Print Page | Close Window

Ideas for Concept Albums That Ought to Exist

Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Music Lounge
Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=73036
Printed Date: April 28 2024 at 04:43
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Ideas for Concept Albums That Ought to Exist
Posted By: Nerd42
Subject: Ideas for Concept Albums That Ought to Exist
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:26
Hey peoples. I'm kind of more interested in concept albums regardless of genre than in prog specifically, though there is non-conceptual prog that I also enjoy listening to sometimes. Or maybe it isn't quite prog. Who knows? Seems like everybody's got their own definitions.

Well anyway I'm working on http://editthis.info/wiki42/Concept_albums" rel="nofollow - a list of concept albums ordered by subject (still needs much expansion) and it's occurred to me that there's a rich field of untapped source material for people to carry on making great concept albums about great subjects which have, to the best of my knowledge, never been done. I was thinking it would be fun to make up ideas for concept albums that don't exist, but ought to. So here's some ideas. I may go on to make some of these myself someday but if you want to try, awesome - go do it. :)

OK so here are some ideas:

A multi-genred album about the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland" rel="nofollow - Flatland; A Romance of Many Dimensions , an 1884 novel about people who live in a 2-dimensional world that could have a track listing something like this:

1. Trial Opening - The circles begin prosecution of Mr. A. Square for his heresy
2. Edge of the Table (Part 1) - A song about Mr. A. Square's perspective. Living in a two dimensional world, lyrics would go something like: "The edge of the table, that's all I can see, the edge of the table, but I long to be free" or somesuch.
3. Triangle Trigger - Rap song about the hard life of a triangle in Flatland, how triangles are the urban lower class and therefore would listen to rap music.
4. A Fine Line of Ladies - Ladies are lines in Flatland, men are shapes. This would be a song sung by a chorus of ladies about how prim and proper they are and how they always hide behind their husbands. Flatland is a critique or parody of Victorian society.
5. The Lineland Kings Barbershop Quartet - Barbershop song about Mr. A Square's dream about the 1-dimensional world of Lineland
6-n. (more songs in here about the color war and Mr. Square's discovery of the third dimension and trying to explain it to others and so forth)
n. Edge of the Table (Part 2) - Reprise of the earlier track in which Mr. A. Square's questioning ignorance about the third dimension is replaced with knowledge and how no matter how the Circles try to punish him, he is free regardless of what prison cell they construct for him because real freedom is knowing the truth. As George Orwell's characters would say, "Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2=4"

So there's one idea. Another one I've had lately is to make a concept album based on Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Even though I am not personally an Objectivist, the story is so incredible that it deserves to have somebody like Rush do a concept album about it. But I don't think I'll ever produce it, so I'm just throwing the idea out there for anyone to grab and run with.

Here is a prospective track listing:

The album title would be either "Who is John Gault" or "Millionaires on Strike"

Part I: Non-Contradiction
     01. Who Will Do More Honour
     02. Your Days Are Numbered
     03. The John Gault Line
     04. Wyatt’s Torch
Part II: Either-Or
     05. Check Your Premises
     06. The Moratorium On Brains
     07. Death Train (alternatively titled "DEEAATTHH TRAAAIINN!!!!!!!")
     08. The Sign of the Dollar
Part III: A is A
     09. Halley’s Fifth
     10. Their Brother’s Keeper
     11. Millionaires on Strike
     12. The Lights Go Out
Hidden Track: “Halley’s Fifth (Mangled Project X Remix)”

Anybody else had any cool ideas for concept albums?



Replies:
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:32
Ooh how about one about a big important idea with some difficult vocabulary words in the titles and there's this guy who goes through this really big important but never quite clarified transformation and the ending's really vague.


Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:35
^ You still on about Tommy?

-------------
http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:36
I think that's every concept album ever actually.


Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:39
LOL

-------------
http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Lozlan
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 16:55
My concept album.  Hm.

There would be an incredibly intimate, human conflict occurring, a desperate test of marriage and friendship and love that would span the conscious and unconscious mind of a man injured in an accident.  Various specters from his past would inhabit the narrative galleries, including the malicious shade of a wicked father.  Ultimately the injured man transcends the frailties of jealousy and anger and awakens to a revitalized world, his soul purged of impurities and healed of decades-old wounds.

And then the listener will be informed that the entire scenario was a dream simulated by a machine, thus robbing the narrative of all its power and subtlety.

Sorry, Mr. Lucassen.  Didn't mean to step on your toes.Wink


-------------
Certified Obscure Prog Fart.

http://scottjcouturier.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - The Loose Palace of Exile - My first novel, The Mask of Tamrel, now available on Amazon and Kindle


Posted By: Nightshine
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 17:00
A concept album about how concept albums never get done right.


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 17:02
I actually did try making a concept album called Killer Towers and it was extremely vile in content so I'm not that sure about describing the detail but the basic premise was that I wake up one morning to find myself living in an apartment building populated by history's worst serial killers.


Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 19:02
Hi,
 
Damn!
 
I thought I was nutz!


-------------
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com


Posted By: Lozlan
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 19:38
Originally posted by Textbook Textbook wrote:

I actually did try making a concept album called Killer Towers and it was extremely vile in content so I'm not that sure about describing the detail but the basic premise was that I wake up one morning to find myself living in an apartment building populated by history's worst serial killers.


Just the worst?  No one gives second-fiddle serial killers a break.


-------------
Certified Obscure Prog Fart.

http://scottjcouturier.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - The Loose Palace of Exile - My first novel, The Mask of Tamrel, now available on Amazon and Kindle


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 19:39
Originally posted by Lozlan Lozlan wrote:

Originally posted by Textbook Textbook wrote:

I actually did try making a concept album called Killer Towers and it was extremely vile in content so I'm not that sure about describing the detail but the basic premise was that I wake up one morning to find myself living in an apartment building populated by history's worst serial killers.
Just the worst?  No one gives second-fiddle serial killers a break.
LOL.

I don't think that "vague personal transformation" stereotype covers every concept album. In fact I think that's a small fraction of the ones I've heard. Look at the Alan Parsons Project or Electric Light Orchestra - none of their stuff is like that.


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 19:42

Actually the ones we know about are the second-fiddle ones.

 
As with all crime, murders greatest practitioners are not famous because they got away with it.


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 09 2010 at 19:43
Originally posted by Textbook Textbook wrote:

Actually the ones we know about are the second-fiddle ones.


 

As with all crime, murders greatest practitioners are not famous because they got away with it.
Kind of like peer-to-peer file sharing in that regard LOL :)


Posted By: m2thek
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 00:15

An album of seven songs detailing Harry Potter's story



Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 01:14
Surely you mean seven album length songs.


Posted By: Paravion
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 07:08
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Write_a_Progressive_Rock_Song - http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Write_a_Progressive_Rock_Song

Quote

The Concept Method

This method only works if you’ve decided to write a concept  http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Album - album , and so for our purposes will not be discussed in-depth. For the “Concept Method,” pick one episode that fits into a larger story (the “concept” of your album) and write about it. If you don't have enough material for the whole album, just append "part one" to the name of the song. You can record "part two" as a complete album decades later when you become famous.

LOL



Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 08:47
How about a REALITY album, where people do normal boring things like get up in the morning, eat, defecate, diet, read the newspapers, go to their drudge filled work, watch TV, bemoan their terrible relationships and seek solace in the escapism afforded by erm... Progressive Rock concept albums?

Nah, commercial suicide ain't it? Wink


-------------


Posted By: Kotro
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 09:07
Trouserpress idealized the greatest prog-rock concept album a couple of years ago. It's somewhere here in the fora (can't be bothered to look for it now).

-------------
Bigger on the inside.


Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 09:37
A progressive album on a subject about trains. Pulsar released an 80's album with a front cover shot of a speed line train in Europe. Not sure if it's been done before? The story could revolve around something else. Trains just coincide with it. It could have a re-occuring theme throughout the album......though falling between longer extensive epic type prog pieces. Some with vocal, some instrumental. The repeating themes are short. averaging between 3 and 4 minutes and sometimes performed by a string quartet only.
 
A prog release on the subject of witchcraft without cornball substance. Something a bit more mysterious and errie at times however, not falling into a catagory like Jacula. Nothing too extreme and leaving the listener mystified and curious.

A concept album about Gnostics would be interesting.

Short stories from Herrmann Hesse. Instrumental music written around concepts deriving from his short stories. "The Field Devil" comes to mind.

I was wondering, are there bands who have recorded concept albums like these? If so, please tell me about them?  


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 10:12
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

How about a REALITY album, where people do normal boring things like get up in the morning, eat, defecate, diet, read the newspapers, go to their drudge filled work, watch TV, bemoan their terrible relationships and seek solace in the escapism afforded by erm... Progressive Rock concept albums?Nah, commercial suicide ain't it? Wink
The theme of an average day was explored in "Days of Future Passed" by the Moody Blues (1967) and it was excellent. And we could do without some of these senseless negative sarcastic comments.

Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

A progressive album on a subject about trains. Pulsar released an 80's album with a front cover shot of a speed line train in Europe. Not sure if it's been done before? The story could revolve around something else. Trains just coincide with it. It could have a re-occuring theme throughout the album......though falling between longer extensive epic type prog pieces. Some with vocal, some instrumental. The repeating themes are short. averaging between 3 and 4 minutes and sometimes performed by a string quartet only.
Yeah that would be cool. I suggested one in the first post themed after "Atlas Shrugged" which focuses on trains quite a bit as the main character in the novel is a railroad executive. Eric Woolfson's "Poe; More Tales of Mystery and Imagination" has a song about trains called "Train to Freedom."


Posted By: Paravion
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 13:49
Quote A progressive album on a subject about trains.

About train travel.



Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 15:19

Textbook presents The Constipation Suite

 
The Constipation Suite ( Eternity On The Throne)
 
i) A Surfeit Of Cheese
ii) The Agony Begins
iii) The Empty Waiting
iv) Eternity On The Throne
v) The Futile Strain
vi) The Ingestion Of The Prunes
vii) Distant Rumblings
viii) Pushing To The Finish
ix) Finale: The Brown Deluge


Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 15:28
^ Actually one very Special Collaborator here on PA argues that Close To The Edge is about constipation Tongue


Posted By: splyu
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 15:36
Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Short stories from Herrmann Hesse.

This one: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=81 - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=81 is based on a Hesse story.

A great concept that does exist - as a classical avantgarde piece (by Anthony Payne) - but would work great in a prog context: "A Day in the Life of a Mayfly".


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 15:41
A Day In The Life Of A Mayfly (complete lyrics)

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz urk


Posted By: splyu
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 17:03
Originally posted by Textbook Textbook wrote:

A Day In The Life Of A Mayfly (complete lyrics)

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Buzz buzz buzz buzz urk

Haha, exactly.


Posted By: Luna
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 17:49
What an interactive concept album when you choose a story? "If you want to _______ skip to track 5" and so forth

-------------
https://aprilmaymarch.bandcamp.com/track/the-badger" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:01
Originally posted by SolarLuna96 SolarLuna96 wrote:

What an interactive concept album when you choose a story? "If you want to _______ skip to track 5" and so forth
I dunno if that would work very well. I mean, wouldn't that basically be more of a difficult-to-use audiobook than an album? It seems to me that an album does have to be a basically linear progression of sounds. I don't mean to disparage other perfectly legitimate art forms, but at some point it's not really an album anymore and I think what you're suggesting would be getting close to that point.

Bud I dunno. A drama could be interesting. It would need to be on a DVD or Blu-Ray or something though, with interactive menus, not requiring people to primitively skip tracks.


Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:07
The Meal

1. Soup Of The Day
2. Wine Interlude 1
3. Fish Course
4. Wine Interlude 2
5. Main! Part 1
6. Wine Interlude 3 - 7
7. Main! Part 2
8. A Visit To The Gents Part 1
9. Lost In A Corridor
10. Where's My Table?
11. Brandy Please!
12. A Visit To The Gents Part 2
13. Where Am I Again?
14. Sticky Toffee Pudding (including Sorry mate I Di'n see you's there)
15. Homeward Bound!
16. Epilogue: Can You Breathe In here, Sir?



-------------
http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:19
An interactive concept album has already been done by the rapper Canibus. Poet Laureate Infinity was 55 minutes of five 11 minute rhymes with five eleven minute beats that could be faded between at any time with it syncing up, creating a virtually infinite number of possible variations.


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:21
Joking aside I was going to do a rap mixtape/ep about masturbation with songs ranging from the humorous to more sincere reflections on guilt and loneliness. It looks like a goofy concept but actually, if you can be mature about it, I think there's some real material there.


Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:31
The War of the End of the World (by Vargas Llosa) would make an amazing conceptual album.

The story of the war in Canudos Brazil that confronted the poorest people lead by a Messianic preacher against the Republic.

Iván


-------------
            


Posted By: Ronnie Pilgrim
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:39
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

How about a REALITY album, where people do normal boring things like get up in the morning, eat, defecate, diet, read the newspapers, go to their drudge filled work, watch TV, bemoan their terrible relationships and seek solace in the escapism afforded by erm... Progressive Rock concept albums?

Nah, commercial suicide ain't it? Wink

Great idea! Let's call it A Concept About Nothing by Jethro Seinfeld.


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:59
If you thought Killer Towers sounded bad, I daren't even tell you about its sister piece Rape Showers.
 
I wish I was joking but I wrote it.


Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 23:25
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

How about a REALITY album, where people do normal boring things like get up in the morning, eat, defecate, diet, read the newspapers, go to their drudge filled work, watch TV, bemoan their terrible relationships and seek solace in the escapism afforded by erm... Progressive Rock concept albums?

Nah, commercial suicide ain't it? Wink
Wasn't this Mike Rutherford's Smallcreep's Day ?LOL


-------------
Curiosity killed a cat, Schroedinger only half.
My poor home recorded stuff at https://yellingxoanon.bandcamp.com


Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 18:51
Check this thread too: forum_posts.asp?TID=11887 - Concept? Write your own..


Posted By: stonebeard
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 18:57
Originally posted by harmonium.ro harmonium.ro wrote:

Check this thread too: forum_posts.asp?TID=11887 - Concept? Write your own..


Was going to find that one, but yes.

Back when times were simpler.


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 19:37
Originally posted by harmonium.ro harmonium.ro wrote:

Check this thread too: forum_posts.asp?TID=11887 - Concept? Write your own..
Oh great thanks :) Didn't know about that one. Heck, let's move this discussion there and forget this thread


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 20:57
I know we joke about Magma but I really would like to hear a progger do a Klingon rock opera - in Klingon!
 
Let it actually tell about any episode from the vast archives of Star Trek from the Klingon point of view. 
 
Who should put this together?  Arjen L!  Of course!!!
 
Smile
 
 


-------------
Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 20:59

How come Tolkien gets all the Prog-love? 

Don't get me wrong... Middle Earth is a nice place to visit.  But why do we have to *live* there?
 
How about an album of songs dedicated to Ray Bradbury short stories?  If this exists, please let me know.  I want to run out and immediately purchase it!  Tongue


-------------
Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 21:38
Originally posted by progpositivity progpositivity wrote:

I know we joke about Magma but I really would like to hear a progger do a Klingon rock opera - in Klingon!
 
Let it actually tell about any episode from the vast archives of Star Trek from the Klingon point of view. 
 
Who should put this together?  Arjen L!  Of course!!!
 
Smile
 
 


LOL Neat idea that just needs a working title - The Ring Spin Cycle, The Beggars Belief Opera etc

BTW They were named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, who served with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the LA Police Department (Did Wilbur have a corrugated forehead?)

-------------


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: November 12 2010 at 21:43
You know, the one where this guy does this thing and stuff happens...Tongue

-------------
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: LandofLein
Date Posted: November 13 2010 at 02:19
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by John Zorn


Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: November 13 2010 at 03:12
Not long ago in a similar thread I posted this (very long, sorry) idea for a concept album based on prog rock itself. Sorry for repeating but given that the subject comes back, here it goes again.
 
Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

 
Just for the fun of it, let me expand on the idea of a prog-rock-opera based on prog itself.
 

Our story would have 3 main characters: a Father and his Son (read equivalently as Mother / Daughter, no sexism intended) and the father’s best Friend during their teen years. The Father is born around 1953 so as a young teen he experiences first hand the birth of prog.

Assuming that a double album has a structure of “4 sides” as in the old vinyl double albums, the storyboard could be something like below.

The music should be original (not simply clone fragments of the different prog styles in history) but at each point in the story it should somehow cleverly integrate distinctive elements which would evoque the era being represented.

1st Half of Side 1: The Birth of Prog.

Our main characters Father and Friend enjoy their early teens as best mates, following up closely the morphing of pop and jazz into prog, of which they become huge fans. The music recreates this period, integrating some psychedelic and proto-prog elements, gradually becoming more perfected and complex.

2nd Half of Side 1 + 1st Half of Side 2:  The Rise and Peak of Prog

The Father and his Friend grow up immersed in the prog atmosphere of the early 70’s, the feeling is euphoric and they decide to form together a business distributing and selling prog records and promoting tours and gigs of prog bands. They have great success and make good money, but at the same time they are taking some risks with significant investments.

The music obviously recreates the golden years of complex and bombastic prog, with elements reminiscent of Genesis, Yes, ELP, VDGG, GG etc.

2nd Half of Side 2:  The Fall

At this stage of the story (mid 70’s), the Friend is approached by some mass media magnates without scruples who tempt him to switch to the easy money of commercial pop. The Friend finally succumbs to the temptation and betrays his best friend (our Father), taking all the money from their business and escaping to work as producer for cheap punk, pop and disco “stars for one day” (every story needs a bad guy, right? Wink ). Our Father is left in bankrupcy and total misery (just as some of our beloved bands), but he still follows up faithfully the last flutters of prog (the “pop-tized” prog of the late 70’s).

The music here would include some references to the pop-punk-disco and the AOR-tized prog, but would convey a dark, sad, dying feeling. 

Side 3:  The Underground Survival (from the 80’s until now)

Our Father is poor in extreme after all the debts left by his traitor Friend, but he tries to survive with a hopeful and positive mentality, he gets married and around 1995 he has his Son (who will eventually become our hero and savior of prog).

During these years prog does quite the same, trying to survive in difficult times thanks to a faithful and hopeful underground bunch of followers. It’s the years of Neo, the birth of Prog-Metal and the more diverse variations of the 00’s decade prog, and the music obviously recollects elements evoquing all of these.

The Father puts his Son from very young to study music, providing him with classical training and he also teaches him all the good prog which has been his passion for all his life. As it happens, the boy turns out to be a musical genius, a wonderboy (a sort of modern Mozart), and soon masters the secrets of good music and learns to play a large array of instruments. Under the guidance of his Father he discovers all the good prog of the past and present and becomes himself a fan. And as with many kids of our times, he happens to be also very skillful with computers, a young brilliant hacker…

Side 4:  The Rebellion and the Resurrection

Our Son is a young man and starts to write the most beautiful music humans have even produced. It has the best of all worlds, the delicacy and richness of the best classical music, the energy of the best rock, the sophistication of the best eclectic and avant… it’s a new kind of prog, the music for the future, but the music business world and its factual powers are not happy with it, they turn him down everytime he tries to disclose his music, they are scared of losing the fountain of easy money which the 21st century pop-dance music has become. Our Son suffers a shameless boycott.

Undefeated, our Son uses his hacker skills to infect every computer on Earth with a very special virus: everytime the user tries to use his computer, the machine will show him one of several things: some of the best songs or fragments of prog history, some message evidencing how manipulated the public is by the mass media oligarchs (of which the Friend has become one of them, of course), and also some of his new beautiful music which is being banned by those oligarchs without scruples.

The human society finally realises that they are being manipulated and rebels against the mass media, on a worldwide scale thanks to the power of the internet. The new prog music flourishes again and reaches everybody’s soul, our Son becomes a hero and the most praised musician on Earth. It’s a new Renaissance, a new Enlightenment era, not only for music but for all of human culture.

Now, this last 4th side is about a prog era which does not exist yet, so the music would have to be innovative and brilliant, just as the story suggests...  

As to what happens to the traitor Friend, the album would end enigmatically leaving the listener to make his own interpretation. Did he repent from having betrayed his friend the Father and become the biggest supporter of the Son?  did he sink down in mysery, punished for his egoism? did he commit suicide?



Posted By: Elderflower Man
Date Posted: November 14 2010 at 17:33
Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

The Meal

1. Soup Of The Day
2. Wine Interlude 1
3. Fish Course
4. Wine Interlude 2
5. Main! Part 1
6. Wine Interlude 3 - 7
7. Main! Part 2
8. A Visit To The Gents Part 1
9. Lost In A Corridor
10. Where's My Table?
11. Brandy Please!
12. A Visit To The Gents Part 2
13. Where Am I Again?
14. Sticky Toffee Pudding (including Sorry mate I Di'n see you's there)
15. Homeward Bound!
16. Epilogue: Can You Breathe In here, Sir?

I would buy this album on impulse if I saw it in a shop.


-------------
All your hearts now seem so far from me,
It hardly seems to matter now.


Posted By: thehallway
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 06:28
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Hi,
 
Damn!
 
I thought I was nutz!
 
Shortest Moshkito post ever! Wink


-------------
http://www.thefreshfilmblog.com/" rel="nofollow">



Posted By: thehallway
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 06:35
How about something Philosophical? like a story that revolves around Plato's cave, or a massive big Cosmological adventure.... I'm thinking there should be a main character who is torn between reality and the upper-land/heaven/whatever. But modernise it (Matrix style) and have other characters who represent different critiques and theologians.
 
If only it made sense it would be epic.


-------------
http://www.thefreshfilmblog.com/" rel="nofollow">



Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 11:12
Originally posted by thehallway thehallway wrote:

How about something Philosophical? like a story that revolves around Plato's cave, or a massive big Cosmological adventure.... I'm thinking there should be a main character who is torn between reality and the upper-land/heaven/whatever. But modernise it (Matrix style) and have other characters who represent different critiques and theologians.
 

If only it made sense it would be epic.
I was thinking about suggesting one about the trial and death of Socrates but I dunno how that would work musically :)


Posted By: thehallway
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 12:29
Originally posted by Nerd42 Nerd42 wrote:

Originally posted by thehallway thehallway wrote:

How about something Philosophical? like a story that revolves around Plato's cave, or a massive big Cosmological adventure.... I'm thinking there should be a main character who is torn between reality and the upper-land/heaven/whatever. But modernise it (Matrix style) and have other characters who represent different critiques and theologians.
 

If only it made sense it would be epic.
I was thinking about suggesting one about the trial and death of Socrates but I dunno how that would work musically :)
 
You write it and I'll put it to music!
 
We could really go to town on that: I'm thinking a double album; but the whole story told in retrospect by Plato (who would invariably add lots of drama). Theatrical stage shows, a full orchestra, and 1000 extras in togas. And of course, we'd have to call it.......
 
My Big Fat Greek Hearing!


-------------
http://www.thefreshfilmblog.com/" rel="nofollow">



Posted By: The_Jester
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 17:43
Are you a prog artist? 


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 18:32
He's being silly I think. But I wasn't. I seriously think Socrates would be a great subject for a solid album.

Several people on this thread seem to have a presupposition that concept albums are supposed to concern main characters with Messianic delusions who go through vague transformations like Tommy and The Wall. While I do like both of those albums, the many mediocre attempts at emulating their success suck as I think we all know.

No, I was more thinking of a "concept album" as being the sort of thing that the Alan Parsons Project did, where all the songs explore part of a serious, specific and thought-provoking overarching theme and are meant to be heard in order. They need not have a specific story progression or narrative as such, but ought to relate to one another and share a common theme or subject. A prime example of this kind of concept album would be Alan Parsons "On Air" which I suggest everybody listen to, it's without par.


Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 20:03
On the 20 sub genres of progarchives with a track done in each style of prog. It might be a double disc.


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: November 16 2010 at 00:17
Originally posted by Eärendil Eärendil wrote:

On the 20 sub genres of progarchives with a track done in each style of prog. It might be a double disc.
Is there a handy-dandy list of those with descriptions anyplace? :)


Posted By: nancygale12
Date Posted: November 18 2010 at 05:43
Quote Just the worst?  No one gives second-fiddle serial killers a break.
Clap









- Strategic Process Management


Posted By: ten years after
Date Posted: November 18 2010 at 05:58
How about an album about nice, happy people being happy and nice to each other.
 
 


Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: November 18 2010 at 06:26
Something like "Be happy with what you have to be happy with" ?

-------------
Curiosity killed a cat, Schroedinger only half.
My poor home recorded stuff at https://yellingxoanon.bandcamp.com


Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: November 18 2010 at 06:28
Originally posted by Elderflower Man Elderflower Man wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

The Meal

1. Soup Of The Day
2. Wine Interlude 1
3. Fish Course
4. Wine Interlude 2
5. Main! Part 1
6. Wine Interlude 3 - 7
7. Main! Part 2
8. A Visit To The Gents Part 1
9. Lost In A Corridor
10. Where's My Table?
11. Brandy Please!
12. A Visit To The Gents Part 2
13. Where Am I Again?
14. Sticky Toffee Pudding (including Sorry mate I Di'n see you's there)
15. Homeward Bound!
16. Epilogue: Can You Breathe In here, Sir?

I would buy this album on impulse if I saw it in a shop.

Thanks.LOL


-------------
http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: akajazzman
Date Posted: November 20 2010 at 15:28

 

 

How about a concept album about People that are really into Prog Rock!   Some possible titles for songs:

·         Why does everyone hate my music?

·         The Ballad of Roger and David

·         I Hate the Critics and the Critics Hate Me!

·         Am I as smart as I really think I am?

·         Can’t seem to get laid!

·         U.K vs USA

·         Only 4 months until the next TransAtlantic CD   (title for the song, not reality)



Posted By: samdelrussi
Date Posted: November 23 2010 at 18:46
  I would love to see someone do a concept album based on MY cosmic paintings all of which deal with the latest ''Multiverse'' and ''String'' theories.[It seems only fair since  so much of my work is inspired by Prog,why not the other way around for once?]
     But then,that's just me.


-------------
Sam Del Russi


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: December 02 2010 at 15:50
Someone should do a concept album about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Flight_to_the_Mushroom_Planet - The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet


Posted By: The Block
Date Posted: December 02 2010 at 16:27
Originally posted by Nerd42 Nerd42 wrote:

Someone should do a concept album about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Flight_to_the_Mushroom_Planet - The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Interesting...LOL

-------------
Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp!



Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: December 03 2010 at 17:15
Two other great stories would be Gulliver's Travels and Lester Del Rey's "The Runaway Robot"


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: December 03 2010 at 20:22
The Thingamabob And The Doohickey.

-------------
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: December 03 2010 at 20:28

the Apendix suite,

the concept about your dygesting systm
 
encore, the brain tumor,
 
the intelectual meltdown


-------------


Posted By: oak17
Date Posted: December 04 2010 at 21:46
I liked the idea of one on ray bradbury short stories, or you could do fahrenheit 451 or something. An idea of mine would be an album based on epic poem the Divine Comedy. The album could traverse through three main sections: Inferno (hell) Purgatorio (purgatory) and paradiso (heaven). In the poem each place is broken up into layers (for example Dante's Inferno has 9 layers, getting progressively worse for worse things a human did in life). So the album would go through all those, and this would be a dark part of the album because its portraying hell, and then the album would go into Purgatorio part and tell about all the 7 deadly sins and corresponding punishments, and then the album would go into paradiso and have beautiful happy songs about the different parts of heaven. I thought it was a cool idea because it could cover so many different moods stuff

You could do an album on other epic poems like the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, etc.

Or i thought you could do an album on just a journey. Like an epic journey about a sea man and all the things he sees or a guy who travels the world and climbs mountains and what not. This could have a deeper theme sort of like an allegory or it could just be entertaining telling a good story of a journey. Or maybe it could be like a journey through other dimensions/space/time etc.



Posted By: The Truth
Date Posted: December 04 2010 at 21:55
I'd love to do an autobiographical concept album if I ever take all these poems I have and make them into songs.

-------------
http://blindpoetrecords.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: December 06 2010 at 15:02
^  "about a sea man"   LOL


Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: December 06 2010 at 15:16
Hi,
 
Quote
1. Trial Opening - The circles begin prosecution of Mr. A. Square for his heresy
2. Edge of the Table (Part 1) - A song about Mr. A. Square's perspective. Living in a two dimensional world, lyrics would go something like: "The edge of the table, that's all I can see, the edge of the table, but I long to be free" or somesuch.
3. Triangle Trigger - Rap song about the hard life of a triangle in Flatland, how triangles are the urban lower class and therefore would listen to rap music.
4. A Fine Line of Ladies - Ladies are lines in Flatland, men are shapes. This would be a song sung by a chorus of ladies about how prim and proper they are and how they always hide behind their husbands. Flatland is a critique or parody of Victorian society.
5. The Lineland Kings Barbershop Quartet - Barbershop song about Mr. A Square's dream about the 1-dimensional world of Lineland
6-n. (more songs in here about the color war and Mr. Square's discovery of the third dimension and trying to explain it to others and so forth)
n. Edge of the Table (Part 2) - Reprise of the earlier track in which Mr. A. Square's questioning ignorance about the third dimension is replaced with knowledge and how no matter how the Circles try to punish him, he is free regardless of what prison cell they construct for him because real freedom is knowing the truth. As George Orwell's characters would say, "Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2=4"
 
I think you forgot a couple of parts ...
 
7. Footsies (Part 1)
8. Under the Table
9. Footsies (Part 2)
10. Satisfying Conclusion!
 
There you go ... now it is a lot more in line with Restoration Theater and work.

 


-------------
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com


Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: December 06 2010 at 15:29
^ Flatland would make a great album!  It would be cool if different instruments could represent the different shapes and dimensions.


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: December 06 2010 at 15:38
I think Spinal tap nailed it. A double concept album about the exploits of Jack The Ripper. Consider all th possibilities. Jou could have James Bond working with Miss Marple. Uriah Heep could be the musical directors. Mick Box. Yeah baby!!!!

-------------
                


Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: December 06 2010 at 21:51
Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

The Thingamabob And The Doohickey.
 
The Doodad: In Search Of Bric-A-Brac
 
Big smile


-------------
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: December 07 2010 at 19:52
Originally posted by oak17 oak17 wrote:

I liked the idea of one on ray bradbury short stories, or you could do fahrenheit 451 or something. An idea of mine would be an album based on epic poem the Divine Comedy. The album could traverse through three main sections: Inferno (hell) Purgatorio (purgatory) and paradiso (heaven). In the poem each place is broken up into layers (for example Dante's Inferno has 9 layers, getting progressively worse for worse things a human did in life). So the album would go through all those, and this would be a dark part of the album because its portraying hell, and then the album would go into Purgatorio part and tell about all the 7 deadly sins and corresponding punishments, and then the album would go into paradiso and have beautiful happy songs about the different parts of heaven. I thought it was a cool idea because it could cover so many different moods stuffYou could do an album on other epic poems like the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, etc.Or i thought you could do an album on just a journey. Like an epic journey about a sea man and all the things he sees or a guy who travels the world and climbs mountains and what not. This could have a deeper theme sort of like an allegory or it could just be entertaining telling a good story of a journey. Or maybe it could be like a journey through other dimensions/space/time etc.
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23458" rel="nofollow - Done , http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764" rel="nofollow - done , http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=31677" rel="nofollow - done and http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10592" rel="nofollow - done . I expect you will probably become a huge fan of Colossus Projects because they've already implemented four of your ideas. But that "Paradise Lost" idea sounds like it might be worth pursuing, though I'd rather see a decent "Pilgrim's Progress" concept album first myself. Ray Bradbury FTW.

I can't seem to imagine Fahrenheit 451 as a prog rock concept album but I'm sure Rush or somebody could make it happen


Posted By: Earendil
Date Posted: December 07 2010 at 20:30
Originally posted by Nerd42 Nerd42 wrote:

Originally posted by oak17 oak17 wrote:

I liked the idea of one on ray bradbury short stories, or you could do fahrenheit 451 or something. An idea of mine would be an album based on epic poem the Divine Comedy. The album could traverse through three main sections: Inferno (hell) Purgatorio (purgatory) and paradiso (heaven). In the poem each place is broken up into layers (for example Dante's Inferno has 9 layers, getting progressively worse for worse things a human did in life). So the album would go through all those, and this would be a dark part of the album because its portraying hell, and then the album would go into Purgatorio part and tell about all the 7 deadly sins and corresponding punishments, and then the album would go into paradiso and have beautiful happy songs about the different parts of heaven. I thought it was a cool idea because it could cover so many different moods stuffYou could do an album on other epic poems like the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, etc.Or i thought you could do an album on just a journey. Like an epic journey about a sea man and all the things he sees or a guy who travels the world and climbs mountains and what not. This could have a deeper theme sort of like an allegory or it could just be entertaining telling a good story of a journey. Or maybe it could be like a journey through other dimensions/space/time etc.
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23458" rel="nofollow - Done , http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764" rel="nofollow - done , http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=31677" rel="nofollow - done and http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10592" rel="nofollow - done . I expect you will probably become a huge fan of Colossus Projects because they've already implemented four of your ideas. But that "Paradise Lost" idea sounds like it might be worth pursuing, though I'd rather see a decent "Pilgrim's Progress" concept album first myself. Ray Bradbury FTW.

I can't seem to imagine Fahrenheit 451 as a prog rock concept album but I'm sure Rush or somebody could make it happen


Symphony X has an album based on Paradise Lost. So, done.


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: December 07 2010 at 20:54
Originally posted by Eärendil Eärendil wrote:

Symphony X has an album based on Paradise Lost. So, done.
Wow, I'm listening to the title track on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvOJlX4ZkE" rel="nofollow - YouTube right now and it's pretty awesome. Thanks for telling us about that. And I just realized that Colossus Projects "Divine Comedy" series comes on 12 CDs, four for each of the three parts, not just 3. If anything is ever going to be that long, you might as well do "War and Peace"


Posted By: maani
Date Posted: December 07 2010 at 23:23
One word: Gormenghast.  Would have thought Wakeman might do it, but no one has.  Might try it myself one day...


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: December 07 2010 at 23:56
Originally posted by maani maani wrote:

One word: Gormenghast.  Would have thought Wakeman might do it, but no one has.  Might try it myself one day...
Good luck with that. Never heard of Gormenghast before but from what I read in a brief Google search it doesn't sound like that kind of fantasy I like. Sounds like it takes itself way too seriously


Posted By: trench62
Date Posted: December 08 2010 at 00:15
Ghormengast has already been done........by Irmin Schmidt of  CAN  , in the style of a very dark opera.


Posted By: KoS
Date Posted: December 08 2010 at 01:13
The exploits of a Walmart employee
call it "works"


Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 09 2010 at 14:12
Quantum Prog.
Representing how in the quantum world an initial event may explore all the possible paths in spacetime (Feynman diagrams) and different alternative "realities" (the multiverse or many-worlds theory of Hugh Everett) and how they decohere into our "real reality", 4 or 5 (or however many) tracks would start exactly in the same way but then develop gradually into completely different things, for eventually again converge ("decohere") into the same ending.
 


Posted By: maani
Date Posted: December 09 2010 at 14:24
Trench62:
 
Thank you for letting my know that; I had no idea.  I will try to find the CD.  Though I was thinking more along the lines of solely instrumental, it must be even weirder with a libretto...LOL.
 
Nerd42:
 
Gormenghast is second only to LOTR as a fantasy trilogy.  And while it does "take itself seriously," it does so no more or less than LOTR.  As an aside, Tolkien and Peake were contemporaries and friends.  While Tolkien created an entire world, Peake took a world that many were familiar with, and gave it a truly interesting, intriguing spin.  And although LOTR is unquestionably the "better" of the two, I think that Peake is much better at fleshing out characters than Tolkien.  If you can set aside any preconceived notions or expectations, I would recommend that you read the first book of the trilogy and see what you think.  Peake is a "denser" writer than Tolkien, but a little patience and a good imagination will go a long way...
 
Peace.


Posted By: Nathaniel607
Date Posted: December 11 2010 at 14:50
Originally posted by oak17 oak17 wrote:

I liked the idea of one on ray bradbury short stories, or you could do fahrenheit 451 or something. An idea of mine would be an album based on epic poem the Divine Comedy. The album could traverse through three main sections: Inferno (hell) Purgatorio (purgatory) and paradiso (heaven). In the poem each place is broken up into layers (for example Dante's Inferno has 9 layers, getting progressively worse for worse things a human did in life). So the album would go through all those, and this would be a dark part of the album because its portraying hell, and then the album would go into Purgatorio part and tell about all the 7 deadly sins and corresponding punishments, and then the album would go into paradiso and have beautiful happy songs about the different parts of heaven. I thought it was a cool idea because it could cover so many different moods stuff

You could do an album on other epic poems like the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, etc.

Or i thought you could do an album on just a journey. Like an epic journey about a sea man and all the things he sees or a guy who travels the world and climbs mountains and what not. This could have a deeper theme sort of like an allegory or it could just be entertaining telling a good story of a journey. Or maybe it could be like a journey through other dimensions/space/time etc.


The Divine Comedy -  this has the biggest concept album I've ever heard of about it...

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23458" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23458
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=25764

12 discs.

Odyssey - The Greatest Tale;

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10592" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10592




-------------
http://www.last.fm/user/Nathaniel607" rel="nofollow - My Last FM Profile


Posted By: sarge
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 05:13
An album based on Chief's hallucinations in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest


Posted By: Deleuze
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 07:25
an album based on Barbara Bush's ass

-------------


Posted By: Baggra
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 08:06
An alternate reality where the  journalists and  TV news anchors do NOT use the word "devastating" every 10 minutes.
 
Where the word "dude" is not part of the vocabulary.
 
And where only instrumental prog is given accolades and  any faintest notions of verbose concept lps are extirpated from society (or given the F-451 treatment).
 


Posted By: theessentialform
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 10:31
Hi! 

I have always wanted to do one based on Brave New World....It would make an epic social commentary! (plus the dystopian flavor always adds interest)  

I have actually come up with some ideas for the songs, but they are just rough ideas!

AF 632 - Intro track, instrumental, very spacy and ambient.  I envisioned this one to make the use of a lot of Minor 7th chords, with modal melodies on top.

God, Death, Time - This one about John savage.  I'd actually want this one to have a tribal sound, make the use of pan flutes and tribal drums ETC

A Date With Miss Crowne - This one was based off of the musical description in the book.  (the part were they go dancing in the club) this one would be in 5/4 in the key of Ab (the two things mentioned in the book)  Faster tempo! 

Human Meat Factory - This one would definitely be dark, written about the blatant and free sexuality of the Brave New World people.  I think i envisioned this one in E Phrygian! 

And thats about it, just some rough ideas! I also think one about Heart Of Darkness would be cool...

I like the idea about Flatland! that would be awesome haha


Posted By: Greenbubbleman
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 10:50
I remember thinking after hearing Alex Harvey bands Hot City Symphony that a Concept album set around a Raymond Chandler book would be cool!


Posted By: sarge
Date Posted: December 18 2010 at 23:10
Originally posted by Greenbubbleman Greenbubbleman wrote:

I remember thinking after hearing Alex Harvey bands Hot City Symphony that a Concept album set around a Raymond Chandler book would be cool!
 
You should check out a band on Bandcamp.com called Heroin and Your Veins and listen to the album Nausea. Always reminds me of that Philip Marlowe atmosphere.


Posted By: AionOscal
Date Posted: December 20 2010 at 23:15
Concept album about the adventures of a pair of pants as they are bought, worn, put through the wash, put through the dryer, drawer, and finally worn again.  Oh, and it's all a metaphor about an eighth grader's math class (last part optional).


Posted By: CloseToTheMoon
Date Posted: December 24 2010 at 14:14
I looked through some of the concept albums on the homepage here and there's actually an album inspired by Seven Samurai. Pretty much ties my love of Prog and Kurosawa together.

I've been working with a good friend on one (at an extremely slow pace) that's something like American Psycho set in high school. Not exactly high-brow or literary, but it was an idea I had to tie some similar lyrics together and we really got into it. Which is an accomplishment on my part because he didn't listen to much beyond Blink 182 and The Used. 


-------------
It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.


Posted By: LSDisease
Date Posted: December 25 2010 at 06:02
Hadron Collider epic story about the beginning and the end. History of the matter.


Posted By: progvortex
Date Posted: December 26 2010 at 22:33
The story of Progarchives

-------------
Life is like a beanstalk... isn't it?


Posted By: Tychovski
Date Posted: December 28 2010 at 20:44
Music-obsessive scientist invents time machine to save legendary musicians from their tragic and untimely deaths.  He brings them back to write and record an album together.
 
This would be a two-disc set - the first would feature the rescues and the second is their collaboration.


-------------
Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974, it's a scientific fact.


Posted By: Crazy Penguin
Date Posted: December 29 2010 at 05:22
Originally posted by progpositivity progpositivity wrote:

I know we joke about Magma but I really would like to hear a progger do a Klingon rock opera - in Klingon!
 
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/first-klingon-opera-ends-run-in-the-netherlands-20100914/" rel="nofollow - Done, actually. :)

I rather more appreciate concept albums that explore abstract themes, in stead of telling a specific story about a specific person etc. In that spirit, a suggestion would be:

A concept album with the topic of dualism. Obviously, taoism comes to mind as well, so eastern influences are possible. This is also neat because you can focus the musical structure around the concept as well. Songs can, but don't have to have lyrics - up to the artist's choise.

//And the BEST part is - you can make 17 albums off the topic and they'd all sound completely different. LOL


-------------
I'm a little penguin, short and fat.
This is my flipper, this is my hat.


Posted By: Gentlegiantprog
Date Posted: January 10 2011 at 19:48
A band I was in a few years ago wrote a concept album (actually it was 3 but all the one concept, we didn't have the money at the time to make one large album, but I digress)

The concept is very simple, it is essentially a mixture of Hitler's last days as portrayed by the film Downfall and some vague teenage anti imperialist sentiment.


Anyway the main character, born in unnamed country A, living in unnamed country B was a Soldier conscripted to fight in the (essentially) civil war which brakes out between the two.
Towards the end of the war he finds himself in the claustrophobic bunker from which country B's despotic and increasingly paranoid leaders are in as the tide turns against the seemingly unsupportable power.

It is later revealed that the leaders have all been betrayed by one of their own who ends all of their lives in the bunker, with only the main character escaping to die in the battle for the ruined city above,

In his final moments he muses on how history will record the end of the war with no living soul to tell the truth and how each country and leader will be remembered after the war.

The last song in the series is about the passing of time and about the moments which each individual feels will stand against time.








We all thought we were really clever making it, having only known about concept albums from Fear Factory and were pretty gutted to find out Coheed and Cambria had the same idea of having the same concept across more than one album. I'd love to someday have a go at writing a concept album now that I've gotten into so much prog and also just am not a teenager, so it would be less Ham Fisted.


-------------
Let the maps of war be drawn !

http://kingcrimsonprog.wordpress.com/


Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: January 10 2011 at 20:14
Thinking you're the first to have an idea and then finding out you're not really sucks.
 
When I was a 6th former I wrote a script for a school play and I was absolutely thrilled with myself, I thought I'd invented this wild, anarchic, exciting new breed of comedy I hadn't really seen before. Then a teacher read it and said "You're a big fan of Monty Python I see" and I was like "What's that?" So I got some MP DVDs and was heartbroken (though hugely entertained) to see that this new and original style I had developed was old news 30 years ago.
 
I remember also once writing a piece for the student paper and getting this really angry letter from a reader about how I'd just ripped off the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer without giving him any credit. Thing was, I had never read a word of Schopenhauer.


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: January 18 2011 at 17:05
Originally posted by theessentialform theessentialform wrote:

Hi! 
I have always wanted to do one based on Brave New World....It would make an epic social commentary! (plus the dystopian flavor always adds interest)  
I have actually come up with some ideas for the songs, but they are just rough ideas!
AF 632 - Intro track, instrumental, very spacy and ambient.  I envisioned this one to make the use of a lot of Minor 7th chords, with modal melodies on top.
God, Death, Time - This one about John savage.  I'd actually want this one to have a tribal sound, make the use of pan flutes and tribal drums ETC
A Date With Miss Crowne - This one was based off of the musical description in the book.  (the part were they go dancing in the club) this one would be in 5/4 in the key of Ab (the two things mentioned in the book)  Faster tempo! 
Human Meat Factory - This one would definitely be dark, written about the blatant and free sexuality of the Brave New World people.  I think i envisioned this one in E Phrygian! 
And thats about it, just some rough ideas! I also think one about Heart Of Darkness would be cool...
I like the idea about Flatland! that would be awesome haha
Wow, that sounds awesome. Though you probably might want to know that http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=12865" rel="nofollow - there's already a mostly-instrumental concept album about Brave New World. But don't let that stop you from making a better one as it's not that good.

I am already in the planning stages of a sort of mashup-epic about that one scene in Brave New World in which John the Savage rejects Lenina's sexual advances. But it's not prog unless a concept song in the musical style of Girl Talk or DJ Earworm could be considered prog.

Originally posted by Tychovski Tychovski wrote:

Music-obsessive scientist invents time machine to save legendary musicians from their tragic and untimely deaths. He brings them back to write and record an album together.

This would be a two-disc set - the first would feature the rescues and the second is their collaboration.
Hmm. Two influences spring to mind which you might want to consider. One is Alan Parsons' "Time Machine" solo album, particularly the track, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJm29bJabM" rel="nofollow - "Call Up" which basically explores this theme. And maybe also http://www.billandted.org/musicalmusic.htm" rel="nofollow - Bill & Ted's Excellent Musical Adventure even though it's not featuring famous musicians other than Beethoven.

Make sure you hit up some of the classic type guys too, as well as jazz guys, not just rockers, kk? :)


Posted By: El Pollo Guerrera
Date Posted: January 25 2011 at 13:29
For a laugh, I'd like to see someone come up with an album that follows the storyline of "Star Wars" (the original first one and not "Episode 1") but doesn't come out and say it's "Star Wars".  Maybe a full 3-album set of the original three.

And then we could figure out how long it would take George Lucas to find out and sue...


Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: January 25 2011 at 14:09
Originally posted by Nerd42 Nerd42 wrote:



A multi-genred album about the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland" rel="nofollow - Flatland; A Romance of Many Dimensions , an 1884 novel about people who live in a 2-dimensional world that could have a track listing something like this:




Still the best suggestion in the thread.


-------------
"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "


Posted By: Nerd42
Date Posted: January 25 2011 at 16:18
Originally posted by Equality 7-2521 Equality 7-2521 wrote:


Originally posted by Nerd42 Nerd42 wrote:


A multi-genred album about the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland" rel="nofollow - Flatland; A Romance of Many Dimensions , an 1884 novel about people who live in a 2-dimensional world that could have a track listing something like this:



Still the best suggestion in the thread.
Thanks. I'm starting to think seriously about doing it someday. It would have a big live show that uses Japanese shadow puppets for the 2D parts and some other kind of puppetry for the 3D parts.


Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: January 28 2011 at 14:43
Originally posted by El Pollo Guerrera El Pollo Guerrera wrote:

For a laugh, I'd like to see someone come up with an album that follows the storyline of "Star Wars" (the original first one and not "Episode 1") but doesn't come out and say it's "Star Wars".  Maybe a full 3-album set of the original three.

And then we could figure out how long it would take George Lucas to find out and sue...
 
You mean how the story continues in a different path in Alan Dean Foster's Splinter Of The Mind's Eye? Apparently, a few fans of Star Wars prefer the events of that book to Empire and Jedi.

-------------
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay



Print Page | Close Window

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Copyright ©2001-2014 Web Wiz Ltd. - http://www.webwiz.co.uk