5 On Friday - Tell Me A Love Story

This wonderful meme was invented by our friend Travis of Trav's Thoughts. To join in, go to his page, sign in and share your five choices of music for the week.


My Favorite songs are often ones that could be the great novels or scripts for whole movies - The story songs.  Now this is a tradition in folk music and old ballads, but there are modern incarnations and here are some of my favorite "stories in song".


I'll kick it off with a May December Romance in Crimes of the Heart written and sung by Amanda McBroom





Then a couple with nothing in common but their dreams - John Buchino's "Sweet Dreams" sung by Barbara Cook





Next up a pair of "Star Crossed Lovers" only this time on meaner streets than Shakespeare's Verona. Mark Knopfler with Romeo and Juliet (Had a hard time picking just one Knopfler song as he is a modern master of the art - Check out "Done With Bonaparte"





Shotguns at the ready Bonnie Raitt takes you on a wild ride to chase down a runaway





Now a slice of real life. Leonard Cohen's song Chelsea Hotel #2 that is supposed to be about his encounter with Janis Joplin written after her suicide. Here sung by Rufus Wainwright (Warning for the sensitive about such things, it kicks off with a graphic sexual description but if you love Cohen, you are used to that.  )

5 On Friday - Tell Me A Story

This week I wanted to do "story" songs.  One of my favorites is Amanda McBroom's "Crimes of the Heart" above.  It wasn't available on the player, so you get it above from You Tube.  Below are five songs that can play as motion pictures in your mind while listening to them. Do you have any favorite "story" songs?

Sammy Davis, Jr., "Mr. Bojangles"

One of Sammy's biggest hits, Mr. Bojangles is so believable than you feel as if you have actually met the old gentleman in that jail cell and saw him click his heels even as the clock ran down on his life.

Barry Manilow, "Copacabana"

From the first line (Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl") to the end, you get the story of the lives of Lola and her bartender boyfriend Tony who work at the Copacabana nightclub until a rich rival for Lola's affections takes Tony down. Cut to 30 years later, when Lola sits alone  "and drinks herself half-blind" at the Copa.  This one actually did become a made for TV movie.

Jimmy Buffet, "He Went To Paris"

This song is literally the story of a whole life from adventurous youth to old age of a man as told to Buffet by an old friend just sitting in the sun chatting.

Townes Van Zandt, "Pancho and Lefty"

Most people have heard the Willie and Waylon version, but this is the original by Van Zandt. It is the last gasp of the "Old West" from the point of view of the outlaw growing old in some city flop house instead of the wide open range of his youth.

John Prine, "Sam Stone"

One of Brother John Prine's most famous songs about a man coming home from Viet Nam scarred by war.