20 best CONCEPT lps

Let's keep it to 70's.

RIGONI/SCHOENHERTZ - VICTOR

RDM - CONTAMINATED

PROCOL HAREM - A SALTY DOG

I can think of 20 from the 70s....but they are not all going to be prog or even prog-related.  

Aphrodite's Child - 666

Hi,

The idea of "concept" has been abused a bit too much, and some of the stuff mentioned probably fits better as just a bunch of songs kinda matched up with a bridge, so they would manage to fit, and help an idea of a concept ... but in all honesty, I'm not sure that "concept" is well thought of or shown, since so many of the things listed are strictly about the LYRICS, and not the music itself! That kinda breaks up the idea of "concept".


Alan Stivell - Symphonie Celtique ... though it didn't show up until early 1980 on LP

Alan Stivell - Before Landing

Camel - The Snow Goose ... finally something without lyrics to tell us when to go to the bathroom!

Hawkwind - Space Ritual ... though it was a bunch of songs, but they all stayed on the main idea.

Nektar - A Tab In The Ocean

Nektar - Remember the Future

There are more, but I have to dig them up ... !!!

In some ways TLLDOB is a bunch of songs, and if the story had been better defined and cleaned up, I think the "concept" in the album would be way better, instead the only concept we get is the amount of liner notes in the LP, for example, which is cheating! I do think that PG gave up on "concept" though in his interview on the MM that I remember (middle page full!!!), he had mentioned the concept idea and how he wanted to develop that ... and guess what? There was no concept in any of his solo albums! Someone must have helped him realize that individual songs was his strength ... not an idealistic concept!

Edited by moshkito - April 12 2025 at 13:05

Alan Stivell - Before Landing

I have this. Did not know its a concept.

......
Since we are on folk now:
Fairport - Babbacombe Lee
Liam O'Flynn - the Brendan Voyage
Stackridge - Mr Mick

INPO (and probably forgetting a few!):

Subterranea - IQ
Brave - Marillion
Misplaced Childhood - Marillion
The Lamb - Genesis
WOTW - Jeff Wayne
The Human Equation - Ayreon
Into The Electric Castle - Ayreon
01011001 - Ayreon
The Universal Migrator - Ayreon
The Theory Of Everything - Ayreon
Metropolis Part II: Scenes From A Memory - Dream Theater
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
Map Of The Past - It Bites
Not Of This World - Pendragon
The Whirlwind - Transatlantic
Three Sides To Every Story - Extreme

Disconnect wrote: I can think of 20 from the 70s....but they are not all going to be prog or even prog-related.   As an example - Willie Nelson's 'Red Headed Stranger' album from 1975 is 100%  a concept album.  I generally hate country music, but that album is particularly haunting and beautiful to me for some reason.  My personal sentiments aside, it is widely known as a concept album.  I'm not making that part up.

Probably the closest to prog that country music will ever get, even if it’s not prog. Still a spellbinding album in its own right. Willie is ‘different’.

Tommy
Lamb
Thick as a brick
Quadrophenia
Relayer
Journey to center of earth & six wives of Henry 8th
The wall
Animals
Jesus Christ superstar
So many more…

II don’t know if procol harums salty dog is. I didn’t think so.




Edited by Valdez - 1 hour 52 minutes ago at 11:50