Yeah, Death Cab's songs really do contain a lot of great turns of phrase and indelible images. "We Looked Like Giants" is one of my favorites. Their songs practically make you feel the weather they were written in.

One of the best storytelling songs is Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris. This might be the saddest song ever written:

Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin every song the radio played
Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a '49 Indian
He told her 'Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
Thats where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end.
At least not for Lillian

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and she had five kids.
Coulda' been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Named Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground

My favorite artist in terms of imagery has to be Nick Cave. Here's "The Carny":


And no-one saw the carny go
And the weeks flew by
Until they moved on the show
Leaving his caravan behind
It was parked out on the south east ridge
And as the company crossed the bridge
With the first rain filling the bone-dry river bed
It shone, just so, upon the edge
Away, away, we're sad, they said

Dog-boy, atlas, half-man, the geeks, the hired hands
There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind
In the hope that the carny would return to his own kind

And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone
A bow-backed nag, that he named "Sorrow"
How it is buried in a shallow grave
In the then parched meadow

And the dwarves were given the task of digging the ditch
And laying the nag's carcass in the ground
And boss Bellini, waving his smoking pistol around
saying "The nag is dead meat"
"We caint afford to carry dead weight"
The whole company standing about
Not making a sound
And turning to dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
The boss says "Bury this lump of crow bait"

And thean the rain came
Everybody running for their wagons
Tying all the canvas flaps down
The mangy cats crowling in ther cages
The bird-girl flapping and squawking around
The whole valley reeking of wet beast
Wet beast and rotten hay
Freak and brute creation
Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind
Moses says to Noah "We shoulda dugga deepa one"
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done

And as the company passed from the valley
Into a higher ground
The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow
And on the mound

Until nothing was left, nothing at all
Except the body of Sorrow
That rose in time
To float upon the surface of the eaten soil

And a murder of crows did circle round
First one, then the others flapping blackly down

And the carny's van still sat upon the edge
Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge
And the rain it hammered down

And no-one saw the carny go
I say it's funny how things go

eminem- stan has to be one of the best short first-person narratives. not only does it tell a story with events but it also reflects the changes in the narrator's mind and creates such a powerful voice. (technically two voices- stan and eminem, who comes in on the last verse).

but then again, a lot of eminem's songs are incredible stories with intriguing characters.

The Ballad of Spider John by Willis Alan Ramsey.

Opening lines:

Spider John is my name, friends.
I’m in between freights and I sure would be obliged
If I could share your company.
I’m on my way to nowhere.
I’ve been running from my past;
Running from the things I used to be.

Here's the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umpe-u86rk

One of my all time faves has got to be 'Ode to Billy Joe' by Bobbie Gentry.

Ode to Billy Joe

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Basically every song Warren Zevon wrote.

I can think of quite a diverse bunch:
Paul Simon's "Duncan"
Bruce Springsteen's"The River"
Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"
Jackson Browne's "The Pretender"
Joni Mitchell's "Wild Things Run Fast"

It's tough to beat that EmmyLou Harris song, though ...

big fan of row row row your boat

Perhaps because I lived in Toledo when this tune was popular, I've always liked Roger Bowling and Hal Bynum's LUCILLE. It was recorded by Kenny Rogers.

Come to think of it, Rogers' first hit was a story song based on an event that occurred here in Florida. The song itself refers to a 'Nam vet. The actual story involved a WW II vet. That song was written by an old-time Florida country singer-songwriter, Mel Tillis. It is at the bottom...


LUCILLE

In a bar in Toledo
Across from the depot
On a bar stool she took off her ring
I thought I'd get closer
So I walked on over
I sat down and asked her name
When the drinks finally hit her
She said, "I'm no quitter
But I finally quit livin' on dreams
I'm hungry for laughter
And here ever after
I'm after whatever the other life brings."

In the mirror I saw him
And I closely watched him
I thought how he looked out of place
He came to the woman
Who sat there beside me
He had a strange look on his face
The big hands were calloused
He looked like a mountain
For a minute I thought I was dead
But he started shakin'
His big heart was breakin'
He turned to the woman and said

"You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop in the field
I've had some bad times
Lived through some sad times
But this time your hurtin' won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille."

After he left us
I ordered more whisky
I thought how she'd made him look small
From the lights of the bar room
To a rented hotel room
We walked without talkin' at all
She was a beauty
But when she came to me
She must have thought I'd lost my mind
I couldn't hold her
'Cos the words that he told her
Kept coming back time after time

"You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop in the field
I've had some bad times
Lived through some sad times
But this time your hurtin' won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille."




RUBY, DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN

You've painted up your lips
And rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby are you contemplating
Going out somewhere?
The shadow on the wall
Tells me the sun is going down
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town

It wasn't me
That started that crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go
And do my patriotic chore
And yes, it's true that
I'm not the man I used to be
Oh, Ruby I still need some company
It's hard to love a man
Whose legs are bent and paralyzed
That my wants and needs of a woman of your age
Ruby, I realized
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town

She's leaving now cause
I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I've heard it
Some 100 times before
And if I could move I'd get my gun
And put her in the ground
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town
Oh Ruby for God's sake turn around

(The WW II vet married his British nurse, who returned with him to the US. She later "went to town" with other guys. The vet shot and killed her, was convicted and went to prison.)

Of all the songs mentioned, the only one that was actually adapted into a film was "Ode to Billy Joe", which, by all accounts, was terrible, and had Billy Joe throwing himself off the bridge due to gay panic, which is a bizarre reading of the song. There is a great YouTube clip of Gentry singing the song on the Smothers Brothers as the camera pans across a dinner-time diorama made of horrific straw-dummies. Now THAT captures the creepiness of the song.

"City of New Orleans" by Steve Goodman is very evocative of my childhood when I used to journey cross-country on the Orange Express, drawn by steam engines in those days, shuttling between father and mother in the school holidays.

Willie Nelson's version is the best.

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

CHORUS:
Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Wow. Those are some terrific songs. Brings back some memories, each of them.

@MartinB: You mention Steve Goodman who is one of my musical heroes. I first saw him when I was in college. He was the opening act for Poco and some other band. Walked out on stage all by himself, just he and his guitar in front of about 5,000 college kids. Nobody had any idea who he was. He looked around. Leaned into the mic, and his first words were, "Thank God, not another fucking coffee house." By the end of his set, we were all standing on our seats cheering. He was so funny. Broke a string, and made up and sang a song while re-stringing his guitar, never missed a beat.

When I played music professionally, I used to perform some of his songs: "Talking Backwards," "A Dying Cubs Fans Last Request," and his haunting song about his father "My Old Man."

And of course, "City of New Orleans."

I got the opportunity to meet Steve once at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Still have an old Polaroid photo I took of him backstage. So sad that he died so young. I think I'll update the OP with a video I found of him.

Thanks all again for the memories - and inspiration of all these great songwriters.

One of the best.
Find him on youtube performing it.
1952 Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson

Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you on the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
And he pulled her on behind
and down to Boxhill they did ride

Said James to Red Molly,
here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I stand 21, I might not make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Come down, come down, Red Molly,
called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Come down, Red Molly to his dying beside
When she came to the hospital,
there wasn't much left
He was running out of road,
he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry,
said I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Said James, in my opinion,
there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
No Nortons and Indians and Greeves just won't do
They ain't got a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I have no further use for these
I see angels and ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
He gave her one last kiss and died
and he gave her the Vincent to ride

That Death Cab performance of "I Will Possess Your Heart" was great. I went and bought the album version on itunes just now after listening to it -- and this 'live' version is better.