Songs That Tell Stories

Great one by Roy Hamilton, edgar.

T.S. Eliot has always intrigued me.



His poem The Waste Land could have been a reference to the following historical event.

Rudolf (21 August 1858 - 30 January 1889), archduke of Austria and crown prince of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, was the son and heir of Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, and his wife and empress, Elisabeth. His death, apparently through suicide, along with that of his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at his Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889 made international headlines, fueled international conspiracy rumours and ultimately may have sealed the long-term fate of the Habsburg monarchy.

The beginning of the poem.

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p4-jnUCaMA&feature=related

I preferred the Omar Shariff version, but this is more succinct

I can never understand suicide, letty. I have been around it more than once. I like TS Eliot's writing very much.

Just a note to fans of the Oysterband and June Tabor. Two decades after their first recording together, they are in the studio again. CD should be released in September.

Wish the Oysters would tour in the US again soon. Ditto Tabor. Saw the Oysters in 1994 and June in 2001(?). Would love to see them again before we are all bald and toothless.

ah, edgar, I love Puff. I had forgotten that song.

Here's another that tells a story via a poem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCbM8vqyiuE&feature=related

and if it is difficult to read the lines, see here.

http://poetry.eserver.org/ancient-mariner.html

That's a beautiful video letty.
"Thorough the fog it came"
I always get hung up on that line.

Heard this poignant Dolly Parton song on a store's soundtrack a couple days ago, hadn't heard it in a few years. I don't know whether it's autobiographical or whether Dolly takes songwriter's license in it, but they did grow up dirt poor, and I like to think that Dolly was that little girl who knew what was really important and the loving mom in the song was her mom.

I am a fan of that and other Dolly songs.

Don't know The HouseMartins and The Reverend's Revenge, edgar. Probably need to do more searching.

The REAL Ghost and the Darkness.



All the male lion did was sit on his butt and roar.

Based on a true event.

In 1896, a construction engineer from the British Army, J.H. Patterson is sent to build a railway bridge across Uganda's Tsavo River for the British East African Railway. Soon after he arrives, workmen begin to disappear at night from their tents - never to be seen alive again. The engineer soon discovers that a pair of man-eating lions are stalking around the bridge and campsites, killing the workmen for food. He tries a number of different methods to get rid of them, but the beasts always seem to know what Patterson is doing and avoid being shot. After 30 men have been killed Patterson's boss recruits a hunter, Charles Remington to hunt down and destroy the lions. But the lions continue killing the workmen until they flee the camps, jumping onto the train as it rolls through Tsavo. Now Remington, Patterson and his aide must face these brilliant yet frightening monsters alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qGyoNrpkE&feature=related

It appears that it would be a decent movie, letty.

Here's a sort of neo-Beatnik song that tells several stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pegBtzxtUao

Come a rain by Kevin Welch

I have a story about two songs, one by Richard Thompson and the other by the Oysterband. The Richard Thompson piece called "Big Sun Falling in the River," from Dream Attic reminds me of the Oysterband's "Pigsty Billy."

Does anyone else hear the resemblance?

Unfortunately, neither really tells a story and the recordings of Thompson on youtube are very poor. There is no recording of Pigsty Billy on youtube.

A young band, Old School Freight Train, demonstrates some old timey swing on what I think is a Randy Newman song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3NZllDgwaQ&feature=autoplay&list=PLE7E3A573D0AFAECD&index=5&playnext=5

I wish there were a link to provide to a performance of this song but there isn't. The song tells a familiar story because it's Annabelle Lee, written by Edgar Allen Poe more than a century ago.

A remarkable young singer/songwriter has set it to what I might call a contemporary bluegrass/mountain melody. Imagine Richard Farina on banjo rather than on dulcimer, and you have an idea of the sound.

Sarah is a composition major at the New England Conservatory and I believe is still in her teens. She's already appeared on Austin City Limits and has just released her second recording.

The Housemartins have long ben favourites of mine, the band only recorded two albums and few errant singles before dissolving,but from the ruins came two quite divergent bands, one i've played a number of time on WA2K, The Beautiful South (led by The Housemartins singer Paul Heaton) and the international DJ superstar known as Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook, the bass player in The Housemartins)

here's a story song from The Beautiful South


He was just a social drinker but social every night
He enjoyed a pint or two or three or four
She was just a silent thinker, silent every night
He'd enjoy the thought of killing her before

Well he was very rarely drunk but very rarely sober
And he didn't think the problem was his drink
But he only knew his problem when he knocked her over
And when the rotting flesh began to stink

Cry freedom for the woman in the wall
Cry freedom for she has no voice at all
I hear her cry all day, all night
I hear her voice from deep within the wall
Made a cross from knitting needles
Made a grave from hoover bags
Especially for the woman in the wall

She'd knitted him a jumper with dominoes on
So he wore it everyday in every week
Pretended to himself that she hadn't really gone
Pretended that he thought he heard her speak

Then at last it seemed that he was really winning
He felt that he had some sort of grip
But all of his new life was sent a-spinning
When the rotting wall began to drip

Cry freedom for the woman in the wall
Cry freedom for she has no voice at all
I hear her cry all day, all night
I hear her voice from deep within the wall
Made a cross from knitting needles
Made a grave from hoover bags
Especially for the woman in the wall