Saturday, October 2: Mississippi Mud
DROVE MY CHEVY TO THE LEVEE BUT THE LEVEE WAS DRY
by John M. Floyd
Since I love music as well as fiction, I found myself thinking the other day about folks who have successfully managed to combine the two. And since whatever crazy thought enters my head usually turns into column fodder, that’s my topic for today: songs that tell a story.
Some of the earliest that I can remember are “The Legend of Tom Dooley” (The Kingston Trio), “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (Bill Hayes), “The Battle of New Orleans” (Johnny Horton), etc. That kind of song isn’t usually my cup of tea, because I’ve never cared much for lyrics — I’m more interested in the music. (That’s probably the reason I so love instrumentals and soundtracks.) But these songs made me pay attention to the words. A good tune and a good storyline; what more could a listener ask?
Here are 25 more songs — most of them from the years of my misguided youth — that tell stories:
“El Paso,” Marty Robbins
“Ode to Billy Joe,” Bobbie Gentry
“Taxi,” Harry Chapin
“Polly Vaughn,” Peter, Paul, and Mary
“Honey,” Bobby Goldsboro
“The Ballad of Thunder Road,” Robert Mitchum
“Rocky Raccoon,” the Beatles
“Old Rivers,” Walter Brennan
“Sink the Bismark,” Johnny Horton
“Leader of the Pack,” The Shangri-Las
“Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” Bo Donaldson
“The Boxer,” Simon and Garfunkel
“Swamp Witch,” Jim Stafford
“Big Bad John,” Jimmy Dean
“American Pie,” Don McLean
“The Last Farewell,” Roger Whittaker
“Hurricane,” Bob Dylan
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Gordon Lightfoot
“A Boy Named Sue,” Johnny Cash
“Puff the Magic Dragon,” Peter, Paul, and Mary
“Alice’s Restaurant,” Arlo Guthrie
“Cat’s in the Cradle,” Harry Chapin
“Ballad of the Alamo,” Marty Robbins
“Dead Man’s Curve,” Jan and Dean
“In the Ghetto,” Elvis Presley
There are of course many, many more of these song/stories. Some of them (“Taxi,” “Ballad of the Alamo,” “Big Bad John,” “The Last Farewell”) never fail to give me chillbumps when I hear them, and a few (“Honey,” “Polly Vaughn,” “Cat’s in the Cradle”) still bring tears to my eyes. All of them bring back great memories. I would welcome finding out about others you might remember.
Who knows, maybe one day someone will put our stories to music . . .
For much more on ballads and story/songs, check Rob’s CB column “Boy Kills Girl” (Feb. 17), and Leigh’s followup piece “Who Killed Laura Foster” (Feb. 21).
My dad owned that Mary Robbins album and there are many songs on that one that tell a story. My daughter chose “18 Yellow Roses” (the version by Bobby Darren instead of Marty) for the father & daughter dance at her wedding. Most of the men had tears in their eyes about that one.
I loved “18 Yellow Roses.” On the Robbins album I had (I think it was called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs) were others like “Big Iron,” “Saddle Tramp,” and “The Hanging Tree.” I liked all of ’em.
Those brought back a lot of memories — a little frightening since I think I know the lyrics to virtually all of them.
Other nominees to the list: “It’s My party” by Lesley Gore and the follow-up “Johnny’s Turn to Cry.” The latter, to my mind, has one of the worst couple lines ever written in a song. In an effort to end the whole story within the allotted three minutes Lesley sings:
“One night I saw them kissing at a party,
So I kissed some other guy.
Johnny jumped up and he hit him —
‘Cause he still loved me, that’s why.”
Fun stuff.
Robert Mitchum recorded “Ballad of Thunder Road?” Really? I have only heard it performed by my friend Flip Breskin. It always reminds me of one of my favorite story songs, “Thunder Road.” by Bruce Springsteen. (Completely different song… listen to the slow live version, not the one on Born to Run)
I have been working on a column on modern crime story songs, but Ihave been looking for ones with recordings on Youtube. Unfortunately all my favorite songwrters seem to be camera shy.
Deborah’s story about the father-daughter dance brings up a story I have to tell. Neither my daughter nor I dance, so for her wedding she wrote a fiddle tune called “Waltz With My Father,” and we played it together.
Rob, yes, Mitchum released his single of ‘Thunder Road’ Road after the movie came out. Someone else performed the title track.
Charlie Daniels has a pretty good version of the song.
Like you, I prefer the music to the lyrics, but here are a few suggestions from different eras and genres:
“After the Ball”, Charles K. Harris
“Frankie and Johnny”, (250 some artists)
“Three Little Fishes”, Saxie Dowell
“Stagger Lee”, Lloyd Price (and many others)
“Running Bear”, Johnny Preston
“Ode to Billie Joe”, Bobbie Gentry
“Lose Yourself”, Eminem
“Father and Son”, Cat Stevens
“A Day in the Life”, Beatles
“Rocky Raccoon”, Beatles
“The Diary of Horace Wimp”, ELO
“The End”, Doors
“When the Music’s Over”, Doors
“The Soft Parade”, Doors
I’m tempted to list the Tremeloes’s “Norman Stanley James St. Clair” and Bee Gee’s “New York Mining Disaster 1941”, but they fall short of telling a full story.
BTW, I note that I made a rather funny mistake in my above post — The sequel to “It’s My Party” should (of course) be “Judy’s Turn to Cry.” (I actually always thought there should be a third song called “Johnny’s Turn to Cry.” It doesn’t take TOO much imagination to figure out how the story line would go!)
Dale, I too can remember just about all the lyrics to those songs–music, like movies, can bring back great memories for me.
And Leigh, I knew I could count on you to come up with a bunch more of these.
Thanks mostly to YouTube, I’ve become re-acquainted with some ballads lately that I had long forgotten.
It dawned on me later that entire albums tell stories such as “Tommy” (The Who) and “The Wall” (Pink Floyd).
“Copperhead Road,” Steve Earle
Steve Earle was my best friend in 10th grade. (I haven’t seen him in person in over 30 years, though, since before he went to Nashville.) We played in a band together briefly, before he dropped out of high school, and we were close friends for several years after that. Even then, he was an amazing songwriter.
Almost all of Steve’s songs tell stories if you listen carefully enough.
Steve is also a brilliant short story author, as proven by his book Doghouse Roses, which was one of the Los Angeles Times Best Books for 2001.
I’ve been a big fan of Steve Earle since his first album. I didn’t even know he wrote short stories, other than in his songs. That book goes straight to the top of my wish list!
Here are some more songs that tell stories.
“30,000 Pounds of Bananas” –Harry Chapin. One of my all-time favorite car/truck songs.
“Two Butchers” and “Gone to America”–both are done by Steeleye Span; “Shaking of the Sheets” is pretty good, too, since Death gives it to you from its POV
“The Mary Ellen Carter”, “Bluenose”, “Barretts’s Privateers”, and “White Collar Holler”, among others, by Stan Rogers.
“The Bonny Ship the Diamond”
“Go to Sea No More”–a cautionary tale
“Ruben Ranzo”–These last are all sea shanties
“The Wind that Shakes the Corn/Barley” (it depends upon who’s singing it–Irish Rovers or Clancy Bros.)
“The Black Velvet Band”–another cautionary tale sung by the Irish Rovers
Just so you know.
I’m still upset about this article.
It’s Monday and I’m STILL humming the tunes you mentioned.
I guess that means it stuck? 🙂
alisa, I hope you’re humming them for the next month or so. I LOVE those old songs.
KG, I’m crazy about some of the songs you mentioned as well–I can’t believe they never occurred to me when I was brainstorming this piece. Harry Chapin did some great ones, didn’t he?
As for Steve Earle, I’m not at all surprised JLW knew him. I’m to the point where I’d be surprised if there’s an entertainer or a writer that JLW DOESN’T know. And if he didn’t, Melodie would!
A little research for songs telling tales of historical events and found, among others, this online discussion that may provide a few more:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559069
The rock band Fountains of Wayne specializes in songs that tell stories. Start with their CD “Welcome Interstate Managers” (Look the group up on You Tube first.) Among my favorites: “Stacy’s Mom,” “Hackensack,” “Hey Julie” and “All Kinds of Time,” which is about a few pivotal seconds in the life of a young quarterback. (Yes, a song about football!)
You guys have shown me that I only managed to scratch the surface, on this subject. Thanks so much for all the comments!