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From my own music collection, here are My Picks as the Top Ten Concept albums of all time. (And as few notes as to Why?)
#10 - Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
By the time this album came out, the whole idea of Concept Albums was getting a bad wrap. So when Alan Parsons (The Man who Engineered Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") put out his first album as the Alan Parsons Project, it was a pleasant suprise that it should be a concept album based on the stories of Edgar Alan Poe.
This album is as hauntingly beautiful and enigmatic as the stories upon which it is based, and a breath of fresh air for an old rocker like me, who was slowly drowning in a sea of Disco!
# 9 - Rick Wakeman - A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
The story of this album and how it was financed, recorded and eventually released, is an epic tale all on it's own. Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Jules Verne, Rick Wakeman sank everything he owned into recording this album, which almost didn't get released.
In spite of terrible equipment failure (and just plain bad luck) the album is actually shorter than it should be, but it is still a great listen. Wakeman has since release "Return to the Centre of the Earth" featuring narration by Patrick Stewart.
# 8 - Jeff Wayne - The War Of The Worlds
Based on H. G. Wells classic story of alien invasion, this album features an all star cast, including Richard Burton, Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues), Chris Thompson (of Manfred Mann's Earth Band), David Essex, Philip Linnot (of Think Lizzy), Judy Covington, and Jo Partridge.
Recorded between May 1976 and July 1977, this album was a work of art, inside and out! The old LP's contained a full sixed booklet that contained stunning artwork adaptations of the Story, as well as a complete lyric list for the double album. As a concept Album, it was nothing short of Brilliant!
# 7 - Pink Floyd - The Wall
Inspired by a near riot at a show in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, The Wall is part Autobiography and part dark fantasy. Some would say it is Roger Waters greatest master work because it is so closely tied to his own life, and yet explores issues that confound us all.
The movie, directed by Alan Parker too it a step farther, although I have often thought it could have been done better. The movie languishes in it's own decadence in places and by the end leaves viewers wondering what exactly they just saw.
# 6 - Yes - Close To The Edge
One of the first CD's I ever owned! Close to The Edge is Yes at their most experimental, and brilliant. According to the official website, Yesworld.com, the Title Track was inspired by Hermann Hesse's book Siddhartha. It then goes to follow that the lyrics are about seeking spiritual illumination, finding a new state of mind and living life to the fullest. It screams, it soars, it leaves you breathless in its grandure.
The album also features "You And I", a song about Love and Equality, and "Siberian Khatru". The cover art by Roger Dean was as breath taking as the music!
# 5 - Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
What can I say... 714 Weeks on the Bill Board Album Chart, one of the biggest selling albums of all time, and arguably Pink Floyd's most recognized album. Lyrically, Musically, Graphically, to most fans, it is the ultimate Pink Floyd album! It explores the human condition through themes like time, greed, conflict, travel, mental illness, birth and death.
The album was intended as a statement about the pressures of modern life that can drive the normal person insane. Mans inhumanity to man, tinged with material greed, the passage of time and the lust for fame, combine to create a tapestry unlike anything heard before it. Dark Side solidified Pink Floyd as legitimate super stars, but also put them under a microscope that it was impossible to escape from.
# 4 - Klaatu - Hope
This album has a great back story. Klaatu recorded the original version of the album in London England, with a Symphony Orchestra, and delivered finished masters of the album in February 1977. But by then, a rumor had started that Klaatu were the Beatles recording anonymously and their first album was selling like hot cakes. So Capital ordered Hope shelved for 6 months.
During that time Klaatu recorded the entire album over again using synthesisers, remixes and expanding the original material. The version of Hope we all know is actually the second, released in September of 1977. The first version, known as the Orchestral Version is now available as part of The Sun Set, released through Bullseye Records.
# 3 - The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Generally considered the first ever Concept album, Sgt. Peppers was named the Number One Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine, in 2003. It was recorded on the heels of the fall out over John Lennons "Bigger Than Jesus" quip. The band, burned out from a combination of Touring the Media scrutiny, sequestered themselves in a studio and submerged themselves in work.
Unlimited budget and ample studio time gave the Fab Four the tools to expand beyond their Pop Icon Status, and create a serious work at a time when popular music was under going radical changes. The end result is an album that is as iconic as the legendary band that produced it.
# 2 - The Moody Blues - Days of Future Past
This album has an impressive list of First's. It was the First Rock album recorded in Stereo. It was the first album to mix Classical music with Rock and Roll. It revolutionized the Concept album, and influenced artists for years to come. And it was probably the biggest Gamble ever taken by a rock band.
The original lineup of the band had splintered after their first album did not meet expectations, and two new members were recruited to join Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas and Graham Edge. Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined a band that still owed one album on a 2 record deal with Decca. They went into the studio to record Anton Dvo��k's New World Symphony, but instead recorded an album based on an original stage show that they'd been working on, following the passage of an average day.
The album almost didn't see the light of day! Record company officials feared that an album featuring a Rock Band and Symphony orchestra playing together would alienate Rock fans, and anger Classic Purists! Thankfully, they decided to release a few thousand copies into a test market... The rest is History!
# 1 - Pink Floyd - Animals
I know I will get ALOT of arguments on this one, but bear with me! In my humble opinion, this album is Roger Waters Finest Poetic Work! To be able take the human race and all it's complex social baggage, and break it into three animal sub-groups is impressive. To do it to music and have it maintain coherent social relevance is Unbelievable! Not to mention the cold shiver I get every time I hear that last powerful thrust of Dogs.
Some Floyd fans believe that Animals was the album that broke the band up, but it wasn't the album so much as the Tour, which came to an aburpt end in Montreal after a near riot, the infamous 'Spitting incident' and an early departure from the stage by the band made headlines. Pink Floyd had been going through some personal issues that seems to be amplified around the same time that Animals was recorded.
Ironically, Animals used Pigs, Sheep and Dogs as metaphors for some of the worst human traits, some of which were being exibited by the band. It was also the first album in which Roger Waters handled the writing duties almost exclusively.
Animals is a sonic landscape. A blending of music and word, atmosphere and ideal, steeped in a world gone mad. Lyrics like; "You have to be Trusted by the people that you Lie to, so that when they turn their backs on you, you'll get the chance to stick the knife in" (Dogs), or "What do you get for pretending the dangers not real? Meek and obedient you follow the leader down well trodden coridors, into the valley of steel" (Sheep), or "You radiate cold shafts of broken glass. You're nearly a good laugh, Almost worth a quick grin. You like the feel of steel, You're hot stuff with a hatpin, And good fun with a hand gun." (Pigs) are wonderful and horrible... desperate, dark, scarry and a perfect indicator of the times in which they were written.
Whats Really Scarry... They are just as appropriate today!
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