Five Concept Albums That Tell A Story

Hi,

Didn't vote ... couldn't make up my mind, but there were, for me a lot of other things out there.

TOMMY was considered the first "rock opera", and as such, it really helped usher (maybe -- can't say for sure) a lot more serious music all around. 

I would rather something like 200 MOTELS was listed here, because it is a story, albeit told in an unconventional way, and its compositional value is a lot more interesting than the more conventional ones mentioned here. And if you hear the live presentation of this with full choir, you will find that this is quite an interesting thing on its own, that deserves some credit, albeit it will NEVER get it in America, because we like songs and top ten, not composers, and music that defies description.

There are many others.

AD2's Made in Germany, although the American album helped dismantle and destroy the concept, and its producers helped not an iota in making the album more cohesive and attractive. 

ANGE's Emile Jacotey was done some 20 years before Roger Waters did his version ... but people are afraid of listening to "Ego et Deus"? Weird!

GONG's Trilogy, fits here, although it is 3 albums, that kinda broke the band apart. However the band was so varied in its musicians and musicianships, that its ability to stick together would have been difficult anyway ... one had home in France, the other in England, the other in Australia ... and it goes on and on.

GENESIS' TLLDOB is one of my favorites, however, I really think that the media killed that album, and by that time, most people were already doing their communal chant that "concept pieces" were trash, even if they weren't. It's a real shame, since it is a great piece of work, although I think I would have taken out a couple of songs and extended some of the story telling ... half the 4th side of the double album is a waste and just a radio-play, and really has nothing to offer to the whole story concept ... so you write something serious and then you have a song that it's just another song that is meaningless because it is rock music! Way too weird for me, to accept.

PF's DSOTM. PF's WYWH, PF's ANIMALS and PF's THE WALL. All of these had their strengths. The Wall suffered in my book when it was cut up and part of its story became the next album, when it was the first part of The Wall, with all the story about the war and Roger's father, some of which was in TW, but was not elaborated upon. The story is more complete with the rest of the material, not without it, so from this point it won't get a vote from me.

Interesting choices ... I might have had about 10 to 12 of them instead, simply to have a wider set of choices. I'm not sure that most folks that "know" progressive music well, have even heard TOMMY in its entirety from the start, like I did for many years when it first came out. It's idea and concept was very very very different from everything radio and such, and it wasn't really until the WOODSTOCK film that glorified one excellent moment with a camera, that helped THE WHO become one of the biggest and best sellers around, but by then, "TOMMY" was already forgotten, and one or two songs (PW the other) being well known and the rest ... who cares?

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from this list, it would either be The Wall or The Lamb, but I'd choose Quadrophenia's story any day over those two... Or Harmonium's L'Heptade (though the story is somewhat confused)

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway will obviously win this so I voted for The SImilitude Of A Dream.

And yes, Quadrophenia should have been in the poll but Tommy is almost as good.