Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Mike Oldfield - Incantations

Harmonium - L'Heptade

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St.

The Beatles - s/t

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

(Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde)

As always, thanks for any feedback! 

 Unless this is a joke I do not understand, my copy of A TTWT, purchased on vinyl, was a singe LP.

Tommy was a double

They were also expensive to buy so sold fewer copies, the record companies didn't like that because that meant they did chart well, and high chart placing always result in even more sales.

 

Quite surprised hearing that from you, because at least from mine i used to read A LOT all the lyrics ON THE TWO INTERIOR SIDES of it, taking for granted my interest in the english language. It seems this LP releasing was better in my country indeed.

Yeah, it's only 50 minutes, and is a single LP. You might have some other edition? I don't know. The Lamb is 94 or something, so it's much stockier than ATTWT, and a double.

Also, Ummagumma was half studio and half live. I see it as 2 different albums really. Even so, there was still a 10 year gap between that and The Wall, and there hasn't been one since then.

P.S. Forgot about Tommy  I'll take it out. You get what I mean though 

 

Maybe that's it, it is possibly another edition, but unfortunately i don't have my LP of ATTWT anymore, very silly of mine not having my LPs with me anymore, i had a special affair with the double ones, which if i remember well was at least 90 % of my LPs (including that consisted of one only vynil packed in a double folding cover, like ATTWT. Maybe that's what you were meaning...)

Otherwise, I think it tends to be the creative drain as well as lack of support by the industry.  Double albums seemed to be trendy for a while....TFTO, The Lamb, Works etc.  

This is interesting:  Some artists still occasionally produce a large enough quantity of material to justify a double album. For example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock" rel="nofollow - progressive rock band http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flower_Kings" rel="nofollow - The Flower Kings have released four double albums out of eleven studio albums.

It appears that many bands would capture entire concerts and release them as live double albums, which makes sense since it reduces studio costs & offers the consumer an alternative product to the studio version.  

Check out John Coltrane!!  And Frank Zappa!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_double_albums" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_double_albums

 

Nowadays with the CD's being capable of having so much more music, many more albums would be considered "double"!!!!!

 

LP's had a limit of about 20/22/24 minutes or so for the longest time, so anyone wanting to do anything of an extended nature was at the mercy of the record company and their whims.

 

Today this is not an issue since you can put 100 minutes on a CD, and guess what ... that's like 2 and a half LP's.

 

I've mentioned this before. The "double album" thing, created a slight problem. All the symphonies you ever heard by everyone from the last 500 years are now "limited" to the size that the LP has created for them, and I'm waiting to see new recordings of things that follow the music scores, and not the LP subscription of how long it has to be.

 

One of the greatest things in the digital age is seeing these limitations totally gone. Now i want to hear the original Beethoven symphonies without them being trimmed or strictly "following" a pattern (timewise) that we're familiar with!!!

 

Wouldn't that be scary?

 

At the very least this did not happen to "popular music" in its rise to their sales, which is now the "new standard" for what is music and is not! But seeing so many bands these days do long cuts and not be bound by the length is partiularly satisfying for me!

Hardly!

 

You could smoke the cardboard and get higher faster!

 

I've always had this kind of idea that the double album was a band's attempt to make it look like they were "better" than just a pop song or two. But it also gave rise to the idea that you could put songs in a certain order, and then tell people that a story was there, and no one would know any better! The Beatles White Album is exactly that. There might be something here, or not!

 

All in all, I was never worried about it being single or double LP. I had already enjoyed many operas and other works that were fairly long, so seeing a band do something more than just a song, was kinda cool. "Tommy" being called a "rock opera" was abusing the word and priviledge for my ideas, and in some ways, it broke the "mold" for what "opera" should be about, something that even Roger Waters did not listen to or pay attention to with "Ca Ira".

 

AD2's "Made in Germany" is also supposed to be a concept album and was originally a double LP, that was cut down for American release into a single album. But by the time you try to figure out ... where's the story? ... it's almost like it doesn't matter, and sometimes I don't like that in rock music, which is a bow to the fans, but sometimes not exactly a bow to the music itself (or the idea/concept!), but at least you know they are not playing an idea of music, like "rock'n'roll", which has become so meaningless it's not funny!

it goes something like this: "Nora Helmer once secretly borrowed a large sum of money so that her husband could recuperate from a serious illness. She never told him of this loan and has been secretly paying it back in small instalments by saving from her household allowance. Her husband, Torvald, thinks her careless and childlike, and often calls her his doll. When he is appointed bank director, his first act is to relieve a man who was once disgraced for having forged his signature on a document. This man, Nils Krogstad, is the person from whom Nora has borrowed her money. It is then revealed that she forged her father's signature in order to get the money. Krogstad threatens to reveal Nora's crime and thus disgrace her and her husband unless Nora can convince her husband not to fire him. Nora tries to influence her husband, but he thinks of Nora as a simple child who cannot understand the value of money or business. Thus, when Torvald discovers that Nora has forged her father's name, he is ready to disclaim his wife even though she had done it for him. Later when all is solved, Nora sees that her husband is not worth her love and she leaves him."

Oh no, it's just an urban legend I heard.

From my perspective: They're usually not great

And there's folks like George Harrison, who released the triple album All Things Must Pass, which was the greatest double album with six sides ever made. Or Johnny Winter, who released a three-sided album. I don't recall any one-sided albums, but I am sure there are a few.

Two-sided as well. Why do I forget these things? 

You forgot the three sided album!

 

Monty Python!

 

Alternating grooves on Side 2 of the album I think it was. I would like to see that done on CD, but it won't happen, so the effect will be lost! Let me tell you that the folks at our radio station in Santa Barbara had screwed this one several times before realizing the joke was on them. Even the big G had his laugh, when he bought the Bok and he wanted the one without the mark on the white cover! They all had the mark! Haha!

 

I told you that it was true!

Doesn't quite explain things 30 or 40 years ago, though!

 

Tommy still sold!

 

The White Album still sold!

 

And so many others!

 

What the music folks are doing these days is sad, and will hurt the distribution of music. Pink Floyd has stated that they can not break up the long songs, but most bands do not have that ability, which means any service out there can rip you off.

 

You should have seen how pretty it was to have a banded version of "Close to the Edge" and a banded version of so many other long things.

Simples. You just turn the CD over and play the b-side. 

Nooooo ... the third track!

 

It has to be done as if the CD had alternating grooves to the end on one side, which they don't. The funny part on the MP thing was DJ's getting the finger because they thought this would play, and instead something else came on!

The third track is on the other side. 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Most albums have better side 1's than 2's as well, especially double albums IMO 

Genesis - Lamb

Wilco - Being There

Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

NIN - The Fragile
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Not all prog, but there are some new entries. The NIN one may have some filler, but I think the Lips' Embryonic is stellar. As far as "perfect" double album, that title goes to The Wall. I don't think there is any filler in that, especially in how each song is used live with visuals in the Roger Waters tour. I cannot imagine a song like Vera Lynn NOT being in the live show, so it is completely important on the album.

My two cents

Which half of The Lamb Lies Down, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Quadrophenia, Tommy, The Wall, Electric Ladyland, Exile on Mainstreamstreet, 666, Tanz der Lemminge, Focus 3, Aerial is the weaker half. (Deliberately ignoring double live album of course because it's a well known fact that bands put all their weaker material in the second half of their live sets and save the really weak filler for the very end, and the weak padding songs for the encore).

Oranges and Lemons is a good call, but English Settlement is a better one. No flagging there!

 

That's another prove of the subjective that is any kind of art appreciation...

 

I wouldn't call an artist that one who puts in any logical order his compositions in an album, as was said here about The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for example. Sorry but that doesn't have any sense for me, btw a complete lack of taste putting that masterpieces in the sack.

No idea what that means, (I don't follow football, have no interest in football and no desire to find out), I'll take it to mean something that I'm not going to like just to save time and energy.

The mediocre is not something anyone strives to achieve, if they arrive at mediocrity it is not for the want of trying, nor is it something that is planned. If you judge something to be mediocre and call it filler then yip-di-do, I'll continue to call it mediocre and will not treat the two as synonymous. So, yep, the terminology hacks me off ::insert appropriately pithy football metaphor here::

I've read your comment about my comments about double live albums over and over and I don't get it - have we become so inured by the internet now that sarcasm is only recognised if it is terminated by a sticky-out-tongue emoticon? :-p

However, you are not dr wu23.
 

 

Agreed, but for the sake of this forum i think you shouldn't waste your time anymore and get back to what the thread title suggests.

 

Too much filler?

No need to attack me!  I love the Gabe and I love Genesis, but I'm afraid I just don't like The Lamb. It's a prime example of a lyrics-first approach in my mind - music should always come first. 

On the other hand, I just listened to Tales from Topographic Oceans - good stuff! 

Weaker (and padding and filler..) indeed might be the wrong word;....perhaps we should just say parts we all prefer over others.

There are several parts of Lamb I think are 'weaker' than the others but it's kind of spread out on the 2 LP's.

On Tales I think sides 2 and 3 are 'weaker'.

I prefer the first LP on Quadrophenia....doesn't make the second 'weaker' except to me.

Tommy is all about the same quality to me and excellent overall.

I like the second LP marginally  better on The Wall probably due to Comfortably Numb.

On Exiles I prefer the first Lp though the second isn't bad or 'mediocre' per se.

I think most of Ladyland is pretty solid also...though Voodo Child on the second side is my favorite track so I think that side is 'better' for me.

I honestly haven't played 666 or Tanz enough in recent memory to have an opinion and I don't own Focus 3.

 

So for me it's more about which discs hit my favorite spot and sometimes the better tracks are scattered over the two Lp's so it's hard to say which LP is 'weaker' on some doubles. As I said I have a tendency to play one or the other LP's on doubles due to personal preference.....'weaker' becomes  a subjective term as it always does here on PA regarding quality and what is 'this or that'.

 

 

Lamb was a music first album, as were all Genesis albums. This one is infamously so as any Genesis fan knows since Gabriel was not present during much the writing and recording of the album due to difficulties wife Jill was having with the birth of their daughter.

Thank you sir. 

Which parts are those? I've always thought PG is one of the most consistently excellent double albums around, the only track I'm not that keen on is the last one "Sick Again" and I've seen more than one person say that's their favourite track on the album.

I love that song. I suppose it's a bit of a muck about but I still like it.

Me too. Love the trash-can cymbals Bonham is banging on and the Rolling Stones' Ian Stewart on piano. You can tell the band is having a lot of fun. After all, the working title of the song was "Sloppy Drunk".

Supporting the Dutch!

I'm Dutch!

So you're supportering me! 

Okay, so far for this pseudo-Socratic syllogism  but you do have a good taste, Kati  

As well as for supporting Dean, whom I'm happy to see on this site.

We all have our grumpy days, and that's the truth

Come on, everyone is saying this, but what are they?

Down By The Seaside

Boogie with Stu

Sick Again

Custard pie

The Rover

 

Now I'm not saying these are bad songs just that they don't do much for me.

It's that subjective thingy all over again.

 

I would also include Night Flight and Black Country Woman.  All of the songs on Physical Graffiti are good, some are just a little weaker than others.  The band themselves admitted that they didn't quite have enough material to make it a double album so they went to the vaults and filled the album with some unreleased tracks.  Tracks that weren't good enough to be on previous albums. 

Agree with every thing you've said David, just picking up on Tales.

Tales is indeed flawed and is an exception here because it does contain padding, (but it also contains pruning - Revealing was trimmed to make it shorter by some six minutes). However this padding is within the tracks because originally the four tracks contained enough music for three sides vinyl, so they padded the music out so that each track was around the 20 minute mark (the optimum length for sound quality on a vinyl disc) - none of the tracks are filler-tracks. That is one of Wakeman's criticisms of the album and perhaps his main contribution to it - linking the disparate parts within each track with typical Wakeman-y aplomb, (he did this on Fragile and Close to the Edge too), such as the short pastoral (almost Greenslade-like) Moog segues in The Remembering. 

I suspect what some people may be experiencing on double albums is simply sensory overload, the old "Listener-fatigue" (which I've never really understood myself, this is Prog after all, but hey-ho). If Yes had released any of these tracks on a single album in the same format as Close to the Edge and Relayer, with a selection of shorter songs the flip-side, I think maybe we would see them differently; sure "The Remembering album" would perhaps not be liked as much as "The Ritual album" or "The Revealing album" would, but I suspect many would rate it highly as a Symphonic Prog Folk album. Perhaps if Yes had just released The Revealing and The Ritual as two sides of a single album people may find it less of a chore, that they can squeeze in during a 40 minute lull in their TV viewing schedule, then perhaps some of us may just find it to be just a little less interesting.

[disclaimer: I'm not a Yes fan by any stretch, I like Tales and Relayer - the rest I can take or leave, especially Close t'Fridge]

Nooooooooooooooooo! 

Yes it would. I actually prefer The Remembering to the other two.