Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

Songs that are Perfect or Near-Perfect Short Stories


Pieman

Recommended Posts

Posted

Great topic

Dylan- Hurricane

Tangled Up In Blue

Ballad of Hollis Brown

Steve Earle-The Devil's Right Hand

Copperhead Road

Emmylou Harris-Red Dirt Girl

I could keep going...

Posted

Check out Richard Shindell's first three albums.

His Live Disc "Courier" is a great overview of those tunes,

but he's a KILLER when it comes to narrative.

Oh Yeah, and AMERICAN GIRL by Tom Petty gets better every time I listen to it.

DAMN I wish I wrote that song...

:)

Posted

'52 Vincent Black Lightning- Richard Thompson

Memphis in the Meantime,

As Good as She Could Be- John Hiatt

Posted

Shame on y'all for not coming up with Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy" yet.

Posted

What?!?! No love for "The wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" and a bunch of other Gordon Lightfoot songs.

Posted
Take your pick from almost any Drive By Truckers effort.

"Tornados and Daddy's Cup" are among my favorites, but there are many, many more.

+100 on DBT, almost EVERY song is a short story and a good one at that

More great examples - Zip City, Puttin' People on the Moon, Sink Hole, Space City, 72 (This Highway's Mean), Loaded Gun in the Closet... better stop now :huh:

Posted
Edited to add (and how in the hell could I have forgotten) "Picnic Table Lovin" by Arthur Price and "Some Man is Fucking My Horsie (Mama Squirt Him With the Hose)" by Darlene Ross.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!

Posted
Edited to add (and how in the hell could I have forgotten) "Picnic Table Lovin" by Arthur Price and "Some Man is Fucking My Horsie (Mama Squirt Him With the Hose)" by Darlene Ross.

Excellent additions, both. What a scream they were!

"Pontiac"

Posted

An uneasy/tepid +1 for early Jackson Browne stuff, although anybody who ever got dissed by Tonio K. usually deserved it.

I thought about some songs on Richard & Linda Thompson's SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS, and I guess the most "narrative" example would have to be "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed", but I don't have that album anymore.

That being said, Richard's guitar break on "Don't Renege On Our Love" belongs on the "perfect solos" thread, and would be prima facie evidence if he ever sued Mark Knopfler for plagiarization.

Posted

I also thought about some Richard Thompson stuff. Although "Valerie" is a favorite song, he's got tons of that stuff up his sleeve.

Guest hectorp
Posted

"She Loves You" Lennon and McCartney

"She Loves You" Lennon and McCartney

Not only a short story, but told in the second person.

Posted

Okay. I will offer up another suggestion, that was prompted by the second-person angle suggested by Hectorp.

"Powderfinger" by Neil Young. I love the imagery. "Look out, Mama, there's a white boat comin' up the river

With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail ....... Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou" - - the whole thing.

But the best part is yet to come - - the narrator injects himself in the story and then he tells of his own death. Such a time shift. A real mind-blower, as we used to say.

Posted

Aqualung by Jethro Tull not only a story but one I can relate to

"eyeing little girls with bad intent"

Every song Steve Earl has ever done

Posted

Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie

Queensryche- Operation Mindcrime entire album

Down on Main St. - Bob Seger

Whiskey in the Jar- Metallica

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...