SONGS & STORIES
VA - Songs & Stories, 50 Storytelling Songs (A Butterboy Compilation) CD1+CD2
Stories in songs can be just as influential and touching as any book or movie. By listening to the story closely, we allow ourselves to become a part of the songwriters story for just a few minutes. Perhaps that's why story songs feel so powerful and intense. When we listen to the lyrics of a great song, they become embedded in our minds and never leave.
A charmingly interlaced story is one of the most real ways to make sense of the world and also the most honest means to transmit a deep, multifaceted message. I love the way a songwriter does this with a minimal amount of words. They will write in a way that connects the listener immediately by using powerful words that are emotionally intense. From the moment a song story starts to its final words, the tune takes us on a journey that we remember for a long time.
Here are 50 songs that I feel tell a story well. Some are emotional and some are humorous, but all remain true to telling a story in a song.
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Stories in songs can be just as influential and touching as any book or movie. By listening to the story closely, we allow ourselves to become a part of the songwriters story for just a few minutes. Perhaps that's why story songs feel so powerful and intense. When we listen to the lyrics of a great song, they become embedded in our minds and never leave.
A charmingly interlaced story is one of the most real ways to make sense of the world and also the most honest means to transmit a deep, multifaceted message. I love the way a songwriter does this with a minimal amount of words. They will write in a way that connects the listener immediately by using powerful words that are emotionally intense. From the moment a song story starts to its final words, the tune takes us on a journey that we remember for a long time.
Here are 50 songs that I feel tell a story well. Some are emotional and some are humorous, but all remain true to telling a story in a song.
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Track list 1
01 Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode 02:42 [1958]
02 Shel Silverstein - Boy Named Sue 03:58 [1968]
03 Bob Dylan - Hurricane 08:34 [1975]
04 Loudon Wainwright III - The Man Who Couldn't Cry 06:17 [1973]
05 Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard 04:58 [1971]
06 Elvis Presley - In the Ghetto 02:56 [1969]
07 Neil Young - Cortez the Killer 07:24 [1975]
08 Beatles - Eleanor Rigby 02:06 [1966]
09 Simon and Garfunkel - Save the Life of My Child 02:50 [1968]
10 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane 03:33 [1996]
11 Temptations - Papa Was a Rollin' Stone 11:46 [1972]
12 Pulp - David's Last Summer 07:01 [1994]
13 Harry Chapin - Cat's in the Cradle 03:45 [1974]
14 T Bone Burnett - The Strange Case Of Frank Cash And The Morning Paper 05:24 [1987]
15 Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 06:30 [1976]
16 Johnny Cash - The Legend of John Henry's Hammer 08:26 [1963]
17 Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning 05:08 [1991]
18 Handsome Family - After We Shot the Grizzly 03:34 [2006]
19 Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia 03:37 [1979]
20 New Order - Love Vigilantes 04:19 [1985]
21 Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side 04:09 [1972]
22 Julie Brown - The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun 04:41 [1987]
23 Michael Martin Murphy - Wildfire 04:50 [1975]
24 Billy Joel - Piano Man 05:39 [1973]
25 Kenny Rogers - Coward of the County 04:32 [1990]
Track list 2
26 Bob Dylan - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts 08:55 [1975]
27 Donovan - The War Drags On 03:44 [1965]
28 Neil Young - Old Man 03:25 [1972]
29 Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe 04:12 [1967]
30 Todd Snider - Tillamook County Jail 03:07 [2004]
31 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Henry Lee 03:55 [1996]
32 Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes 03:40 [1983]
33 Tony Joe White - Willie and Laura Mae Jones 04:58 [1969]
34 Tom T. Hall - The Year That Clayton Delaney Died 02:45 [1971]
35 Drive-By Truckers - The Deeper In 03:16 [2003]
36 Cher - Dark Lady 03:27 [1974]
37 David Bowie - All the Young Dudes 03:09 [1973]
38 Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell 02:44 [1964]
39 Jeannie C. Riley - Harper Valley P T A 03:13 [1968]
40 Kinks - Come Dancing 03:56 [1983]
41 Adele - Someone Like You 04:47 [2011]
42 John Mellencamp - Rain on the Scarecrow 03:46 [1985]
43 Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant Massacree 18:36 [1967]
44 Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer 05:06 [1970]
45 Beatles - Rocky Raccoon 03:33 [1968]
46 Cat Stevens - Boy With A Moon & Star On His Head 05:58 [1972]
47 Kenny Rogers - The Gambler 03:35 [1978]
48 Bob Dylan - Brownsville Girl 11:03 [1986]
49 Garth Brooks - The Beaches of Cheyenne 04:14 [1995]
50 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - The River 11:39 [1986]
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