Songs that play like a movie

I decided to start the New Year with a list of 25 songs. I've been admiring the countdown lists of many mofos for some time , so thought I' d give this a try.

All of these songs will tell a story; a tale that I think is so strong and engaging, the song becomes like a small, but complete piece of cinema.

I can't say there's any rhyme or reason to how they'll be arranged b/c I' m new to this format. I mostly will post songs as I think of them, but am planning to have a 'top five' by the time I finish this list.

So, I' m starting off with a song by a favorite singer songwriter of mine, Bill Staines. He's sort of roots, sort of country, and he's been touring the country for years. He's not as widely known commercially as folks like Joan Baez or the Avett Brothers, but anytime you find a group of musicians sitting in a song circle and taking turns - you'll likely find someone singing one of his songs.

This video happens to have great illustrative photos too. So if you care to step back in time a century or two, and hear a song/movie about a weary prospector - you're welcome to listen to, and imagine the movie within, of the song:


"Sourdough/The Miner's Song "
By Bill Staines.

I love songs that tell story, (and there are A LOT of them in country music). I haven't heard of Bill Staines or this first song, but it's a very nice song. I also loved the instrumental parts at the beginning and the end of the song, and there are some gorgeous photos in that video.

I'm looking forward to your list.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Hi Lenslady, I'll be looking forward to seeing your list.


I also love songs that tell a story. Listening to Harry Chapin's "Taxi" right now.

Everything off Soundtracks for the Blind, obviously.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Nice idea! Look forward to your list. Waiting to see whether some of my favourite Dylan or Springsteen songs are there as there's quite a few I can think of that fit your criteria. I like your first song too

Gordie Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has to be near tops of any such story song list. "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy..." Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" also has to be high in any pantheon. Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe" actually had a movie made of it, as did Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia". Though perhaps not surprisingly the movies are not anywhere as good at storytelling as the songs themselves. Dylan has many, of course, including "Hurricane" which was also an ingredient of the film about Ruben Carter. The Beatles, naturally. Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" are rightly heralded. Harry Chapin and Jim Croce have some good'uns. Billy Joel and Tom Waits have some favorites of mine. I like ELO's "Diary of Horace Wimp" quite a bit. Michael Murphy's "Wildfire" struck me as a kid. And then maybe the ultimate story song, which was also made into a movie and is a Thanksgiving tradition on FM radio, is Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant", with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Wow, I didn't know I would receive so much interest and positive support for this list .Thanks mofos!

A few words to you before I post the next reveal.
@gbgoodies, I know you are a fan of country music and I am too. So I think you'll find a song or two you may know and enjoy
on this ( evolving ) list.

@Arigato-san, thanks for dropping by, and glad to see you're a fan of story songs .

@Iroquois. Although I haven't given you much feedback, I need to tell you I have been a fan of your insightful and well written movie reviews for a while. So I am glad for your feedback. And even tho I haven't heard the work of Swans , I see you that you have once again hit the nail on the head wiith the post of this band's aural cinema soundtrack.

@christine- Dylan has been my number one musical inspiration and muse of song. So you can bet they'll be a post for the man.

Omg @Holden Pike - if you are familiar with MM Murphy and the song Wildfire , you and I are on the same track.....or in this case, horse trail. Don't know yet which of the songs you mentioned will be on this list,, but every single one of your picks are apt and worthy.

Finally @Yoda, thanks for the heads up and for giving me a platform to do something that's close to my heart. What a great forum mofo is!

And for the next post - on with the show

24-
This song by the group Traffic is actually a ' new' ( and beautiful) rendering of an old English folk song. This one dates at least
as far back as the sixteenth century. And would play out as a fantasy film today - as the main character is less a person than a personification. What I most love about the song ( besides the music itself). Is the plot twist ending.
( Sorry, no visuals on this one, but let your imagination roam)

So if you're not familiar with, or have forgotten the tale, be ready to hear/visualize a story with an ending as dynamic as the turn of events in a movie like The Usual Suspects. Or Charade.


John Barleycorn Must Die
Traffic

Are you familiar with Tom T. Hall? He's a country singer-songwriter who wrote "Harper Valley PTA," which was recorded by Jeanne C. Riley, and "A Week in a Country Jail" and "The Year Clayton Delaney Died," which he recorded. His songs don't include enough story for a movie but you may enjoy them.

Thanks for your post @average joe. Interesting songwriter, Tom T Hall; and certainly a storyteller. , I believe I knew his name, but didn't know he wrote Harper Valley PTA. That may not have enough plot for a movie, though I think it actually may have been made into
a tv-movie at one time. I' m exploring his songs on youtube now, did like the uptempo
( yet bittersweet) Clayton Delaney. The songs are as much character studies as stories, so may only be for a short movie. (In fact, there's a couple of upcoming songs I 'll be posting which could also be considered 'shorts, ' but seem to have a very visual cinematic element. )

Anyway, it 's always good to explore new songs. I will be listening to all the songs that the mofos posted here in the future; and will be working out my list in complete....well, I can't really say complete good order.....let's just say: serendipity .

Ah, thanks to all you mofos, I' m now awash in song. Which is actually a very nice place to be.

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This is a song that may be a short, and not a feature length movie, but is so beautiful, I could not resist posting it. I never heard of this singer-songwriter before, until a musical pal sent me a CD of 'songs I was sure to love' - and I surely did.

In a way, the movie this song could be reminds me of the beautiful short I only recently learned about on mofo. @Ultraviolence called my attention to The Man Who Planted Trees, a tale which is also a small vignette that resounds to a wider, grander , and incredibly gorgeous world. This song is also metaphorical, yet real, and filled with wonder.

Come to think of it, this poignant song is about a universal subject we don't seem to see - or celebrate- much on cinema anymore. A time in life which can be the most uplifting , almost holy experience of our human
existence :

The birth of a child.


The Return
Sally Fingerette

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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Bob Dylan

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Can't believe I forgot about this one when I started this thread. It probably should have been the first song I posted, with regards to the season. Timing's a little late. But a few people are still saying Happy New Year, and some holiday lights are still shining. So, better late than never.

And that sentiment may well relate to the cinema of this story. Which is a true one, as you can witness by seeing the letter Dan wrote at the start of the video. He had written about the woman he's speaking of in the song. But this isn't just Dan's personal story; it's really all of ours.

Because you never forget your first love, do you?


Same Old Lang Syne
Dan Fogelberg

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Some kinds of songs easily lend themselves to story telling; folk, blues, country. It seems rare, however, to have a song that is a top of the charts pop hit be such vivid cinema. It's true that this song was originally from a play, but the words here were rewritten, and the singer stylized it, so it became as popular in Vegas as on the radio. So it could easily become a crime drama movie, preferably in black and white with some low key lighting. I also imagine this song could be made, with some augmentation to the basic plot, into
a detective story. Myself, I see Gene "Popeye Doyle" Hackman as the cop in this gritty noir drama. And for the lead: dare I - with more than a smidgen of irony - suggest it? - Kevin Spacey as Mack.

Mack the Knife
Bobby Darin

Great song!

I never thought of "Mack the Knife" as a "story song", but you're right that it could make a good noir movie.

Thanks so much for your positive feedback @gbgoodies . It's good to know someone's listening....and watching

. The Fogelberg song has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. When he gets to that line " Just for a moment I was back at school" - I'm stopped in my tracks and right back there in high school myself.

Doing this list made me search and span across the years and styles of music I ' ve enjoyed ( and my tastes in music are fairly broad. ) So the Mack the Knife song just sort of popped into my head, and I thought - whew - that s a story for a movie for sure. Darin was a superb singer btw. I love how at the end of the song he holds that melody strong and steady , against the counterpoint of the horns. Which perhaps even mimics the irony that this song has an upbeat, fun loving tempo - of a sinister subject.

I like to post music I really like, from different genres; some songs will be well known, and some almost obscure. But all of these songs are ones I've found meaningful and evocative . And most songs will have a fairly straightforward story line; but a few are visual and aural panoramas where you may have to 'fill in the blanks' - like the song that follows next.

19-
Can a song that's been used as background music in movies be a movie itself? I think so in the case of this song, even though the lyrics read more like the symbolism of a flowing poem than a ready to go plot line. I do think there is a story here, and in fact, I can think of at least two totally disperate tales :

1- " It' s about a turning point," said Gabriel of the song, "when you have to dare to leap from something bindingly familiar to the freedom of something new. " An ex- bandmate from Genesis says it was simply about Peter leaving the band to strike out on his own. Sounds good to me.


Or:


2- It's a story of spiritual rebirth, and it may be of a man who climbs the mountain to ponder his fate. He hears a message through the wind, an ethereal voice addressing his earthbound struggles, and that tells him where to lead himself next. But I see it more as the spiritual journey of a Biblical figure: Perhaps it's Moses- taking leave of his worn and frayed followers to climb a mountain and receive the Ten Commandments. But more likely- it's Jesus, being told he has given all the gifts to humanity he has to give; and now it's time for his Father to bring him home.

Perhaps it's something else entirely. I would love to hand this song, with its lush imagery and a bare bones plot, to a master screenwriter and/or director and say- "Here , what can you make of this? "

Maybe someone like Scorsese- who would hand back a film with a harrowingly real storyline with unforgettable and iconic characters. Or perhaps someone like Malick - who would expound upon the visuals with even greater beauty and immediacy , while saying" ' We don't really need the plot to be all that clear. This is about humanity - and about something greater than humble human kind."

Or perhaps you have even envisioned a storyline of your own:


Solsbury Hill
Peter Gabriel

I'm also a fan of songs telling a story. Not particularly familiar with any of the songs this far but I'll check 'em out. There's lots of great cinematic songs in metal if you don't mind little (or in some cases a lot) heavier music.

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Thanks for stopping by, and for your comments @pahaK . Glad to have you here, even if you're not familiar with the songs I m posting. I' m actually not too familiar with heavy metal music myself. And isn't that funny, after I just got done yapping about how I listen to so many different kinds of music. ( The angel of irony strikes again)

Well I'll give a listen to a few metal tunes, and feel free ( but not obligated) to suggest a few. Though I can't say if I' ll post a metal hit, I promise that, somewhere down along the line here; I' ll post something........LOUD!!!!!