Top 5 songs that tell a story

[pepperbear]

Here are 5 of my favorite narrative ballads:

5. Dead Man's Curve - Jan & Dean
4. Angie Baby - Helen Reddy
3. Leader of the Pack - The Shangri-las
2. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Vickie Lawrence
1. Ode to Billy Joe - Bobby Gentry

Also, 3 bonus tracks just 'cause:

Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

[SteppingRazor]

1. Wha?! No Dylan?!

How about "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" to name just one of the many great ones.

[pepperbear]

3. yeah, but he's in a class by himself....for that matter tangled up in blue

or Highway 61 or ANY number of thousands...

I was kind of shooting for that period between 1958 and 1973 when it was all the rage in pop music to tell complete pulp stories and use devices like twist endings (my girl, bill by jim stafford) or vengeful father figures (run joey run).

[Ron Green]

2. "El Paso"

With Grady Martin on guitar - yeah.

[pepperbear]

4. that's a great one n/t

[Karenca]

5. 5-

Taxi---Chapin

Scenes fom an Italian restaurant---Joel

American pie---Mcclean

Jack and Diane---Mellencamp

Thick as a brick---Tull

[Mojambo]

6. I always liked "Joe Hill" by Phil Ochs. n/t

[Lithos]

7. Don't eat the Yellow Snow

Frank Zappa!

[dipsydoodle]

8. Lord Franklin

Scroll down to On English Hills and then click on w to get windows media player for the tune
http://www.celticharps.com/music.cfm

Best version was probably by Pentangle - they even used a hurdy gurdy.
For Martin Carthy's lyrics see here : http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/lord.html

The melody of "Lord Franklin" was also used by Bob Dylan for "Bob Dylan's Dream."

[Kolesar]

9. #1 Roads to Moscow by Al Stewart

I just took it out of the library just to get that song.

Hot Rod Lincoln--I have seen Bill Kirchen live a few times.