Songs That Tell Stories

Great avatar edgar story songs, hmm. So many to choose from will have to think about it.

Under African Skies


Joseph's face was black as night
The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked
By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere
And he walked his days
Under African skies
This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm
And the roots of rhythm remain

In early memory
Mission music
Was ringing 'round my nursery door
[I said take this child, Lord
From Tucson Arizona
Give her the wings to fly through harmony]
And she won't bother you no more

This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm
And the roots of rhythm remain

Joseph's face was black as night
And the pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked
By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere
And he walked the length of his days
Under African skies

Ode To Billie Joe

( Bobbie Gentry )

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

This song always caused me to bawl my head off when I was a kid.

Teen Angel

Teen Angel.. Teen Angel.. Teen Angel..
woo woo

(verse 1)
That fateful night,
The car was stalled
Upon the railroad tracks.
I pulled you out
and we were safe,
But you went running back.

(Chorus)
Teen Angel, can you hear me?
Teen Angel, can you see me?
Are you somewhere up above,
And am I still you own true love?

(verse 2)
What was it you were looking for,
That took your life that night?
They said they found my high school ring
clutched in your fingers tight.

(chorus)

(verse 3)
Just sweet sixteen,
and now you're gone.
They've taken you away
I'll never kiss your lips again
They buried you today...

(chorus)(2x)
Teen Angel... Answer me please...

This one too. Boy, I must have been filled with angst when I was a kid!

The Three Bells

There's a village hidden deep in the valley
Among the pine trees half forlorn
And there on a sunny morning
Little Jimmy Brown was born

All the chapel bells were ringing
In the little valley town
And the songs that they were singing
Were for baby Jimmy Brown
Then the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
Bless this hour of meditation
Guide him with eternal love

There's a village hidden deep in the valley
Beneath the mountains high above
And there, twenty years thereafter
Jimmy was to meet his love

All the chapel bells were ringing,
Was a great day in his life
Cause the songs that they were singing
Were for Jimmy and his wife
Then the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
Bless oh Lord this celebration
May their lives be filled with love

From the village hidden deep in the valley
One rainy morning dark and gray
A soul winged its way to heaven
Jimmy Brown had passed away

Just a lonely bell was ringing
In the little valley town
Twas farewell that it was singing
To our good old Jimmy Brown
And the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
May his soul find the salvation
Of thy great eternal love"

Major Tom by David Bowie;

and even the follow up song many years later.

Actually, a lot of Bowies themes seem to be about misguided unrealized genius and the unpredictability that surrounds it.

- Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen, aka The Boss

I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool, boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in and he was walking out
We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks but all he kept talking about was--

Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

There's a girl lives up the block
Back in school she could turn all the boys' heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by and have a few drinks
After she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby, well, they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times
She says when she feels like crying she starts laughing thinking about--

Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of
But time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of--

Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

The Philadelphia Lawyer

Way out in Reno, Nevada,
Where romances bloom and fade,
There was a Philadelphia lawyer
Making love to a Hollywood maid.

"Come love, and we will wander
Out where the lights are so bright.
I'll win you a divorce from your husband
And we can get married tonight."

Now Bill was a gun-totin' cowboy.
Six notches was carved on his gun.
And all of the boys around Reno
Left Bill's Hollywood darlin' alone

One night when Bill was returning
From riding the range in the cold
He thought of his Hollywood darling;
Her love was more lasting than gold.

As Bill drew near to her window,
Two shadows he saw on the shade.
It was the great Philadelphia lawyer
Makin' love to Bill's Hollywood maid.

The night was still as the desert,
The moon hangin' high overhead;
Bill listened awhile at the window;
He could hear every word that was said.

"Your face is so pretty and lovely,
Your form so fair and devine;
Come go back with me to Philadelphia
And leave this wild cowboy behind."

Now way back in old Pennsylvania
The lights are still shining as bright,
But there's one less Philadelphia lawyer
In old Philadelphia tonight. - Woody Guthrie

I love my daughter dearly, but somewhere in my husband's lurks a country music gene; she loves it. (In her defense, it's only one of several types of music she likes, but still...) So we were watching some C&W station and I saw this -- thought it was pretty good, story-wise:

Blake Shelton
Ol' Red

Well I caught my wife with another man
And it cost me ninety nine
On a prison farm in Georgia
Close to the Florida line
Well I'd been here for two long years
I finally made the warden my friend
And so he sentenced me to a life of ease
Taking care of Ol Red

Now Ol' Red he's the damnedest dog that I've ever seen
Got a nose that can smell a two day trail
He's a four legged tracking machine
You can consider yourself mighty lucky
To get past the gators and the quicksand beds
But all these years that I've been here
Ain't nobody got past Red

And the warden sang
Come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern
Get my gun
Red'll have you treed before the mornin' comes

Well I paid off the guard and I slipped out a letter
To my cousin up in Tennessee
Oh and he brought down a blue tick hound
She was pretty as she could be
Well they penned her up in the swampland
'Bout a mile just south of the gate
And I'd take Ol' Red for his evening run
I'd just drop him off and wait

And the warden sang
Come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern
Get my gun
Red'll have you treed before the mornin' comes

Now Ol' Red got real used to seeing
His lady every night
And so I kept him away for three or four days
And waited till the time got right
Well I made my run with the evenin' sun
And I smiled when I heard 'em let Red out
'Cause I was headed north to Tennessee
And Ol' Red was headed south

And the warden sang
Come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern
Get my gun
Red'll have you treed before the mornin' comes

Now there's red haired blue ticks all in the South
Love got me in here and love got me out

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
But she doesn't have a lot to say
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
But she changes from day to day
I wanna tell her that i love her a lot
But i gotta get a belly full a wine
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
An' some day i'm gonna make her mine, yeah,
Some day i'm gonna make her mine.[/i]

Edgar, that is so good...Woody doing Philadelphia Lawyer. He was the best at story songs.

But Paul Simon wasn't bad.

The Boxer

I am just a poor boy,
Though my story's seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises,
All lies and jest,
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.

When I left my home and family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers,
In the quiet of the railroad station, runnin' scared,
Layin' low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go,
Looking for the places
Only they would know.

Asking only workman's wages
I come looking for a job,
But I get no offers,
Just a-come on from the whores on 7th Avenue.
I do declare
There were times when I was so lonesone
I took some comfort there.

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone, going home,
where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me,
Leading me,
Going home.

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade,
And he carries the reminders
Of every blow that's laid him low
And cut him 'til he cried out
In his anger and his shame,
"I am leaving, I am leaving,"
But the fighter still remains.

Jack Orion (traditional)

Jack Orion was as good fiddler as ever fiddled on a string
And he could drive young women mad by the tune his wires would sing.

But he would fiddle the fish out of salt water water from bare marble stone
Or the milk from out of a maiden's breast though baby she had none.

And there he played in the castle hall and there he played them fast asleep
Except it was for the young countess and for love she stayed awake.

And first he played them a slow slow air and then he played it brisk and gay
And it's O dear love behind her hand the lady she did say.

And the day has dawned and the cocks have crown and flapped their wings so wide
It's you must come up to my chamber there and lie down by my side.

So he lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green and he stole out on his tip toe
And he's off back to his young boy Tom as fast as go could he.

Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown and flapped their wings so wide
I'm bid to go up to that lady's door and stretch out by her side.

Lie down lie down my good master and here's a blanket to your hand
I'll waken you in as good a time as any cock in the land.

Oh Tom took the fiddle into his hand and he fiddled and he sang for half an hour
Until he played him fast asleep and he's off to the lady's bower.

And when he come to the countess' door he twirled so softly at the pin
And the lady true to her promise rose up and let him in.

He did not take that lady gay to bolster nor to bed but down
Upon the hard cold bedroom floor right soon he had her laid.

And neither did he kiss her when he came nor when from her he did go
But in at the lady's bedroom window the moon like a coal did glow.

Oh ragged are your stockings love and stubbly is your cheek and chin
And tousled is that yellow hair that I saw late yestre'en.

Me stockings belong to my boy Tom but they were the first came to my hand
And the wind did tousle my yellow hair as I rode over the land.

Tom took the fiddle into his hand and he fiddled and he played so saucily
And he's off back to his master's house as fast as go could he.

Then up then up my good master why snore you there so loud for there
Is not a cock in all this land but has flapped his wings and crowed.

Jack Orion took the fiddle into his hand and he fiddled and he played so merrily
And he's off away to the lady's house as fast as go could he.

And when he come to the lady's door he twirled so softly at the ring
O my dear it's your true love rise up and let me in.

She said surely you didn't leave behind a golden brooch nor a velvet glove
Or are you returned back again to taste more of my love.

Jack Orion he swore a bloody oath by oak by ash by bitter thorn
Lady I never was in this room since the day that I was born.

Oh then it was your own boy Tom that cruelly has beguiled me
And woe that the blood of that ruffian boy should spring in my body.

Jack Orion took off to his own house saying Tom my boy come here to me
And he hanged that boy from his own gatepost as high as the willow tree.



(I like the Pentagle's bloody version best: in it, the maiden commits suicide, Jack Orion tells Tom: "If I have taken no man's live today, thou Tom hast taken three", kills the unfaithful lad and pushes his own chest to a sword.)

Plane Wreck at Los Gatos, by the great Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again.

CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"


Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track.
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant."

......... Officer Obie stood up with the twenty-seven 8 X 10 colored glossy pictures, with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.... And the judge walked in, with a seeing-eye dog....."

Sing it with me as it comes around again on the guitar, with feeling.....

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant."

'Da da da da da da da da, at Alice's Restaurant."

Good ole Alice, you can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant

American Pie by Don McLean




A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
So,

CHORUS
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good 'ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singing "This will be the day that I die",
"This will be the day that I die."


Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the bible tells you so
And do you believe in rock & roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow
Well, I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancing in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm & blues
I was a lonely, teenaged bronc'n buck
With a pink carnation and a pick-up truck
But I knew I was out of luck
On the day the music died
I started singing...

CHORUS

Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But that's not how it used to be
When the Jester sang for the King and Queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh, and while the King was looking down
The Jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singing...







CHORUS

Helter Skelter in the summer swelter
The birds flew off with the fallout shelter
Eight miles high and fallin' fast
And landed foul out on the grass
The player tried for a forward pass
With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died
We started singing...


CHORUS

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
But no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the Devil's only friend
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clinched in fists of rage
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as the Flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singing...

CHORUS

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The Church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing...

CHORUS
They was singing...

CHORUS

Jack and Diane
John Mellencamp
Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two American kids growin up in the heartland
Jacky's gonna be a football star
Diane debutante backseat of Jacky's car
Suckin' on chili dogs outside the tastee freeze
Diane's sittin' on Jacky's lap
He's got his hand between her knees
Jacky say Hey Diane lets run off
Behind a shady tree
Dribble off those Bobby Brooks
Let me do what I please.
And Jacky Say

Oh yeah life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin is gone
Oh yeay say life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin is gone, they walk on

Jacky sits back reflects his thoughts for the moment
Scratches his head and does his best james dean.
Well you know diane, we oughtta run of the city
Diane says Baby, you aint missin' no-thing
Jacky say a

Chorus

Gonna let it rock
Let it roll
Let the Bible Belt come down
And Save My soul
Hold on to 16 as long as you can
Changes come around real soon
Make us women and men

Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two american kids doing the best they can

Sloop John B
The Beach Boys

We come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home

The first mate he got drunk
And broke in the Cap'n's trunk
The constable had to come and take him away
Sheriff John Stone
Why don't you leave me alone, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don't you let me go home
(Hoist up the John B's sail)
Hoist up the John B
I feel so broke up I wanna go home
Let me go home

The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn
Let me go home
Why don't they let me go home
This is the worst trip I've ever been on

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don't you let me go home

Nope - You can't get Alice at Alice's restaurant.