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Layered Storytelling in Music

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Songbird, Sep 14, 2017.

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Which song tells the best story?

  1. Esther (Phish)

    2 vote(s)
    12.5%
  2. Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meat Loaf)

    3 vote(s)
    18.8%
  3. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (Billy Joel)

    3 vote(s)
    18.8%
  4. Other

    8 vote(s)
    50.0%
  1. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I have listened to Esther by Phish a few hundred times in the last 2 weeks or so. It's the song I play when customers come in.

    Esther one of the most beautifully layered stories I've ever heard in an extended song, 7 or 8 minutes long, with so many unexpected twists and turns and highs and lows ... it's right up there with Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant in terms of storytelling. All 3 songs take you on a funky adventure.

    Be interesting to see which one music fans here like best.

    Esther ...




    Paradise by the Dashboard Light ...




    Scenes from an Italian Restaurant ...

     
  2. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Feel free to add your own song.
     
  3. QYFW

    QYFW Well-Known Member

    I'll have to find a better quality video. Can't do that one for more than a couple minutes.
     
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    With the Phish song, you might need to watch that version. The video is a very big part of it.
     
  5. QYFW

    QYFW Well-Known Member

  6. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Paradise by the Dashboard Light still might be the gold standard. That is one intense performance.
     
  7. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    I went with Paradise if only for the fantastic finish: 'I swore I would love you til the end of time/praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you. ' Tremendous.
     
  8. QYFW

    QYFW Well-Known Member

    Now that @Double Down is roaming around again, I'd be interested in his take on this subject.
     
  9. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Here's Esther, much better quality.

     
  10. QYFW

    QYFW Well-Known Member

    Ambitious piece of music, but quite weird. Reminds me of a Zappa song. Interesting tidbit: That's the first Phish song I've ever listened to.
     
    Songbird likes this.
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    "Jesus of Suburbia."
     
  12. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    "Sometime Around Midnight" by The Airborne Toxic Event.
    It paints a familiar picture of lost love and better times, and the singer hits the perfect level of emotional agony. You feel terrible for the guy, hate the girl who's playing with his emotions, and by the end you feel like you've been punched in the gut just like he's been by this random encounter on what had been a fun night out with the boys.

     
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