VA - Classic Rock Stories Vol. 1 (A Butterboy Compilation) (6 x CDs)

CLASSIC ROCK 

VA - Classic Rock Stories Vol. 1 (A Butterboy Compilation) (6 x CDs)

Classic Rock Stories is a compilation that captures the full narrative power of rock music, not just its sound, but its storytelling soul. 

In an age of algorithmic playlists and disposable hooks, this six-disc anthology stands as a defiant act of preservation, a candlelit archive of narrative songs that speak not just in melody, but in memory. These 114 tracks are not chosen for their chart positions or radio ubiquity, but for their ability to inhabit characters, evoke places, and trace emotional arcs with cinematic clarity. Each song is a short story, a confession, a myth, or a moment frozen in time, and together, they form a sprawling, genre-crossing tapestry of human experience.

CD1: Opens with “Waterloo Sunset,” a quiet observation of urban solitude that sets the tone for what follows: songs that see the world through the eyes of outsiders, dreamers, and doomed romantics. “Shooting Star” and “The Boxer” chronicle the rise and fall of fame and resilience, while “Hurricane” and “Billy Austin” confront injustice with unflinching detail. Springsteen’s “The River” stretches across eleven minutes of working-class ache, and Lightfoot’s “Edmund Fitzgerald” turns maritime tragedy into elegy. Even the more whimsical entries, “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Willin’,” “Buffalo Soldier”, carry the weight of lived experience. These are songs that don’t just tell stories; they bear witness.

CD2: Dives deeper into mythic Americana and personal folklore. “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” is a love story wrapped in chrome and mortality, while “Jungleland” and “American Pie” stretch across decades of cultural reckoning. Archie Roach’s “Charcoal Lane” brings Indigenous perspective into the fold, and “Ode to Billie Joe” remains one of pop’s most haunting mysteries. From the psychedelic fable of “Chestnut Mare” to the political urgency of “Ohio,” this disc balances intimacy with scale. It’s a map of the American psyche, fractured, poetic, and endlessly compelling.

CD3: Turns inward. “Piano Man,” “Cat’s in the Cradle,” and “Me and Bobby McGee” are portraits of longing and loss, while “Ziggy Stardust” and “Aqualung” introduce characters who blur the line between persona and pathology. “Telegraph Road” is a novel in song form, tracing industrial decay with Dire Straits’ signature precision. Even shorter tracks like “Magic Hollow” and “Starry Eyes” carry emotional weight, while “A Day in the Life” and “Sally Simpson” remind us that even legends like the Beatles and The Who were storytellers first. This disc is a gallery, each track a frame, each lyric a brushstroke.

CD4: Celebrates the misfits, prophets, and poets. “All the Young Dudes” and “Baker Street” are anthems of alienation, while “The Pretender” and “At Seventeen” explore the quiet despair of adulthood. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “Mr. Apollo” inject theatrical flair, and “The Raven” and “Tales of Brave Ulysses” draw from literary tradition. Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” and Lennon’s “Mother” close the disc with raw vulnerability. These are songs that speak for those who rarely get to speak, the overlooked, the misunderstood, the brave.

CD5: Is a kaleidoscope of character sketches and cultural snapshots. “Eleanor Rigby” and “Up the Junction” are masterclasses in lyrical economy, while “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” and “Don’t Like Mondays” unfold like tabloid noir. “You Set the Scene” and “Vincent” offer poetic transcendence, and “The Day John Kennedy Died” reframes history through personal lens. Even the more playful entries, “My Friend Jack,” “You’re So Vain,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, carry narrative heft. It’s a disc of contradictions: fame and anonymity, satire and sincerity, myth and memory.

CD6: Is a culmination, a place for long-form storytelling and emotional resolution. “Stairway to Heaven” and “Murder Most Foul” bookend the disc with spiritual and political gravitas. “Madame George,” “Army Dreamers,” and “Alice’s Restaurant” are sprawling character studies, while “The Ballad of Danny Bailey” and “Sutter’s Mill” resurrect forgotten figures. “Astronomy” and “House on the Hill” lean into the surreal, and “All Those Years Ago” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” offer wry reflections on legacy. Even “The Window,” a lesser-known Genesis gem, earns its place, a quiet meditation that echoes the compilation’s core theme: seeing the world through another’s eyes.

This set is not a greatest hits collection. It’s an archive of narrative songs that prioritize emotional truth over commercial polish. It’s for those who listen with intent, who hear the story behind the chord, the character behind the chorus. Whether it’s a convict, a waitress, a soldier, or a ghost, each voice here is given space to speak. And in doing so, they remind us that music is not just sound, its storytelling, its memory, its humanity. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Kinks - Waterloo Sunset 3:18 1967

02 Bad Company - Shooting Star 6:19 1975

03 Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer 5:06 1969

04 Bob Dylan - Hurricane 8:31 1975

05 Billy Joel - Scenes From an Italian Restaurant (1977) 7:37 1977

06 Townes Van Zandt - Pancho & Lefty 3:41 1972

07 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - The River 11:39 1980

08 Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald 6:29 1976

09 Steve Earle & The Dukes - Billy Austin 6:16 1990

10 Neil Young - Old Man 3:25 1972

11 Rod Stewart - The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II) 6:29 1976

12 Lou Reed - Walk on The Wild Side 4:08 1972

13 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Into The Great Wide Open 3:43 1991

14 Chris Farlowe With The Hill - Black Sheep 4:48 1970

15 The Styrenes - All the Wrong People Are Dying 9:33 1996

16 Little feat - Willin' 2:54 1971

17 Link Wray - Hobo Man 4:04 1971

18 Bob Marley and the Wailers - Buffalo Soldier 4:16 1983

19 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lucky Man 4:38 1970

CD2

01 Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning 5:07 1991

02 Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland 9:36 1975

03 Don McLean - American Pie 8:33 1971

04 Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride 5:55 1971

05 Steppenwolf - Monster (Single Version) 3:57 1969

06 Archie Roach - Charcoal Lane 3:21 1990

07 Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue 5:41 1975

08 BYRDS - Chestnut Mare 2:57 1970

09 Eagles - Doolin-Dalton 3:29 1973

10 Dolly Parton - Jolene 2:42 1973

11 Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe 4:15 1967

12 Uriah Heep - Come Away Melinda 3:49 1970

13 David Crosby - Cowboy Movie 8:11 1971

14 John Mellencamp - Jack and Diane 4:15 1982

15 Elton John - Levon 5:22 1971

16 Al Stewart - Modern Times 8:21 1975

17 Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die 6:25 1970

18 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Ohio 3:00 1970

19 The Pogues - Thousands Are Sailing 5:28 1988

CD3

01 Billy Joel - Piano Man 5:38 1973

02 Kinks - Lola 4:04 1970

03 Elton John - Ticking 7:49 1974

04 Harry Chapin - Cat's in The Cradle 3:45 1974

05 Kris Kristofferson - Me and Bobby Mcgee 4:02 1970

06 Strawbs - The Hangman and the Papist 4:11 1971

07 David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust 3:13 1972

08 Jethro Tull - Aqualung 6:38 1971

09 Dire Straits - Telegraph Road 14:17 1982

10 Moody Blues - The Story in Your Eyes (Original  Version) 3:33 1971

11 Steely Dan - Don't Take Me Alive 4:00 1976

12 Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy 2:42 1978

13 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Born on The Bayou 5:15 1969

14 Beau Brummels - Magic-Hollow 2:51 1967

15 Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon 4:12 1975

16 Records - Starry Eyes 4:25 1978

17 Beatles - A Day in The Life 4:59 1967

18 Who - Sally Simpson 4:10 1969

19 Who - Pinball Wizard 3:01 1969

CD4

01 David Bowie - All The Young Dudes 3:08 1972

02 Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street 6:10 1978

03 Jackson Browne - The Pretender 5:52 1976

04 Janis Ian - At Seventeen (Single Version) 3:55 1975

05 Eagles - The Last Resort 7:29 1979

06 Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 3:33 1969

07 Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia 3:37 1976

08 Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday 3:07 1967

09 Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale 4:06 1967

10 Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Mr. Apollo 4:20 1969

11 Alan Parsons Project - The Raven 4:07 1976

12 Mott The Hoople - One of The Boys 4:21 1972

13 Doobie Brothers - China Grove 3:16 1973

14 Spirit - Mr. Skin 4:01 1970

15 Savoy Brown - Needle and Spoon 3:19 1970

16 Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses 2:46 1967

17 Brandi Carlile - The Story 3:58 2007

18 Suzanne Vega - Luka 3:13 1987

19 John Lennon Plastic Ono Band - Mother 3:55 1970

CD5

01 Beatles - Eleanor Rigby 2:05 1966

02 Easybeats - Friday on My Mind 2:43 1966

03 Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good 4:38 1978

04 The Hollies - Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) (stereo) (1972) 3:19 1972

05 Squeeze - Up The Junction 3:10 1979

06 Boomtown Rats - Don't Like Mondays 4:18 1979

07 Traveling Wilbury's - Tweeter and The Monkey Man 5:29 1988

08 Animals - The House of The Rising Sun 4:29 1964

09 Love - You Set the Scene 6:51 1967

10 Boston - Hitch a Ride 4:11 1976

11 T.Rex - Mambo Sun 3:39 1971

12 Smoke - My Friend Jack 3:06 1967

13 Dukes of Stratosphear - You're A Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel) 3:38 1987

14 Police - Roxanne 3:13 1978

15 Carly Simon - You’re So Vain 4:18 1972

16 Don McLean - Vincent 3:59 1971

17 Lou Reed - The Day John Kennedy Died 4:08 1982

18 Billy Joel - The Downeaster 'Alexa' 3:44 1989

19 Beatles - The Ballad of John and Yoko 2:59 1969

CD6

01 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven 8:02 1971

02 Deep Purple - Smoke on The Water 5:40 1972

03 Bob Dylan - Murder Most Foul 16:44 2020

04 Elvis Presley - In the Ghetto 2:55 1969

05 Van Morrison - Madame George 9:41 1968

06 Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run 5:13 1973

07 Genesis - The Window 3:33 1969

08 Elton John - The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) 4:23 1974

09 Dan Fogelberg - Sutter's Mill 6:31 1985

10 Kate Bush - Army Dreamers 3:14 1980

11 Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy 6:28 1974

12 Audience - House on The Hill 7:28 1971

13 Jim Stafford - Swamp Witch 3:36 1974

14 Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant Massacree 18:35 1967

15 Be-Bop Deluxe - Ships in The Night 4:03 1976

16 Steely Dan - My Old School 5:46 1973

17 Badfinger - Baby Blue 3:40 1971

18 George Harrison - All Those Years Ago 3:46 1981

19 Paul Henning - The Beverly Hillbillies 1:16 1962

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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