Ideas for Concept Albums That Ought to Exist

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 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 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?

Edited by Nerd42 - October 19 2011 at 22:38

^ You still on about Tommy?

A concept album about how concept albums never get done right.

Hi,

Lozlan wrote: 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.

Edited by Nerd42 - November 09 2010 at 19:42

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 :)

Surely you mean seven album length songs.

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?

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.