I've tortured the following into story forms.

"The Ballad of the Rock Island Line" is currently my longest story/song, ranging anywhere from 15-20 minutes, depending upon how patient my listeners are, or how long my train of thought can manage to stay on track and whether or not it can find a caboose. Once I get my hands on them, I can't say for certain whether the songs become more story than song, or fall somewhere in between. I'd say that my renditions of "The Bearded Lady" and "The Shopping Cart Wrangler" fall a close second in length, and then perhaps, "Ode To The A.L.F." and "51 Highway Blues".

What I've done with these gems is create some additional verbiage to intertwine with the song parts in order to more fully realize the potential, or lack thereof, of each presentation. In so doing, via my own unique form of anti-streamlining or musical drag coefficient techniques, I've managed to do more with less. Though, some might say just the opposite.