Great song characters
 

Music, like literature, is full of great characters. One that comes to mind is the tragedy of 'Minnie the Moocher' by Cab Calloway, which depicts in great detail, in three minutes no less, the false joy, decline and ultimate fall of Minnie in such a way that very few movies can duplicate.

Another two great characters are in one song: 'Jack and Diane', immortalized by John Cougar Mellencamp. It depicts two teens enjoying each other' company for perhaps the last time before they graduate and grow up.

Can you provide other great characters in song?

Billy Joe & Bobby Sue - Steve Miller Band. Two young lovers with nothin better to do - stole some cash got chased by the cops and..... well listen to the song wouldja? Oh thats right - don't forget Billy Mack - He's a detective in Texas

One of my favorites is probably "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles -- a struggling mom with several kids just trying to keep it together.

"My name is Sue! how do you do! Now you gonna die!"
Yeah that's what I told him.

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes,
And he went down but to my surprise,
Came up with a knife an' cut off a piece o' my ear.

Steely Dan featured many great "song characters" ... and now the thread drift:

This relates somewhat to a pet peeve of mine, regarding the way musical lyrics are recieved. When a novelist writes about being a a serial killer, people understand that it is fiction; but if a singer sings about being a serial killer, people go "holy shit, this guy is a serial killer!" or "this guy advocates serial killers!" etc.

The musical artist is percieved as delivering a more personal message, while the artists of other mediums are understood to be describing fictional people and events, in order to get a metaphorical point across. If you don't believe me, watch this video of Frank Zappa on Crossfire (1986), debating against censorship of rock music.

Hi! My Name Is
(huh?)
My Name Is
(what?)
My Name Is
(tika tika)
Slim Shady!

I'm not ready to leave, it's too scary to die (Fuck that!)
I'll have to be carried inside the cemetery and buried alive (Huh yup!)
Am I coming or going? I can barely decide
I just drank a fifth of vodka -- dare me to drive? (Go ahead)
All my life I was very deprived
I ain't had a woman in years, and my palms are too hairy to hide (Whoops!)
Clothes ripped like the Incredible Hulk (hachhh-too)
I spit when I talk, I'll fuck anything that walks (C'mere)
When I was little I used to get so hungry I would throw fits
HOW YOU GONNA BREAST FEED ME MOM? (WAH!)
YOU AIN'T GOT NO TITS! (WAHHH!)
I lay awake and strap myself in the bed
Put a bulletproof vest on and shoot myself in the head (BANG!)
I'm steaming mad (Arrrggghhh!)
And by the way when you see my dad? (Yeah?)
Tell him that I slit his throat, in this dream I had

Rocky Racoon went back to his room......


She's a Killer....Queen.....( do they have to have names? )

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.

Mack the Knife

and who could ever forget the Monkees' classics ... Auntie Griselda, Vallerei, and Daydream Believer.

Good examples so far.

Here's another: "Luka". No, not about the short-lived heavy from The Godfather-- that's Luca--but the abused child who lives 'on the second floor'.

Perhaps the reason that people responds to 'Folsom Prison Blues' more viscerally than, say, John Carpenter's 'Halloween' is that the story hits way too close to home.

Levon

Well 'ole south side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man name of Leroy Brown

Now Leroy more than trouble
You see he stand about six foot four
All those downtown ladies call him "Treetop Lover"
All the mens just call him "Sir"

And he's bad, bad Leroy Brown
Baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than a-old King Kong
Meaner than a junkyard dog

Ziggy Stardust!

Hurricane is great except it's about a REAL person...
Bowie's Sweet Thing Suite from Diamond Dogs paints a great dystopian setting but lacks actual characters.
Of course, The Wall album does a great job, besides the pseudo-autobiographical aspect which i assume doesnt count
Don't forget Desperado!
As much as I hate Green Day, they do a good job with characters on American Idiot.
Tear Me Down, from Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
The whole cast of Walk on the Wild Side
Mika's Billy Brown
Sweet sweet little Ramona!
The girl... well you know what kinda eyes she got.
Meet Virginia by Train...
the couple from 10cc's Don't Hang Up

aaaand I think I'm done

Rhiannon, of course!

Great thread idea, btw.

Mr. Bojangles

no, not the restaurant chain.

Brenda and Eddie (or, Brender and Eddie) :) from Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. (My favorite Billy Joel song!)

Sugar magnolia, ringing that bluebell, caught up in sunlight, come on out singing Ill walk you in the sunshine, come on honey, come along with me.
Shes got everything delightful, shes got everything I need...

One of the best all time "stories"
Devil Went To Georgia
by Charlie Daniels

When I was pretty young, and Big Bad John would come on the radio, the music scared me. Don't know why...it was just so ominous and eerie.

I've also a soft spot for the Edmund Fitzgerald, even though it's a ship. I cry when I hear it.

And who hasn't ran calling Wildfire, a time or two?

..you can get anything you want at Alice's Resteraunt, exceptin Alice....

Eleanor Rigby

August West
Sailor, Soldier, and The Lady with a fan
Jack a Row

Excellent!! - I haven't heard that in ages. Goin home to find it.
prob gonna be on a :shock: cassette :eyebrow:

Catain; Ballad Of Catain by Grant Lee Phillips
Wonderboy & Nastyman; Wonderboy by Tenacious D
Rubber Duck; Convoy by C.W McCall
Godzilla; Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult [More cowbell!]
Wayne & Garth; Wayne's World (Extended Rock Version) by Mike Myers, Dana Carvey & Aerosmith (I think)
Jed; Ballad Of Jed Clampett by Flatt & Scruggs
Stan; Stan by Eminem & Dido

'I am the Walrus' by the Beatles, in which the walrus was the good guy (or was he really Paul?).

Only tangentially related, but I can't resist. The intro's a bit long, feel free to skip about 2 minutes in.

Look at Steve Colbert murdering that bassoon! And they did the rap a capella!! LOL

:lol:

Leroy Kincade - AC/DC's "Cold Hearted Man"

Stagger Lee

Delta Dawn

Off the top of my head
 

I nominate two more John (Cougar) Mellencamp songs/characters:

Jackie Brown Lyrics Song

Martha Lyrics

And for an Australian cultural landmark, I Was Only Nineteen, by Redgum (no relation), and the unnamed protagonist therein: Video Lyrics

the guy in bob dylans tangled up in blue
any character in a tom waits song (especially on raindogs)
zacharia from the jesus lizard
and jesus from 99% of the x-mass songs.

great characters.

The protagonist in "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson

Rael in "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis

The guys in "Wooden Ships" by Jefferson Airplane or CSNY

The sniper in "Sniper' by Harry Chapin (based on a real person)

That unnamed Minstrel Boy of Thomas Moore's.

Some others --

It's a showtune, but there's Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier -- even if it gets me to imagining Davy habitually going to a burlesque theater and being King of the Wild Front Tier.

Other Zevon-ery: The Excitable Boy, that subversive Gorilla who's a Desperado.

Johnny B. Goode and The Ghost of Tom Joad off the top of my head

how much is that doggy in the window

Tommy & Gina - Bon Jovi

Sister Christian - Night Ranger

American Girl - Tom Petty

Mary's New Car - Tom Petty (written about a real woman he worked with, named Mary, who got a new car one day, and the whole studio went out into the parking lot to check it out when she announced her big news.)

I got another one:

Ethel, the 'shameless hussy', and I guess her husband ('Yea I did!') from "The Streak" by Ray Stevens.

she was standin' there over by the dermaters...

The serial killer/narrator of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper"

Bloody Red Baron - The Royal Guardsman

Flying Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley

That's who I was going to say...
He kicks ass because, even though he was living in the rather homophobic early 30's in rural America, he was not afraid to proclaim that
"I'm a bad mother fucker, don' ya know; I'll crawl over 50 good pussies just to get to one fat boy's asshole."
If that's not a bad ass, I don't know what is.


Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
That album has lots of great characters. Not very admirable, but great.
I'm also partial to Crow Jane.

Oh who can forget the woman guaranteed to make you a man--'Lola'.

Lydia the tatooed lady
 

Alowishus Devadander Abercrombie (that's long for "Mud")