KB Panel Post: Songs That Tell Stories
Some of the greatest stories ever told are songs. The great thing about musical narrative is the added dimensions that the accompaniment and vocal performance bring to the story. The range of emotions and intensity of feeling that these elements bring are enormous relative to what words alone can convey. A merely sad story can become devastating when accompanied by sad piano chords. A sunny hook can brighten the mood instantly. A thunderous guitar riff can put the fear of the devil in you. And a great vocal performance can touch your soul.
As with the last KB panel post, several people were asked to share a favorite narrative song. The responses are posted below and the songs are in the radio.blog.
Tom: “The Last Time I Saw Richard” by Joni Mitchell
I’ve often heard Joni Mitchell’s lyrics derided as high school-level poetry. Well I must have a high school-level appreciation for poetry because I find her early lyrics, especially those on her classic album Blue, endlessly moving. “The Last Time I Saw Richard” tells about the narrator’s encounter with an old friend in a dark cafe sulking about how life is inevitably disappointing. Richard is a romantic who is feeling cynical and bitter because his life with a figure skater wife and all the trappings of middle class prosperity isn’t what he had hoped for. But true romantics die hard and in the end Richard sees his dark cafe days as a cocoon out of which he’ll someday emerge:
All good dreamers pass this way someday
Hidin’ behind bottles in dark cafes
Dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings
And fly away
Mitchell’s piano accompaniment is gorgeous.
Susan: “Red Army Blues” by Waterboys
This song is melodramatic, cheesy, and heart-wrenching: everything an epic storytelling song should be. It’s about a young Russian soldier who serves in World War II. There’s a lot of great lines in it, like: “I saw my first American, and he looked a lot like me/Had the same kind of farmer’s face/Said he come from some place called Hazard, Tennesee.” My favorite lines are in the last verse: “Used to love my country/Used to be so young/Used to believe that life/Was the best song ever sung.” Full lyrics here.
BTD Greg: “Up The Junction” by Squeeze
“I never thought it would happen/With me and the girl from Clapham.” This is pop songwriting pared down to its bare essentials: boy meets girl/boy loses girl, all verse, no chorus, done in rhyming couplets and it’s all over in a little more than three minutes. And with a nice pop tune holding the whole thing together. Squeeze was the first concert I drove myself to see. I saw them a few more times after that, and they always put on a good show. This song typifies their East-London-working-class-down-and-out-pub-rock persona. I’m not sure there are too many other bands that could pull off this sort of thing half as well.
HP: “25 minutes to go” by Johnny Cash
What makes this song truly great is the setting in which Johnny Cash sang it on his “Live at Folsom Prison” album. The song, written by Shel Silverstein of all people, is a timeline of the final minutes of a man scheduled to hang for his crimes. Bizarrely, it is an exuberant, hopeful, raucous ditty. The lyrics are simple, silly really, but they perfectly capture the mindset of someone facing imminent death.
Well I sent for the governor and the whole dern bunch with 21 minutes to go
And I sent for the mayor but he’s out to lunch I’ve got 20 more minutes to go
Then the sheriff said boy I gonna watch you die got 19 minutes to go
So I laughed in his face and I spit in his eye got 18 minutes to go
In the recording, the inmates scream and holler at this line. This criminal’s death is played for laughs, but it is a joke that Cash’s audience gets.
Supergenius: “Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead
I’ve heard that every performance by the Dead has a very tight narrative structure, but the same can be said of their songs, too. Friend of the Devil is a quintessential Western vagabond story told in psychedelica, as the drifter recounts his life and wanders from place to place, pursued by past loves, the police, and the Devil himself. It’s a great mix of regret, longing and restlessness that define the Dead and that define the West.
Posted on November 7, 2006, in Music, Radio.blog and tagged By Tom. Bookmark the permalink. 43 Comments.
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That other great Cash/Silverstein song, “Boy Named Sue,” is one of the classics. It makes me smile every time I hear it.
Some other runners up for me:
Bob Dylan—”Tangled Up in Blue”
The Decemberists—”The Sporting Life,” “The Mariner’s Revenge,” and half a dozen others.
Wilco—”Hell is Chrome”
And a couple of murder ballads:
Sting—”I Hung My Head” (the cheese!)
Uncle Tupelo—”Lilli Schull”
It was really hard for me to use just one. The other big contender for me was Suzanne Vega’s “The Queen and the Soldier.” I think I actually have the lyrics to that one memorized.
One of my favorite story songs has always been Camouflage by Stan Ridgeway… see lyrics here: http://www.lyricsvault.net/songs/7319.html
What else? Off the top of my head…
1963 by New Order
Love Vigilanties by New Order
Big Joe and Phantom 309 by Tom Waits
Babooshka by Kate Bush
It’s A Mug’s Game by Soft Cell
Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies
Drive, She Said by Stan Ridgeway
I came close to listing the Hold Steady’s “Chillout Tent,” but I went with the Dead itself. Post’s been updated for my addition.
My all time favorite story song is Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. And Thanksgiving is the best time of year to listen to it.
“We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, ’cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn’t nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn’t going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us.”
Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” is a classic story song.
The more I think about it, just about any artist/group I can think of that I like, has written one or more story songs. I’m having a hard time coming up with one that has not written a story song. The Smiths are challenging me a little bit, but I’m confident there are some story songs in there and there are a bunch that are story-ish, if you can say such a thing.
I must chime in on one of my favorite bands, The Drive-by Truckers. I can’t choose just one song either:
“Sinkhole” (Foreclosure of the family farm)
“The Deeper In” (Incest)
“My Sweet Annette” (A groom elopes with his bride’s maid-of-honor)
“Loaded Gun in the Closet” (A wife who could do better)
“Decoration Day” (Old family rivalry. Scorching coda)
http://www.drivebytruckers.com/lyrics_dd.html
All of these songs are from their album Decoration Day. I could go on about DBT. Nobody chronicles the south better, except for maybe Borat.
Also, I must give a mention to Ron Sexsmith’s “Strawberry Blonde”. A perfect folk-pop song about a little girl and her addled mother. Economical and catchy – without an ounce of fat lyrically or musically. Heartbreaking, but with a redemptive twist at the end like many of Sexsmith’s songs.
There always Weird Al’s epic dismantling of the narrative song, “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota”. See the lyrics here
Billy Bragg’s got some great story songs. “Everywhere” about two friends, one Japanese and one British/American separated by WW2. “The Short Answer” about a girl named Mary. There are several.
Nick Cave also has some great story songs. Nearly all of his “Murder Ballads” are great.
For pure cheese, what about “The Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers. Or “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” by Vickie Lawrence. Or “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by, who was it, Charlie Daniels?
My favorite Billy Bragg story song is “Valentine’s Day is Over.”
It’s a thread of snapshots more than a real story, but I love Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”
Low hum of voices in the front seat
Stories nobody knows
Got folks in Jackson we’re going to meet
Car wheels on a gravel road
Cotton fields stretching miles and miles
Hank’s voice on the radio
Telephone poles, trees and wires fly on by
Car wheels on a gravel road
Broken down shacks engine parts
Could tell a lie but my heart would know
Listen to the dogs barkin in the yard
Car wheels on a gravel road
Child in the backseat about four or five years
Lookin out the window
Little bit of dirt mixed with tears
Car wheels on a gravel road
Faroeste Caboclo: Lyrics
Eduardo e Monica: Lyrics
Yeah, I’m obsessed.
“Faroeste Caboclo” is a great epic. I actually considered translating the lyrics and posting the song but it’s way too long.
I guess I’m more mainstream in my listening than some, but I think Dan Fogelberg’s “Auld Lang Syne” is a great story-telling song.
I once had some high school English students listen to it (I was subbing the week they learned about imagery in writing) and I had them write detailed descriptions of how they imagined the scenes that unfolded (what were they wearing, what color was their hair, what was in the frozen foods section, how heavy was the snowfall, etc.) It worked really well.
That’s a good on, Chad. Wait, how does that go? Maybe I’m thinking of another Fogelberg song.
Matt,
I agree that Stan Ridgeway writes some very entertaining story songs. He’s a pulp novelist at heart.
Agreed re: Stan Ridgeway. Old 97′s has this gem, a story in a story, that I particularly love:
“504″:
I was playing every Monday on Burgundy in some shitty little bar
I was working on a novel called New Orleans Ain’t No City – It’s a Scar
The heroine does heroin, the hero wears his hair just like The King
He says, “It ain’t my job to sweet talk you. My job’s just to sing”
I was loved once by a woman, she don’t love me anymore 504 504
And I won’t never know no woman like the one I’d known before 504 504
And she don’t love me anymore
Well the hero wears a hair-net,
from the outset he drinks Jax beer from a can
He says, “There’s something ’bout this city always gets me
I’m a sentimental man”
Well the heroine plays violin and reads her Elmore Leonard everyday
She’s the one that finds the body, he’s the one that gets away.
I was loved once by a woman, she don’t love me anymore
504 504
And I won’t never know no woman like the one I’d known
before 504 504
And she don’t love me anymore.
You know she had me singing gospel out in the kitchen on
the floor
504 504
Tom,
Let the magic of automatic translation ruin the song for all of us!
I had almost completely forgotten about one of the more interesting story ‘songs’ I ever heard. It’s called “No Anchovies Please” by the J. Giles Band. Actually, this might be more of a narration than a song, but here are the words:
This is the story of a young couple in Portland, Maine. While waiting for her husband Don to return home from work, she reaches for a can of anchovies. As she spreads the tiny fish across a piece of lettuce, she notices a small note at the bottom of the can. Written on it is a
telephone number. Curious, she dials, and is told, “Don’t move, lady, we’ll be right over.” Placing the phone back on the hook, she turns to see three smartly dressed men standing in her kitchen doorway. Before she realizes
what is happening to her, she is rolled tightly in long sheets of cellophane, transported to an international airport, and placed on a waiting jet-liner. All this being too much for her to comprehend, she passes out. Upon awakening, she finds herself in a strange, foreign speaking nation (“Dalas nekcihc dna tihs nekcihc neewteb ecnereffid eht wonk ot suineg a ekat t’nseod ti.”). Alone, fearing her escape impossible, she seeks comfort
in the arms of a confidential agent. With the trace of her kiss still warm upon his lips, he betrays her to the hands of three scientists who are engaged in diabolical, avant-garde experiments previously performed only on
insects and other small, meaningless creatures. Using her as their subject, they are delighted with the results. For the first time, a human being is transformed into a (“shhh… it’s secret”).
Meanwhile, back in Portland, Maine…
Her husband Don, now chain-smoking 40 packs of cigarettes a day, sits at a local bar and has a few beers with the regulars. Bored, everyone’s attention turns to the television set that just hangs from the wall. (“Welcome to Bowling for Dollars”). Suddenly, crazy Al says, “S-say, Don, there sure is something familiar about that bowling ball.” To which a terrified Don replies, “Oh my God! That bowling ball! It’s my wife!”
And the lesson we learn from this story is, next time you place your order, don’t forget to say, “No anchovies please.”
Anyone have that song? I’d love to hear it on the radio blog. It’s been awhile.
Couldn’t have said it better myself! You could also add Dire Wolf, Black Peter, Terrapin Station, and about 20 more to the list.
Good call, Tracy.
Sheesh. 20+ comments in, and no Eagles yet?
Let me say it, then:
The Eagles, Hotel freakin’ California. My goodness. What planet am I on? Do I have to do everything? (We know that Steve’s tastes are questionable, but I expect better out of you, Matt and Danithew.) At least someone mentioned Tangled Up in Blue already.
Also:
Dan Fogelberg, Same Auld Lang Syne. Thank you, Chad, for mentioning this one. Susan: It’s the one that starts, “Met my old lover at the grocery store; the snow was falling Christmas Ee-ee-eve.” It has some nice lines, and a nice story.
Don MacLean, American Pie. (Too metaphysical? Nah, there’s a story there.)
The Eagles, Tequila Sunrise. Damn, that’s a good song.
Skid Row, 18 and Life. 80s hair rock never gets enough respect.
Billy freakin’ Joel, Piano Man. How much ^&*% story do ya need? Again, some of the great lines of the time. Damn, and double damn.
Material Issue, Trouble. Just to prove that I actually do listen to that kind of stuff every now and then, ya know? Besides, it’s got some nice symmetry and repetition.
Simon & Garfunkel, The Boxer. My Lanta, 22 comments in and no one has mentioned Simon and Garfunkel. I should bow out before I start throwing things.
I used to have “No Anchovies, Please” and “Alice’s Restaurant” memorized word for word. I’m pretty sure No Anchovies, Please is the last track on Freeze Frame. I have it on cassette.
BTD Greg, now I’m going to have to dig out my old Squeeze stuff. Up the Junction is a great pick.
Kaimi, I started to list all the story songs I could think of, and it got ridiculous. There are SO MANY. But since that panty twist is causing you to go into such a hissy-fit, I’ll re-visit the topic and list just some of the ones that I was listing earlier. Most of these artists have more than one (or even many) story songs. As a general rule, a great songwriter can’t have a full career without writing a story song at some point.
Billy Joel – Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
Sting – Synchronicity II
Paul Simon – Graceland
Pink Floyd – “The Wall” (viewing the album as one continuous semi-autobiographical song)
The Who – Pinball Wizard
The Beatles – Rocky Raccoon, A Day In the Life, The Ballad of John and Yoko, Eleanor Rigby
Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road
Lou Reed – Walk on the Wild Side
Talking Heads – Stay Up Late
The Dead Milkmen – Bitchin’ Camaro
Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do
Suzanne Vega – Tom’s Diner
A few have mentioned Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant – it’s almost Thanksgiving, so listen to it
And Kaimi, don’t take my tone in the previous post too seriously … I was grinning when I wrote it.
Social Distortion — “Story of My Life”
I’m going to pick nits and say that some of the songs being mentioned in the comments aren’t really “story” songs. To be a story, they must have a beginning, middle and an end. Many are simply character sketches (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Word, BTD.
Kaimi (#23)
Hotel California, Piano Man, and The Boxer were three of the earliest story songs I can remember. All three mesmerized me as a kid.
Other early story songs I remember well are Cat’s in the Cradle and Puff the Magic Dragon. Both songs saddened me.
Speaking of sad (but beautiful) story songs, nobody has mentioned “Brick” by Ben Folds Five…
6am day after Christmas
I Throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of coal
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled out on the couch
Her mum and dad went down to Charlotte
They’re not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I’ve found someone
I’m feeling more alone
Than I ever had before
She’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly
Off the coast and I’m headed nowhere
She’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly
Etc.
A Poor, Wayfaring Man of Grief
BTD Greg, that’s a good point. I’m aware that some of the songs I listed have narrative qualities but are not really stories. Can’t really argue with you there.
On the plane yesterday I hammered out a very quick translation…
Caboclo Faroeste (Western Mistizo)
Letter: Renato Russo
Music: Renato Russo
“He had no fear, João de Santo Cristo,”
was what everybody said when he lost himseld.
He left behind the slow starvation of the farm
to feel in his blood the hatred that Jesus gave him.
As a child he only though of being a bandit,
all the more when a soldier’s bullet killed his father
he was the terror of his neighborhood
and in school even the teacher feared him
He went to church just to steal the money
that the old ladies put in the altar box
He felt that he was in fact unique,
He felt that this wasn’t the place for him
He wanted to leave to see the sea
and the things that he saw on television
He put together money to travel
And made his own choice, choosing solitude
Next two lines aren’t appropriate for a family blog and are left untranslated
Comia todas as menininhas da cidade
De tanto brincar de médico aos doze era professor
At fifteen he was sent to the reform school
Where where his hate grew in the face of so much terror
He didn’t understand how life worked
descriminated against because of his class and color
Tired of trying to find an answer
He bought a ticket and went direct to Salvador
And arriving there he went to get coffee
and found an ox-driver and struck up a conversation
The ox-driver had a ticket
And was going to miss his trip but João could take it:
He said “I am going to Brasilia,
In this country there is no better place,
I need to visit my son,
I’ll stay here and you go in my place ”
And João accepted his proposal
And in a bus entered the Central Plateau
He was overwhelmed by the city
Leaving the highway he saw the Christmas lights
“My God what a beautiful city!
In the New Year I’ll start to work ”
He cut wood as a carpenter’s apprentice
He earned one hundred a thousand a month in Taguatinga
On Friday he went out on the town
Spent all spend his hard earned cash
and met many interesting people
Even a bastard grandson of his great grandfather
A Peruvian who lived in Bolivia
who brought many things from there
His name was Pablo and he said
That he wanted to start a business
And Santo Cristo worked himself to death
but there wasn’t enough money to feed himself
and he heard at 7 o’clock the news
that always said the ministry would help
But he was done with talk
and decided to cast his lot with Pablo
He went over his sacred plan one more time
and without being cruxified he started the plan
Soon all the crazies of the city
heard the news
“He’s got the good stuff!â€ÂÂ
And João de Santo Cristo became rich
And put an end to all the dealers there
He made friends, frequented the Asa Norte (North Wing neighborhood of Brasilia)
and partied hard to free himself
But along the way
Under the bad influence of the city boys
He started to steal
He screwed up that first robbery
and went to hell for the first time
violence and rape of his body
“You’ll see, I’ll get you!”
Now Santo Cristo was a bandit
Held in low esteem and feard in the Distrito Federal (another name for Brasilia, similar to DC for
Washington)
He had not fear of the police
Army captains or dealers, pimps or generals
It was when he met a girl
that he repented of all his sins
Maria Lúcia was a pretty girl
And Santo Cristo promised her his heart
He said that he wanted to marry
And become a carpenter again
“Maria Lúcia I will always love you
and wnat to have a child with you”
Time passes
And one day a high class gentleman shows up at his door, with money in hand
And he makes an indecept proposal
And he wants a reply, a reply from João
“I won’t put a bomb in a newspaper stand
or a preschool
This I will not do
And I won’t protect any ten star general
Sitting across the table with money in hand
It is better that you leave my house
Never trifle with a Pices rising in Scorpio”
But before leaving, with hate in his eyes
the old man says:
“You’ve forfitted life my brother!”
“You’ve forfitted life my brother!”
“You’ve forfitted life my brother!”
The words will enter the heart
“I’ll suffer the consequences like a dog!”
It wasn’t that Santo Cristo was sure
His future was uncertain
He didn’t go to work,
He began to drink in the middle of his binge
He discovered another working in his place
He told Pablo that he needed a partner
that he had money and wanted to arm himself
Pablo brought the contraband from Bolivia
Santo Cristo sold it in Planaltina
But it happened that someone known as Jeremias
A renowned dealer came on the scene
He found out about Santo Cristo’s plans
And decided that he would finish João off
But Pablo brouht a Winchester 22
And Santo Cristo already knew how to shoot
And decided to use the gun only after
Jeremias began to fight
Jeremias, shameless pot dealer
Organized Roconha and everybody danced to his tune
Raped innocent girls
And claimed to be an Evangelical but didn’t know how to pray
And Santo Cristo hadn’t been home for a long time
and the homesickness became too much to bear,
“I’m leaving, I’ll find Maria Lúcia,
It’s time were were married”
Arriving home he cried
and went to hell for the second time
Jeremias married Maria Lúcia
and gave her a child
Santo Cristo had only hate in him
and the he called Jeremias to a duel
“Tomorrow at two o’clock in Ceilândia,
In front of block forteen is where you’ll find me
And you can pick you weapon,
Because I’ll finish you, you pig traitor
And I’ll kill Maria Lúcia too,
That false girl to whom I vowed my love”
And Santo Cristo didn’t know what to do
When he saw the television reporter
That announced the duel on TV
Telling the time, place, and reason
On Saturday then, at two o’clock
Everyone went without delay
Just to watch
A man who shot him in the back
And hit Santo Cristo
And began to smile
Feeling the blood in his throat
João looked into the stands
And saw the people applaud
And saw the ice cream truck
And the cameras, and the TV people that filmed it all
And he remembered when he was a child
And all he had lived until now
And decided to enter the dance for the last time
“My suffering has become a circus, here I am”
And at that the sun blinded his eye
And he recognized Maria Lúcia
She brought the Winchester 22
The weapon his cousin Pablo had given him
“Jeremias, I am a man, something you are not
And no, I will not shoot you in the back
Look over here you shameless son of a bitch
Take a glance at my blood,
and come feel your pardon”
And Santo Cristo, with the Winchester 22
Put five shoting in that bandit traitor
Maria Lúcia then repented
and died together with João her protector
The people declared that João de Santo Cristo
Was a saint because he knew how to die
And the bourgeois of the city didn’t believe the story
That they saw on TV
And João didn’t accomplish what he desired like the devil
When he came to Brasilias
What he wanted was to speak to the president
To help all the people that
Suffer
There’s a beautiful, sad bachata song (spanish-language, merengue-like dance music) that was popular a few years back. It’s called Hoja en Blanco — “The Blank Page.”
Here’s a quick translation:
Him: It was impossible to get you out of my mind.
It was impossible to forget that I once loved you.
Her: So much time had passed since he day you left
And I know, farewells are so sad.
I never dreamed that the train would take with it
The dreams and promises we shared in our youth.
You kept you feelings in your suitcase
Tried to comfort me, toldd me you loved me
And then, I heard nothing more about your life
I never knew if you were coming back some day
Friends in town asked if you were returning
And I cried, and couldn’t answer.
Him: And then yesterday, I returned to my town
And someone told me that you were married
Look at me, and tell me that you’ve forgotten me
And I’ll leave, with tears in my eyes.
And I asked the moon
And she turned away and tried to hide
Even the moon knows that you loved me once
Even the moon knows that you still do
Chorus:
Him: So fly away, fly another path
Go and dream that the world is yours.
Her: You can’t dream of me, anymore
But I will be dreaming of you.
(end chorus)
Her: It’s so sad to tell you to forget about me
That another love is in my life, I don’t love you
Him: It’s too late, and I cant’ deny that I’m dying
But my I can’t stop the words, telling you
That I’ll dream about you forever when I close my eyes
That my sad night songs will be for you
That I’ll cry when I remember that I’m alone
And you’re sleeping in another man’s arms.
I wonder if you still reflect part of my life
If in your memory, our love from so long ago still lives
A man who has loved you since you were a girl
Who cries because the love of his life married someone else.
Her: It’s sad watching the train leave
In it goes the best of your life
Tell me why you left
Why did you leave, and such pain left behind?
Then one day I got a letter from you
I wanted to read it, and it was a blank page
And I didn’t know anything about you
How is it that you can ask if I still love you?
(Chorus)
but Kaimi, you’re not making the connection here. Narrative songs =/= sappy songs. The storytelling element in the one you cite is a marginal element — the song isn’t about the story at all.
BTD Greg (#28),
The original title of the post was “Great Narrative Songs,” which is much broader and does include songs that don’t necessarly have the structure of a story but do narrate some event or occurrence. My pick, “The Last Time I Saw Richard,” doesn’t really fit as a story song I don’t think. It’s more of a kick-ass vignette song.
Sorry, I changed the title, cuz I had no idea what was meant by narrative songs.
It’s all good though.
Steve,
Yeah, as I was doing my on-the-fly translation, I found myself thinking, this one does sound pretty lame in English, doesn’t it? Too many Spanish phrases translate easily into bland English (and the reverse). Well, listening in Spanish, I was kinda saddened by the blank-page ending.
Okay, let me (try to) redeem myself with an Arjona song, if I can. Arjona is truly one of the masters of Spanish-language pop-rock. Great voice; catchy hooks; and above all, really good lyrics.
This one is full of Spanish slang and is a pain to translate, but worth it, because it’s funny as hell.
Arjona – The night surprises you
She walked in to Don Pedro’s bar with her boyfriend at her side
Black miniskirt, and a neckline that assumes a tan
What are you thinking, girl, bringing your boyrfriend to these parts?
At the bar, the bets were starting
“A hundred says you can’t get her” said a guy at the bar
And we shook hands on the bet
There was a backstory that the guy at the bar didn’t know
And that was that the supposed boyfriend was actually gay
So I walked up to the queen, and proposed a deal
seventeen seconds later, he was my co-conspirator
I told him, that guy on the corner is gay, too
And I pointed at the guy at the bar
The night surprises you, like it surprised the guy at the bar
He turned towards the bar, and my co-conspuirator was caressing his hand
Meanwhile I had the open field and felt like Robert Redford
But the story doesn’t end there.
I threw her my best lines, complimented her clothes,
Making macho gestures, ordering a drink,
I told her the same thing as always, I’m falling in love,
Come with me and let’s discuss it tonight as we sweat
And she said, sorry, I’m not looking for a guy
I’m into women.
The night surprises you, like it surprised me when I tried
You think you’re king of the world, and it leaves you with surprise on your face
Meanwhile, my co-conspirator was still pursuing the guy at the bar
And the story doesn’t end here.
So, she hooked up with a girl there, and my co-conspirator took off with one of the waiters,
I had another tequila, and the guy at the bar filled up the ashtray
And we swore not to bet any more on uncertain loves
And here, the story ends.
–
Hmm, not all that pleased with that translation either. A lot of the really funny lines just don’t sound as funny in English, or require lots of words. “a neckline that assumes a tan” for instance, which is a great image,is way too wordy in English; it’s a much smoother three words in the song.
What about 2112 by Rush?
Word up, Tim.
Why am I not surprised that “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman hasn’t come up yet?
It is one of the most ubiquitous “story” songs found in pop culture and yet (perhaps because it was ubiquitous — but I wonder if there are other factors) I’m totally sick of it.
There are some other Tracy Chapman songs I like still – but I think I have to agree with William Morris on that conclusion.
We were talking about this and can’t come up with much better than Rocky Raccoon although I think A Boy Named Sue is up there. I like the way in Rocky that the hero ends up dead!