Better story teller than Edmund Fitzgerald?


There was a thread on A'gon about the most perfect song.  We had reasons for picking various, but for me it was Gordong Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Perhaps it featured an aspect of song writing that no one else much cared for:  A deep and detailed story in the song.

So I ask you, A'goners, what songs are as good or better at telling a story of a historical event? 

erik_squires

It's funny how a couple of people have written Harry Chaplin instead of Chapin.

As far as funny ones go, I would add Billy the Mountain by Zappa, and The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia by Vicki Lawrence.

@jonwolfpell So true. "Circle of Steel" was a powerful imprint on my childhood - that feeling of desperate hope amidst despair and squalor. 

How about Kings X -- Gretchen goes to Nebraska. The entire album is a coherent story -- the ENTIRE ALBUM yo!

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" was written by a Scottish-born song writer who moved to Australia when he was young, so he is primarily Australian.  There are several good covers of the song.  I particularly like the one by the Pogues.