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RoeDent 
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 Topic: Is it a concept album?
Posted: August 21 2015 at 13:04 |
I need to vent. For the last time, 2112 is NOT a concept album! Just because 20 minutes of it is taken up by a single song doesn't make the entire album a concept album. None of the songs on Side 2 have anything to do with the title suite. A single theme/storyline has to run through the entire album from beginning to end for it to be a true Concept Album, otherwise every album ever made could be given that label.
Another thing...Wish You Were Here is NOT a concept album! While closer to that format than 2112, it still has two themes, not one. Shine On/WYWH are tributes to Syd Barrett, and Welcome to the Machine/Have a Cigar are about the record industry. The connection between the two groups of songs is only vague and can't be confirmed for a certainty.
Edited by RoeDent - August 21 2015 at 13:06
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aglasshouse
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 13:14 |
 RoeDent wrote:
Wish You Were Here is NOT a concept album!
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Oh dear...
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http://fryingpanmedia.com
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Horizons
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 14:04 |
So wait, a concept can't have multiple themes?
Huh.
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Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.
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chopper
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 14:24 |
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I agree, 2112 is not a concept album.
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DDPascalDD
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 14:44 |
So I'm not the only one. I always didn't founf any connections between those two themes! (In WYWH) A concept album should have one single clear concept. Nothing more
Edited by DDPascalDD - August 21 2015 at 14:45
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rushfan4
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 15:04 |
chopper wrote:
I agree, 2112 is not a concept album.
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QFT
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Hercules
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 15:10 |
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Neither 2112 nor Wish You Were Here are concept albums in the true sense of the term.
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verslibre
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 15:22 |
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Rush referred to albums like 2112 and Hemispheres as "theme" albums, though the "concept" of the first side of Hemispheres begins with "Cygnus X-1" at the end of A Farewell to Kings.
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The Dark Elf
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 20:12 |
Wish You Were Here is actually two concepts that mesh. One centers around the disillusionment of Roger Waters with the recording industry, and the other concerning the loss of band member Syd Barrett and what Waters perceived as the erosion of closeness and friendship within the band that was evidently missing by the time the album was composed, as opposed to the more halcyon days when Barrett was still in his right mind and the band did not have the weight of stardom, conflicting band ideas and media pressure weighing on them. As for 2112, who cares? 
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Atavachron
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 20:14 |
^ 
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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HackettFan
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 21:07 |
The Dark Elf wrote:
Wish You Were Here is actually two concepts that mesh. One centers around the disillusionment of Roger Waters with the recording industry, and the other concerning the loss of band member Syd Barrett and what Waters perceived as the erosion of closeness and friendship within the band that was evidently missing by the time the album was composed, as opposed to the more halcyon days when Barrett was still in his right mind and the band did not have the weight of stardom, conflicting band ideas and media pressure weighing on them. As for 2112, who cares? |
Aye.
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Dellinger
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 21:24 |
The Dark Elf wrote:
Wish You Were Here is actually two concepts that mesh. One centers around the disillusionment of Roger Waters with the recording industry, and the other concerning the loss of band member Syd Barrett and what Waters perceived as the erosion of closeness and friendship within the band that was evidently missing by the time the album was composed, as opposed to the more halcyon days when Barrett was still in his right mind and the band did not have the weight of stardom, conflicting band ideas and media pressure weighing on them. As for 2112, who cares? |
Actually, I don't think Pink Floyd/Roger Waters were trying to do a concept album at the time of Wish you were Here. I understand that the general atmosphere that was present during the recording of the album was the erosion of closeness you mentioned (I have read about them saying that the thing about Wish you were Here is that the band member really didn't want to be there). As for the two concepts that mesh, well, I think they are related, at least within the story of the band, and so you could say the album did end up having a concept/story, but I guess that's more by default than by intention (I guess this album is as much a concept album as Aqualung is). As for 2112, I have never considered it a concept album, and I have never read about people considering it so. I guess this album is as much a concept album as Tarkus is (not).
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Manuel
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 23:02 |
chopper wrote:
I agree, 2112 is not a concept album.
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I'm with you on this one.
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Progosopher
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 23:52 |
verslibre wrote:
Rush referred to albums like 2112 and Hemispheres as "theme" albums, though the "concept" of the first side of Hemispheres begins with "Cygnus X-1" at the end of A Farewell to Kings. |
This is a sensible distinction. Theme albums tend to be looser in their conception (ha) while true concept albums stick more closely to it. Naming some examples of true concept albums would clarify the original point.
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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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Toaster Mantis
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 02:16 |
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I think people need to distinguish between "concept album" and "rock opera". I've noticed that many people treat them as synonymous which I don't really think is correct.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Disparate Times
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 02:35 |
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^ Can you elaborate?
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Toaster Mantis
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 02:57 |
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I get the impression that a rock opera tells a narrative story over the course of the album, whereas a concept album just has to have a unifying conceptual theme going through all the songs (as well as visual presentation etc.) and does not have to be as specific.
To use specific albums, The Wall would be a rock opera and Wish You Were Here a concept album.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Disparate Times
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 03:11 |
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A narrative story would seem to be a specific way of doing a concept.
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Toaster Mantis
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 03:15 |
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Yeah, all rock operas are concept albums but not all concept albums are rock operas...
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Disparate Times
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 03:37 |
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Indeed
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Is it a concept album?
