Your favorite song that tells a story (narrative ballad) (2 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

DadDream posted it earlier in the thread, not sure which page.

Yes, he did. I missed that. My bad.

 

[Mr. Littlejeans]

Beer lovers should be familiar with Traffic's "John Barleycorn Must Die." It's their version of a medievel folk song that was an angry response to prohibition. In it a guy named John Barleycorn is attacked by several enemies, but each time his beer gives him the strength to defeat them. Moral of the song:
"The huntsman he can't hunt the fox nor so loudly to blow his horn
And the tinker he can't mend kettle or pots without a little barleycorn"

Also:
How about Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue"

And who could forget "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and "Run, Jory Run?"

 

[PayOrPlay]

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.

 

[thewyrm]

A Lifetime

Allie woke up 8AM
Graduation day.
Got into a car,
And crashed along the way.

When we arrived late to the wake,
Stole the urn while they
Looked away,
And drove to the beach
'Cause I knew you'd want it
That way.

And you were standing
On the hood of the car
Singing out loud
When the sun came up.

And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes
Felt like a lifetime

It felt like a lifetime

And you move like water
I could drown in you.
And I fell so deep once,
Till you pulled me through

You would tell me
"No one is allowed to be so proud
They never reach out
When they're giving up."

And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes
Felt like a lifetime

Are you sitting in the lights?
Or combing your hair again,
And talking in rhymes?
Are you sitting in the lights?

When I got home, heard the phone,
Your parents had arrived.
And your dad set his jaw
Your mom just smiled and sighed.

But they left soon
And I went to my room.
Played that disc that you'd given me,
And I shut my eyes
Swear I could hear the sea.

When we were standing
On the hood of your car
Singing out loud when the sun came up.

And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes,
Three and a half minutes,

Felt like a lifetime.

- Better Than Ezra