Favorite "story ballads" - story telling set to music

The first (and pretty much only) song I learned to play on the guitar.

I was cutting the rug
Down at a place called The Jug
With a girl named Linda Lu
When in walked a man
With a gun in his hand
And he was looking for you know who.
He said, 'Hey there fellow,
With the hair colored yellow,
Watcha tryin' to prove?
'Cause that's my woman there
And I'm a man who cares
And this might be all for you.'

I was scared and fearing for my life.
I was shakin' like a leaf on a tree.
'Cause he was lean, mean,
Big and bad, Lord,
Pointin' that gun at me.
I said, 'Wait a minute, mister,
I didn't even kiss her.
Don't want no trouble with you.
And I know you don't owe me
But I wish you'd let me
Ask one favor from you.'

(Chorus)
'Won't you give me three steps,
Gimme three steps mister,
Gimme three steps towards the door?
Gimme three steps
Gimme three steps mister,
And you'll never see me no more.'

Well the crowd cleared away
And I began to pray
As the water fell on the floor.
And I'm telling you son,
Well, it ain't no fun
Staring straight down a forty-four.
Well he turned and screamed at Linda Lu
And that's the break I was looking for.
And you could hear me screaming a mile away
As I was headed out towards the door.

OK, somewhat surprised no one posted this one yet:

A Boy Named 'Sue' (Shel Silverstein)

My daddy left home when I was three,
And he didn't leave much to Ma and me...
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him 'cause he run and hid,
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me 'Sue'.

Well, he must o' thought that is was quite a joke,
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk.
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red,
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head.
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named 'Sue'.

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fists got hard and my wits got keen.
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars,
And kill that man that give me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town, and my throat was dry.
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me 'Sue'.

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold,
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do! Now you gonna die!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes,
And he went down, but, to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men,
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough,
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough,
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye.
I knew you'd have to get tough or die,
And it's that name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight,
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you 'Sue'."

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I come away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!

Did someone say story ballads?

I am a maid that's deep in love (1)
But yes I can complain
I have in this world but one true love
And Jimmy is his name
And if I do not find my love
I'll mourn most constantly
And I'll find and follow Jimmy thro'
The lands of liberty

Then I'll cut off my yellow hair
Men's clothing I'll wear on
I'll sign to a bold sea captain
My passage I'll work free
And I'll find and follow Jimmy thro'
The lands of liberty

One night upon the raging sea
As we were going to bed
The captain cried "Farewell my boy,
I wish you were a maid
Your rosy cheeks, your ruby lips
They are enticing me
And I wish dear God with all my heart
A maid you were to me''

"Then hold your tongue, dear captain
Such talk is all in vain
And if the sailors find it out
They'll laugh and make much game
For when we reach Columbia shore
Some prettier girls you'll find
And you'll laugh and sing and court with them
For courting you are inclined"

It was no three days after
Our ship it reached the shore
"Adieu my loving captain
Adieu for evermore
For once I was a sailor on sea
But now I am a maid on shore
So adieu to you and all your crew
With you I'll sail no more''

"Come back, come back, my own pretty maid
Come back and marry me
I have ten thousand pounds in gold
And that I'll give to thee
So come back, come back, my own pretty maid
Come back and marry me''

and another one: Jack Orion

Jack Orion was as good a fiddler (7)
As ever fiddled on a string
And he could make young women mad
With the tune his fiddle would sing

He could fiddle the fish out of salt water
Or water from a marble stone
Or milk from out of a maiden's breast
Though baby she'd got none

He's taken is fiddle into his hand
He's fiddled and he's sung
And oft he's fiddled unto the King
Who never thought it long

As he sat fiddling in the castle hall
He's played them all so sound asleep
All but for the young princess
And for love she stayed awake

At first he played a slow grave tune
And then a gay one flew
And many's the sigh and loving word
That passed between the two

Come to my bower, sweet Jack Orion
When all men are at the rest
As I am a lady true to my word
Thou shalt be a welcome guest

He's lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green
A glad man, Lord, was he
Then he's run off to his own house
Says, Tom come hither unto me

When day has dawned and the cocks have crowed
And flapped their wings so wide
I am bidden to that lady's door
To stretch out by her side

Lie down in your bed, dear master
And sleep as long as you may
I'll keep good watch and awaken you
Three hours before 'tis day

But he rose up that worthless lad
His master's clothes did don
A collar he's cast about his neck
He seemed the gentleman

Well he didn't take that lady gay
To bolster nor to bed
But down upon the bower floor
He quickly had her laid

And he neither kissed her when he came
Nor when from her he did go
And in and out of her window
The moon like a coal did glow

Ragged are your stockings love
Stubbley is your cheek and chin
And tangled is that yellow hair
That I saw yester' een

The stockings belong to my boy Tom
They're the first came to my hand
The wind it tangled my yellow hair
As I rode over the land

Tom took his fiddle into his hand
So saucy there he sang
Then he's off back to his master's house
As fast as he could run

Wake up, wake up, my good master
I fear 'tis almost dawn
Wake up, wake up the cock has crowded
'Tis time that you were gone

Then quickly rose up Jack Orion
Put on his cloak and shoon
And cast a collar about his neck
He was a lord's true son

And when he came to the lady's bower
He lightly rattled the pin
The lady was true to her word
She rose and let him in

Oh whether have you left with me
Your bracelet or your glove?
Or are you returned back again
To know more of my love?

Jack Orion swore a bloody oath
By oak and ash and bitter thorn
Saying, lady, I never was in your house
Since the day that I was born

Oh then it was your young footpage
That has so cruelly beguiled me
And woe that the blood of the ruffian lad
Should spring in my body
The she pulled forth a little sharp knife
That hung down at her knee

O'er her white feet the red blood ran
Or ever a hand could say
And dead she lay on her bower floor
At the dawning of the day

Jack Orion ran to his own house
Saying, Tom my boy, come here to me
Come hither now and I'll pay your fee
And well paid you shall be

If I had killed a man tonight
Tom I would tell it thee
But if I have taken no life tonight
Tom thou hast taken three

Then he pulled out his bright brown sword
And dried it on his sleeve
And he smote off that vile lad's head
And asked for no man's leave

He set the sword's point to his breast
The pommel to a stone
Through the falseness of that lying lad
These three lives were all gone.

Night Chicago Died

(Paper Lace)

My daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago
Back in the U.S.A. back in the bad old days

In the heat of a summer night
In the land of the dollar bill
When the town of Chicago died
And they talk about it still
When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make that town his own
And he called his gang to war
With the forces of the law

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!
I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died
There was shouting in the street
And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said
"'Bout a hundred cops are dead!"

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!
I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

And ther was no sound at all
But the clock upon the wall
Then the door burst open wide
And my daddy stepped inside
And he kissed my mama's face
And he brushed her tears away

The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!

The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

The Edmund Fitzgerald is a great song and ballad. My only complaint is the phrase: "The ship was the pride of the American side Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin".

There are no mills in Wisconsin. The ship was loaded with Taconite ore in either Duluth, MN or Superior, WI. There are great loading docks in these two cities that load ships with train loads of iron ore from the Minnesota iron range.

The ships then carry the ore from Lake Superior, through the Mackinac Straits either into Lake Huron to Detroit and into Lake Erie, or, most likely, the Fitzgerald was headed down the Lake Michigan side to the mills in Gary, Indiana.

The logic that the ship was coming from a mill fully loaded always seemed confusing. Ore ships sail to mills fully loaded and leave mills empty.

I do like Gordon Lightfoot's songs, especially "The Edmund Fitzgerald" and I know that he had a home on Lake Superior, on the Canadian side and probably had first hand knowledge of the goings and comings of freighters on that body of water.

I remember that one! I was 15, and it was popular during Mardi Gras that year...along with Our House (I think) by CSN&Y and Sad Lisa by Cat Stevens...

Speaking of Cats, here's a different ballad:

On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat

She doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow till your sense of which direction
Completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There's a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says, I feel my life
Just like a river running through
The year of the cat

Well morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away the choice and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat

Grandpa wore his suit to dinner
Nearly every day
No particular reason
He just dressed that way
Brown necktie and a matching vest
And both his wingtip shoes
He built a closet on our back porch
And put a penny in a burned out fuse.

Chorus:
Grandpa was a carpenter
He built houses stores and banks
Chain smoked camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks
He was level on the level
And shaved even every door
And voted for eisenhower
’cause lincoln won the war.

Well, he used to sing me blood on the saddle
And rock me on his knee
And let me listen to radio
Before we got t.v.
Well, he’d drive to church on sunday
And take me with him too!
Stained glass in every window
Hearing aids in every pew.

Repeat chorus:

Now my grandma was a teacher
Went to school in bowling green
Traded in a milking cow
For a singer sewing machine
She called her husband mister
And walked real tall and pride
And used to buy me comic books
After grandpa died.

Repeat chorus:

Here's another traditional ballad, this time by Steeleye Span:

Oh the blacksmith courted me nine months and better.
He fairly won my heart, he wrote me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand he looked so clever
And if I were with my love I'd live forever.

Oh where has my love gone with his cheeks like roses?
He's gone across the sea a-gathering primroses.
I'm afraid the shining sun might burn and scorch his beauty
And if I were with my love I'd do my duty.

Strange news has come to town, strange news has carried.
Strange news flies up and down that my love is married.
Oh I wish them both much joy though they won't hear me
And if I were with my love I'd do my duty.

What did you promise me when you lay beside me?
You said you'd marry me and not deny me.
If I said I'd marry you it was only to try you
So bring your witness love and I'll not deny you.

Oh witness have I none save God Almighty.
And may He reward you well for the slighting of me.
And her lips grew pale and wan, it made her poor heart tremble,
For to think she had loved one and he'd proved deceitful.

Definitely The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and....

The Ballad Of Casey Diess - Shawn Phillips

Twas a man of youthful features
Twas a boy of sorrowful eyes
Watching out but looking inwards
Tall and stately and full of life

In his life he spoke so rarely
In his mind he cried for light
Painting perceptions trying to capture
That which he saw in his questioning strife

Once in lisbon, twice in london
Travelling around for all of his time
Looking for and finding a goddess
He took diana to be his wife

Of the children they'd begotten
Two had died without knowing life
And the third i know not whereof
But if she lives she will yet be kind

Casey had a mark of simple value
He had a star between his eyes
In his hands he held an axe blade
The greek symbol of thunder and fire

On a night when the heavens were crying
He went out and took his blade
Chopping wood to warm his hearthside
The lightening came and my brother died

Bring him no wine from far away vineyards
Tell him no tales of the canyon's might
But wish him peace and eternal wisdom
For he has died and he died by light

LOL! We must be about the same age.

Amd i bet we have a bunch of the same music, too

Took me a moment to recognise "Year of the Cat".

Here's one I REALLY like. I admire anyone who can do the fiddle right!

The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Charlie Daniels Band
(Miscellaneous Movie Songs Compilation)

The devil went down to Georgia
He was looking for a soul to steal
He was in a bind cause he was way behind
And he was willing to make a deal
When he came across this young man
Sawing on a fiddle and playing it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, "Boy" let me tell you what
I guess you didn't know it
But I'm a fiddle player too
And if you'd care to take a dare
I'll make a bet with you
Now you played pretty good fiddle,boy
But give the devil his due
I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul
Cause I think I'm better than you
The boy said "My name's Johnny
And it might be a sin
But I'll take you bet, your gonna regret
Cause I'm the best that's ever been"

Johnny rosin up your bow
And play your fiddle hard
Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia
And the devil deals the cards
And if you win
You get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul

The devil opened up his case
And he said "I'll start this show"
And fire flew from his finger tips
As he rosined up his bow
And he pulled the bow across the strings
And it made a evil hiss
Then a band of demons joined in
And it sounded something like this

When the devil finished Johnny said
Well you're, pretty good old son
But sit down in that chair right there
And let me show you how it's done

Fire on the mountain run boys run
Devils in the house at the rising sun
chicken in the bread pan picking out dough
Granny does your dog bite no-child-no

The devil bowed his head
Because he knew that he'd been beat
And he laid that golden fiddle
On the ground at Johnny's feet
Johnny said "Devil just come on back
If you ever want to try again
I done told you once, you son of a bitch
I'm the best that's ever been" he played

Fire on the mountain run boys run
Devils in the house at the rising sun
chicken in the bread pan picking out dough
Granny will your dog bite no-Child-no

I have this song in a naughty version, and a nice version. This is the nice version: (In the naughty version, the sailor is slipped a mickey and has to report back to his ship after running undressed except for a barrel through the streets of New York):

As I walked down the Broadway
One evenin' in July,
I met a maid who asked me trade,
An' a sailor John says I...

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

To Tiffany's I took her
I did not mind expense,
I bought her two gold earrings
An' they cost me fifteen cents

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

Says she "you lime juice sailor,
Now see me home you may."
But when we reached her cottage door,
She unto me did say...

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

"My flash man, he's a Yankee,
Wid his hair cut short behind,
He wears a pair of long seaboots,
An' he's bosun in the Blackball Line."

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

"He's homeward bound this evenin',
An' wid me he will stay.
So get a move on, sailor-boy,
Get crackin' on yer way."

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

So I kissed her hard an' proper,
Afore her flash man came.
An' fare-ye-well, me Bowery gal,
I know yer little game.

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

I wrapped me glad rags 'round me,
An' to the docks did steer.
I'll never court another maid,
I'll stick to rum an' beer.

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

I joined a Yankee bloodboat,
An' sailed away next morn.
Don't ever fool around wid gals,
Yer safer off Cape Horn.

Then away, you santee,
My dear Annie
Oh, ye New York girls,
Can't ye dance the polka?

Steeleye Span did the naughty version!

But I like sea songs, so I managed to collect both versions.

Here's a non-nautical one:

Took my fam'ly away from my Carolina home
Had dreams about the West and started to roam
Six long months on a dust covered trail
They say heaven's at the end but so far it's been hell
And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there

We were diggin' and siftin' from five to five
Sellin' everything we found just to stay alive
Gold flowed free like the whiskey in the bars
Sinnin' was the big thing, lord and Satan was his star
And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there

Dance hall girls were the evenin' treat
Empty cartridges and blood lined the gutters of the street
Men were shot down for the sake of fun
Or just to hear the noise of their forty-four guns
And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there

Now my widow she weeps by my grave
Tears flow free for her man she couldn't save
Shot down in cold blood by a gun that carried fame
All for a useless and no good worthless claim

And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there
Fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there
Waitin' for me there

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