Prog songs which tell a good story - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Cluster One View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: February 03 2005
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Topic: Prog songs which tell a good story
Posted: February 16 2005 at 04:48

ivan_2068 wrote:

Well, Genesis has a lot:

Can Utility and the Coastliners: Story of King Canute (or Knute) of Norway
The Return of the Giant Hogweed: True botanical story
Musical Box: Fiction terror story about Cynthia and Little Henry
Fountain of Salmacis: The mythological story of Hermaphroditus
White Mountain: Based in Jack London's White Fang
Get 'em Out by Friday: Sci Fi and Political story
The Knife: The story of a revolutionary messiah
Watcher of the Skies: Sci Fi story
Eleventh Earl of Mar: True story about Sir John Erskine, a mediocre warrior and politician
Battle for the Epping Forest: Story about a gangs fight, suposedly based in real facts

Iván

What Ivan said

(although gotta put 'Supper's Ready' on that list as well.)

Peter Gabriel is prog's ultimate story teller!

Marmalade...I like marmalade.

sigod

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Posted: February 16 2005 at 04:34

As storytellers go, Peter Blegvad of Slap Happy/Henry Cow fame know's how to spin a mean yarn. The track 'King Strut' from one of his later solo albums is a cracking story about a dreamer who goes from rags to riches with the aid of a dying man's mystery gift, only to find out he's dreamed the entire thing while at the window of a burning mental asylum. Wild stuff!

And how can we forget Mr Waters and the Floyd...

I must remind the right honourable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision.
- Clement Atlee, on Winston Churchill

Paco Fox

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Posted: February 16 2005 at 03:46

Garion81 wrote:

The story of an elderly man who's wife has recently died. In a long and desperate night see's here ghost underneath the light from a lampost outside his window is the story of The Lamplight Symphony by Kansas.

That reminds me that Genesis' "Home by the sea" is about some ghosts being locked in some dreadful event of their past live and having to tell their story to anyone who enters the house. Not a proper story in the sense that it doesn't have a beginning, a middle and an end, but I read somewhere that it was inspired by an event in 'The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant', and I've always wondered if this was really so. Does anyone know?

Back to the main topic, I also like Al Stewart as a storyteller. I specially love his classic 'The Year of the Cat' (Prog connection: Alan Parsons producing), wich tales how he bumped into a woman when on holiday and spent the night with her, even loosing the tourint bus. It's very romantic, and it is said the events took place just in the area where I was born in the south of Spain.

frosty

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Posted: February 15 2005 at 17:31

Twelfth Night - Sequences. The madness that was trench warfare in WW1.

Garion81

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Posted: February 15 2005 at 12:40

"What are you going to do when that damn thing rusts?"

Big Ears

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Posted: February 15 2005 at 10:48

Karn Evil (or is it Eval?) 9 by ELP on Brain Salad Surgery tells of computers questioning the people that created them - 'I'm perfect, are you?'. This may sound unoriginal, but was ahead of its time in the early seventies. Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman on Love Beach is a story told through letters. It was considered inappropriate by the media, but rewards careful listening.

Lunarscape View Drop Down

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Posted: February 14 2005 at 20:12

Wakemans Journey To The Centre Of The Earth tells one hell of a story. !

Quite a few Pendragon Songs are pretty good stories too...

___________

Lunar

Music Is The Soul Bird That Flies In The Immense Heart Of The Listener . . .

Trotsky

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Posted: February 14 2005 at 04:20

Procol Harum's Keith Reid had provided us with more than a few over the years ... A Salty Dog, Lime Street Blues and A Whiter Shade Of Pale (even if I still occassionally change my mind about the exact meaning of that that acid-drenched, Canterbury Tale-influenced love song) for starters ... but there are literally dozens ...

Must admit two of my favourite story-tellers are non-proggers Al Stewart and Chris De Burgh ...

"Death to Utopia! Death to faith! Death to love! Death to hope?" thunders the 20th century. "Surrender, you pathetic dreamer.”

"No" replies the unhumbled optimist "You are only the present."

Paco Fox

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Posted: February 14 2005 at 04:16

Folk rock has many story-driven songs, son The Strawbs followed that scheme in their early records. Not only 'Vision of the Lady in the Lake', but also their previous first epic 'The Battle'.

Horslips' "The Tain" is a complete story, but I suspect we are talking about songs, not concept albums.

Emperor

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Posted: February 14 2005 at 03:21

The epic from Rick Wakeman's COST OF LIVING album (1983, the last track) - the great ones both - and the track, and the story!

Frank Zappa: Longsome Cowboy Burt.

Gentle Giant - almost any track from 3 FRIENDS!

I Prophesy Disaster...

Valarius

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Posted: February 14 2005 at 03:11

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence... Dream Theater!

starofsirius View Drop Down

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Posted: February 13 2005 at 23:35

Severity Town - Grobschnitt

I like the story in that song. Part of a bigger story I know, but its an awesome song that does good on the storytelling.

Edited by starofsirius

"I'm in a freefall like a snowflake falling down down down down down."

Hangedman

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Posted: February 13 2005 at 23:32

BilboBaggins wrote:

Ripples by Genesis - a story about the ageing process. (although I can never make up my mind as to whether the 'pool' is symbolic or the events of the story.

this reminds me.

All of TOTT, dont make me retype my theories on that album please

Cinema

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Posted: February 13 2005 at 21:40

The Gates of Delirium - Yes
South Side of The Sky - Yes
Awaken - Yes
Animation - Jon Anderson
Cinema Show - Genesis
Love Supreme - The Flower Kings
Behind The Great Beyond - Glass Hammer
Russia On Ice - Porcupine Tree

aqualung28 View Drop Down

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Posted: February 13 2005 at 20:55

Delirium Corda kind of tells a story

"O' lady look up in time o' lady look out of love
'n you should have us all
O' you should have us fall"
"Bill's Corpse" By Captain Beefheart

BilboBaggins View Drop Down

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Posted: February 13 2005 at 20:46

Ripples by Genesis - a story about the ageing process. (although I can never make up my mind as to whether the 'pool' is symbolic or the events of the story.

I think it is fast becoming obvious that Genesis where the King storytellers of Prog Rock. Which is somewhat ironic as Gabriel would introduce many of the songs with a little story. The only problem was the story seemed to change slightly from gig to gig and by the end of the tour it was practically a differant story!!

Thoughtfullness

Ivan_Melgar_M View Drop Down

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Posted: February 12 2005 at 19:09

Well, Genesis has a lot:

Can Utility and the Coastliners: Story of King Canute (or Knute) of Norway
The Return of the Giant Hogweed: True botanical story
Musical Box: Fiction terror story about Cynthia and Little Henry
Fountain of Salmacis: The mythological story of Hermaphroditus
White Mountain: Based in Jack London's White Fang
Get 'em Out by Friday: Sci Fi and Political story
The Knife: The story of a revolutionary messiah
Watcher of the Skies: Sci Fi story
Eleventh Earl of Mar: True story about Sir John Erskine, a mediocre warrior and politician
Battle for the Epping Forest: Story about a gangs fight, suposedly based in real facts