If you listen to the radio, you know that the overwhelming majority of songs played are about love. Love gone wrong, love gone right, love gone both ways, etc…
With this in mind, I thought it would be a good time to present my TOP 10 list of songs that tell a story. The criteria I used is as follows:
1. No country music songs allowed – if I did, I’d have a 10,000 song list.
2. No comedy songs allowed – otherwise, I’d have too many “Weird Al” songs
3. Truth is not necessary
4. One song per artist/band
Again, these are just my own personal favorites. Feel free to disagree.
10. Into the Great Wide Open – Tom Petty
Petty’s storytelling improved dramatically after he began collaborating with the Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne – which is odd considering that the ELO was never known for their lyrics. Into the Great Wide Open was a great tale of a rising star and a soon-to-be-fallen idol.
9. Tweeter and the Monkey Man – The Travelling Wilbury’s
Ironically, another Lynne produced song, Tweeter was a track on the supergroup’s debut album. While sang by Bob Dylan, the track was a collaboration with Dylan, Tom Petty and George Harrison. But it was clearly Dylan’s humor and style that led the song.
8. The Ballad of Billy the Kid – Billy Joel
Billy Joel’s career started at the absolute bottom before it rose to the absolute top. Before he hit it big with his Stranger album in 1977, he had already released 4 previous ones, as well as a radio hit, Piano Man. It was during these years that Joel’s songwriting prowess grew. On the Ballad of Billy the Kid, Joel tells a almost factual story of the famous lawbreaker while nicely ending with a self-comparison.
7. She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles
The Beatles were first known as a “teen” rock and roll band and then smoothly embraced a more mature style. While many of their later lyrics were heavily influenced by drugs, She’s Leaving Home was not only coherent, but poignant and sad.
6. Smuggler’s Blues – Glenn Frey
The only song on the list that was made into an episode of a TV show, Smuggler’s Blues tells of the dangers drug dealings. Pitted to a fast-paced beat that reeks of testosterone, it was further improved upon by the “real-life” video on MTV. It came out during the crest of the mid-80’s Miami Vice era (which produced the TV episode) and was very popular – especially due to it’s stunning ending.
5. The Last Resort – The Eagles
Hotel California was without question the Eagles’ masterpiece. Aside from the hit songs that came from it, it spun a great tale of the decadence, materialism and excess of the California scene. The final track, The Last Resort, speaks of a sort of history of how the scene came to be. While tending to be a little preachy at times (a Don Henley tradition), the haunting lyrics, melody and biting sarcasm combine to be the perfect ending for an almost perfect record.
4. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel
A haunting melody and rich harmonies made this song one of the most popular song of their repertoire. The Boxer is a tale of the struggle of trying to succeed in the toughest city in the world. Though sang with desolation and pain, Paul Simon shows no self-pity. He simply confesses that he can and will fight through whatever challenge thrown his way, regardless of what, or who he is.
3. Taxi – Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin was the king of the story song. In fact, I could have made a list of just his songs for this chart. Perhaps his second-most famous recording (after Cat’s in the Cradle), Taxi is at once a tragic song and then a song or redemption. When we first see “Harry”, he’s a two-bit cabbie just getting by in NY. When he picks up his ex-(wife/lover?), he transforms before our very eyes into a stronger, self-assured individual who may have been beaten down, but not destroyed. Sometimes, it takes seeing the suffering of others to make us realize all is not hopeless. Of course, it could also be the joint he's smoking.
2. Tucson, Arizona – Dan Fogelberg
One of the greatest storytellers of our time, Dan Fogelberg began his career singing a mixture of country and folk music that featured lush harmonies with a laid-back style. Like Billy Joel, he first broke into the mainstream with an early hit, but took a few more releases to make it big. While his earlier albums featured dynamic lyrics and homespun tales, it wasn’t until his third top 40 hit, Same Old Lang Syne put him on the map. If I included that song, my list would have still been complete. But following a string of chart successes, Fogelberg’s 8th studio album, Windows and Walls, contained a tragic tale of boredom, drugs and lost dreams. The marriage of melody and lyric was never better fused.
1. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot was always considered a “lightweight” in the music industry. While having a solid string of hits in the early to mid-70’s, his songs were of loves lost and found. But it was a tragic shipwreck in the waters of Lake Superior on November 9, 1975, that gave Lightfoot his signature song. Deeply moved by the tragedy, he penned the ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and included it on his latest release Summertime Dream. Although he still records music, he never again reached the charts after Fitzgerald. I place this song at the top of the list because of its story, style and truth.
With this in mind, I thought it would be a good time to present my TOP 10 list of songs that tell a story. The criteria I used is as follows:
1. No country music songs allowed – if I did, I’d have a 10,000 song list.
2. No comedy songs allowed – otherwise, I’d have too many “Weird Al” songs
3. Truth is not necessary
4. One song per artist/band
Again, these are just my own personal favorites. Feel free to disagree.
10. Into the Great Wide Open – Tom Petty
Petty’s storytelling improved dramatically after he began collaborating with the Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne – which is odd considering that the ELO was never known for their lyrics. Into the Great Wide Open was a great tale of a rising star and a soon-to-be-fallen idol.
9. Tweeter and the Monkey Man – The Travelling Wilbury’s
Ironically, another Lynne produced song, Tweeter was a track on the supergroup’s debut album. While sang by Bob Dylan, the track was a collaboration with Dylan, Tom Petty and George Harrison. But it was clearly Dylan’s humor and style that led the song.
8. The Ballad of Billy the Kid – Billy Joel
Billy Joel’s career started at the absolute bottom before it rose to the absolute top. Before he hit it big with his Stranger album in 1977, he had already released 4 previous ones, as well as a radio hit, Piano Man. It was during these years that Joel’s songwriting prowess grew. On the Ballad of Billy the Kid, Joel tells a almost factual story of the famous lawbreaker while nicely ending with a self-comparison.
7. She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles
The Beatles were first known as a “teen” rock and roll band and then smoothly embraced a more mature style. While many of their later lyrics were heavily influenced by drugs, She’s Leaving Home was not only coherent, but poignant and sad.
6. Smuggler’s Blues – Glenn Frey
The only song on the list that was made into an episode of a TV show, Smuggler’s Blues tells of the dangers drug dealings. Pitted to a fast-paced beat that reeks of testosterone, it was further improved upon by the “real-life” video on MTV. It came out during the crest of the mid-80’s Miami Vice era (which produced the TV episode) and was very popular – especially due to it’s stunning ending.
5. The Last Resort – The Eagles
Hotel California was without question the Eagles’ masterpiece. Aside from the hit songs that came from it, it spun a great tale of the decadence, materialism and excess of the California scene. The final track, The Last Resort, speaks of a sort of history of how the scene came to be. While tending to be a little preachy at times (a Don Henley tradition), the haunting lyrics, melody and biting sarcasm combine to be the perfect ending for an almost perfect record.
4. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel
A haunting melody and rich harmonies made this song one of the most popular song of their repertoire. The Boxer is a tale of the struggle of trying to succeed in the toughest city in the world. Though sang with desolation and pain, Paul Simon shows no self-pity. He simply confesses that he can and will fight through whatever challenge thrown his way, regardless of what, or who he is.
3. Taxi – Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin was the king of the story song. In fact, I could have made a list of just his songs for this chart. Perhaps his second-most famous recording (after Cat’s in the Cradle), Taxi is at once a tragic song and then a song or redemption. When we first see “Harry”, he’s a two-bit cabbie just getting by in NY. When he picks up his ex-(wife/lover?), he transforms before our very eyes into a stronger, self-assured individual who may have been beaten down, but not destroyed. Sometimes, it takes seeing the suffering of others to make us realize all is not hopeless. Of course, it could also be the joint he's smoking.
2. Tucson, Arizona – Dan Fogelberg
One of the greatest storytellers of our time, Dan Fogelberg began his career singing a mixture of country and folk music that featured lush harmonies with a laid-back style. Like Billy Joel, he first broke into the mainstream with an early hit, but took a few more releases to make it big. While his earlier albums featured dynamic lyrics and homespun tales, it wasn’t until his third top 40 hit, Same Old Lang Syne put him on the map. If I included that song, my list would have still been complete. But following a string of chart successes, Fogelberg’s 8th studio album, Windows and Walls, contained a tragic tale of boredom, drugs and lost dreams. The marriage of melody and lyric was never better fused.
1. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot was always considered a “lightweight” in the music industry. While having a solid string of hits in the early to mid-70’s, his songs were of loves lost and found. But it was a tragic shipwreck in the waters of Lake Superior on November 9, 1975, that gave Lightfoot his signature song. Deeply moved by the tragedy, he penned the ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and included it on his latest release Summertime Dream. Although he still records music, he never again reached the charts after Fitzgerald. I place this song at the top of the list because of its story, style and truth.
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