Masterful Storytellers and Their Wares

[Vibroluxer]

How about a little Harry Chapin - Taxi

 

[suthol]

 

[Harry Styron]

 

[elihu]

Stan Ridgway has a great style. Wonderful storytelling. Never really caught on either solo or with Wall of Voodoo but songs like Camouflage, Call of the West, Can’t Stop the Show are brilliantly told. He gets middle class struggles without making it sound angry.
This is a favorite.

Now I know I had something to say but the problem is to say something
Uhh...you gotta say it
And I still don't remember a thing since that funny gas
Came out of that pipe next to me / I guess they didn't ok it
Now I remember--did I tell ya?
Cut my thumb off at the knuckle on a broken band saw
Didn't see the belt buckle or the blade slip
And I remember when the doctor did it up with a stitch
Funny thing...still got a scratch that I can't itch where my thumb was
Now I've brought the same piece of chicken in a bag to work everyday
For the last twenty years or so
And I really don't mind, work assembly line
Got an intercom blasting the news and the latest on the baseball scores
Come around every Friday, well I get a paycheck
Take the same road home that I come to work on, heck, it's a living
And I got another factory at home
Got a barbeque, pink mustang, fenders chrome
And at nine o'clock I sit there in my chair
And I don't know why I lose my hair
And then I go to / and then I go to / and then I go to sleep
Well I like to know what I'm doing when I do it
And I do what I'm doing 'cause I don't know what to do when I'm not doing it
Sometimes I remember as a boy my father told me I could grow up
To be anything I really wanted to be / anything
And everyday at lunch I still look for my lost digit
Still got that funny scratch, so maybe when I find it I can itch it
And I got a little rubber pool in the backyard for the kids to wade in
And i....i...i...i...i...i?
I got another factory back home
Got a little backyard, pink mustang, fenders chrome
At nine o'clock I'm in my chair sat down
Just lately now when my wife talks back to me I slap her around
And then I go to / and then I go to / and then I go to sleep

Great story…

And the song’s got everything except a strong melody.

 

[posttoastie]

 

[CCK1]

The man…



My favorite verse…

Well, it looked like I was gonna be stuck here as far as I could tell
I thought I might as well suck up, you know what the hell
I said you, "You know that song that Charlie Daniels did
About how you went down to Georgia and played fiddle against that kid"
He said, "Yeah it broke my heart but you know what are you gonna do
I said, "To tell you the truth
I thought your solo was the better of the two"

 

[Fret Wilkes]

Jerry Jeff Walker - Stoney

 

[wacolo]

James McMurtry is my favorite lyricist of the last 30+ years. Bar none.

 

[StuH]

Mark Knopfler with Emmylou Harris - Speedway at Nazareth. Brilliant story teller.

 

[elihu]

 

[Red Ryder]

Tony Joe White, Rainy Night in Georgia.

 

[elihu]

 

[CCK1]

Tony Joe White, Rainy Night in Georgia.

Such feeling, on the Brook Benton version, Cornell Dupree’s guitar lines are nothing less than a master class in tasteful double stops.

 

[pedro58]

 

[posttoastie]