Hey lately I’ve been listening to alot of Pink Floyd, the Alan Parsons Project and Jeff Wayne, and I think it’s really cool how back in the day, instead of trying to cater to radio with snappy single 3 minute tracks that had to make sense by themselves, some artists explored the album as an art form. I think ccMixter has alot of talented people on it and it would be really cool to try and make a concept album like that, incorporating not just progressive rock but all kinds of styles but all working together to tell a coherent story.

Some of the best concept albums are musical adaptations of classic (usually public domain) literature, like Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, Alan Parsons’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” and Pink Floyd’s “Animals.”

I think perhaps the best concept to try would be a rock opera / musical adaptation of Edwin Abbott Abbott’s “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” which is in the public domain. Check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

This’d need all kinds of people to do so here are some ideas:

1. An acapella group do the song for Line Land, as the voice is focused on so much in that part.
2. A hip hop group should do a rap song about how tough it is to be a triangle
3. An opening number that explains what Flatland is in a nutshell called “The Edge of the Table” which expresses how the table is all there is and the thin line is all anyone ever sees or feels. Then a reprise at the end “The Edge of the Table (Part 2)” which changes the lyrics to be about how trapped Mr. A. Square (the protagnoist) feels now that he’s seen the other dimensions.

4. Open (before the opening number) like a trial where Mr. Square is accused of heresy is taking place presided over by a circle.
5. The color war needs to be worked in somehow. Not sure how yet.

Of course this would be CC’d

What do you think? Anybody else got any ideas?

i have been talking about recording a concept album since i moved to Los Angeles in 1999. i’ve actually written an entire concept album about the Higher Arcana of the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck (24 songs - some just very short snippets)…..

I love your idea about Flatland too…..