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.
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.
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.
Iron Maiden - Empire of the Clouds
Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Hell yeah
Now playing AIR - All I Need
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).
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.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
City Hall by Tenacious D
Swans - Bring The Sun/Toussaint L’Ouverture
It’s 34 minutes but it’s kind of 2 songs. It has lyrics but they’re more of a vibe than actual coherent thoughts. The first half is like a slowly swelling religious fervor/extacy with a great climax. If I were ever to join a doomsday cult and we all go crazy and kill ourselves, we would do it to that song. The second half is expressing feelings of disgust during moments lost in thought while plotting revolution.
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 😭 😭 😭
I figured there’d be plenty of mentions of Rush’s 2112, but they have a lot of other songs that fit the bill too. The Necromancer, Fountain of Lamneth, Xanadu, Natural Science (well I guess that’s more of a rant than a story), Cygnes X-1 books 1 and 2. Since you say maybe without words, La Villa Strangiato.
If you want to stick to classic prog then Yes has some songs that fit the bill too like America and Harold Land. I confess to not really understanding the lyrics of most of the rest of Yes’s discography, they can be really poetic, but I think the whole Closer to the Edge album fits on it’s musicality alone. The title track’s a freaking journey.
Led Zeppelin has a few of these too, though musically they are a little repetitive. Achilles Last Stand, Battle of Evermore, Gallows Pole.
