re: Favorite Songs that Tell Stories - whatcha got?

TOOL: Lost Keys, Blame Hoffman/Rosetta Stoned

quote:

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Coward of the County Kenny Rogers

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"You could have heard a pin drop when Tommy stopped and locked the door."

Tommy opened a can of whoop-arse.

"Sing Me Back Home" - Merle Haggard
"Lonesome Fugutive" - Merle Haggard
"Mama Tried" - Merle Haggard
"Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" - The First Edition

Coward Of The County/Kenny Rogers
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald/Gordon Lightfoot
Cats In The Cradle
The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia/Vicki Lawrence
El Paso/Marty Robbins
Seven Spanish Angels/Willie & Ray
Sloop John B/The Beach Boys
Too Small A Price/Don Francisco

I think Bluegrass always has the best stories for me. The Dillards Polly Vaughn is the first one that comes to mind a hunter accidentally shot his wife when he was out hunting one night because "she'd her apron wrapped around her and he took her for a swan" (rhymes with Vaughn)

The Wreck of the Old 97 - "The Wreck of the Old 97 was an American rail disaster involving the Southern Railway mail train, officially known as the Fast Mail (train number 97), while en route from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, on September 27, 1903" - covered by many Country and Bluegrass groups

"Molly and Tenbrooks," also known as "The Racehorse Song," is a traditional song of the late 19th century. One of the first recordings of the song was the Carver Boys' 1929 version called "Tim Brook."[1] The song was recorded by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys on October 28, 1947, but not released until 1949. In 1948". This song is a fictional account of the July 4, 1878 match race between the Kentucky horse Ten Broeck and the California mare Mollie McCarty at the Louisville Jockey Club (now Churchill Downs). Ten Broeck won the race before a record crowd of 30,000. The song commonly states that Ten Broeck "was a big bay horse", and although he was a bay, he was "very compactly built".[6] The song refers to a fatal outcome, which did not in fact occur; Mollie McCarty lived nearly five more years, winning multiple races and producing three foals.

"The Great Rock Island Route", popularized as "Wabash Cannonball" and various other titles, is a 19th-century American folk song that describes the scenic beauty and predicaments of a fictional train, the Wabash Cannonball Express, as it traveled on the Great Rock Island Railroad.

Jimmie Rodgers The TB Blues about a man with tuberculosis

LINK Claire Lynch Wabash Canonball

Lots of really great answers on here. Looking forward to revisiting some of them soon.

HIGHWAY PATROLMAN

Several:

Bobby Bare - Tequila Sheila

Cross the Brazos at Waco - Billy Walker

Faron Young - The Yellow Bandanna

DAC - I’m an Ohio Boy
YouTube Link

quote:

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Sometimes said to be the greatest country song of all time:

He Stopped Loving Her Today

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Written by Curly Putman and Bobby Braddock. Those guys wrote a lot of hits.
Curly was from Princeton, Al., which is a long way from anything. A few years ago, the graduating class at the high school only had 2 kids in it.