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The Hemulen View Drop Down
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Points: 5964 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Concept Albums
    Posted: October 11 2004 at 17:00

Favourites? To make it an interesting angle, don't just choose concept albums with the best music, but look at them in terms of the concept as well. In my opinion, if you're going to do a decent concept album you've got to get the idea/theme/story right, regardless of the music or you might as well not bother. With that in mind, here's some personal favourites:

Jethro Tull - A Passion Play

Very meaty sound for Tull, and a meaty story too.

"And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision!" Hehe... sublime.

Robert Calvert - Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters:

Okay, so it's not the most complex, boundary breaking music, but it DOES have Viv Stanshall and Brian Eno on board, and the concept works remarkably well. Who'd have thought crap planes and German politicians would be a good premise for a comedy space rock album?

Frank Zappa & The Mothers - We're Only In It For The Money

Berrrilliant.

 

Any more?
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Points: 4215 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 17:30

ELP : Brain Salad Surgery

"Rejoice, glory is ours. Our young men have not died in vain.  Their graves need no flowers, the tapes have recorded their names.  I'm all there is..........."

And he is all there is!!  Best climax on any concept album!

Pink Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon

I think me and half the world thinks this is a stellar concept album. Probably the best one to survive the test of time.

Pink Floyd:  The Division Bell

See I think this album is genius.  It has lyrics that cover Pink Floyd's entire career including the loss of Syd, the loss of Roger, the marriage breakups, the expectations of the fans... it weaves thru the Pink Floyd tapestry with precision.

Jon Anderson :  Olias of Sunhillow

I love the sound and feel of this album.  I love the concept.. the whole album package.. and Jon sounds great...

 
THIS IS ELP
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Points: 284 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 19:06

THICK AS A BRICK- JETHRO TULL

THE WALL - PINK FLOYD

NON - PROG CONCEPT RECORD: TOMMY - THE WHO
Democracy=A form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people...

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Points: 3484 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 19:26

I'VE always Liked Quadrophenia better than Tommy

Roger Waters Amused to Death
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Points: 374 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 20:13

The finest concept-albums are Snowgoose - Camel, The Six Wifes Of Henry VIII - R. Wakeman, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - R. Wakeman, Tales From Topographic Ocean - Yes, Olias Of Sunhillow - J.Anderson, The Wall - Pink Floyd, Amused To Death - Roger Waters, Space Ritual - Hawkwind, Warriors At The Edge Of Time - Hawkwind, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis, Brain Salad Surgery - ELP, Istória di Un Minuto - PFM, Spartakus - Triumvirat, Towards The Sun - Druid, Thick as a Brick - J.Tull, Aqualung - J.Tull, Canyon Dreams - Tangerine Dream. Now, some non-prog albums could be considered such as Todd Rundgreens Utopia, The Who's Tommy,  and well, I've never listened to The Dark Side Of The Moon from a concept album point of view (considering the perfect timing as a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland.)

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Points: 4215 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 21:01
Originally posted by Lunarscape Lunarscape wrote:

 and well, I've never listened to The Dark Side Of The Moon from a concept album point of view (considering the perfect timing as a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland.)

Actually I think you mean soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz"....
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Points: 831 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 21:17

"Thick as a Brick"!  I'm learning to play it on bass... I know all of part one and can play it all (almost) perfectly.

"The Wall".  My first prog love...

any other Floyd albums

more later
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Points: 19557 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 21:17
    1. 666 - Aphrodite's Child: The most controversial and terrifying book of the Holy Bible is a strong concept to develop, and the band did it well.
    2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis: Complex story about the man and his inner problems, full of symbolism.
    3. Quadrophenia - The Who: Four personalities of a man or four faces of The Who?
    4. The War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne: Sci-Fi from the XIX Century and one of the best interpretations of a literature piece with music, more faithful to the book than any Hollywood movie.
    5. Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull: A strong satire against British ethics (or hypocrisy), brilliant.

Iván
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Points: 374 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 21:49

Absolutely correct Threefates....

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Lunar

Music Is The Soul Bird That Flies In The Immense Heart Of The Listener . . .
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Points: 3013 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 22:03
Is Brain Salad Surgery really considered a concept album?
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Points: 4338 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2004 at 22:12

I think you have most of them here already.  Gdub I agree Quad over Tommy.

One no prog I didn't see was Paul Kantners 1970 "Blows Against The Empire". Listed as an album by Jefferson Starship. It has all the right elements and some very interseting music and ideas.

 

Other than that

OK Frosty the Snowman by Burl Ives.

 
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Points: 39 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 00:40

Hmmm...I'm not certain Brain Salad Surgery counts as a concept album, though Karn Evil 9 is certainly ranks amongst the greatest prog compositions.  However, Olias Of Sunhillow is certainly a great album.  I've always been most impressed that Jon Anderson played nearly everything on that album himself.  I'm also partial to Patrick Moraz's "i".

I also enjoy Misplaced Childhood and Brave by Marillion, Thick As A Brick by Tull, Lamb by Genesis, Pompeii and Spartacus by Triumvirat, and Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Wakeman.

I can think of a number of rock operas that should count as concept albums.   Tommy by the Who, Jesus Christ Superstar by Webber & Rice, and Chess by the guys from Abba & Rice.
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Points: 8548 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 01:44

Dream Theater " Scenes From A Memory "
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Points: 29298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 02:54

Works Volume One is ELP's concept album ..the concept being themselves! (anyone dare say ''self indlugent''??  )

IQ's 'The Wake' is probably my favourite concept album closely followed by The Wall.I like concepts with dark themes personally.'Airy fairy stuff' like Tales From Topographic Oceans doesn't do it for me.And sorry Ivan but Jeff Wayne's WOTW is awfull!
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Points: 1475 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 05:49
Kayak - Merlin, Bard of the Unseen.
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Points: 8548 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 06:41
Gentle Giant " Three Friends "
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Points: 6308 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 07:05
SERGE GAINSBOURG : HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON
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Points: 6308 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 07:28

Here's the review:

Review by Jason Ankeny

You don't need to speak a word of French to understand Histoire de Melody Nelson — one need only to look at the front cover (with its nearly pornographic portrait of a half-naked nymphet clutching a rag doll) or hear the lechery virtually dripping from Serge Gainsbourg's sleazily seductive voice to realize that this is the record your mother always warned you about, a masterpiece of perversion and corruption. A concept record exploring the story of — and Gainsbourg's lust for — the titular teen heroine, Histoire de Melody Nelson is arguably his most coherent and perfectly realized studio album, with the lush arrangements which characterize the majority of his work often mixed here with funky rhythm lines which underscore the musky allure of the music; perhaps best described as a dirty old bastard's attempt to make his own R&B love-man's record along the lines of a Let's Get It On (itself still two years away from release), it's by turns fascinating and repellent, hilarious and grim, but never dull — which, in Gainsbourg's world, would be the ultimate (and quite possibly the only) sin.

 

...And believe me...It's progressive!

 

 
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Points: 6308 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 07:29
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Points: 2779 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2004 at 07:44

Wasn't the first Genesis album, from 'Genesis to Revelation' a concept album too?

The Bible in two side of vinyl. How ambitions is that for a debut album????

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