Songs That Tell Stories

I do too. I spend a great deal of time alone in my car as I have a 70 mile drive to work. No one would want to drive with me as I have a tendency to replay over and over and over songs that I love. I can see any passenger running down the turnpike!

There are still some songs posted here that I have not listened to. I will as soon as I can do it and be able to pay attention.

Bill Joel ~ the downeaster "alexa"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVlDSzbrH5M&feature=related

I heard Laurie Lewis and her band on the radio today perform the traditional American song, "I'm Going to the West." Great piece of music. All of the selections on youtube are badly performed and poorly recorded.

It is a wonderful song about lovers who are about to part because one is determined to head west while the other wants to remain right where s/he is. No gender roles are indicated.

Thanks. I love the old Gene Autry recordings.

I know you remember this movie scene featuringchattanooga Choo Choo, Tex. Don't try to deny it, now.

I have not seen that film, but I know the song very well.

rock
I didn't know that Billy Joel song, but it's a good one.

Townes was a good friend of a friend of mine and both are dead. So many things reminded me of my late friend today, including your post featuring Townes.

Johnny Rivers
Positively 4TH Street

Thanks! I've been trying to remember his name.

Love that one, edgar. Willie Nelson did it as well.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpaqmow4WCQ&feature=related

I always loved that song. In terms of writing, this is Arlo's best. (Vocally, he is at his best. The melody line highlights his unusual but strong and appealing voice.) It's an epic. Now for the right who thinks they know what patriotism is, this song tells them that patriotism involves telling the truth.

I never understood why this country dismantled the rail.It seems to me that national rail service would do more to save fossil fuel than fleets of battery powered cars. YEah, we have this false idea of individuality in America but what is individual about millions of people wearing jeans, driving by themselves in millions of cars while listening to the horror that is satellite radio, shopping at chain stores, and watching reality tv at night while eating pre-prepared food? Jesus Christ on a raft.

This song should be part of an American trio that includes Gordon Lightfoot's (ok, I write his name with a bit of shame) The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Paul Simon's I'm Going Off to Look for America which chronicle both a moment in time and a philosophy that should have made this country better than it now is.

I know The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was posted on this thread but I don't think the Paul Simon song was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f7Rh6_FzUY

City of New Orleans is a folk song written by Steve Goodman, describing a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans via the Illinois Central Railroad in bittersweet and nostalgic terms. Goodman got the idea while traveling on the eponymous train for a visit to his wife's family. He performed the song for Arlo Guthrie in the Quiet Knight, a bar in Chicago, and Guthrie agreed to add it to his repertoire. The song was a hit for Guthrie on his 1972 album Hobo's Lullaby, and is now more closely associated with him, although Goodman performed it until his death in 1984. The song has also been covered by Willie Nelson, John Denver, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, and others.
wikipedia

I find that Titanic music haunting. It and the special effects in the movie make it one of my favorite movies of all time. I have occasionally wondered how that film would have fared, if the focus had been on Molly Brown, not those two fictional characters.

I don't mind when a song gets posted twice. I doubt if many persons look that far back in the thread anyway.