionara:
MP actually is a great tune for a jazz instrumental, which is where I first heard it. You get to not hear the lyrics.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Steve Earle’s The Devil’s Right Hand
Jim Croce’s Roller Derby Queen, Working at the Car Wash Blues.
There’s a lot more where those came from.
WereBear
Also, most country music is sad stories. At least it seemed that way to me, during the time period we are discussing.
Olivia
@trollhattan: Now I have a hilarious picture in my head of Dumbledore(the first one) singing MacArthur Park.
trollhattan
@germy:
Original title and chorus: “Someone Shaved my Wife Tonight” but the record company made them change it.
Kathleen
@germy: That’s right! I forgot that. Bob also sang Seasons in the Sun. A bit OT, but his recording of It Was A Very Good Year caught Frank Sinatra’s attention and prompted him to record the song.
Smiling Mortician
What, no love for “The Blind Man in the Bleachers”?
/ducks
Mrearl
Bruce, “Incident On 57th Street.” Spanish Johnny drove in from the underworld last night . . .
Also, “Tangled Up In Blue.”
WereBear
@PPCLI: Love me that man. (His voice!) He moved to Vancouver and continued to put out some really good albums, working with local talent there.
trollhattan
@Olivia:
Heh :-) He who must not be named left that damn cake out in the rain, that’s who!
germy
@trollhattan: The original version is a rare collector’s item.
WereBear
@trollhattan: What I love about that song is that one can sing it so very badly, and it does not matter.
Thanks to Richard Harris.
Amaranthine RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, just like Huckleberry Finn was about that time that Mark Twain went rafting with that black dude.
Millard Filmore
@WereBear: We need a thread for bad/strange songs.
frosty
@Hungry Joe:
and of course his merry christmas from the family…
Mom got drunk dad got drunk……
p.a.
@Miss Bianca: Here’s a wonderful version of Barbara Allen.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Millard Filmore:
You’re soaking in it now!
The Lodger
@Yarrow: Finally, someone mentioned Copacabana. It’s the only Barry Manilow song I can stand.
Ruviana
@Mrearl: And always Bruce! Atlantic City, The River, etc. Though that moves into the 80s.
Gravenstone
@hovercraft: You are a deeply sick person. *shudder*
Millard Filmore
@Villago Delenda Est:
Does “DOA” by Bloodrock count?
WereBear
That pina colada song is a story song. I hate that song.
Gravenstone
@Millard Filmore: I think most of them have already been mentioned in this one.
Olivia
@japa21: If we are going back that far, I will submit North to Alaska and Sink the Bismark. And almost any song that Marty Robbins put out except “My Woman, My Wife”. Too much glurge there.
john fremont
Tecumseh Valley by Townes Van Zandt
…the daughter of a miner…”
A 70’s one hit wonder, “Blind Man in the Bleachers “, about a man who doesn’t see his son’s first football game until he has died. A song like that could have only come out in 1970’s.
Aleta
My 7th grade American history teacher played The Battle of New Orleans (Johnny Horton) at the start of every class, for weeks. I can still see her bouncing on her toes while it played, and loving it so much that she’d start the record over again as soon as it finished.
Later when we got past WWII she started up each class with The Green Beret.
p.a.
Truckin’ is a story song. Episodic maybe… Already mentioned?
WereBear
@p.a.: If you are going to do that, why not Convoy?
Millard Filmore
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Wow! All Right!
Reverend Glen Armstrong, “Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas”
Kevin Gilbert, “Joytown”
p.a.
@Millard Filmore: I think I traded a Deep Purple album for that Bloodrock album. Waaaayyyyyy back when…
Kass
“Indiana Wants Me” (he gets caught at the end)
“Wildfire” (he rides off on a ghost horse at the end)
Olivia
@debit: I like Country Bumpkin too!
p.a.
@WereBear: I like to maintain an aura of class. It’s a fraudulent aura, but it works until it reality intrudes.
Origuy
Celtic music has a lot of great ballads, but The Fields of Athenry is probably the most famous. It’s about a poor sod during the Great Famine who steals some grain from an English landlord and is transported to Australia.
Jacel
@Miss Bianca: Sorry that I overlooked your earlier mention of that Snoopy song. I finally found a poster online for the time I saw The Royal Guardsmen live in San Francisco on December 28, 1966 on a show featuring The Beach Boys. The concert also had the Jefferson Airplane, The Seeds, Music Machine, and Sopwith Camel.
debit
@Olivia: My dad was an over the road truck driver and I used to go with him in the summer. There are vast swatches of America where you can only get country music. As a teenager, I didn’t appreciate Country Bumpkin and possibly rolled my eyes. A lot. Now I think of it fondly.
Villago Delenda Est
@p.a.: Reminds me! “Smoke on the Water”!
Aleta
My Rifle, My Pony, and Me (from RIO BRAVO) Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan
ThresherK
@Capri: “Brel said that [Seasons in the Sun] was about a dying man who is sad because his best friend is sleeping with his wife.”
I mean this in a good way: That is the most goddamn French thing I’ve heard in my entire life. And usually I hate, hate, HATE French things redone into English, because they usually suck.
The Lodger
@WereBear: At least he didn’t rename it Midnight Bus to Boise.
monoglot
@Miss Bianca:
Partial to The Proclaimers’ version myself, but truly one of my favorites.
And another vote for Alice’s Restaurant, while we’re at it.
laura
@hovercraft: I love you too!
We grew up in the back seat of so many old station wagons and sedans listening to KFRC. Every song of the 60’s and 70’s is hardwired into every fiber of my being, the good, the bad and the silly. Motown, pop and rock. Credence Clearwater Rival was as beloved as the Carpenter’s the Jackson 5 and Glenn Campbell.
Oh what a time when the music wasn’t segregated.
laura
Also, I’d rather cut my ears off than hear Seasons in the Sun one. More. Time.
Another Scott
@geg6: Well, if we’re going there, One Piece at a Time.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
WereBear
@The Lodger: Dang it. Now it’s going through my head…
Funny how it doesn’t change the rest of the song at all :)
Olivia
I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Alone Again, Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan
ThresherK
@Villago Delenda Est: I love the dropping of Bogart and Lorre into that song: Not on-the-nose but nicely elliptical tip to Casablanca.
@lethargytartare: Hey, look on the bright side of the Coast Guard budget cuts: We’re gonna have more shipwrecks for ol’ Gord and other troubadors to write epic songs about.
Kathleen
I’ve always liked Well Respected Man by the Kinks. It holds up very well.
Olivia
@debit: My husband was also a long distance trucker back then and those corny truckin’ songs bring back great memories for me and my kids.
Just One More Canuck
@Villago Delenda Est: including the 35 sweet goodbyes?
Villago Delenda Est
@Just One More Canuck: That took place in NYC before Donald got on the train to Annendale…
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
You forgot “Teen Angel,” the worst of the lot.
Lapassionara
@efgoldman: dead thread, so you probably will not see this, but seriously? This is the worst. I cannot imagine not retching when the band started playing it. Maybe the tune is ok, but there is nothing good about the lyrics. Sigh!
burnspbesq
Jason Isbell is the current master of really dark, Southern Gothic story songs: “Live Oak,” “Yvette,” “Speed Trap Town,” and “Elephant.”
Louis
@Barbara:
Sure. It’s about cannibalism.
Pogonip
@trollhattan: Trump?
Pogonip
@Kathleen: Sister!
joel hanes
Mitchener’s book about the 60’s _The_Drifters_ presented MacArthur Park as some kind of generational talisman for the counterculture.
Which only shows that Michener understood nothing about the ’60s.
Even though that song is about the visual effects of eating too much good acid during a San Francisco rainstorm, and watching the green terraced hill of MacArthur Park appear to flow and melt,, it was a lame song, and nearly as reviled as “Honey”, with which this thread started.
Neither were hip. Or cool.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@joel hanes: ? There’s no MacArthur Park in San Francisco.
Pogonip
@Elmo: I liked a Roger Whittaker song about a ship rigged and ready in the harbor.
“King of the Road” (Trailers for sale or rent”) was Roger Miller. Also “Dang me, dang me,” and “England swings like a pendulum do.”
Let’s all sing “King of the Road!” I know every engineer on every train/ all of their children, all of their names/Every handout in every town/And every lock that ain’t locked when no one’s around!”
In another 20 years we won’t have to sing it, we’ll be living it.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@joel hanes: Also, Michener interviewed my dad and several of his acquaintances at length for his book about Alaska, and then got it all completely wrong. I used to love his books but knowing that took the shine off them for me – I had heard a similar story about Caravans and it made me question everything he’d written.
Dad says he was an interesting guy to talk to, though – he had some amazing experiences in the Pacific in WWII.
Kathleen
@burnspbesq: “Teen angel – can you hear me? Teen angel, can you see me”?
Kathleen
@Pogonip: Yes! Disco brought us Heatwave and Chic, among other great groups.I ain’t to proud to say it!
Johannes
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Damn. Scrolled all the way down to find I’ve been pipped at the post —Famous Blue Raincoat Is teh schizzle.
Quinerly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Speaking of Jim Croce, are you familiar with his son, AJ Croce? Tiny baby when Ingrid accepted her husband’s Grammy right after his death. AJ did some great stuff about 20 years ago. More of a raspy Dr. John voice even though at the time he was in his 20’s. Pretty popular in Europe for a stretch. We had him in St. Louis for a couple of shows late 1990’s. Worth a listen. His newer stuff not so great. Check out “Texas Ruby.” And his first 3-4 CDs. Piano player,too. Ingrid had a club in San Diego for years and AJ also played regularly there.
OGLiberal
@germy: We do antenna as well at our trailer because the community’s cable doesn’t have MeTV and that’s our only way to get “Mama’s Family” and “Love Boat” on Sunday and “Star Trek” on Saturday night. Yes, I watch Mama and the Boat and Kirk.
Johannes
@Pogonip: Loved Roger Whittaker–an old friend and I used to do his songs at college drama cast parties (lounge lizard style)–and here’s The Last Farewell,
dww44
@efgoldman: My early high school ( I’m older than you, methinks) English teacher, she of the always sharp tongue with a sarcastic bent, panned “Tell Laura I love Her” big time in one of my classes. Read all the words/verses and made fun of it. It was the era where no one pushed back against one’s teacher, certainly not her.
Does anyone here remember “The Three Bells” by the Browns? It was late 50’s early 60’s as I recollect. It was at the top of the charts for a long long time and they used to perform on the Saturday night TV show “The Hit Parade”
Jay Noble
Late cuz I don’t post at work but:
Come a Little Bit Closer – Jay & the Americans
Georgia – Boz Scaggs
Horse With No Name – America
Big Girls Don’t Cry – Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons
Angie Baby – Helen Reddy
arrieve
The thread is dead but I can’t resist. Alone Again (Naturally), Seasons in the Sun — you all will be giving me nightmares. I have to admit that I know every word to Honey and I sometimes sing it for people who’ve never had the pleasure just because it is so awful. “Came running in all excited, slipped and almost hurt herself and I laughed till I cried.”
But I heard Ode to Billie Joe just a few days ago for the first time in years and I’d forgotten what a great song that is.
Shana
@Mike J: I always liked waking up on Monday mornings to “Welcome to the Working Week.”
SFBayAreaGal
Brandy, Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town, Landslide, El Paso, Down on The Corner, Life in the Fast Lane, Blackwater, to name a few
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est:
Great story song!!!!
Shana
@Kathleen: Me too. Love the Kinks. We saw King Charles III Wednesday night and they played “Victoria” after the curtain call while we were on our way out of the theater. Cracked me up.
EricK
@Miss Bianca: There is a great Long Black Veil by Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell from his TV show, I think you can find it on YouTube
John Hanson
@Cowgirl in the Sandi: ‘Louise went home on the mail train”…totally great song!
Steeplejack (tablet)
O.C. Smith did “Little Green Apples.” His other big hit, and one of my personal favorites, was “The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp.” Classic story song with a punchy beat.
EricK
Al Stewart “Year of the Cat”
Technically after your era, but “Highway Patrolman” by Springsteen, they even made a movie based on it, directed by Sean Penn and starring Viggo Mortensen.
And really you could say most (all?) of the songs on Nebraska
EricK
And as long as i brought up Springsteen, more than can be mentioned, Rosalita, Jungleland, Born to Run, The entire Ghost of Tom Joad album, Hungry Heart, The River, and on and on. Probably easier to list the ones that aren’t great story songs.
Bonnie
I’ve always liked Al Wilson’s, The Snake released in 1968. It seems very appropriate with the snake we have in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULx9k2QkL94
EricK
@laura: did you ever read the story about the imposter posing as the “seasons in the Sun” guy. The real singer whose name I forget retired and lived comfortably in Northern British Columbia while unbeknownst to him some guy was traveling around canada posing as him, i guess ripping people off doing appearances.
Kathleen
@dww44: Is that the song that refers to Jimmy Brown being born? “And the chapel bells were ringing”?
Kathleen
@EricK: Judy Collins and yes, The Kingston Trio also recorded it.
mai naem mobile
I can’t be bothered to go through this whole thread so apologies if these have already been mentioned :
Maggie May – Rod Stewart
Dreadlock Holiday – 10cc
Sylvias Mother – Dr Hook (this song always cracks me up even though I know it’s supposed to be sad)
Band on the Run – Wings
There’s also a song by Loretta Lynn which had something to with her getting pregnant and getting stuck with a bunch of kids. I don’t know the title.
ljdramone
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: I’d be happy to forget “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero.”
Jim Stafford, “Swamp Witch” or Charlie Daniels, “Uneasy Rider”.
OGLiberal
@EricK: If we go Springsteen then Sandy is the best with regards to real life references. Born to Run noted Highway 9 and the Palace but Sandy is much more AP specific. Madame Marie is the only recognizable landmark mentioned but it’s so clearly AP. It even feels like AP. I live next door, btw. Of course, today’s AP much different – much more chi chi, a lot less honky tonk. But I’m only slightly old enough to know the old, seedy AP and Sandy captures it – and the Jersey Shore – best.
zhena gogolia
@OGLiberal:
I love that song.
Aleta
@mai naem mobile: Not as hilarious as Sylvias Mother, but Mrs. Brown you’ve got a lovely daughter sung by Herman’s Hermits is laughably poignant too.
Bonnie
@Coastbound: Great description of this great recording
Bonnie
@japa21: From same time period, El Paso by Marty Robbins.
efgoldman
@Olivia:
Deserves never to be mentioned, played, heard
efgoldman
@Lapassionara:
I didn’t say it was good, I said it was long. As an ex-radio programmer, sometimes length is whay you need.
efgoldman
@dww44:
A sarcastic bent what?
I think I was in 8th grade, which would have made it ’58-’59 for Laura. But there was a whole bunch of them, each awful.
Bg
Big Bad John
(“At the bottom of that mine lies a big, big man”)
Harper Valley PTA
Joe Hill (“From San Diego up to Maine,In every mine and mill,Where working-men defend there rights,
It’s there you find Joe Hill,)
One of the worst was Last Kiss by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (“Well where oh where can my baby be? The lord took her away from me. She’s gone to heaven so I got to be good, so I can see my baby when I leave this world”)
Bg
@mai naem mobile: The Loretta Lynn song was “The Pill” – scandalous in the country music world at the time
Miss Bianca
@Jacel:OMG, what a line-up, I could hate you! :-)
Also, is it my imagination or has no one mentioned Commander Cody’s “Hot Rod Lincoln”?!
Suezboo
I’ve read most but not all of the comments. Great memories.
Mind-path : Green, green, grass of home > Tom Jones > Delilah !
Two little boys -Rolf Harris
Leader of the Pack – A Motown Interchangeable Girl Group
Love Running Bear and Billy Joe and Alice. Oh – Living next door to Alice.
Olivia
I was watching PBS fund raiser with music from years 67 to 69 and I realized that what I love about the music isn’t that it was so fabulous, because a lot of it was truly awful, but that listening to it makes me remember how I felt back then while listening to it. I know some people who listen to nothing but the oldies but for me it is best sampled occasionally to relive the moment or two and then move on.
The Lodger
@OGLiberal: Asbury Park – chi-chi? Must have changed a lot in 23 years.
Another Scott
@Miss Bianca: geg6 at #153 got that one, also too. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Doug!
@Hungry Joe:
That’s one of my favorites.
Doug!
@john fremont:
Wow, never heard that one.
Damned at Random
Goddamn I’m late, but
Cinderella by Firefall
Lyin’ Eyes – the Eagles -I think it qualifies even if she doesn’t get killed
Steel Rail Blues- Gordon Lightfoot
Really enjoyed the thread- those I hadn’t heard in a long time and those I never want to hear again
Cowgirl in the Sandi
@Bg: Wow Big Bad John – really brings back the memories.
I always liked City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie. Poignant and a lovely melody.
Dean
I heard somewhere that if you play most country songs backwards, you get your spouse, your pickup, and your job back.
sharl
{Sees “Ode to Billie Joe” in OP, nods approvingly, moves on…}
Big G
This barely makes it into the 1960s but I liked Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Mrs. G contributes:
Spill the wine, WAR with Eric Burdon. Got it on my workout playlist. “I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie, and I was the star of that movie….. “
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Wait – I know the thread is dead – but what about Puff the Magic Dragon! I think I should win the Internet for that one!
Lymie
@EBT:
Good bye, Earl is a good one. honey always makes me think of Harper Valley PTA, both lame!
smintheus
As bad as Seasons in the Sun is, the flip side is so much worse. And the title, well, it promises a lot more than it can deliver: “Put the Bone In”
Villago Delenda Est
@smintheus: AIEEE! That is BEYOND terrible. And Terry Jacks himself wrote it.
PIGL
Fancy, Bobby Gentry
dww44
@efgoldman: responding Late but ‘she of the sarcastic best’ is sorta my own literary license. That teacher’s primary mode was sarcasm, always and every day.
dww44
@Kathleen: Yep. one and the same. I googled Jim Ed Brown;he just died in 2015.
PIGL
Wharf Rat, the Dead
Pocahontas, Neil Young
also, too, Powderfinger.
Waiting for the Man. Lou Reed
Chestnut Mare, The Byrds.
Alcohol, The Kinks.
Tangled up in Blue, Dylan.
Kelly Presnell
Shannon by Henry Gross. It’s not only about a dog, it’s sung at such high pitch it’s almost only audible to dogs.
smintheus
@Villago Delenda Est: Yep, that’s the real deal right there.
NotoriousJRT
Livin’ for the City and on the flip side, In the Ghetto
NotoriousJRT
@germy: That’s a good one.
NotoriousJRT
@Barbara: Yikes & yes.
lethargytartare
for Betty, I didn’t want to post these while the thread was active, given the number of verses.
The legend lives on from Waukegan on down
To Allentown out in far Pennsylvaney
The bug, it is said, likes a warm house instead
When the skies of November turn rainy
With a load of odor smelling of coriander
That normal people find stinky
the wife she sure knew twas a bug there or two
When the temps rose in cold February
The bug it was sly out of reach it would fly
when it woke from where it hibernated
As stink buggers go, it was bigger than most
With a hue that was brown and variegated
It crawled up the wall, and then flew down a hall
When the wife tried to jar him in plastic
And later that night when asleep she light
it returned to flap wings loud and spastic
The wings on the wall made a tattle-tale sound
And the wife awoke under the flailing
And every woman knew, as you would’ve too,
That the wife would not again be a-failing
She woke in a state and that bug she did hate
With the heat of a million suns burning
To the kitchen she ran for a cup and a plan
to stop that damned bug from returning
When the wife returned, the cold look came on her vision’
Stinkbug, it’s time for to cage ya
1:30 am is no time to come in, she said
Stinkbug, it’s been good t’know ya
The wife she slammed down that small jar like a crown
And the stinkbug was screwed and in peril
And later that night when he was flushed outta sight
Came the death of the Brown Marmorated
Does any one know where the toilet water goes
When the wife turns the flush handle downward?
Entomologists say he’d have been a-okay
If she’d put him outside to be kinder
he might have flown off or he might have just died
but at least he wouldn’t spin in the water
now all that still clings is that jar in the sink
that the wife left for the dish washer
Ladybugs stroll, and Cicadas sing
In the back in her beautiful garden
Old Bumblebees wing like helicopter teams
The flowers and veggies pollinatin’
And farther below the worms do burrow
Nourishing the green planted by her
But stinkbugs can go, as the husbands all know
Down the toilet never to be remembered
The legend lives on from Waukegan on down
To Allentown out in far Pennsylvaney
The bug, it is said, likes a warm house instead
When the skies of November turn rainy
JoeC
@Barbara: Yep, same guy wrote the song ‘Escape (Pina Colada Song’
low-tech cyclist
Dylan, “Tangled Up In Blue,” since I see others have mentioned “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts” and “Isis.”
Also “Tweeter and the Monkeyman” which he did as part of the first Wilburys album.