[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by creekster

You know the type, a song that tells a story. It could be about drugs, I mean dragons (as in Puff, the magic Dragon) or it could be about patriotism and support of the military/industrial complex (The Green Beret), but it has toi have a story, a character(s), a plot, even though it may be a very thin plot, and it has to go somewhere. From my POV, the more manipulative the better, but the best is all up to you.

My favorite story song is Taxi by Harry Chapin.

It has some great lines like (this is from memory, but I am pretty sure its close):

And she said "We must get together",
But I knew it'd never be arranged.
Then she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two-fifty fare, she said:

"Harry, keep the change."

Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.



Close behind Chapin's opus (one of the few story songs to ever lead to a sequel which, like most movie sequels, was nowhere near as good as the original) are these other great stories:

Ode to Billie Joe (by Bobbie Gentry)

"The day Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahachee Bridge."

Say no more, say no more.

El Paso By Marty Robbins

"Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side."

What are your favorites?

Richard Cory, by Simon and Garfunkel. Admittedly, probably not obscure enough to be cool, lyrics came from a poem, but I still think it's a cool song.