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You are here: Home / Music / AM Gold

AM Gold

by DougJ|  March 10, 20174:07 pm| 382 Comments

This post is in: Music

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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).

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Reader Interactions

382Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:10 pm

    “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.

  2. 2.

    Nannette

    March 10, 2017 at 4:10 pm

    The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia – Vicki Lawrence (1973)
    Still know the words by heart.

  3. 3.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    “Rocky Raccoon” tells a story, as does Paul’s solo “Another Day” (lonely office worker feels smothered by her existence)

  4. 4.

    Lizzy L

    March 10, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    “Me and Bobby McGee” — Janis Joplin’s version, of course. No one better.

  5. 5.

    lethargytartare

    March 10, 2017 at 4:13 pm

    The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

    which I rewrote to be about my wife killing a stinkbug.

  6. 6.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    March 10, 2017 at 4:14 pm

    “What’s your momma’s name, child?” by Tanya Tucker, and who could forget “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” by Paper Lace?

  7. 7.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:14 pm

    “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Serial killer medical student gets his day in court, charms the jury)

  8. 8.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:15 pm

    Does Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps Thieves” count?

  9. 9.

    Capri

    March 10, 2017 at 4:16 pm

    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.

  10. 10.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:16 pm

    “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.

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 4:16 pm

    I heard, for the first time in my life, the song “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro.

    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.

  12. 12.

    DougJ

    March 10, 2017 at 4:17 pm

    @Yarrow:
    Yes it does

  13. 13.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:18 pm

    @efgoldman: I remember Goldsboro’s frequent TV appearances, and his weird, helmet-like hair.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:18 pm

    The 19 minute version of “By the Time I get to Phoenix,” by Isaac Hayes from Hot Buttered Soul

  15. 15.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:18 pm

    @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.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    March 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    Sea and Sand – by Pete Townshend (the Who).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    @DougJ: Oh, good! Well, that’s my contribution, then. I’ve got a soft spot for early Cher songs.

  18. 18.

    M31

    March 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    Alice’s Restaurant!

    “Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage”

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    @Capri:

    There were a LOT of ridiculously dark hit songs in the 1970s. “Run, Joey, Run,” anyone?

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:20 pm

    @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.

  21. 21.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:20 pm

    Delta dawn
    What’s that plant life you have on
    Could it be a dandelion from my lawn?

  22. 22.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:20 pm

    “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” (song about a lamb who lies down on Broadway)

  23. 23.

    D58826

    March 10, 2017 at 4:21 pm

    @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%.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    @Another Scott:

    I also can’t believe that we all listened to “Rough Boys” without realizing it was about Pete picking up rough trade.

  25. 25.

    Dissatisfied Customer

    March 10, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    When I was on AM radio ages ago, I got in trouble for playing “Honey” with a laugh track on April Fools Day.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    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.

  27. 27.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    @germy:

    I remember Goldsboro’s frequent TV appearances, and his weird, helmet-like hair.

    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.

  28. 28.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    John Prine’s “Hello In There” (a genuinely moving song, unlike “Honey”)

    We had an apartment in the city
    Me and Loretta liked living there
    Well, it’d been years since the kids had grown
    A life of their own left us alone
    John and Linda live in Omaha
    And Joe is somewhere on the road
    We lost Davy in the Korean war
    And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore

  29. 29.

    Hungry Joe

    March 10, 2017 at 4:23 pm

    “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 … )

  30. 30.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:23 pm

    @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.”

  31. 31.

    Louis

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    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.

  32. 32.

    pk

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    “Love me love my dog” (I love the dog) by Peter Shelly and “Seasons in the sun” by Terry Jacks.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    @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.”

  34. 34.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    Not my favorite by any means ( in fact I hated it) but does anyone remember “Timothy”?

  35. 35.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    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.

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    I like the ones about dead teenagers. I’ll go with Laurie (Strange Things Happen in This World).

  37. 37.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    @Barbara: I just couldn’t stomach that one.

  38. 38.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more
    She sits and stares through the back door screen
    And all the news just repeats itself
    Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen
    Someday I’ll go and call up Rudy
    We worked together at the factory
    But what could I say if he asks “What’s new?”
    “Nothing, what’s with you? Nothing much to do”

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 10, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    Don’t all songs tell a story. I don’t understand this thread.

  40. 40.

    vtr

    March 10, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    Beatles: On Our Way Home

  41. 41.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Haha, should have read the thread first.

  42. 42.

    Bruuuuce

    March 10, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    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.)

  43. 43.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    @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.

  44. 44.

    Lizzy L

    March 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Um — some were clueless. Some of us were not.

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    “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….

  46. 46.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    @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.

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    @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.

  48. 48.

    Gravenstone

    March 10, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    I heard, for the first time in my life, the song “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro.

    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.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    @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.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    March 10, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    @Hungry Joe: Todd Rundgren – A Dream Goes on Forever is also very good.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    @Olivia:

    I don’t know if they are story songs but I really liked Wichita Lineman and Galveston

    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)

    The song consists of two verses, each divided into two parts. The first part is in the key of F major, while the second is written in D major. D represents the relative minor position to F, so a D minor (as opposed to major) section would be expected. The fact that it is nevertheless set in D major arguably contributes to the unique and appealing character of the song.

    The lyrics follow the key dichotomy, with the first part of each verse (F major) handling issues related to a lineman’s job (e.g. “searching for another overload”, “if it snows, that stretch down South won’t ever stand the strain”, whereas the second part (D major) dwells on the lineman’s romantic thoughts. Set off against the F major of the first part, the D major of the second part sounds distinctively mellow, which is consistent with its content.

    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 line
    The lineman is hanging on emotionally as well as working on the telephone line.

  52. 52.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    @Gravenstone:

    somethin warm was runnin in mah eyes

  53. 53.

    jayboat

    March 10, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    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.

  54. 54.

    lapassionara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    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.

  55. 55.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:30 pm

    @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

  56. 56.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:30 pm

    Reading this thread, I realize that I actually hate story songs.

  57. 57.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    Brenda and Eddie
    Captain Jack
    The Piano Man (all Billy Joel)

    Also “Taxi” by Harry Chapin.

    “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg.

  58. 58.

    Shell

    March 10, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    “A Boy Named Sue”

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    March 10, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    @lethargytartare: Okay, you can’t leave us hanging like that! Please share the lyrics describing the slaying of the stinkbug!

  60. 60.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    @Pogonip: yuk yuk

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    @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. ;-)

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    @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!

  63. 63.

    RandyG

    March 10, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Harry Chapin, “Taxi”

  64. 64.

    lethargytartare

    March 10, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    @Barbara:

    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.

    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.

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    March 10, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    “Hell Bent For Leather” by Judas Priest, definitely

    Black as night, faster than a shadow
    Crimson flare from a raging sun
    An exhibition, of sheer precision
    Yet no one knows from where he comes

    What? That’s a GREAT start to a story-song!

  66. 66.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    @Brachiator: One of my favorite songs of all time, from the first time I heard it.

  67. 67.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Speaking of The Partridge Family, “Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque” probably counts for this list.

  68. 68.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    @Yarrow: Does in my book! (I heart Cher).

    My question – does “Snoopy and the Red Baron” count?

  69. 69.

    p.a.

    March 10, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    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.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    A song like “Ode to Billy Joe” has a narrative arc in a way that “She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” doesn’t.

    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.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    @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.

  72. 72.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    @Yarrow: I just learned David Cassidy is suffering from dementia.

  73. 73.

    dc

    March 10, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    Dylan’s Hurricane.

  74. 74.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    @Brachiator:

    I agree, but I would not call them story songs.

  75. 75.

    Peale

    March 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    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.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Yes, but they’re not story songs. “Eleanor Rigby” is a story song.

  77. 77.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    @dc:

    That’s a good one, as is the one about the clam bar.

  78. 78.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    “Ballad of John & Yoko” is a story song.

  79. 79.

    EBT

    March 10, 2017 at 4:38 pm

    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.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Don’t all songs tell a story.

    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.”

  81. 81.

    Woodrowfan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    American Pie!

    Uneasy Rider, Convoy for humor

  82. 82.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    @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.

  83. 83.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 10, 2017 at 4:40 pm

    Hurricane by Bob Dylan

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:41 pm

    @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”.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yes, but they’re not story songs. “Eleanor Rigby” is a story song.

    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.

  86. 86.

    delk

    March 10, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    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

  87. 87.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 10, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    @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…

  88. 88.

    dc

    March 10, 2017 at 4:43 pm

    @germy: That is sad.

  89. 89.

    RandyG

    March 10, 2017 at 4:43 pm

    Don McLean, “Vincent”

  90. 90.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    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.

  91. 91.

    gkoutnik

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    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.

  92. 92.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    @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.

  93. 93.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    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

  94. 94.

    delk

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    “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

  95. 95.

    Shell

    March 10, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    Girl From Ipanema.

  96. 96.

    lethargytartare

    March 10, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Okay, you can’t leave us hanging like that! Please share the lyrics describing the slaying of the stinkbug!

    I don’t have them on me. Perhaps when I get home. :)

  97. 97.

    geg6

    March 10, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    Because it’s so awful, it’s good: Harper Valley PTA.

  98. 98.

    Shell

    March 10, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    “Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”

  99. 99.

    Mike J

    March 10, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    In honor of Sunday’s anniversary, The Gift.

  100. 100.

    JPL

    March 10, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    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.

  101. 101.

    gbear

    March 10, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    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.

  102. 102.

    Darrin Ziliak

    March 10, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @Peale:

    Don’t Play B-17

    Olivia Newton John’s Please, Mister Please?

  103. 103.

    Booger

    March 10, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @Barbara: Came here looking for this. Great backstory, written by the Pina Colada Song guy.

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @Miss Bianca: FYWP won’t let me edit this comment, so let me just say: Donna Summer, not Donna Summers. Also, FYWP!

  105. 105.

    Elmo

    March 10, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    “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.

  106. 106.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    @Miss Bianca: I do! I loved disco!

  107. 107.

    Aimai

    March 10, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    Choctaw bingo

  108. 108.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    March 10, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    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.

  109. 109.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 10, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    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.

  110. 110.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 10, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    @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*

  111. 111.

    Joeff

    March 10, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    @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.

  112. 112.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    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)

  113. 113.

    Peale

    March 10, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    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).

  114. 114.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 10, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I saw the play for the first time back in January (I think)

    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.

  115. 115.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    @trollhattan: He should have kept looking. I recently found Mom’s long-lost gravy recipe.

  116. 116.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” has to count.

  117. 117.

    Elmo

    March 10, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    @Mike J: Oh no. No, no, no, not getting out of the boat, not for that.
    Use this instead.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    @Shell:

    Girl From Ipanema.

    The Fool on the Hill

    (I somehow think of these two songs together)

  119. 119.

    frosty

    March 10, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    @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.”

  120. 120.

    Coastbound

    March 10, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    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”…

  121. 121.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    @Peale: Out in the Westchester town of El Paso/I fell in love with a trust fund girl…

  122. 122.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 10, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    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.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    “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?) ; )

  124. 124.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm

    @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

  125. 125.

    gbear

    March 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm

    @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.

  126. 126.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm

    @Peale:

    I love that one.

  127. 127.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    March 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm

    Marty Robbins El Paso City

    Edit: ninja’d by Peale

  128. 128.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 4:56 pm

    @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.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:56 pm

    @lethargytartare:
    I’ll bet cash money it includes the rhyme “November dismember.”

  130. 130.

    Origuy

    March 10, 2017 at 4:56 pm

    City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman. He had a number of great story songs.

  131. 131.

    dexwood

    March 10, 2017 at 4:56 pm

    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.

  132. 132.

    Quinerly

    March 10, 2017 at 4:57 pm

    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!

  133. 133.

    danielx

    March 10, 2017 at 4:57 pm

    Richard Thompson…1952 Vincent Black Lightning

  134. 134.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    @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”

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    @Peale:
    That would probably make Felina the eldest daughter of a very nice dermatologist.

  136. 136.

    Yarrow

    March 10, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    @danielx: Saw him perform it live a few years ago. Solo show. Sounded like he had an entire band backing him up. Amazing.

  137. 137.

    debit

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    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.

  138. 138.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    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

  139. 139.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    @trollhattan:

    “Ballad of the Green Beret” was easy to dance to. Also, too

    Gawds that was hideous, both with and without its context.

  140. 140.

    japa21

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    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.

  141. 141.

    jeannedalbret

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    The Band
    The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
    Long Black Veil
    etc…

  142. 142.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    @Miss Bianca: It certainly should! The Christmas version, too.

  143. 143.

    debit

    March 10, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Oh, but Paradise by the Dashboard Light definitely qualifies.

  144. 144.

    justawriter

    March 10, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    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)

  145. 145.

    Roger Moore

    March 10, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    I guess it doesn’t count because it’s 80’s, but I’d have to go with “Creeping Death”.

  146. 146.

    Alain the site fixer

    March 10, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Classic old time country can be so haunting. The pathos, the pathos.
    On the Banks of the Ohio

  147. 147.

    gratuitous

    March 10, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    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.

  148. 148.

    Lyrebird

    March 10, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    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…”

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne

    March 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    @JPL:

    If we’re going that route, “Midnight Train to Georgia” is a classic story song.

    As is “Living for the City.”

  150. 150.

    Quinerly

    March 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    You left one out.?

  151. 151.

    dexwood

    March 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    @danielx:
    Beat you by a minute, but you had the full, correct title and the link. Well done.

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: RE: Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys Knight.

    Talk about an origin story!

    The song was originally written and performed by Jim Weatherly under the title “Midnight Plane to Houston”, which he recorded on Jimmy Bowen’s Amos Records. “It was based on a conversation I had with somebody… about taking a midnight plane to Houston,” Weatherly recalls. “I wrote it as a kind of a country song. Then we sent the song to a guy named Sonny Limbo in Atlanta and he wanted to cut it with Cissy Houston… he asked if I minded if he changed the title to “Midnight Train to Georgia”. And I said, ‘I don’t mind. Just don’t change the rest of the song.'” Weatherly, in an interview with Gary James, stated that the phone conversation was with Farrah Fawcett and he used Fawcett and his friend Lee Majors, whom she had just started dating, “as kind of like characters.”

  153. 153.

    geg6

    March 10, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    Can’t believe no one else came up with this one: Hot Rod Lincoln.

  154. 154.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    @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.

  155. 155.

    danielx

    March 10, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    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.

  156. 156.

    pluky

    March 10, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    @Mnemosyne: what part of “I want to bite and kiss you” was unclear?

  157. 157.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    “MacArthur Park” – does anyone remember that Donna Summers did a disco cover version of it back in 1978?

    You mean there was another version?

  158. 158.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    Elton John did a song “Ticking” about a mass murderer.

    “An extremely quiet child” they called you in your school report
    “He’s always taken interest in the subjects that he’s taught”
    So what was it that brought the squad car screaming up your drive
    To notify your parents of the manner in which you died

    At St. Patrick’s every Sunday, Father Fletcher heard your sins
    “Oh, he’s unconcerned with competition he never cares to win”
    But blood stained a young hand that never held a gun
    And his parents never thought of him as their troubled son

    “Now you’ll never get to Heaven” Mama said
    Remember Mama said
    Ticking, ticking
    “Grow up straight and true blue
    Run along to bed”
    Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking

    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”

  159. 159.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    @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

  160. 160.

    MuckJagger

    March 10, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    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.”

  161. 161.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    @japa21:

    I’ll go with Running Bear.

    Song written by The Big Bopper.

  162. 162.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    @Barbara:
    Gawd I had forgotten that one, I laughed so hard when it was played. Yes, it sucked.

  163. 163.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Oh-ooh, the snark, it burns!

  164. 164.

    debit

    March 10, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    DUDE. Get out of Denver.

    Actually, everything Bob Seger did.

  165. 165.

    Jacel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    @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.

  166. 166.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    @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.

  167. 167.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    @Pogonip:
    Goes with growing up in South Detroit, HOPE YOU CAN SWIM!

  168. 168.

    Shell

    March 10, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    “Angel From Montgomery”

  169. 169.

    Barbara

    March 10, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    @germy: Speaking of Elton John, Butterflies Are Free is a great story song.

  170. 170.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
    Dayumn, if that exists mind=blown.

  171. 171.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    Come on, everyone! No love for “D-I-V-O-R-C-E”? Or “He Stopped Loving Her Today”?

  172. 172.

    Jacel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    @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.

  173. 173.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    @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”

  174. 174.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    Tommy.
    The whole thing, or just the title song, plus Pinball Wizard.

  175. 175.

    MuckJagger

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    @RandyG: Also liked Chapin’s follow-up, “Sequel,” and (I think) the song he released shortly after “Taxi”, “WOLD.”

  176. 176.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    @Barbara:

    Speaking of Elton John, Butterflies Are Free is a great story song.

    How about Burn Down the Mission

  177. 177.

    debit

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Well, then, madame, if we’re talking country, I counter with Country Bumpkin.

  178. 178.

    George Spiggott

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    You want narrative? “Atlantis” by Donovan

  179. 179.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    @trollhattan: Oh, it exists, all right…what, you think we’d *lie* to you?

  180. 180.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    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.

  181. 181.

    George Spiggott

    March 10, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album.

  182. 182.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    March 10, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    Louise by Bonnie Raitt So sad…

  183. 183.

    pepper

    March 10, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    any of a bunch of harry chapin songs–cats in the cradle, taxi, and shooting star come immediately to mine.

  184. 184.

    les

    March 10, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    Springsteen, Born to Run. And certainly others. Too new?

  185. 185.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    @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.

  186. 186.

    OGLiberal

    March 10, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    @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.

  187. 187.

    japa21

    March 10, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    @germy: hyep

  188. 188.

    Schlemazel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    @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

  189. 189.

    Jacel

    March 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    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

  190. 190.

    smintheus

    March 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    “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”).

  191. 191.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    “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!

  192. 192.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    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.

  193. 193.

    Quinerly

    March 10, 2017 at 5:19 pm

    @maeve:
    Kristofferson’s “The Silver Tongue Devil and I.” Lived it, but I digress….

  194. 194.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    @Barbara:

    Butterflies Are Free is a great story song.

    “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” ?

    Based on a true story!

    Taupin’s lyric refers to a time in 1969, before John was a popular musician, when John was engaged to be married to his girlfriend, Linda Woodrow. John and Woodrow were sharing a flat with Taupin in Furlong Road in London, hence the opening line “When I think of those East End lights.” While having serious doubts about the looming marriage, John contemplated suicide.[2] He took refuge in his friends, especially Long John Baldry, who convinced John to abandon his plans to marry in order to salvage and maintain his musical career.

  195. 195.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    @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.

    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 …

  196. 196.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    @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

  197. 197.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    For fun, some people like to take the 45 rpm version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and play it at 33 1/3 rpm.

  198. 198.

    gbear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    You mean there was another version?

    Even The Four Tops did a version of MacArthur Park.

  199. 199.

    smintheus

    March 10, 2017 at 5:23 pm

    Surprised nobody has mentioned “Last train to Clarksville”, a big anti-war hit for the Monkees.

  200. 200.

    Woodrowfan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Lady Marmalade, the original.

  201. 201.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Elvis did his own version of MacArthur Park.

  202. 202.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 10, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Billy Joel
    “Piano Man”

  203. 203.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    @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!

  204. 204.

    John from Minneapolis

    March 10, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    @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).

  205. 205.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    Leonard Cohen – Suzanne

  206. 206.

    Adrian A Lesher

    March 10, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    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

  207. 207.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    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!

  208. 208.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:27 pm

    @germy: I love that song!

    Well, total Peter Gabriel fangirl here.

  209. 209.

    Bruuuuce

    March 10, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    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”

  210. 210.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    @maeve:

    Leonard Cohen – Suzanne

    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.

  211. 211.

    Jim Parene

    March 10, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    I’m partial to John Prine. “Paradise”, “Dear Abbey” “Sam Stone” etc.
    Also from Steve Earle, “Home to Houston” “Copperhead Road”, to name 2.

  212. 212.

    Bruuuuce

    March 10, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    @WereBear: Heh. Writing my comment as you posted yours, clearly. (I prefer other songs from _The Lamb…_ album, though)

  213. 213.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 10, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    @Quinerly:

    Because Buffett himself would leave that one out…

    I was always sad he never bought the Jim Croce catalogue – totally in his wheelhouse.

  214. 214.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    @OGLiberal:

    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.

    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.

  215. 215.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    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)

  216. 216.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    @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.

  217. 217.

    Lapassionara

    March 10, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    you mean people willingly did other versions of MacArthur Park? Oh, my. The mind, it boggles.

  218. 218.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    @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

  219. 219.

    Fats Durston

    March 10, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    @Barbara: What?!! “Timothy” is greatest or second greatest (“Stranded in the Jungle”) cannibalism song, ever!

  220. 220.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Jealous – never been to a Leonard Cohen show

  221. 221.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    @Elmo: Did I sing King of the Road all the time? I think I did. I was eight.

  222. 222.

    John

    March 10, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    “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.

  223. 223.

    George Spiggott

    March 10, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    Best Live Performance of MacArthur Park

  224. 224.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    “Back in the USSR” – the Beatles

    Drove the John Birch Society bonkers.

  225. 225.

    Gravenstone

    March 10, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    @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.

  226. 226.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    @WereBear: The Herman’s Hermits version of “Henry the Eighth.” I was in first or second grade and couldn’t stop singing it.

  227. 227.

    joel hanes

    March 10, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    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”

  228. 228.

    Brachiator

    March 10, 2017 at 5:38 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    “Back in the USSR” – the Beatles

    Drove the John Birch Society bonkers.

    And now it’s the Trump theme song! Who knew?

  229. 229.

    magurakurin

    March 10, 2017 at 5:38 pm

    Uneasy Rider

  230. 230.

    maeve

    March 10, 2017 at 5:38 pm

    @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 …

  231. 231.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    @Lapassionara:

    people willingly did other versions of MacArthur Park?

    It’s a long song; provided necessary filler for both albums and concerts.

  232. 232.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    @Pogonip: I still love disco.

  233. 233.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    @Olivia: “Car crash songs”

    “Dead Man’s Curve!”

  234. 234.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    @justawriter: Dr Hook and the Medicine Show: “Sylvia’s Mother”

    Please Mrs. Avery, I’ve just got to talk to her / I’ll only keep her a while / Please Mrs. Avery, just want to tell her / Goodbye

  235. 235.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 10, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    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!

  236. 236.

    JustRuss

    March 10, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    I have to vote Witchita Lineman, but Skynyrd’s Gimme 3 Steps is a guilty pleasure.

  237. 237.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    @Brachiator: That’s funny, because the change made it a much better title.

  238. 238.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    @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.

  239. 239.

    Mike J

    March 10, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    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.

    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.

  240. 240.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    @George Spiggott:

    ROFLMAO

  241. 241.

    randy khan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    @Woodrowfan:

    American Pie!

    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.

  242. 242.

    Alain the site fixer

    March 10, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    Another great story song Bales of Cocaine

  243. 243.

    randy khan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    Oh, dear lord, the Donna Summers cover of MP was awful.

  244. 244.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 10, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    @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.

  245. 245.

    hovercraft

    March 10, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    @WereBear:
    That takes me back to when I was a kid, I also loved, “Tell Laura I Love Her”

  246. 246.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    @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).

  247. 247.

    Ruviana

    March 10, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    @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!

  248. 248.

    The Lodger

    March 10, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    @germy: Literalist.

  249. 249.

    randy khan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    @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.

  250. 250.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    Elvis did “Frankie and Johnny” in the mid-60’s, but that’s not the version I hear in my head.

  251. 251.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 10, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    @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.

  252. 252.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Agreed. Also, too, Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

  253. 253.

    PPCLI

    March 10, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    @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.

  254. 254.

    alce_ e_ ardilla

    March 10, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    @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…..”

  255. 255.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    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.

  256. 256.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @Ruviana: “My Old School” is based on actual real events in Annendale.

  257. 257.

    PPCLI

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    @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.

  258. 258.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    @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.

  259. 259.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    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).

  260. 260.

    randy khan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    @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.

  261. 261.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    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.

  262. 262.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    Also, most country music is sad stories. At least it seemed that way to me, during the time period we are discussing.

  263. 263.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 5:55 pm

    @trollhattan: Now I have a hilarious picture in my head of Dumbledore(the first one) singing MacArthur Park.

  264. 264.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    @germy:
    Original title and chorus: “Someone Shaved my Wife Tonight” but the record company made them change it.

  265. 265.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    @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.

  266. 266.

    Smiling Mortician

    March 10, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    What, no love for “The Blind Man in the Bleachers”?

    /ducks

  267. 267.

    Mrearl

    March 10, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    Bruce, “Incident On 57th Street.” Spanish Johnny drove in from the underworld last night . . .

    Also, “Tangled Up In Blue.”

  268. 268.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    @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.

  269. 269.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    @Olivia:
    Heh :-) He who must not be named left that damn cake out in the rain, that’s who!

  270. 270.

    germy

    March 10, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    @trollhattan: The original version is a rare collector’s item.

  271. 271.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    @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.

  272. 272.

    Amaranthine RBG

    March 10, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    Yes, just like Huckleberry Finn was about that time that Mark Twain went rafting with that black dude.

  273. 273.

    Millard Filmore

    March 10, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @WereBear: We need a thread for bad/strange songs.

  274. 274.

    frosty

    March 10, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    and of course his merry christmas from the family…
    Mom got drunk dad got drunk……

  275. 275.

    p.a.

    March 10, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Here’s a wonderful version of Barbara Allen.

  276. 276.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @Millard Filmore:

    We need a thread for bad/strange songs.

    You’re soaking in it now!

  277. 277.

    The Lodger

    March 10, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @Yarrow: Finally, someone mentioned Copacabana. It’s the only Barry Manilow song I can stand.

  278. 278.

    Ruviana

    March 10, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @Mrearl: And always Bruce! Atlantic City, The River, etc. Though that moves into the 80s.

  279. 279.

    Gravenstone

    March 10, 2017 at 6:03 pm

    @hovercraft: You are a deeply sick person. *shudder*

  280. 280.

    Millard Filmore

    March 10, 2017 at 6:03 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    “Dead Man’s Curve!”

    Does “DOA” by Bloodrock count?

  281. 281.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 6:03 pm

    That pina colada song is a story song. I hate that song.

  282. 282.

    Gravenstone

    March 10, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    @Millard Filmore: I think most of them have already been mentioned in this one.

  283. 283.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    @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.

  284. 284.

    john fremont

    March 10, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    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.

  285. 285.

    Aleta

    March 10, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    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.

  286. 286.

    p.a.

    March 10, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    Truckin’ is a story song. Episodic maybe… Already mentioned?

  287. 287.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @p.a.: If you are going to do that, why not Convoy?

  288. 288.

    Millard Filmore

    March 10, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    You’re soaking in it now!

    Wow! All Right!
    Reverend Glen Armstrong, “Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas”
    Kevin Gilbert, “Joytown”

  289. 289.

    p.a.

    March 10, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    @Millard Filmore: I think I traded a Deep Purple album for that Bloodrock album. Waaaayyyyyy back when…

  290. 290.

    Kass

    March 10, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    “Indiana Wants Me” (he gets caught at the end)
    “Wildfire” (he rides off on a ghost horse at the end)

  291. 291.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    @debit: I like Country Bumpkin too!

  292. 292.

    p.a.

    March 10, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    @WereBear: I like to maintain an aura of class. It’s a fraudulent aura, but it works until it reality intrudes.

  293. 293.

    Origuy

    March 10, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    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.

  294. 294.

    Jacel

    March 10, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    @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.

  295. 295.

    debit

    March 10, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    @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.

  296. 296.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 6:22 pm

    @p.a.: Reminds me! “Smoke on the Water”!

  297. 297.

    Aleta

    March 10, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    My Rifle, My Pony, and Me (from RIO BRAVO) Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan

  298. 298.

    ThresherK

    March 10, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    @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.

  299. 299.

    The Lodger

    March 10, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    @WereBear: At least he didn’t rename it Midnight Bus to Boise.

  300. 300.

    monoglot

    March 10, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    @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.

  301. 301.

    laura

    March 10, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    @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.

  302. 302.

    laura

    March 10, 2017 at 6:25 pm

    Also, I’d rather cut my ears off than hear Seasons in the Sun one. More. Time.

  303. 303.

    Another Scott

    March 10, 2017 at 6:27 pm

    @geg6: Well, if we’re going there, One Piece at a Time.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  304. 304.

    WereBear

    March 10, 2017 at 6:27 pm

    @The Lodger: Dang it. Now it’s going through my head…

    Funny how it doesn’t change the rest of the song at all :)

  305. 305.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Alone Again, Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan

  306. 306.

    ThresherK

    March 10, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    @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.

  307. 307.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 6:32 pm

    I’ve always liked Well Respected Man by the Kinks. It holds up very well.

  308. 308.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 6:32 pm

    @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.

  309. 309.

    Just One More Canuck

    March 10, 2017 at 6:37 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: including the 35 sweet goodbyes?

  310. 310.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: That took place in NYC before Donald got on the train to Annendale…

  311. 311.

    burnspbesq

    March 10, 2017 at 6:43 pm

    @efgoldman:

    You forgot “Teen Angel,” the worst of the lot.

  312. 312.

    Lapassionara

    March 10, 2017 at 6:43 pm

    @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!

  313. 313.

    burnspbesq

    March 10, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    Jason Isbell is the current master of really dark, Southern Gothic story songs: “Live Oak,” “Yvette,” “Speed Trap Town,” and “Elephant.”

  314. 314.

    Louis

    March 10, 2017 at 6:51 pm

    @Barbara:
    Sure. It’s about cannibalism.

  315. 315.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    @trollhattan: Trump?

  316. 316.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    @Kathleen: Sister!

  317. 317.

    joel hanes

    March 10, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    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.

  318. 318.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    @joel hanes: ? There’s no MacArthur Park in San Francisco.

  319. 319.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @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.

  320. 320.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 10, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    @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.

  321. 321.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    @burnspbesq: “Teen angel – can you hear me? Teen angel, can you see me”?

  322. 322.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 7:12 pm

    @Pogonip: Yes! Disco brought us Heatwave and Chic, among other great groups.I ain’t to proud to say it!

  323. 323.

    Johannes

    March 10, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Damn. Scrolled all the way down to find I’ve been pipped at the post —Famous Blue Raincoat Is teh schizzle.

  324. 324.

    Quinerly

    March 10, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    @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.

  325. 325.

    OGLiberal

    March 10, 2017 at 7:18 pm

    @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.

  326. 326.

    Johannes

    March 10, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    @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,

  327. 327.

    dww44

    March 10, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @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”

  328. 328.

    Jay Noble

    March 10, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    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

  329. 329.

    arrieve

    March 10, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    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.

  330. 330.

    Shana

    March 10, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    @Mike J: I always liked waking up on Monday mornings to “Welcome to the Working Week.”

  331. 331.

    SFBayAreaGal

    March 10, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    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

  332. 332.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Great story song!!!!

  333. 333.

    Shana

    March 10, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @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.

  334. 334.

    EricK

    March 10, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @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

  335. 335.

    John Hanson

    March 10, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @Cowgirl in the Sandi: ‘Louise went home on the mail train”…totally great song!

  336. 336.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    March 10, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    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.

  337. 337.

    EricK

    March 10, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    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

  338. 338.

    EricK

    March 10, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    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.

  339. 339.

    Bonnie

    March 10, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    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

  340. 340.

    EricK

    March 10, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @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.

  341. 341.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @dww44: Is that the song that refers to Jimmy Brown being born? “And the chapel bells were ringing”?

  342. 342.

    Kathleen

    March 10, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @EricK: Judy Collins and yes, The Kingston Trio also recorded it.

  343. 343.

    mai naem mobile

    March 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    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.

  344. 344.

    ljdramone

    March 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @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”.

  345. 345.

    OGLiberal

    March 10, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @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.

  346. 346.

    zhena gogolia

    March 10, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @OGLiberal:

    I love that song.

  347. 347.

    Aleta

    March 10, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @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.

  348. 348.

    Bonnie

    March 10, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @Coastbound: Great description of this great recording

  349. 349.

    Bonnie

    March 10, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @japa21: From same time period, El Paso by Marty Robbins.

  350. 350.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    @Olivia:

    I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Alone Again, Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan

    Deserves never to be mentioned, played, heard

  351. 351.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Lapassionara:

    This is the worst.

    I didn’t say it was good, I said it was long. As an ex-radio programmer, sometimes length is whay you need.

  352. 352.

    efgoldman

    March 10, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @dww44:

    she of the always sharp tongue with a sarcastic bent

    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.

  353. 353.

    Bg

    March 10, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    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”)

  354. 354.

    Bg

    March 10, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @mai naem mobile: The Loretta Lynn song was “The Pill” – scandalous in the country music world at the time

  355. 355.

    Miss Bianca

    March 10, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    @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”?!

  356. 356.

    Suezboo

    March 10, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    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.

  357. 357.

    Olivia

    March 10, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    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.

  358. 358.

    The Lodger

    March 10, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    @OGLiberal: Asbury Park – chi-chi? Must have changed a lot in 23 years.

  359. 359.

    Another Scott

    March 10, 2017 at 9:47 pm

    @Miss Bianca: geg6 at #153 got that one, also too. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  360. 360.

    Doug!

    March 10, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    That’s one of my favorites.

  361. 361.

    Doug!

    March 10, 2017 at 9:51 pm

    @john fremont:

    Wow, never heard that one.

  362. 362.

    Damned at Random

    March 10, 2017 at 10:00 pm

    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

  363. 363.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    March 10, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @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.

  364. 364.

    Dean

    March 10, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    I heard somewhere that if you play most country songs backwards, you get your spouse, your pickup, and your job back.

  365. 365.

    sharl

    March 10, 2017 at 10:13 pm

    {Sees “Ode to Billie Joe” in OP, nods approvingly, moves on…}

  366. 366.

    Big G

    March 10, 2017 at 10:14 pm

    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….. “

  367. 367.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    March 10, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    Wait – I know the thread is dead – but what about Puff the Magic Dragon! I think I should win the Internet for that one!

  368. 368.

    Lymie

    March 10, 2017 at 10:29 pm

    @EBT:

    Good bye, Earl is a good one. honey always makes me think of Harper Valley PTA, both lame!

  369. 369.

    smintheus

    March 10, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    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”

    The meat
    From the pork
    Is sweet…

  370. 370.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 10, 2017 at 11:10 pm

    @smintheus: AIEEE! That is BEYOND terrible. And Terry Jacks himself wrote it.

  371. 371.

    PIGL

    March 10, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    Fancy, Bobby Gentry

  372. 372.

    dww44

    March 10, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    @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.

  373. 373.

    dww44

    March 10, 2017 at 11:57 pm

    @Kathleen: Yep. one and the same. I googled Jim Ed Brown;he just died in 2015.

  374. 374.

    PIGL

    March 11, 2017 at 12:12 am

    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.

  375. 375.

    Kelly Presnell

    March 11, 2017 at 12:27 am

    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.

  376. 376.

    smintheus

    March 11, 2017 at 12:47 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yep, that’s the real deal right there.

  377. 377.

    NotoriousJRT

    March 11, 2017 at 3:11 am

    Livin’ for the City and on the flip side, In the Ghetto

  378. 378.

    NotoriousJRT

    March 11, 2017 at 3:18 am

    @germy: That’s a good one.

  379. 379.

    NotoriousJRT

    March 11, 2017 at 3:22 am

    @Barbara: Yikes & yes.

  380. 380.

    lethargytartare

    March 11, 2017 at 7:37 am

    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

  381. 381.

    JoeC

    March 11, 2017 at 8:31 am

    @Barbara: Yep, same guy wrote the song ‘Escape (Pina Colada Song’

  382. 382.

    low-tech cyclist

    March 11, 2017 at 8:43 am

    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.

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