Narrative Songs / Music (Videos) that tell a story

[Memory]

Hey there,

listening to Madness - House of Fun today I felt like making a topic about narrative in songs and how some of the most popular songs or their videos actually tell a story that not everyone knows or notices when listening to them.

Let's just take the Madness song as an example here because House of Fun is a song most people know but not everyone really knows what it's about.

Essentially, the song tells the story of a boy in the UK who just turned 16 and wants to buy contraceptives at a local drug store finally (the age of 16 is the age where it becomes legal to sell them to people). Due to his shyness, he keeps trying to evade actually saying the word, and constantly therefore is misunderstood by the poor retail worker every time, who keeps misdirecting him to a local joke store.

He keeps beating around the bush and keeps using more and more colorful or absurd metaphors and descriptions for what he wants to buy:

"Box of balloons
With the feather-light touch
Pack of party-poppers
That pop in the night

[...]

N-n-n-n-n-n-no no, miss
You misunderstood
Sixteen big boy
Full pint in my manhood
I'm up to date
And the date's today
So if you'll serve
I'll be on my way"

... which the innocent (or perhaps snarky) pharmacist of course interprets as simple toys, balloons or party decoration:

"I'm sorry, son
But we don't stock
Party gimmicks
In this shop
Try the House of Fun
It's quicker if you run
This is a chemist's
Not a joke shop!"

Eventually some other people walk into the shop and the boy has to go home defeated. It's a hilarious narrative and the music video does its rest to make it a true classic even more than it already is.

Plus it's just a fun ska tune! Watch the music video now with this story in mind and listen to the lyrics, it's one of the most silly songs out there in my opinion.

[BananaBoots]

Ooooh, I love it when bands do this! I think it shows because both of my favourite bands almost exclusively have narrative songs/albums There's The Mechanisms who have 4 ablums that tell a larger overarching story each, then 2 other albums (plus a single!) that contain individual narrative songs. As in, each song tells its own story. Then there's also The Forgetmenauts, all of their songs tell individual stories. Both of them retell existing myths and fairytales through queer folk/punk music and The Mechanisms also tell all of their stories with a steampunk/sci-fi twist. They're definitely not for everyone but I really enjoy them

[Memory]

The Supermen Lovers - Starlight

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=h61QG4s0I3U

Got it from EyeToy Groove. Excellent French 2000s animation.

[grovyle]

Eleventyseven did this with their song appalachian wine! I'm not really a music video kind of person so I like it best when the lyrics themselves tell a story. It sounds like a folklore tale being told over a campfire and I love it 

There's also el oso by Moris, it's in spanish but you can read an english translation here. It's about a wild bear that gets caught and carried to a circus, and in the end he manages to escape and goes back to his forest. I first was made to listen to it when I was very young and I think it unlocked new feelings in little me