What is your favorite song that actually tells a story?

[Beowulf9]

I admit I saw this elsewhere but I thought it might be a good thing to put here because honestly I look and listen to songs people post. I am always entertained and it opens my mind to many different avenues of musical tastes I have not known before. I hope ones like this column.

[Fiji Hill]

Has anyone said “Cat’s In The Cradle”, yet?

Yes. Here's another one along that line.

The Pussy Cat Song--Bob Crosby & Patty Andrews (1949)

[combat_boots]

I’ll take Shakira and Alejandro Sanz

La Tortura
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsp_8Lm1eSk

[NorthernDancer]

Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, Bob Dylan

[Bull Snipe]

Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers

[stanne]

That song could be used as torture.

Disney’s it’s a small world. Oh ya.

Ear worm big time. Plus the time signature and the melody are such that it is depressing. Seriously

It made me keep all Disney post 1968 out of my house. My kids know Mary poppins and Snow White. And anything in between Nothing else. It’s all depressing evil crap. This latest Disney drama is so not surprising.

[Scrambler Bob]

Car related - - Maybelline

[Beowulf9]

You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.

I never knew the lyrics to this song and listened to it the first time other day. Wow. So sad.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ga0rNUT0CI

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

...and out the door I went.

[Scrambler Bob]

Lily, Rosemary . . .

Yep. I always stop and soak that one.

[chuck allen]

Alice Cooper “Ballad of Dwight Fry” and Rush “A Farewell to Kings” which is a song everyone should read the lyrics to for some reflection.

[EvilCapitalist]

I have Johnny Tremain, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks on DVD. Johnny Tremain is a wonderful patriotic movie, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks was released 8 years before I was born, but was a favorite movie from my childhood.

[Scrambler Bob]

Six days on the road

[Hattie]

George Jones - He stopped loving her today.

[Recompennation]

My Elusive Dreams, David Houston and Tammy Wynette

[chuck allen]

Ian Hunter “Irene Wilde”
Mott the Hoople “ Ballad of Mott”

[Fiji Hill]

I may be the only one in the world who had ever come p with this explanation, but I interpret “The End” as a melancholy reflection on the coup d’etat that overthrew the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam on November 1, 1963, that was backed by the US government.

The singer starts out by describing the situation South Vietnam finds itself in in the fall of 1963—a developing country in dire need of foreign economic and military aid At the same time, it faces an existential threat from the Communists who seek to pull it into the Soviet bloc. However, its defense is in the hands of a corrupt military elite that would rather plot coups than defend the country. The singer also believes South Vietnam will be better off remaining allied with the West.

He then describes the coup itself, led by General Duong Van Minh—and the killings of Diem, his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and others. The song concludes on a note of pessimism as the singer predicts the demise of the Republic of Vietnam and hints that he himself will go underground or into exile.

Here is some of the symbolism that I have noted:

• This is the end—South Vietnam’s days are numbered
• My only friend—Journalist Marguerite Higgins, a defender of President Ngo Dinh Diem
• Elaborate plans—efforts to make the Republic of Vietnam a success
• Never look into your eyes—protagonist is preparing to flee into exile or underground
• Stranger's hand--foreign aid
• Desperate land--South Vietnam
• Roman wilderness of pain--government-by-coup-d'etat of the sort that plagued the Roman Empire for centuries
• children are insane--South Vietnam's coup-happy military elite
• King's highway--Route 1, the "street without joy"
• Weird things inside the gold mine—the US State Dept. or CIA
• summer rain--South Vietnam's summer monsoon
• West—The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. (SEATO)
• the snake--the Warsaw Pact
• ancient lake—the Soviet bloc
• seven miles—the seven members of the Warsaw Pact
• he's old...--Nikita Khrushchev or Ho Chi Minh
• blue bus--military vehicle in which Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were held before they were killed
• killer--General Duong Van Minh, organizer of the coup d’etat
• ancient gallery--the CIA or USIA
• hall--the presidential palace
• sister--Tran Le Xuan, Diem's sister and Nhu's wife--or Marguerite Higgins
• father--Ngo Dinh Diem
• brother--Ngo Dinh Nhu
• mother--Tran Le Xuan (South Vietnam’s “First Lady)
• You'll never follow me—protagonist heading into exile

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

OK, “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie. Hard to beat that for a story.

[stanne]

Friday night laugh.

At the officers club at Ramstein AB one Friday happy hour “Baby Got Back” played over the juke box. Hanging with some couples, the major we were with said to his wife, “hey that’s our song”. She looked at us and said, “That’s not OUR song! He started drinking at the squadron didn’t he?”

[stanne]

How about Thunder Road?

Actually Springsteen’s is a great tune imo

[Noumenon]

Wrong Side of Heaven - Five Finger Death Punch

While Your Lips are Still Red - Nightwish

The Greatest Show on Earth - Nightwish

Christmas Truce - Sabaton

En Livstid I Krieg (make sure that subtitles are on) - Sabaton