Songs with unfolding stories

[horsepastriesa]

I love, and I mean LOVE, songs that tell stories. Not songs that imply a story, but songs that tell them. Like Space Oddity. Or Spill The Wine. Or even Trapped In The Closet. Yes, I love Trapped In The Closet. It's the modern Gilgamesh. What are some other songs that tell a story?

[FujiSkunk]

I recommend Weird Al's excellent parody of "Trapped in the Closet," called "Trapped in the Drive-Thru."

Some other favorite story songs are Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," the Traveling Wilburys' "Tweeter and the Monkey Man," and several tracks off of the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, all based on poems by Edgar Allen Poe, including "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado."

You could also make a case for songs like the Eagles' "Hotel California" and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," and of course concept albums that tell a story across the entire track list, like Pink Floyd's The Wall and Planet P Project's Pink World.

[Witticus]

There's a story... Somewhere within the Coheed and Cambria tracks. Just its more than a little hard to follow. Also I like certain stories, but Bad Company's Shooting Star is one of my most disliked songs. On the other hand if we got more David Bowie concept album stuff I'd be in absolute heaven especially Man Who Sold the World era.

[MagicMurderBag7]

2112 and Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

[BohemianMatt]

Don McLean's "American Pie," and Anti-Flag's "Spaz's House Destruction Party" are two polar opposites but my favorite storytelling songs.

[Runesmith]

They Might Be Giants is great at telling stories through songs - specifically, "Fingertips," "They'll Need A Crane," "Ana Ng," "She's An Angel, "and "Hideaway Folk Family."

Also: Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle."

[GreatJedi7]

The entire Scenes From a Memory album by Dream Theater is awesome, Albuquerque by Weird Al, and Deathbed by Relient K, if you don't mind preachy Christian stuff.

[horsepastriesa]

Oh wait, what's that terrible Christmas song about the poor kid and a pair of shoes?

[FujiSkunk]

Oh wait, what's that terrible Christmas song about the poor kid and a pair of shoes?

Best left unmentioned.