For me, in my very intoxicated state, the song "Idiot Wind" by Bob Dylan is the perfect example of this. I like everything about every version of this song as recorded by Bob Dylan. I have never heard any covers of it.

I think this song, lyrically, is pretty much perfect.

These days, "Truckstop Girl" By Little Feat and "To All The Trick or Treaters" by Lil' Cap'n Travis run a dead heat for my favorite narrative/story song. In "Truckstop Girl", a waitress breaks off a relationship with a trucker who winds up forgetting to make sure his load is tied down and wrecks the truck killing himself in the process. "To All the Trick or Treaters" is based around a simpler premise. Adults turn out the lights and don't give out candy. Kids go apeshit in response.

"The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" on Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash by The Pogues is also amazing.

Lots of Red Sovine's trucking songs: "Little Joe" "Teddy Bear" and "Phantom 409" come to mind.

"Legend of Wooly Swamp" and "Toreador" on Full Moon Fever by The Charlie Daniels Band.

"The Ride" by David Allen Coe. "Midnight" by Ice T.

Even "Thriller" or "Monster Mash" are pretty good.

That Cheech and Chong Christmas song is a pretty gnarly narrative/story song as well. "They took a shot at one of his reindeers" Man, that's a great song.

numberthirty wrote:That Cheech and Chong Christmas song is a pretty gnarly narrative/story song as well. "They took a shot at one of his reindeers" Man, that's a great song.

"Santa And His Old Lady". "No, man, Santa Claus isn't a musician!" "You got that right, man."

A lot of the Ice-T catalog, not just "Midnight", is story songs, most notably "The Girl Tried To Kill Me."

"You Don't Mess Around With Jim" Jim Croce


I think I was 5 when this came out, it's just as much fun to hear now.

most of nick cave songs (for example 'o'malley's bar')
most of killdozer songs (for example 'the rub')

Crazy Dan............Scratch Acid

Lifter Puller and The Hold Steady have lots of great story songs - they're all stroty songs, really. But my favorite is

"Nassau Coliseum"

I've got a picture of us as sophomores
I'm in a sportcoat, you're in a stupor
You still look super, just super sonic
Kind of bionic, it's sort of ironic
I was impressed, you fell out of your dress
You fell off of the porch swing, we were kind of a mess
We were kind of uncertain as to where we should kiss
Didn't think that you'd diss me
Did you sleep with that hippie?

And I've got a feeling like I'm in the Beatles
Bigger than Jesus, I'm getting shot at
It's getting hectic, there's so much traffic
I might never get it, it's behind the buildings
It's guarded by cameras, studied by doctors
Wrapped up in plastic, it sleeps at the airport
Skips all its classes, skips like a record
Used to be better, do you remember?
Used to have visions, used to believe em
Haven't done any heavy stuff since the Nassau Coliseum
I was standing in my sister's raincoat, you said that I looked debonair
The Long Island cops, they pulled off the top
They were wastin' those longhairs, I just happened to be there when the
Guy selling domestics got himself busted, he didn't have a license
Couldn't be trusted
The girl selling t-shirts was kind of a freaker, first she gets handcuffed
They started to beat her, I was so angry, you had just left me
They had her pinned down, it was so easy, gotta admit it
I can't forget it, I don't regret it
That I got some kicks in.

And every hippie that goes home bloody feels like a martyr
Back in the city
Or in New Jersey and not Manhatten, or in the Hamptons, back on campus
and out in Boston and out in Cambridge and out in Brookline
Back in Brooklyn
And on the east coast, the Carolinas, and in Virginia and in Memphis
In the twin cities and on the west coast and in Alaska and Costa Rica
And in Jamaica and in Miami, i wanna fuck you, i wanna fuck you
Out on Long Island.