Your favorite song that tells a story (narrative ballad)

1. A geeky note re: "Big Bad John." Although Tennessee Ernie Ford did cover this song, it was originally and most successfully performed by Jimmy Dean, later the sausage king. Mr. Dean won a Grammy for this. Later he was involved in a film based on the song, for which I did some sales and legal work back in my misty past.

2. Southern rock was ripe with story ballads; some of them have been mentioned, but I'll add The Marshall Tucker Band ("A New Life," "Virginia," "Searchin' for a Rainbow" for starters).

3. How about some trucker story songs? When I was a kid I loved country trucker ballads by guys like Red Sovine ("Phantom 309") and Dave Dudley ("Six Days on the Road"). When I got a little older, I still liked trucker story songs, it was just a different kind of "truckin'," for example:

The Grateful Dead's "Truckin'"
Little Feat's "Willin'", "Fat Man in the Bathtub," "Cold Cold Cold," etc.
Gram Parsons' "Return of the Grevious Angel."

4. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: "Johnny Mahoe" [like "Colors" with a ukelele] and "Hawaii '78" [the part where he tells about his mother and his father--it's just chilling]

5. "I Shot the Sheriff" (Marley or Clapton version, you choose).

6. By the way, I also have loved "El Paso" since I was a kind, and voted for it.