Your Favorite Story Songs Based on Real Life People or Real Life Events

[RedsBaron]

When I first heard "Everything I Own" by Bread in the early 1970s I thought it was just a pretty romantic love song. Only later did I learn that David Gates had written the song about his late father. It was still a love song, but about the love of a father whom he missed.

"You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free

The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
**********************

Is there someone you know
You're loving them so
But taking them all for granted?
You may lose them one day
Someone tales them away
And they don't hear the words you long to say
I would give everything I own
Would give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own.
Just to have you back again.
Just to touch you once again."

[Mitri]

[Ky Fried Redleg]

When I first heard "Everything I Own" by Bread in the early 1970s I thought it was just a pretty romantic love song. Only later did I learn that David Gates had written the song about his late father. It was still a love song, but about the love of a father whom he missed.

"You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free

The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
**********************

Is there someone you know
You're loving them so
But taking them all for granted?
You may lose them one day
Someone tales them away
And they don't hear the words you long to say
I would give everything I own
Would give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own.
Just to have you back again.
Just to touch you once again."

Good one. And here's another one written about a father:

An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay
A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline, a thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand
The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
My brother's lives were different for they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St Paul
And I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose and come to know so well
I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough
The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
I am a living legacy to the leader of the band --- Dan Fogelberg

Dan said this was the song he was most proud of because he wrote it as a tribute to his father , who lived to see the song become such a big success.

[RedsBaron]

I remember "Leader of the Band," which is a great song.
I'll go ahead and mention how I first learned what "Everything I Own" was about. It was at a Sunday evening church service around 1987 or 88. The minister, a then youth minister who had performed the wedding of my wife and me in early 1987, gave a sermon about telling others that you loved them. At one point during his sermon, he had a college age guy sing "Everything I Own, " accompanied by his guitar playing. 35+ years ago and I still cannot forget that service.

[RedsBaron]

Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine is a song written and sang by Tom T. Hall which is based upon a discussion Hall had with an elderly porter at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

[klw]

Story songs:

Taxi - Harry Chapin

I immediately thought of this when seeing the thread title but of course I know it as the "the snow turned to rain" song.



Where the Rose is Sown and Come Back to Me on Big Country's second album, Steeltown. The songs are part of a reaction to the Falklands war. The first half is from the perspective of a young man sent off to fight while the second is told from the perspective of his widow. The songs are separated here but run straight into each other on the record.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine is a song written and sang by Tom T. Hall which is based upon a discussion Hall had with an elderly porter at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

Tom was an Olive Hill, KY native . My father and Tom T. Hall favored each other when they were in their 30's.