Do you know a long song that doesn’t repeat itself and sort of tells a story through music (maybe without words)?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1CPB-gBhcNVqwY0-fWgIdjnkPeMcfFFE David Bowie narrates Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘Peter And The Wolf’. The narrator tells a story and the orchestra illustrates by using different instruments to play a “theme” that represents each character in the story.
For modern stories I like The Curse. It’s about an archeologist that falls in love with a mummy that comes to life.
This is a pretty epic story telling song by a dude called Ren.
Dating myself a bit here, but Meatloaf’s Paradise By The Dashboard Light, and Billy Joel’s Scenes from an Italian Restaurant are 2 that need to be on this list.
Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Gurhtie. Actually, just about anything by Arlo Guthrie and his dad, Woody.
Indian Ira Hayes by Johnny Cash. It’s not very long, but a poignant story that shouldn’t be forgotten.City Hall by Tenacious D
Iron Maiden - Empire of the Clouds
Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Hell yeah
Iced Earth’s debut album was called Night of the Stormrider. It weaves a pretty dark tale of a mans betrayal by religion, subsequent turn to the dark side and final regrets over the course of nine tracks (46 minutes).
Queensryche’s (arguably) best album Operation: Mindcrime. It tells the tale of a young malcontent who becomes involved in an underground revolution as an assassin. This is another that is not just one song, but a story that spans fifteen tracks. One of the best rock operas that was ever pulled off in my opinion.
Manowar’s album The Triumph Of Steel has a first track called Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts. It is essentially a telling of the tale of Hector and Achilles. It’s nearly 30 minutes over the eight unique sounding parts.
Ice Nine Kills has now (2) entire albums with tracks inspired by horror movies, but I wouldn’t call them long. Their song Meat & Greet would be a great example. It’s a retelling of “The Silence of the Lambs”.
Animals Without Leaders has a song called CAFO that I just adore. Its pretty long and although it speaks no tale, it’s so sonically unique that it feels like it does. Some of those ultra technical metal bands feel like that (to me at least).
If you like jazz piano, Keith Jarret’s köln concert is a masterpiece.
There were a bunch of issues with the venue and he ended up playing the whole thing on a broken piano.
This video sums up how the peice happened.
Edit: I like to think it’s a story of stacked disasters and a master artist somehow making the whole mess gorgeous.
The Phant albums together tell a story, the first 4 albums were even bundled with short novels.
Most of Coheed and Cambria’s albums follow along with a graphic novel written by Claudio, the lead singer. I’ve never read them and don’t know the story, but if you listen to an album start to finish, you can tell that it’s more than just lyrics.
Ten Speed of God’s Blood and Burial. Perfectly clear.
The Coheed and Cambria comics are awesome. They’re hard to get your hands on, after Umbrella Academy got popular, but worth it.
there is a hindi song which is sorta long (5 mins without music, 6 with) - Breathless (not really breathless, but full song done in just 16 breaths(that is roughly 3 per minute), but almost none are easily audible) - it is a romance story - meetup - love blossom - heart break - life ruined - reunion - together forever. The lyricist is one of the best hindi/urdu lyricist, maybe among the best in the world
also there are many old classical concerts (for example - beethoven) which are music only and at times were in conjunction with plays or dramas going through stories
Now playing AIR - All I Need
A bunch of stuff in the classical realm fits that bill, holst’s the planets, a bunch of operas some with words some without many in other languages you wouldn’t understand. One modern song with words that I want to be in these comments is Albuquerque by weird Al. I’ll also mention Maggot brain by funkadelic
I had forgotten about maggot brain, such a great song! Thanks for reminding me.
Beethoven’s Symphonies come to mind. His 5th and 6th symphonies really do tell stories and are very engaging.
I actually had a music teacher that used the 5th as an example. It’s a story of dundundun duuuun
Variations on a theme of dundundun duuuun
Avenged Sevenfold - Exist is a 15 minute song that is about the big bang all the way to Earth forming and cooling.
American Pie - Don McLean it’s the history of rock and roll from the 50s through the 60s
Cats in the cradle, has no one said this one 😭 😭 😭
