It’s all about sex, drugs and rock n roll. Music that is. Rock music since time immemorial has had as its
central theme the trifecta of sex, drugs and rock n roll. Nearly every song in the vast rock music
catalog deals with one of the three subjects. Sometimes,
even when we think it is a love song, it isn’t.
Take for example the Rolling Stones classic “Angie.” Speculation for years was that the tune was
inspired by Angie Dickinson, or David Bowie’s wife Angela, or a lady by the
same name the band met backstage. Angie
is not a woman, Angie is heroin and the song is about Keith Richards’ trying to
kick the horse habit. But every once in
a while a rock song comes along that tells a great a story--and yes one or all
three of the themes inter-mingles making these classic story songs legendary. The SBT takes a break from cycling and bike
riding to bring our dear readers the top ten “Story Songs” in Rock Music
history. They are songs with a plot, suspense, and an outcome. They tell a story
We start with Reg Dwight and the classic “Levon.” There was no Levon nor was there a chap named
Alvin Tostig but it tells the great story of a man and his son. Levon was so named because Bernie Taupin,
Elton’s lyricist loved listening to Levon Helm and The Band.
Speaking of The Band, our next selection is “The Weight.” The song is a well told tale of stranger
“feeling half past dead” wandering through the town of Nazareth. Along the way he chats with Crazy Chester, Miss Moses, “Old
Luke my friend,” and the Devil--three characters in
the New Testament. Like the classic “The
Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (see the blog post Virgil Caine is the Name
for more) the music draws inspiration from the Old South and the harmonies of
the Bible Belt.
“Hotel California” is a bad dream set to music. We have all stirred in a cold sweat from a
dream similar in vein: traveling with no real destination in mind only to
finally find a place from which “you can never leave.” The song conjures up the spooky images of
“dark desert highways” and wine brought by sinister “captains.”
To move into something heavy we find a great story of the
American west by a group of headbangers from Leyton, London, England—Iron
Maiden. “Run to the Hills” is simply a
great heavy metal song. It tells the
story of the sometimes tragic “Manifest Destiny” and America’s population surge
from the East Coast to the Pacific.
Often times travel makes a good story, of being on the
road. A common theme about rock is that
the second album for most artists is written on the road and hence most of the
songs on a sophomore effort deal with the rigors of the road. No song tells that better than Bob Seger’s
“Turn the Page.” He writes about being
“strung out from the road” and “shaking off the cold.” The song begins and caps off with some
haunting saxophone.
One strange song that tells a story apropos of today is “Spirit
of Radio” by Rush. The song, thanks to
Neil Peart had some pretty heady lyrics.
Example, who uses “unobtrusive” in a song? But the band does such a thing in “Spirit of
Radio” and it works. It talks about the
power of music coming through the speakers, of finding your favorite radio station
and jamming out. “The magic music makes
your morning mood” the band says and it speaks to those days before iPods,
internet and satellite radio. We relied
on the DJs and they delivered.
“Invisible airwaves crackle with life.”
They still do.
A group of longhairs from Jacksonville, Florida tell a great
story of excess in “That Smell.”
Released on Street Survivors, Lynryd Skynyrd’s final studio album, the
song talks of drinking, driving too fast, popping pills and more. What makes the song great is not one
blistering guitar solo but two blistering guitar solos and each solo is not one
guitar but three. The tragic note to the
song is its release date of October 17, 1977. The band’s devastating plane crash took place
on October 20, three days later.
In a great example of art imitating life or life imitating
art is Bad Company’s “Shooting Star.”
The song of Johnny the schoolboy and his rise to rock n roll guitar hero
is well told and poignantly sung by Paul Rodgers. The listener cheers Johnny and his going
“Straight up to number one.” Yet,
moments later we all come down with the knowledge that Johnny dies one night,
“whiskey bottle, sleeping tablets by his bed.”
Led Zeppelin epitomized the idea of sex and rock n
roll. Robert Plant, with the lean frame
and long blond mane was perfect in the role.
He is without question one of rock’s all-time front men and lead
singers. The band consistently rocked
out bluesy and sexy three minute sticks of musical dynamite. Other times Zeppelin would veer off into
songs inspired by The Hobbit. (“Misty Mountain Hop” is a fine
example). But on occasion the lads would
give us an epic story like “Kashmir” or “In My Time of Dying” but the song that
makes this list is “Achilles Last Stand.”
The song is strange blend inspired by Morocco’s Atlas Mountains (“The mighty arms
of Atlas”) and a spring drive through the Greek countryside (“It was an April morning, when they told us we should go”).
The drive ended in a crash in which Plant sustained a broken ankle. It is one of the few songs where the listener
can play air guitar but also lose his/her mind playing air drums thanks to
great skin work by the late John Bonham.
“Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge, drinking warm
beer in the soft summer rain” is the type of lyric that immediately brings the
image to life in our minds. Throughout
“Jungleland” Bruce Springsteen creates unique mental pictures of people like
the Magic Rat, the barefoot girl, and “lonely hearted lovers struggling in dark
corners.” The Big Man's great sax work is epic as is the subtle piano by Roy Bittan. The song is great story of
taking a stand, albeit for naught, down in Jungleland.
Please visit our website for a live version of “Jungleland”
at www.stickybottleteam.net.
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