I Wanna Tell You a Story!
Don’t worry, there’s no need to panic (even if you were old enough to spot the reference) this is not going to be a tribute post to that ‘icon’ of 1960/70s light entertainment …
… instead, it’s a response to the following recent tweet from Mat Osman of Suede:
I found it impossible to resist taking Mat’s thought provoking question, “has there ever been a better short story in song form?” as a personal challenge.
Given how much I enjoy a well written tale (or scripted drama), almost as much as I love a well crafted song, it became a pleasure to seek out some records that might just have the legs to combine these two artforms effectively.
It’s a really tough assignment to squeeze (if you’ll excuse the pun!) a coherent narrative into a three/four minute song (though I did allow a few entries a bit longer), but I trust you will agree that the dozen ‘dramas’ I’ve selected all manage this task admirably.
The criteria I chose to use for a song to qualify is that its lyrics could reasonably, back in the day (in my mind at least), have made an intriguing ‘storyboard’ for an episode of ‘Play for Today’.
So set out below, in reverse order, are my favourite song scripts in waiting:
P.S. This proved to be a rich vein of great records, and I had to discard some strong candidates (having deemed a ‘top twenty’ a step too far!), so it’s highly likely I have completely missed some real classics. If therefore any ‘Challenge 69’ readers would like to nominate their own favourite ‘story song’ then they can use the Comment button below to put me straight.
If I get enough nominations I might even pull together a follow-up post.
12 - ‘Louise’ by The Human League
“It’s just you see, you make me feel, as if we were still lovers.”
Phil Oakey has never been the most complex songwriter, but this intriguing narrative song leaves so much half-said about an old, failed, but never forgotten, relationship, which may (or may not) be rekindled, that it cries out for a dramatic treatment.
11 - ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ by Marianne Faithful
“She could clean the house for hours, or rearrange the flowers.”
This might prove a hard watch, but Faithful’s fantastic/fatalistic version of a song written by American poet Shel Silverstein, about the disillusionment and mental deterioration of a suburban housewife, would surely make a gritty play.
10 - ‘Wichita Lineman’ by Glen Campbell
“And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.”
A lyrical masterclass (from a 21 year-old Jimmy Webb) that says so much with so little, from its opening, “I am a lineman for the county, and I drive the main road,” through to the killer line above, that it perfectly evokes the image of a drifter, in life and love.
9 - ‘As I Sat Sadly by Her Side’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“While sorrows pile up around you, ugly, useless and over-inflated."
I’ve always interpreted this as a filmable anti-parable of ‘The Bad Samaritan’. Neither of Cave’s protagonists cover themselves in glory; first the woman preaches intolerance towards others suffering, and then, at the end, the man smiles sinisterly at her tears.
8 - ‘Bus Stop’ by The Hollies
“Someday my name and hers are going to be the same.”
Songwriters are, by nature, a pretty miserable bunch, with heartbreak treated as more suitable lyrical raw material than bliss. But even ‘Play for Today’ managed the occasional happy ending, so I have made room for this lovely, simple ditty of true love.
7 - ‘Hanging Shed’ by The Triffids
“A strange unholy tale, a man beyond the pale.”
I couldn’t compile this list without an entry from my favourite storytelling songwriter. As usual, McComb leaves a lot to the imagination, but it’s clear whatever atrocity took place behind his ‘hanging shed’ could easily sustain a classic psycho/horror drama.
6 - The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ by Bob Dylan
“Take the rag away from your face, now ain’t the time for your tears.”
No one does indignation at miscarriages of justice, via rigged courts, better than Bob, and this tale of a wealthy young tobacco farmer getting off lightly after murdering an African-American barmaid is a classic. Give the man his own ‘true crime’ series I say!
5 - ‘Stan’ by Eminem
“Just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan, this is Stan.”
The rapper, his stalker, and the resultant tragic outcome; surely it would be hard to envisage a more contemporary, moralistic thriller plot synopsis, for a Sky Atlantic series, than that? Besides which, I have always loved the Dido sample.
4 - Luka by Suzanne Vega
“They only hit until you cry, and after that you don’t ask why.”
Another one that wouldn’t make laugh-a-minute viewing, but Vega crams enough story devices into four minutes (domestic violence, an ‘excuser’ victim, and a neighbour who could have intervened) to justify a feature length interpretation.
3 - ‘Up the Junction’ by Squeeze
“I got a job with Stanley, he said I’d come in handy.”
Mat Osman was almost, but not quite, right! Chris Difford’s words, and exquisite rhyming, paint a picture-perfect kitchen sink drama that sits comfortably alongside ‘60s films like ‘A Taste of Honey’. But I still think I’ve found a couple that can better it.
2 - ‘You Said Something’ by PJ Harvey
“You said something, that was really important.”
OK, I realise I am a bit obsessed with this song, but I can see it making a classic rockumentary/expose. Just what went on in New York between PJ and (presumably) Nick Cave? And exactly what did Nick say to Polly that was, “really important?”
1 - Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
“I’ll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don’t seem right.”
Cleverly hidden amongst domestic drudgery, and mundane everyday dialogue, Gentry slowly insinuates what lay behind Billie Joe’s tragic demise up on the Tallahatchie Bridge. This, Mr Osman, is the BEST ever short story in song form. I rest my case.
And here, finally, are all twelve, collected in playlist/film festival form, please enjoy!
In fact, on reflection, I would go even further on ‘Ode to Billie Joe’. There has to be enough dramatic nuance, and unspoken intrigue, in Bobbie Gentry’s four minutes and fifteen seconds, to support a full Netflix series, and I know just the man to direct it …
… with all those hints of dark (and deadly) deeds lurking behind Mississippi’s picket fences of normality, not to mention the song’s sly reference to ‘a nice slice of pie’, surely ‘The Tallahatchie Tragedy’ (as I’m renaming the adaptation) could prove the perfect pitch to entice David Lynch out of his directorial retirement.
After all, if there is one man who is uniquely qualified to get to the bottom of what transpired that night, up on Choctaw Ridge, it must surely be …
Special Agent Dale Cooper
So many good choices here! Hard to nail down even 20. If I were to add one, it'd likely be Jawbreaker's "Chesterfield King."
"She asked me if I had a name
Told her I was glued up on some chick
We sat and smoked against the wall
Drank a beer, felt the chill of fall, of fall"