Red Barchetta - Rush
A Pirate Looks at Forty - Jimmy Buffett
Love Vigilantes - New Order
Time (whole album) - ELO
Darling Nikki - Prince

Tanya 93 said:

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Outfit--Drive-By Truckers

You want to grow up to paint houses like me
A trailer in my yard till you're twenty three
You want to be old after forty two years
Keep dropping the hammer and grinding the gears
Well, I used to go out in a Mustang, a 302 Mach One in green
Me and your Mama made you in the back and I sold it to buy her a ring
And I learned not to say much of nothing so I figured you already know
But in case you don't or maybe
Forgot, I'll lay it out real nice and slow
Don't call what you're wearing an
Outfit, don't ever say your car is broke
Don't worry about losing your
Accent, a southern man tells better jokes
Have fun, stay clear of the needle,
Call home on your sister's birthday
Don't tell them you're bigger than Jesus, don't give it away

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As much as I love Outfit and the story with it, I think it's the second best Jason Isbell song on the album.



That said, Drive By Truckers have a ton of great story songs, especially if you go back a bit in their discography.

I used Outfit in the classroom when teaching poetry.

I sent an email, letter, or phone call to the parent/guardian explaining what this song was about and asked them to write a letter to their kids giving them advice for what they should be like as adults.

Then the kids had to turn that advice into poems.
It was absolutely amazing.

Stuff like don't let him always blame you.
While I had a mom, I made her a mom.
It is okay not to like football.
Grandparents are always there
Don't leave your socks on the coffee table.

Just amazingly thoughtful and funny stuff


I know there is deeper stuff.
But this is my favorite of theirs, along with "Carl Perkins' Cadillac"

That stuff we got from parents and the kids was just so heartfelt

Decoration Day - Drive by Truckers


My Sweet Annette - Drive by Truckers

Someone mentioned it but The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel is lyrical genius.

I've seen it called the equivalent of the "great American novel" in musical form I think referring to that it has a complete setting, narrative and character development.

So, the two best "car sex" songs ever made are Night Moves (which has already been posted) and this classic!

Most have been mentioned but I noticed lately all my favorite songs are songs that tell a story.

Gallo del Cielo - Joe Ely
If you haven't heard it, it's incredible that a song about a fighting rooster is so intense and tells such a great story.

Step Inside this House - Lyle Lovett

John O'Reilly - Charlie Robison

Della and the Dealer - Hoyt Axton

And Desperados waiting for a Train hits me hard every time.
(Already mentioned Operator - Jim Croce and Tom Ames Prayer are great)

Instant Coffee Blues Guy Clark
Mr Wolf and Mamabear REK
West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown Jimmy Buffett
Little Bird Jerry Jeff Walker

HtownAg92 said:

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Red Barchetta - Rush
A Pirate Looks at Forty - Jimmy Buffett
Love Vigilantes - New Order
Time (whole album) - ELO
Darling Nikki - Prince

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Agree with everything on this list. Time doesn't get nearly enough love, especially Twilight.

Staying with hip hop, "I Seen A Man Die" by Scarface.

Sting has some amazing poetry:

Fortress Around Your Heart

Quote:

---

It took a day to build the city
We walked through its streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the field's I'd known
I recognized the walls that I'd once laid
Had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire

---

St. Augustine in Hell

Quote:

---

I don't know if it's pain or pleasure that I seek
My flesh was all too willing, my spirit guide was weak
I was deadly certain his thoughts for me weren't kind
A switchblade in his pocket, murder on his mind
Blessed St. Theresa the ***** of Babylon
Madonna and my mother all rolled into one
You've got to understand me, I'm not a piece of wood
Francis of Assisi could never be this good
The less I need the more I get
Make me chaste but not just yet
It's a promise or a lie I'll repent before I die
The minute I saw her face, the second I caught her eye
The minute I touched the flame I knew it would never die

---

Moon Over Bourbon Street

Quote:

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She walks everyday through the streets of New Orleans
She's innocent and young from a family of means
I have stood many times outside her window at night
To struggle with my instinct in the pale moonlight
How could I be this way when I pray to god above
I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love
Oh you'll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there's a moon over Bourbon Street

---

The Pila Song - Max Stalling

So I'm at Ma Blues and I'm sitting on an amp
I'm playing "Twist and Shout"
And this tall drink of water walks in
Looks like she might have to shoot her way out

She come up to me and she said
"You know anything good on that guitar?"
I didn't say nothing, I just kept on playing
She said, "Have you ever heard this song
Called Polk Salad Annie?" I just kept playing

She said, "Every time I hear that song
My insides feel like warm butter
And I just wanna take off my clothes
And dance around in my underwear"

I said, "Down in Louisiana
Where the alligator grow so mean"
That's all I knew of it and it was enough

So we hit it off, me and this dancer
We hit it off like a metaphor
Like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb
We was enriched uranium, super critical mass
We was a chain reaction, it was love and lust
Aw, mostly lust but a mutual attraction


Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Mother Blues'

Cattleman's Gun by Dean Brody

One of the best country story songs I've ever heard....could be a mission/plot line from Red Dead Redemption 2. Also has one of my all-time favorite lyrics:

The church doors opened
With that black cloak flowing
Behind the preachers firey eyes
He said your ticket to hell is a comin' to you
And I got a hollow point to give you the ride

For storytelling songs, hard to beat James McMurtry.

Choctaw Bingo is a ton of fun. Just Us Kids is amazing.

But his sad ones stick with you.

Carlos and Ruby
Lights of Cheyenne
Rachel's Song

and of course '
Levelland

Xanadu and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner qualify as poems turned into songs.

But seriously Hotel California and Stairway are both epic stories.

Frankly most things that Peart wrote qualify.

Hurricane by Bob Dylan

"Busted" - Johnny Cash

"Watermelon Wine" "A Week in a Country Jail" - Tom T Hall

Quote:

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Night Moves - Bob Seger

This song just makes me think of being a young man figuring it out. Oh, to be young...

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I was actually texting with a fellow Texagger music aficianado the other day about Seger. I've never owned an album of his or really done a deep dive into his music, but "Like a Rock" came on and I realized just how great he is about writing songs about guys coming of age and how Chevrolet more or less killed what was a great song.

"I was 18
Didn't have a care
Working for peanuts
Not a dime to spare
But I was lean and
Solid everywhere
Like a rock
My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly
To what I felt was right
Like a rock"

But damn I just threw him on Spotify and maybe I need to do a deep dive - the guy can paint a picture.

"The years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home, and I
Guess I lost my way
There were oh-so-many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worried about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searching
Searching for shelter again and again"

But ultimately this thread doesn't have near enough Harry Chapin:

Tons of my favorites already posted. Here's a quirky one for you. Need to listen all the way to the end.

G Martin 87 said:

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HtownAg92 said:

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Red Barchetta - Rush
A Pirate Looks at Forty - Jimmy Buffett
Love Vigilantes - New Order
Time (whole album) - ELO
Darling Nikki - Prince

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Agree with everything on this list. Time doesn't get nearly enough love, especially Twilight.

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Time is still one of my favorite albums ever. It tells such a good story that it could easily be converted into a screenplay for a very good sci-fi movie.