Colin Hay - It's a Beautiful World

Tom Waits - Chocolate Jesus - It's easy to disparage this song, but when you really break down the rhymes, the spirit, and the delicate balance of deep emotional thoughts juxtaposed with childhood candy memories, makes this some crafty and skillful storytelling:

Zoe Boekbinder - Inexorable - The first verse is some of the most elegantly stitched together phrasing. It's stunning. But the live version shows you how she uses digital delay pedals (at 2:15) to play ALL THE PARTS AT ONCE. And then the song goes from beautiful to astounding:

Lucius - Turn It Around - I love the idea of someone getting too micro-focused on the details, and "looking through the wrong end of the telescope". So Lucius entreats her to "turn it around, turn it around, turn it around"... (BTW - This entire Tiny Desk Concert is fantastic.)

Iron Maiden - Murders In The Rue Morgue - In the 80's, there was a surprising number of heavy metal bands that were pretty well read, and had songs with interesting literary references. Anyone who has read Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" will appreciate how well Iron Maiden tell the story. (This has the lyrics printed on screen, karaoke-like so you can read along.)

The Decembrists - Mariner's Revenge Song - The apotheosis of storytelling in song, even better than Alice's Restaurant for expansive, sprawling storytelling. A literary epic in song form.