The basic premise as Ged twittered is simple, favorite songs that tell a story. Ged listed his five, and man, great list!

Coming up with 5 songs that have fantastic lyrics that tell a story, especially when that story adds to the overall essence of the song, was more difficult than I thought. Paring down the list took me some time.

1. Simon & Garfunkel — He Was My BrotherFrom the classic, if under-appreciated, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM — this is my Simon and Garfunkel pick. And I’m a HUGE Simon & Garfunkel fan, so this was really, really tough.

   He was my brother Tears can’t bring him back to me He was my brother And he died so his brothers could be free

   The song is about a murdered “freedom writer,” and it was written by Paul in 1963. “He Was My Brother” was later dedicated to Andrew Goodman, a classmate of the duo, and one of the slain civil rights activists from Freedom Summer in 1964. Melodically, this is pure folk. Lyrically, it evokes what I can only imagine must have been a very real part of the era. My parents were in college in 1964 (or, my dad was — my mom started in 1965 I think), but neither were really involved in any movements.
2. Counting Crows — Anna BeginsFrom August and Everything After, one of my favorite albums of all time, is a great song about falling in love, despite denying it, despite claiming you aren’t ready.

   This time when kindness falls like rain It washes her away and Anna begins to change her mind “These seconds when I’m shaking leave me shuddering for days” she says. And I’m not ready for this sort of thing

   After finally realizing that it is love, the relationship is over, and you aren’t ready for it to end. I don’t know, I love this song.
3. Dashboard Confessional — Hands DownFrom the So Impossible EP and later A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, before this song was the emo anthem for a bunch of annoying teenagers who don’t know how to act at a concert and almost cause me to go postal on their asses, it was a song that had very, very real semblance in my own life, specifically the summer of 2002.

   My hopes are so high, that your kiss might kill me. So won’t you kill me, So I die happy.

   It is quite simply the story of a great date, from beginning to end. It’s nothing that fantastic or life-changing, unless you can relate to it on a personal level. And then the lyrics are perfect. Personally, I think Chris Carraba is one of the most amazing lyricists, even if that does get marred by his annoying fan base.
4. Guster — Airport SongGuster is another band that I have a hard time just choosing one song. “Airport Song”, from 1998’s Goldfly, was the band’s first modest radio hit, and probably the song most people first heard by the band. It’s about joining a cult, from the POV of the cult leader.

   Put to bed the son and sister moon Ill be hiding in your dirty room Ill go there seeking only what I need La ti da we’ll stay there till we bleed

   The line, “you’ll be selling books at the airport” is always one of my favorites — because we’ve all seen those Hari Krishna freaks or whoever doing that stuff. Like most Guster songs, the melody betrays the lyrics, which are darker and more sinister than what the sound suggests.
5. Bruce Springsteen — The RiverWithout a doubt, one of the greatest story songs of all time. Released in 1980, though written earlier as “The Ties That Bind,” Springsteen has said this was one of his breakthrough songs and one of the tracks that led to Nebraska, his evocative narrative album.

   Now those memories come back to haunt me They haunt me like a curse Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true Or is it something worse

   The song is such a great story of life, especially when things happen that are unplanned and unexpected. It’s just such a gorgeous and sorrowful song. Fantastic really.

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   Check out these other “Story Song” bloggers: David Miller (@daveobe) Living in the Now David Schultz (@dvsjr) The (mis)adventures of a macintosh administrator Mike Schramm (@mikeschramm) MikeSchramm.com Dave Caolo (@panache) Hardcore Geek Von Glitschka (@vonster) Glitschka Studios Andy Rudkin (@mizaru) mizaru.me.uk Austin Heller (@austinheller) AustinHeller.com Mason Sklar (@zargap) masonsklar.com Allen Emory A. Emory Alain Edouard (@alainedouard) alainedouard.co.cc Mark Goody (@marramgrass) marramgrass Jamie Parkins The Sound of Silence

Well, it looks like my predictions were pretty close — except for Best Actress/Supporting Actress. I was happy that No Country For Old Men swept (It won 4 of the 5 majors, and it wasn’t even eligible for “Best Actress” — though Kelly Macdonald was very, very good in her small, but pivotal role — and her accent was dead-on — had no idea she was Scottish!), because it really was, to me, the “best” Academy-esque film of the year.

Although there were a few really nice moments during this year’s telecast (Tilda Swinton’s win — and her absolute shock, was amazing; the beautiful Marion Cotillard’s win for Best Actress — as soon as I saw her clip, I had a feeling that would take it — makes me want to see La vie en Rose), my favorite moment was the performance and subsequent win for “Falling Slowly” from the film, Once. I’m not quite sure how I missed out on all the buzz for this film (actually, I take that back — pretty sure it happened while I was recovering from my eye surgery back in July/August), but as soon as they started performing, I got chills and was really hoping it would win. I thought Enchanted was great and I absolutely adore Amy Adam, but “Falling Slowly” was just such a beautiful song. Of course, while I’m watching the ceremony, I keep thinking, “I know that dude’s voice — I’ve heard him before somewhere” and sure enough, it turns out that both Glenn and Marketa contributed to the The Cake Sale (NOTE: Because I’m all about Full Disclosure, my Amazon.com affiliate ID IS included in that link, you don’t have to click it or buy it through that, just trying this out more than anything), a collaborative effort between a bunch of Irish musicians that I imported back in November of 2006 (and I couldn’t find the CD so I bought the Amazon.com download, as it was both cheaper than iTunes and without DRM, of course, I found the CD this morning. Whatever.). Glenn is in an Irish band, The Frames, which has opened for Damien Rice (one of my favorite musicians) on recent tours and also collaborated with Damien and the Bell X1 guys.

They were also on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic last summer and I actually had that podcast saved on one of my external drives. Neato.

Anyhoo, I was super excited that they won (as was the audience, you could tell that the crowd was really psyched for them to win) but more than a little peeved when the orchestra cut off Marketa before she was able to give her speech. I always think those things are so rude anyway, especially given how much time is wasted in lame joke set-ups and deliveries and fake montages (as Jeff pointed out in his comment on my last entry). So when they came back from commercial and let her come out and give her speech, I was really, really happy. I can’t remember that ever happening before, and I was very, very glad that that happened. After that, no one got the orchestra of death music again — I think the director of the show freaked the fuck out and basically refused to do it again. The show was short this year anyway (they didn’t have the traditional 2:30 montages for each Best Picture nominee, I assume because they weren’t able to get the WGA consent when all this was being planned — and there was no time to go back in and try to edit another 13 minutes into the show), so it wasn’t like it was needed.

For anyone who missed or wants to re-watch the performance,

Can you believe that chick is only 19?!?! Amazing!

I immediately bought both the Music From The Motion Picture Once and The Swell Season, which contains many of the same songs (slightly different) and is the name of the collaboration of the two.

Awesome, awesome stuff.