Story Based Songs

[gustavo]

whats everyones favourite story based songs ? that is songs that have a story attached to them
mine would have to be stan by eminem. really blew me away when i heard it .

other favourites i have include
-Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (some dude facing execution talkin about a killing spree he went on with some young one)

- Avril Lavigne - skater boy - (seriously! its about herself talkin to some girl that rejected her boyfriend in the past now hes a big star)

- Kenny Rogers - Coward of the County - a guy who was placid on the advice of his dying father cracks when his wife is gang raped.

- Johnny Cash - I Hung my Head - a guy who killed a horseman reflects on life before his execution( originally by Sting)

- Nirvana - Sliver ( young boy is taken to be babysat by his grandparents. wants to go home)

- Garth Brooks - Belleau Wood ( story of WW1 in the trenches on Christmas Day )

[superfrank]

OutKast-Da Art Of Storytellin' Part 1.

Em, not too sure what it's about but I think it's got to do with them growing up and how these two girls they knew had completely fcuked up lives.

[hamish]

I think Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits is based on her home town/life? Seger also covers that song too.

[superfrank]

I think Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits is based on her home town/life? Seger also covers that song too.

Never knew Ike bet him too??

Well, you learn something new every day!

[hamish]

Never knew Ike bet him too??

Well, you learn something new every day!

Actually, Seger had a rough upbringing, unlike Loose "middle class pretending to be working class" Windscreen**. He spent his growing years in a tenement, father deserted mum. Father took a job as a warehouse guard in California, got drunk and was found burned to death after a fire in said warehouse. A lot of Seger's songs are based on his life and goings on in Detroit. Most associate him with country rock ballads but - saw him in London 1980 - he can/could rock with the best of them. Rory Gallagher was a big fan.

(**Old NME slag for The Boss)

[CollegeTillIDie]

Loose "middle class pretending to be working class" Windscreen**. (**Old NME slag for The Boss)

As Paddy McAloon once said " Look at us now ( start driving) / SOme things hurt more much more than Cars and Girls "

[hamish]

As Paddy McAloon once said " Look at us now ( start driving) / SOme things hurt more much more than Cars and Girls "

C'mon CTID, you know I'm slow.Hard to figure you out sometimes.

Is that a good vibe or bad vibe you're sending????

[Gerrit]

MARILYN MANSON - The Nobodies, which is a sort of comments on the Columbine highschool murders of which the murderers were so-called fans of Manson

PLACEBO - My Sweet Prince, was about an ex-boyfriend of singer Brian Molko

SMITHS - Girlfriend In A Coma, was based on a woman in the US who was in coma for years and the debate that kept the country in trance weither she could be taken off the breathing machines or not

SMITHS - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, really - Morrissey was asked what it was about and his reply was that he just wrote a song on the fact that he suddenly realised that all female bodies look differently and that he never noticed before

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Tsunami.
a personal favourite of mine. About the Welsh sisters Gibbons who were born in a time when twins were still claimed to contain an 'evil one', so the girls were brought up in institutes and decided as a protest not to speak anymore. Once grown up they never knew how to behave in the outside world and ended up in criminality. After one of the died, the other one suddenly started speaking again. The song refers as well to the disappeared guitarist/lyricist Richey Edwards, he wrote all the songs together with his soulmate: bassist Nicky Wire. After Richey's vanishing Nicky had to stand up and 'speak again': write the lyrics out on his own. The tsunami is a metaphore for the strenghth of something that can tear your world apart when you think everything is in control, but also the strenghth that makes you stand up again. I named my cat after this song out of love for the band BTW, bad choice given what happened 6 months later in Asia

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Ocean Spray, singer James Dean Bradfield hardly ever writes lyrics but this is one from his hands. When his mother was deadly ill she believed the fruitjuice Ocean Spray could cure her. James sings he hopes she'll stay awake so they can move on happily after all and drink Ocean Spray together.

U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday, guess we all know upon which real story this is based



i'll post some more if I can think of more by heart...

[Speranza]

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.

[Gerrit]

the "when fact is fiction and TV reality" and "can't believe the news today" phrases make me assume they're referring to a rather modern issue, so I'd rather have thought it were about the killings in Maiden City in 1972. But guess only Bono will know...

[gustavo]

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Tsunami.


MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Ocean Spray,

good choices!
forgot to put in 4st 7 from the holy bible its the story of a girl with anorexia told in the first person.

[Anto McC]

BOB DYLAN-Hurricane(I'll assume you seen the film or know)

BOB DYLAN-Who killed Davey Moore(about a boxer who was killed mid-bout)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-Reno(about a mans visit to a prositute)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-The river(about his brother and his brothers girlfriend and an unexpected pregnacy)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-Johnny 99(about a man who gets fired from his job and robs a shop but in the process kills a man,his case then goes to court and he gets 99 years for his crime)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-Highway patrolman(about a highway patrolman who is called to deal with a serious assault commited by his brother)Later adapted into a film

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-The ghost of Tom Joad(about the character Tom Joad from the book and film Grapes of Wrath

To name just a few

[hamish]

Paul Brady - Nothing but the same old story - great take on Irish emigrant.

[jofyisgod]

Song called Go or Go Ahead by rufus Wainwright. He wrote it when he was in rehab for his crystal meth addicition. Lyrics are just so powerful. It's probably the only song ever that got me truly emotional. Listen if you ever get the chance.

[liam88]

Bruce Springstein-Born in the USA; he gets in a fight so is arrested and sent to Vietnam, get's backa nd his brother has been killed in Vietnam and all the jobs are gone

Bik Farlane and Terry O'Neil-Terrorist or Dreamer; starts of in Sackville street witht he Black and Tans, goes through th Easter 16 commerations in 1966 and the modern day Troubles in the North

The Year they Stole the Summer; Can'tr remember who this one is by-about when the loyalists burnt down Catholic homes

Fields of Athenry; we all know

Shebeen-Fields of Athenry Garvarghy Road-About Dumcree

The Verve Pipe-The Freshmen; About the lead singers girlfriend killing herself (but for years he felt guilty about this so claimed it was about a friends girlfriend)

[Gerrit]

MICHAEL W SMITH - Hello goodbye, about the little baby boy of a friend who died only a week after birth...

SIMPLE MINDS - Mandela Day, a salute to Nelson Mandela and his succesful struggle for freedom

SIMPLE MINDS - Belfast Child, we all know what this is about

INDOCHINE - Electrastar, about the death of band member (and brother of the singer Nicola Sirkis) Stephane Sirkis

THE CURE - Pictures Of You, about Robert Smith regretting that he once threw away all his childhood pictures when being ashamed of his past, later to regret that he also threw away his only memories

HEATHER NOVA - Drink It In, about her brother Mishka's struggle to beat cancer (of which he luckily cured completely !)

NINE INCH NAILS - the whole album "The Downward Spiral" is based on the life and work of cult leader/serial killer Charles Manson. The album was recorded in the house where the Manson Family murdered 8 months pregnant Sharon Tate and 5 other people. Trent Reznor of NIN was the last one to live in the house before it was sloped.

U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It..., Bono wrote this for his late dad and sung it for the first time on his dad's funeral.

PLACEBO - Black-Eyed. A multi-themed song featuring the troubled childhood of Brian Molko (who was depressive for a few years), the divorce of his parents, and his bisexuality.

BLACK SABBATH - Sweet Leaf, the first song that directly described and promoted cannabis use.

[Gerrit]

Also, "Isobel" by Dido is based upon a true story but she never told the details of it. Seems to be about a girl that either took her own life or disappeared ("I thought it was strange when you missed the train. I thought it was strange when your car was found by that tree in Ennis where we used to hang around... Dear Isobel I wish you well, and what you've done is right, oh it's been such hell, I wish you well and hope you're safe tonight")

Tori Amos was raped during childhood and I know she wrote a song on it, but i'm not sure of the title.

[Lionel Ritchie]

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?

[Réiteoir]

Don McLean - American Pie

McLean eventually acknowledged that his song was a tribute to the late Buddy Holly and the metamorphosis of music after his death. This in-depth FAQ explains -- "American Pie" refers to rock 'n' roll music, which fell apart on February 2, 1959, ("the day the music died") with the plane crash that killed Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens ("the three men I admire most"). The allusions don't stop there. Bob Dylan is supposedly the jester "who sang for the King and Queen," and "the girl who sang the blues" could be no other than soulful Janis Joplin.

[liam88]

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!