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

@akg_ca So true. Good storytelling in a perfectly romanticized Lightfootian way and a beautiful melody, too. 

This guy wrote quite a few story songs, but this one is probably his signature tune.

 


Black Day in July " from the album "Did She Mention My Name" is about the race riots in Detroit in July 1967, with the anarchy reported on TV

In 1968, Gordon Lightfoot released a controversial song entitled “Black Day In July”; it was banned by multiple US radio stations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GORDON   LIGHTFOOT - “Ghosts of Cape Horn”

from GordonLightfoot.com

1980 "Ghosts of Cape Horn" documentary film

September 23, 2011 — Another fan was looking for this film, and when he didn't find it he sent me an email. So, of course I looked for it for him, and - surprisingly - I found the entire film online at the National Sailing Hall of Fame website.

I had never seen it before, but - like any devoted Lightfoot fan - knew that the song, "Ghosts of Cape Horn", had been written for the film, as its title song. The documentary tells the story of sailing vessels making the trip around Cape Horn, before the Panama Canal was built. Like any Lightfoot story song, the lyrics tell a complex story in just a few minutes. The film runs approximately 55 minutes, and is now available at YouTUbe, from which it is displayed on this webpage.

The song was released on the 1980 album, Dream Street Rose