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Most complex storylines in songs

32 votes
?
by RockNRollMassacre

Can any top Dylan's Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts?

RockNRollMassacre | 13 May '08, 14:27 | Send note | Report this | Reply

that's not so much complex

as just FUCKING LONG.


Far be it for me to criticise Dylan

but he is the master of using thirty-five words where one would probably suffice..


but

isn't that what poetry or lyricism is?


Not necessarily.

It's a style of poetry or lyricism but certainly not the entire sumnation of it.


No Way!!

Lyricism, or poetry, if you like, is choosing the PERFECT word for that situation, not messing around using 35 because you can't make your mind up which most entirely sums up what you want to say.


they're always GOOD words though

he'd be a boring boring man if his songs weren't full of interesting metaphors and weird comments


but

it's easier to say something interesting or funny in 35 words than that is in 1.


"It's easier". Precisely.

It takes far more effort to write something interesting and concise in fewer words.

There was that famous author who once apologised for writing a long letter 'cos "I didn't have time to write you a short one". There's a mistaken assumption that the longer song or the longer film or the longer novel is the most difficult and challenging one to write whereas often writing something shorter that says the same thing takes far, far, far more skill and effort.


it's pretty complex!

there are two interlocking love triangles and about 2 billion characters and at least 2 subplots. you don't find this in any other songs!


That song really gets on my wick

IT NEVER CHANGES.

My Sister by Tindersticks probably wins.


damn I was just going to say that

beautiful song and great story. Tindersticks 2 is where it's at.


I love some of Steely Dan's stories.

Like Glamour Profession, Throw Back The Little Ones, et. al


I would go for

Mariner's Revenge Song by the Decemberists. A tremendous story and an awesome song


Great story

But not really "complex" is it. Scoundrel sleeps with woman. Son tracks down and kills scoundrel. Just so happens to be in a whale.


agreed


R Kelly?

Trapped in the Closet, for all it's inherent awfulness, has a pretty awkward plotline involving about five different love triangles in it.


Sorry for bringing up R Kelly, though.

Really, properly sorry for mentioning it actually. Too many exams...


Never apologise!

Trapped in the Closet is a masterpiece.


^5


very true....

:)


Trapped in the Closet

Ahahahahahaha, Bridget and the midget! I never have seen the like of this before. Gold.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jyvzfgxY0kc


.

i came onto this thread to mention r kelly
i am so sad to see i was beaten to it :(


i'm in the same boat

damnit!


It's not really one song though, is it?

Admittedly it has the same backing track throughout, but you might as well say The Phantom Of The Opera, or Don Giovanni.

And it's not "inherently awful", it's amazing!


The War Criminal Rises and Speaks

by Okkervil River.


What about Columbo's Car by Looper

... a great story about the dishevelled mac-wearing detective trying to get to grips with the legal grey areas surrounding sampling in dance music.


These Words - NATASHA BEDINGFIELD

a story about trying to write a hit song, that's a story set to a song that although it's about trying to write a hit song, is atually a hit song!!!

That's pretty complex.


I love that Dylan song..

been listening to it excessively on my walk to uni on these sunny mornings..

Followed by Desolation Row and the two fit my journey time just about perfectly.

Happy days..


Mars Volta

286 hour concept albums about Missing Oijja Boards


Jeff Lewis

Gold.


It's not a song...

But Mount Eerie (the album), is pretty complex. Maybe?


it lacks lyrics for most songs doesnt it?

the micro one called mt eerie? or the mt eerie record?
cos i rmemeber the micro one being a 4/5 song effort that was mostly static


nah

Mount Eerie, as in the album when Elv(e)rum was still recording as The Microphones has plenty of lyrics. And as Sibley says, the narrative in the lyrics is pretty damn complex. It's all about death! and rebirth! and being eaten by vultures! and the universe! and the origins of life!
<3


^All of this.

Thank you.


I was going to suggest the exact same

thing when I saw the album title.
OH AND BY THE WAY PEOPLEZ! I saw Mt. Eerie last night and it was pretty much one of the best things ever, so people, go and see him on his UK tour which is... next week?
Really, really do.


*thread title

:''(


He speaks to a personified Universe in III. Universe

I'd say it's pretty complex.


That Decemberists

album, that's all based on Irish folk tales.


Surely...

...In that case you could list any one of hundreds of folk singers/ bands who produce ballads and songs based on old tales and stories?


The Velvet Underground

'The Gift'.
Awesome.


doesnt someone have to sing

for it to be a song?


Not really complex though, is it?

I mean, the first time you listen you know what's going to happen at the end by about 2 minutes in. Then it just becomes a test of endurance. And after that, you'll never listen again...


The Mars Volta

Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore


The entirety of

Deloused in the Comatorium, Frances The Mute or The Bedlam In Goliath and the individual songs on Amputechture


I don't know if it's the most

copmlicated but I always thought Elliott Smith - Condor Avenue was a pretty awesome little narrative story.


Patrick Wolf's

darkest stuff is my initial reaction.


Rosetta Stoned?

I always lose track of the story about 30 secs in


Only Skin by J-No

is pretty twisty-turny...


Good shout!

It took me a while to piece together anything off Ys.

Other than that... I don't know. I like a lot of songs that tell stories, but I couldn't really say many of them were that complex...


Silver Jews - San Francisco B.C.

Old San Francisco, San Francisco B.C.
I lived with my true love and she lived with me.
"Romance is the douche of the bourgeoisie"
Was the very first thing she imparted to me
We had sarcastic hair, we used lewd pseudonyms
We got a lot of stares on the street back then.

Since her dad, a local barber, had been beaten to death
She had become a vocal martyr in the vegan press
The cops had failed, they couldn't catch a bus
They were looking for a male with a bad hair cut
Enter tumbleweed, exit love and our affaire d'amour
Was set on self-destruct.

She said "you don't make enough to provide for me."
I said "what about the stuff that we quote believe?"
She said "I left that on the sands of history
I've found a new man to take care of me
He dresses for success and emergency
And he moves a lot of concrete on the QVC."

Little, asian, deadly, like a cobra in the shade
Sat in the midst of the smoke that he made
His name was Mr. Games and he owned the place
It was a lonely bar and grill in the Lower Haight
He had a jeweler's hands and a blurry face
He knew I needed a chance so he gave me a break.

"If I hire you now, can you start today?
I got a high-rise job down by the bay.
Just a couple of rocks and some firearms
There's not many locks and just one alarm
My step-son Gene will pick you up and drive
Try to be his friend, he's got a friendly side."

Doll-house lightning and the next thing I knew
We were back at our point of rendezvous.
I was in the possession of burglary tools
Children's fur coats and diamonds and jewels
Gene's talking about insignificant shit
Just like crooks in the movies when they do that bit.

He said the power of metal will never be harnessed.
I thought the wages of metal should be heavily garnished.
We were waiting for his dad to meet us there
Gene took off his hat and I noticed his hair
It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare
I knew it wasn't the wave, it was human error.

Before I knew what I said, I said "killer cut."
I watched him silently putting out a cigarette butt.
Then he came at me with some fist cuisine
I had to duck aside and that was bad for Gene
Cause when he went by me he tripped and fell
Through the glass coffee table at the Wong hotel.

Right there and then Mr. Games walked in
With my ex-true love on his gamy limb.
So her dad's killer's dad was her new beau
And Games had a wife, whatta you know?
She got real real quiet till we chucked the kid
Then she went her way and I went his.

Old San Francisco, San Francisco B.C.