I love blues tunes that tell really good stories. They're few and far between. I don't know if you would call this video "blues" but to me, it is an example of outstanding song writing. Tom Waits amazes me (this is an old tune.)
This song is 4:30 or so long -you need to LISTEN to the lyrics to get what I'm talking about. If you don't have time don't bother - you won't get it. If you have other favorites I'd love to hear 'em too.
For storytelling in music, Springsteen is pretty good too - I like Nebraska - the story of the Charles Starkweather murders in the 50s. Again, not really blues though.
Only blues song I can think of that tells a story (beginning, middle and end) is Frankie & Johnnie - I like Taj Mahal's "Frankie & Albert" version. I don't listen to a lot of blues though, so I'm sure there must be lots more story songs.
Sorry, this particular video won't embed...but I posted it instead of others that would embed, because SRV actually gets interviewed to tell the Story of Willie the Wimp, then he plays it.
totally agree with you regarding Tom Waits, Greg. My personal favorite: Eggs and Sausage in a Cadillac. I can smell the diner, feel his pain when he sings this song. Totally what music is about to me, making you feel something. I don't know that there is a clearly defined "story" on this one, it's more a conjuring up of imagery, but it works for me.
"Classified section, offers no direction, it's a cold caffeine..in a nicotine cloud"
Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty Highway Patrolman - Springsteen And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Eric Bogle Stan - Eminem A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash Running Bear - Johnny Preston
You could make a movie out of all of these (and that has been done from the Springsteen song.)
Albert Collins!! GREAT story teller blues. Some of great ones: I Ain't Drunk (I'm just drinkin') Too many dirty dishes
Quintessential Albert "Don't go reachin' across my plate" - I can't find a video on Albert's version so here's one from TV Slim. Almost the same lyrics as Albert's version.
Albert's Lyrics: (slightly different) If one thing in this world I just can't stand Is bein' at the table wit' an ill-mannered man
Now, if he's sittin' on your left Before you could eat a bite He'll reach across your plate An' you know that ain't right
Now I like to eat, as well as any man But there's some rules, a fool should understand When ya have one little helpin' An' one extra piece of cake I tell ev'rybody, don't go reachin' across my plate
I was at a party last night, at over Big Mary's Cat reached 'cross my plate Got a coat sleeve in my gravy I didn't say a word, just looked him dead in the eye He reached across my plate, an' cut him a piece a pie
Now I don't care if he did it for a prank I don't care, if you had a drink Especially when I'm out, a-with my date Now don't you go reachin' across my plate
At a party last week, there was some high-class folks Ev'rything on the table, an' that ain't no joke They had barbecue possum, rattlesnake gravy Chicken fried skunk, an' it smelt real crazy
Ev'rything went fine, but one thing made me blue A cat reached across my plate, for some armadillo stew Now when you at the table, you act real nice You say, "pass me that" or "pass me the platter" But just because you hungry, an' happen to come in late Don't you go reachin', across MY plate
"Pass some a-that turkey over there, baby!"
"No, don't give me none of that skunk, I don't want none a-that"
"I, I beg your pardon"
"If this cat stop reachin' 'cross my plate, I can maybe ask for somethin'"
"A pass me a little a-that turkey there, baby"
Na na na na-na-na-na
Yeah-heya
"Party' nice, party's nice"
"Yeah, ah give gimme some a that chicken over there, baby"
"Chicken fried skunk? "ah no"
---------- Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. -Dan Castellaneta
Last Edited by on Dec 01, 2010 7:58 AM
Chinaski, This is for you. Little Feat was my favorite until I commited to the blues. You opened up nostalgias door for me. Lowell George was an incredible song writer. There is youtube video of "All That You Dream" that really brings the best out in him.
IMO Another fantastic story blues from Albert Collins: "Snowed In"
Lyrics:
Last winter I was in Chicago and the weather was awfully bad Last winter I was in Chicago, and the weather was awfully bad They say I was stuck in Chi-Town, for the worst winter they ever had
"I'm gonna go on right here And see if I can get this truck started right quick"
"These old shoes ain't ready for the winter"
"Oh, I'm 'bout to fall an' break my neck here in a minute, buddy
"See if I can get this key in this door here" "I know it don't lock it, lock, it done froze up on me an'" "Lock it won't act right, it already half-tore up anyhow"
"Yeah, I got it now, I'm gon get here an' try to crank this old thing" "An' pat the accelerator a little bit"
"Yeah, I almost got it" "Pat the accelerator a little bit more" "It's cold, that wind just whistlin' out there"
"Oh it sure cold weather out here" "You get frostbite out here"
"Try it one more time"
"Ya'all, it ain't gonna start"
Yeah, I don't mind a little snow, an' I can handle rain I say, I don't mind a little snow, an' I can handle a little rain Now I don't mind bein' cold but this winter, man it's sure insane
"If I go now hit this old gas station, I think I can get me somebody to" "Walk on down the street here, 'bout a block" "See if I can, get somebody to give me a boost off here an' get my battery charged"
"Oh man, this stuff is in a mess here!"
"I'm gonna fall, break my neck"
"Oh get on by man, I'm gonna get out your way, I'm in the street" "I'm tryin' to walk here, ya'all runnin' these damn trucks an' cars an' goin' on"
"Come on by man"
"Oh man, the station is done closed!"
Now the gas station was closed, and the snow was eight feet tall Now the gas station had closed, hm, and the snow was eight feet tall The telephone cable was down, an' you couldn't even make a call
You couldn't go out for groceries, hm, nobody would deliver to you I said, you couldn't go out for groceries, nobody would deliver to you In a bad situation like that, what in the hell, ya'all, what-a I'm suppose to do?
"Yeah, it's a tough winter, I tell ya"
"I go back out here one more time an' see if I get this, thing started right here"
"Old battery might be done be at the level, I might get it started now"
"Besides, I'm about to fall"
"Man, I'm gonna tell ya, I'm a, whew!"
"Rough, rough here in Chicago!"
"Wanna get on back across that desert in Los Angeles, somewhere" "Florida somewhere" "If I can get outta here, I know I'm snowed in"
"Try to crank this damn thing one more time" "I think I can get it to crank, I hope so"
"Let me see if I can get it cranked"
"Pat the accelerator a little bit"
"Might get it started, now"
"Oh yes, I got that thing together now, boy" "She's kickin' now!"
"Yeah" "Yeah, will let her get warmed up"
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
---------- Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. -Dan Castellaneta
Last Edited by on Dec 01, 2010 8:06 AM
Totally agree on the Albert Collins stuff. I have done his "Too Many Dirty Dishes" and "A Good Fool is Hard to Find" is on our Duracool CD (although I play bari and tenor sax on that cut.) I think, as far as he was concerned, Too Many Dirty Dishes and Snowed In were excuses for him to make sound effects with his guitar strings. ---------- /Greg
Greg - Damn near every Howlin' Wolf tune told a story. On the later ones, Hubert Sumlin helped to paint an audio canvas that was incredibly sympathetic with the Wolf's lyrics.
Willie Dixon wrote some great tunes that told a story.
Check out Neutral Milk Hotel...most of the songs on their biggest album ("In The Aeroplane Over The Sea") tell a part of the story. The most overt one is "Holland, 1945." It's a concept album about Anne Frank.
Check out the songs "Two" and "Kettering" by the Antlers.
Lots of Gordon Lightfoot songs tell stories.
"The River" by Bruce Springsteen.
"Marimba And Shit Drums" by Spencer Krug (alias Moonface)
Lots of Dylan, of course. I can think of at least two songs from Blood On The Tracks alone that are stories.
Lot of Robert Cray. "Strong Persuader" is an obvious one.
Joe L - Dixon had many - damn straight. He wrote "She's Dangerous" which was mentioned earlier.
Also, a lot of Rick Estrin tunes.
A great Collins one not mentioned here is "Mastercharge" and also that one where Collins just tells the story of his wife going out with gals and geting back late, "Conversation with Collins".
No harp , but Townes,, "Pancho & Lefty" Robert Earl Keen,singing "The Road Goes On Forever",, a perennial fav. around the campfire ---------- My YT http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
Greg, it ain't amplified but Mississippi John Hurt was, for me, one of the great story blues tellers. Here's one of my favorite blues stories told in song by the Master:
More for the Tom Waits love fest- sung by John Hammond Jr. Murdder in the Red Barn off the Wicket Grin album. - threw it together and posted it just for this thread (what a guy)
This song is based on a true story, about a light I saw in the sky back in 1999. I recorded it in 2006 with members of an acoustic group that I play with in Jackson called Animal Farm, along with some other amazing Jackson musicians, including Patrice Moncell, a renowned blues and gospel singer, on background vocals (she’s sung at Carnegie Hall, and was featured in the Robert Mugge documentary Last of the Mississippi Jukes).
It's about more than just the light that I saw; it's also about the innate desire, in all of us, to reach out for something greater than the world around us and “jump off this planet.”
Harmonica content: the solo was actually the "scratch" track recorded live with the rhythm tracks and includes my first recorded overblow, and the only one on my first album.
@scojo thatnks for sharing that - Fun song and playing. Did you hang with Popper at some point ??
Brings to mind a cult I could have joined - but for a still healthy dose of sceptecism. I was 19 with a very open mind.
I'd been staying in Eugene Oregon, waiting for the shrooms to bloom on the cowpies outside of town. A poster was hung around town, promising the chance to meet two individuals who had been on UFOs and could explain thier meaning and purpose.
I hitched a ride to the coast to check it out, and ended up at the seminal meeting of what became the 'Heavens Gate' group who many years later, joined their UFO brewthren dressed in Nike sneaks in San Diego during the Comet Hale Bop's celestial visit.
I am one of those 'mind like a parachute' guys( "it only works when it's open") - A little skeptic gatekeeper is not bad thing to keep around however. I'm happy to be here now, on this planet, with the ones I love.
Google Heaven's Gate or Marshall Applewhite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(religious_group)
nacoran, don't know where you picked up on the mann gulch fire clip. I come on to MBH daily and browse around. When I saw this video, I thought what a small world. I grew up in montana and worked for the U.S. Forest service fighting forest fires for 37 years before I retired in 2001. I started on the Bitterroot Nat. Forest in Montana and ended up on the Cleveland Nat. Forest in Southern California. Young men and Fire by Norman maclean and smokejumpers, brothers in the sky by starr jenkins are two good books. Any how since this video hit close to home with me I had to make comments. I actually started playing harmonica the winter of '69-'70 when I was going to a forestry tech. school in Missoula Montana some of us went to a music store after class, one of the guys had to pick up a couple guitar strings. I saw the harmonicas and picked up a Marine Band 1896 think it was like $2.50 couple weeks later I picked up a few more keys and a 64 chromatic it was I think $38.50 big difference in prices now days, go figure. Just an old Smokey the Bear Fan...
Harpin, I came by that song in a truly odd way. I'd heard it years ago at a jam session, but it had faded into the recesses of my memory. Then I was reading a website that had an article about one of those web searches where you whistle or hum a song and it identifies the song you are humming for you (if it's in the database). The song I was looking for is still out there somewhere, but this tune came up. It must have shared a couple chord changes. I remembered this thread and thought it would fit. (The song I was actually looking for is 'Amy' and it's a piano instrumental from a promo tape for the Boston Pops that someone who once had a connection with the PBS station out there. The tape got left in a pocket and went through washing machine. Being a promo tape the writing was not high quality. That had already faded. The washer chewed up the tape terribly. I still have it in a box somewhere. I've thought about taking a picture of it and trying to enhance the contrast to see if I can figure out who wrote it. It still gets stuck in my head all the time but with just a song name that is also a common name and a vague idea that whoever performed it also performed once, years ago, at the pops, I have no way to track it down unless it finally ends up in one of those humming catalogs. ---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
Hey Bonedog, thanks for the kind words! FYI, I was stone sober when I saw what I saw (in 1999). I'll tell the whole story if we ever meet in person. Odd coincidence: I had just flown into San Diego, and was supposed to meet a friend from grad school who was a reporter for the local NPR affiliate, for dinner... she couldn't make it because of "this cult mass suicide that had just happened"... it was Heaven's Gate.
