Masayoshi Takanaka’s Rainbow Goblins album and the second side of The Small Faces’ Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake are fairy tale song cycles with intermittent narration (I especially love Stanley Unwin’s). Any other cool examples? Doesn’t have to be fantasy (although I’m partial to that in this specific context) though it should be a good mix of alternating/overlapping narration and music.
this is fucked you can’t just start with the absolute pinnacle of the form
it’s all downhill now!
this thread makes me think about America’s soundtrack for The Last Unicorn
no narration in the soundtrack form, though, i don’t think
finding the absolute best of a thing and then trying to find more of it is the worst. @meauxdal, record a narrated fantasy album, please
no fantasy but in terms of alternating narration/music, there are two really strong zappa records like that:
(this prototype version also rules)
and one of my favorite zappa records:
obvious answer but disc 2 of Aerial (A Sky of Honey) is like that (as well as side 2 of Hounds of Love, but most people know that one):
Ah! I haven’t listened to enough beyond her first five albums, gotta fix that.
honestly The Sensual World is great front-to-back and The Red Shoes has some of her best songs (though it starts slow). but Aerial Disc 2 is one of the best things she’s ever done (disc 1 is okay… the last few tracks on it are great). could never get myself to care much about 50 Words For Snow though
I think I’ve watched The Line, The Cross & The Curve more than I’ve listened to any of those later albums… It’s no masterpiece but I like it! Gonna listen to The Sensual World.
Jeff Wayne’s prog rock / disco musical adaptation of War of the Worlds, featuring narration by Richard Burton. When I was 16 my Irish aunt gave me this on CD and told me that her entire high school was listening to this thing in the 70’s. I liked it at the time but I’m too scared to revisit it. I remember the Moody Blues song was the highlight.
I think also “The Eve of the War” got a remix that became a serious rave hit in the early 90’s for some reason.
Forgot about this one! It’s been a long while since I’ve listened. And the Moody Blues albums are like some of the first I ever experienced as my parents were/are massive fans. As corny as they can be, I still dig 'em.
Here’s a really goofy 1969 musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in a psych-pop kind of style. It’s so corny that my friends and I made a running gag out of it, but the late-2000’s music blog scene had a lot of people talking this thing up so there must be something there.
i know it’s ultra-cheesy and kind of like stating the obvious in 100 feet tall capslock letters, but i really, really like the FF3 Legend of the Eternal Wind soundtrack.
It just clicks with me, idk why.
I did not know about this. What a treat!
you can listen to it again, it rules