Story Based Songs

[Anto McC]

And my favourite.....

Walk on by U2

All about Aung Sung Suu Ski's struggle.
Those scum in the regime banned it but it's goinf to be balring out when Burma is free!

Have you heard Damien Rices new song for the "free Aung Sung Suu Ski foundation"(i think thats what its called).The song is called "Unplayed Piano" and it's brilliant

[Réiteoir]

no-one has yet mentioned "Joxer Goes to Stuttgart"

[CollegeTillIDie]

Everything from the Harry Chapin songbook basically but two outstanding ones

W.O.L.D. Song about a perpetual adolescent who gets jobs in radio as a DJ in the USA but can never stay around long enough in one place to satisfy his wife and kids so she shows him the door. He ends up back in the place she is living and tries to win her back.. she rebuffs him politely.
" Feeling over 45 going on 15" as he says himself


CATS IN THE CRADLE... Song about a workaholic father too busy to play with his son... Son grows up to be too busy to spend time with his Dad when the old guy retires .
" when are you coming home Dad I don't know when/ But we'll get together then Dad you know we'll have a good time then"


Sir hamish

Paddy McAloon's song is a gentle dig at The Boss and his themes for most of his songs.. Cars and Girls... of course Bruce's songs are a lot deeper than that most of the time. But it's a good one nevertheless.
There are references to Bruce in the opening lines of that song.

Prefab Sprout have produced some of the best lyrical verses of the 1980's and early 1990's. No surprise to learn that Paddy McAloon's parents are IRISH

[hamish]

Everything from the Harry Chapin songbook basically but two outstanding ones

W.O.L.D. Song about a perpetual adolescent who gets jobs in radio as a DJ in the USA but can never stay around long enough in one place to satisfy his wife and kids so she shows him the door. He ends up back in the place she is living and tries to win her back.. she rebuffs him politely.
" Feeling over 45 going on 15" as he says himself


CATS IN THE CRADLE... Song about a workaholic father too busy to play with his son... Son grows up to be too busy to spend time with his Dad when the old guy retires .
" when are you coming home Dad I don't know when/ But we'll get together then Dad you know we'll have a good time then"


Sir hamish

Paddy McAloon's song is a gentle dig at The Boss and his themes for most of his songs.. Cars and Girls... of course Bruce's songs are a lot deeper than that most of the time. But it's a good one nevertheless.
There are references to Bruce in the opening lines of that song.

Prefab Sprout have produced some of the best lyrical verses of the 1980's and early 1990's. No surprise to learn that Paddy McAloon's parents are IRISH

Thanks for that CTID - have one Prefab Sprout album - when love lies down is on it but must have lent it to someone as I can't find in my colection.

[hamish]

Big Tom and the Mainliners : Four Roads To Glenamaddy.

Ode to the devotees of dancing in small ballrooms in small towns in the wesht of Ireland and the lack of facilities for our parents/grandparents and choices of entertainment in 1960s/1970s Ireland but the beginningis of relationships which gave rise to the Footie generation.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Sir hamish

Ah the classic song "When LOve Breaks Down"... bought the single myself.

You would be able to get the album " Steve McQueen" on CD now.
Failing that get the compilation which came out in the 1990's I think and is called " A Life Full Of Surprises" after the brand new song on it.

[hamish]

Sir hamish

Ah the classic song "When LOve Breaks Down"... bought the single myself.

You would be able to get the album " Steve McQueen" on CD now.
Failing that get the compilation which came out in the 1990's I think and is called " A Life Full Of Surprises" after the brand new song on it.

Just found "Swoon" and I love the opening track "Don't sing" - I'm a sucker for harmonica/harp/mouth organ - whatever you call it - in a song.

I definitely had Steve McQueen - that had PMcA and Wendy (?) on a big motorbike on the cover, hadn't it? I'd better start checking my full collection again just to see what I have and what I've forgotton about.

Paddy McAloon appeared at the Cambridge Folk Festival a year or two ago with long hair and an enormous white beard - would have loved to been at that.

Do the initials DH mean anything to you???

[CollegeTillIDie]

Just found "Swoon" and I love the opening track "Don't sing" - I'm a sucker for harmonica/harp/mouth organ - whatever you call it - in a song.

I definitely had Steve McQueen - that had PMcA and Wendy (?) on a big motorbike on the cover, hadn't it? I'd better start checking my full collection again just to see what I have and what I've forgotton about.

Paddy McAloon appeared at the Cambridge Folk Festival a year or two ago with long hair and an enormous white beard - would have loved to been at that.

Do the initials DH mean anything to you???

"Oh no don't blame Mexico!" If the initials NG mean anything to you

[Gerrit]

christ I dunno where to start. i 'd say i'll be back a few times.
Great thread by the way Gerrit (did you get out the South Park Movie yet? )

Apparently both "A Pair of Brown Eyes" by the Pogues and "53rd and 3rd" by The Ramones are about their respective writers working as male prostitutes.

Most of the stories are fictional but Nick Caves Murder Ballads LP is an awsome listen for those seeking story based songs.

Opening track 'Song of Joy' is about a guy who knocks on a door late one evening and starts explaining to the man of the house that he's a vagrant who left his home years ago after his manic depressive wife and family were murdered by a lunatic while he was visiting a patient

I was visiting a sick friend/I was a doctor then/ Joy and the girls were on their own

He goes on to explain that the man who did it quotes John Milton on the walls in the victims blood /the police are investigating at tremendous cost/ in my house he wrote HIS RED RIGHT HAND/ that they tell me -is from Paradise Lost

So basically he's begging for a bed for the night -BUT everything he says is littered with references to John Milton.

Fairwell happy fields whereJoy forever dwells/ Hail Horrors hail

"The sun to me is dark and silent as the moon"/ do you good sir have a room?/ are you beckoning me in?

Sigh... This is such a miraclously good song... One of my all-time favourite songs, maybe the most gothic song I've ever heard along with "Tales from the inverted womb" (Sopor Aeternus) and "666 Hellbound, the devil's within you" (Silke Bischoff)

I have the Murder Ballads cd in Belgium, have to ask my parents to ship it urgently as I cannot find any mp3 while waiting for a next visit When I first heard the song I got the shivers of excitement, and unlike with other song I still feel the thrill every time I hear it.

"Farewell happy fields where Joy forever dwells, Hail Horrors Hail" is a thrilling quote, but what about "As if she soar into the heart of her final bloodsoaked night... Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife... I see, Sir, that I have your attention !" and "Outside the wolves howl, the serpents hiss..." ? Nick's intonation along with the extremely threatening music is just world class. Gothic in its purest form.




also great songs on that album (every song describes a murder story) are "Henry Lee", the highly obscene "Stagger Lee" (the man makes out with a woman when her husband arrives, and the guy shoots him because he refuses to give head to him ), "The curse of Millhaven" (a 15 year old witch girl killing a whole village's residents) and of course the duet with Kylie Minogue "Where the wild roses grow".
The sentence "all beauty must die" is amazingly simple yet amazingly powerful.

[Gerrit]

I adore literature references in music by the way. Manic Street Preachers are brilliant for that, check out www.manics.nl --> behind almost every single sentence of every Manics song there's a reference

I adore the opening phrases of "A design for life": "Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free. What price now for a shallow piece of dignity ?" (referring to the quotes "Knowledge is power" and "Arbeit macht frei")

Nicky Wire's probably the best lyricist the world has seen, and we highly miss Richey Edwards as co-lyricist

[Anto McC]

Nicky Wire's probably the best lyricist the world has seen, and we highly miss Richey Edwards as co-lyricist

That arsehole is not even in the top 100.Even with his nowhere buddy

[Réiteoir]

That arsehole is not even in the top 100.Even with his nowhere buddy

Wronger than Ollie Byrne in a bikini

[pineapple stu]

Everything from the Harry Chapin songbook basically but two outstanding ones

Was going to mention him - Mr Tanner is another one which is well up there.

[gustavo]

Nicky Wire's probably the best lyricist the world has seen, and we highly miss Richey Edwards as co-lyricist

theres so many great lines in the holy bible alone dunno if richey or nicky wrote them

• i know i believe in nothing but it is my nothing
• if hospitals cure then prisons must bring their pain
• such beautiful dignity in self abuse
• why do anything when you can forget everything
• self disgust is self obsession honey and i do as i please

[CollegeTillIDie]

theres so many great lines in the holy bible alone dunno if richey or nicky wrote them

• i know i believe in nothing but it is my nothing
• if hospitals cure then prisons must bring their pain
• such beautiful dignity in self abuse
• why do anything when you can forget everything
• self disgust is self obsession honey and i do as i please

The extremely negative ones are pure Richie

[Gareth]

Two Little Boys - Rolf Harris - A tale of the bond of childhood hehehe

Seriously though lets see,

Spanish Train - Chris De Burgh - The Devil and God playing for the soul of a doomed Train

Ordinary Man - Christy Moore - A tale of two ends of the working spectrum

And of course, the best one of all time and why we should always respect our bovine buddies,

Cows with Guns - Dr. Demento - a tale of one mighty ****ed off cow and his longing for equality and freedom......

[Macy]

I don't know if you are aware of this or it is what you were pointing out but "sunday, bloody Sunday" supposedly isn't about 1972 but the Bloody Sunday in Dublin during the war of independance (Croke Park killings e.t.c). Don't think Bono has ever said what its about but that is the widely held assumption.

There's a few stories about this, one being it's based on Edge giving out about his childhood and the fact that all his catholic mates weren't allowed out to play on a Sunday....

[Gerrit]

That arsehole is not even in the top 100.Even with his nowhere buddy

You have to be kidding... Nicky Wire is a lyrical genius. Lennon and McCartney didn't write as many good lyrics in their career as Nicky did on one single album - and this is sincerely said, not said with the intention of just going against the flow.

The quotes stated before here go as perfect example. If the Manics are one of rock's best bands of the last decades (and in my opinion they are) it's entirely up to the lyrics. So all credit to Richey and Nicky, their lyrics should make the Dylans and Lennons of this world simply jealous.

[Anto McC]

You have to be kidding... Nicky Wire is a lyrical genius. Lennon and McCartney didn't write as many good lyrics in their career as Nicky did on one single album - and this is sincerely said, not said with the intention of just going against the flow.

The quotes stated before here go as perfect example. If the Manics are one of rock's best bands of the last decades (and in my opinion they are) it's entirely up to the lyrics. So all credit to Richey and Nicky, their lyrics should make the Dylans and Lennons of this world simply jealous.

Get a grip and don't put that idiot and his nowhere buddy in the same sentence as Lennon and McCartney or Dylan,The music **** and the lyrics are ****.Not even worth remembering the name of the band.

[hamish]

Genesis - The Lamb lies down on Braodway. Song? Story? There's a whole fcuking rock opera on there!!

Brian Eno features also in the title track.

Last Peter Gabriel effort with Genesis before they became a pop band.

By the way, Gerrit, Bauhaus are often credited with starting the Goth movement as you know but Gabriel used to wear really Goth-like outfits on stage in the early seventies. In fact, some of the early albums have a kind of Goth atmosphere - eg The Fountain of Salmacis from Nursery Cryme - a reworking of the Greek hermaphrodite legend.