From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #200 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, May 22 1998 Volume 07 : Number 200 Today's Subjects: ----------------- For All Fegs Not At Quail's [Tom Clark ] concept? [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] Re: fegmaniax-digest V7 #199 [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] Re: Concept Albums [Stefan Cooke ] Tarkus [Ross Overbury ] Re: Concept Albums [Capuchin ] Conceptualized [Terrence M Marks ] Re: concept? [Terrence M Marks ] Re: concept? [Ross Overbury ] Re: Tarkus [dmw ] Re: For All Fegs Not At Quail's [John B Jones ] Re: concept? [Eb ] Re: Beach Boys list acrimony [Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer ] heinlein [dlang ] heinlein [dlang ] Re: heinlein [dmw ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V7 #199 [Jason Thornton ] John Davies Cale [griffith ] concept albums, clowns, etc. [kenster@MIT.EDU (Ken Ostrander)] Re: Concept albums, clowns, etc. [Ross Overbury ] Re: Fwd: Re: Concept Albums (was: a pair of pants) [Ross Overbury ] Re: concept albums, clowns, etc. [Gregory Stuart Shell Subject: For All Fegs Not At Quail's We're gonna try to periodically upload pix as the party rolls along, so check your email on Saturday afternoon (EDT) for an announcement. Hopefully we can get them onto either my or Quail's web page... I'm off! - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 01:22:53 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: concept? On Thu, 21 May 1998 20:50:26 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: > I wonder if Robyn will ever put out a concept album. Or maybe he has, >and we just don't know it. I guess he's probably more the type to see the >subtler connections between things and, therefore, might be less likely to >draw an obvious common thread throughout all the songs on an album. It >*would* be interesting, however, to see what kind of a concept he might come >up with. Certainly, it would be easy enough to make RH comp tapes that are >sort of quasi-concept albums -- "Songs about Vegetables," etc. well, robyn himself has said 'fegmania!' was basically all about sex, right? does that count? and 'eye' was All love songs about cynthia....does that count? what *is* a concept album? does it need to have long liner notes a la "white city", "quadrophrnia", "psychoderelict" (all great bits from Uncle Pete) to count? -luther ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 01:25:18 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V7 #199 On Thu, 21 May 1998 20:50:26 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: >------------------------------ > >Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 17:56:23 -0500 >From: "JH3" >Subject: Fave Concept Albums > >Favorite concept album? Hmmm... I guess it would be a toss-up between ELP's >"Tarkus" and Rick Wakeman's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"... NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 now Carl Palmer will start stalking us...again... :-) what the hell *is* that THING on the cover of Tarkus, and what does it have to do with the wanking off inside the record? if i want quality music with technically able organ work, i will put on a Band record. but NOT the above prog crap! -luther -luther ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 21:44:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Stefan Cooke Subject: Re: Concept Albums Can't believe no one's mentioned Husker Du's Zen Arcade, so I guess I'd better. Stefan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 98 22:33:16 EDT From: Ross Overbury Subject: Tarkus Luther said: > > what the hell *is* that THING on the cover of Tarkus, and what > does it have to do with the wanking off inside the record? It's a Triumvirat. Marillion did a song about it on "Foxtrot". - -- Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada email: rosso@cn.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 19:40:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Concept Albums On Thu, 21 May 1998, MARKEEFE wrote: > . . a concept album? I think so. > I wonder if Robyn will ever put out a concept album. Or maybe he has, > and we just don't know it. I guess he's probably more the type to see the > subtler connections between things and, therefore, might be less likely to > draw an obvious common thread throughout all the songs on an album. It > *would* be interesting, however, to see what kind of a concept he might come > up with. Certainly, it would be easy enough to make RH comp tapes that are > sort of quasi-concept albums -- "Songs about Vegetables," etc. Now, see, I've always figured Eye to be a concept album. It's got all that San Franciscan imagery. It's a lover's weekend in San Francisco to me... so some bits are about the love with San Francisco as the backdrop and some are about San Franciscan things with love as the metaphor/theme. Hrrm. I'd better put my crackpipe in the dishwasher and see if that doesn't clear things up. J. PS Being employed is good. PPS I'm sorry I didn't get my package in the mail for Quail's party. I had a whole stack of fresh Duncan Imperials for you all. Harrumph. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 23:00:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Conceptualized Just out of curiosity, do any of the following count as concept albums? Pet Sounds Holland (The Beach Boys) The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Spirit) Songs in the key of Live (Stevie Wonder) Keep Moving (madness) brightside (Viva Saturn) Crime of the Century (Supertramp) Terrence Marks, now listening to the concept album "Little Deuce Coupe" (who said concept albums had to be deep?) normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 23:04:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: concept? > and 'eye' was All love songs about cynthia....does that count? Apart from Cynthia having heard of Clean Steve but never met him, how does that tie in? > > does it need to have long liner notes a la "white city", > "quadrophrnia", "psychoderelict" (all great bits from Uncle Pete) to > count? "Psychoderelict" barely beats out "Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds" as my least favourite concept album. And oddly, I've never been particularly affected by the deaths of famous people. Maybe most of the famous people I like died before I noticed them, or maybe my favourite performers don't warrant front-page news (I learned Vivian Stanshall was dead three years after the fact). It all just seems kinda inevitable to me. Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 98 23:28:15 EDT From: Ross Overbury Subject: Re: concept? Terry sed: > > "Psychoderelict" barely beats out "Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds" as my least > favourite concept album. I always thought this album would have been much bigger if the public were more interested in buying pop music made by artists who haven't just crawled out of the woodwork. Some of the pieces don't really fit into the concept though, IMHO. Seems like Pete stuck in some odd bits to flesh it out a bit. "English Boy" resonates with this Quebecois English boy in a way I'm sure Townsend never intended. The talking that permeates the recording made it sure-fire radio poison, but I guess Pete's not fooling himself about getting the industry excited all over again. > > And oddly, I've never been particularly affected by the deaths of famous > people. Lennon. No, I don't know where I was. It wasn't the *moment* that was important! PS: I just heard on the news that the next REM single, first since the departure of their drummer, will be released only in The Oxford American magazine. I can't remember if they said it would be a flexi. I can't get it here anyway. - -- Ross Overbury, English Boy Montreal, Quebec, Canada email: rosso@cn.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 23:57:55 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: Tarkus On Thu, 21 May 1998, Ross Overbury wrote: > It's a Triumvirat. > > Marillion did a song about it on "Foxtrot". alright, you want see this often, but... i'll decloak as an ex-proggie exactly long enough to say that the slip of the tongue here almost made me choke and spit halfway decent wine all over my keyboard an monitor. crimson don't count as proggie, of course. once they were too avant, and now they're too spiky, so they're spared the tar. come to think of it, maybe they're avant again. yours in whirling fractals, d. n.p. forthcoming scrawl. yum. rock on, ms. mays! - - oh,no!! you've just read mail from doug = dmayowel@access.digex.net - - and dmw@mwmw.com ... get yr pathos at http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/ - - new reviews! tunes, books, flicks, etc. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 22:21:30 -0700 From: John B Jones Subject: Re: For All Fegs Not At Quail's >We're gonna try to periodically upload pix as the party rolls along, so >check your email on Saturday afternoon (EDT) for an announcement. >Hopefully we can get them onto either my or Quail's web page... > > >I'm off! >-tc What about doing a quick chat (quick because i'm sure you don't want to spend the party huddled around a computer) on IRC at some point?? So those of us that can't go can at least be there as ASCII on Quail's computer screen?? How does this sound?? John np: Eddie Tews' brilliant live recording of Neutral Milk Hotel, Seattle, WA. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 23:02:00 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: concept? Ross rote: >I always thought this album would have been much bigger if the public >were more interested in buying pop music made by artists who haven't just >crawled out of the woodwork. Some of the pieces don't really fit into >the concept though, IMHO. Seems like Pete stuck in some odd bits to >flesh it out a bit. "English Boy" resonates with this Quebecois English >boy in a way I'm sure Townsend never intended. The talking that >permeates the recording made it sure-fire radio poison, but I guess >Pete's not fooling himself about getting the industry excited all over >again. Maybe you don't know this: A few months after the initial release of Psychoderelict, Atlantic reissued the album without the between-song dialogue, precisely because the album WAS "sure-fire radio poison" as is. Townshend's career was ruined by tinnitus, and his subsequent abandon of electric guitar. Haven't heard an album by him which was even *passable* in eons. Blah. Eb, wondering how much longer this concept-album thread will drag out now playing: Arto Lindsay/Noon Chill, Tori Amos/From The Choirgirl Motel ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:52:25 +0100 (BST) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: Beach Boys list acrimony >>>>> "Terrence" == Terrence M Marks writes: Terrence> Am I just anthropomorphising things, or do lists take Terrence> after their subjects? The B-52's list was a virtual meat-market... - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:10:28 +0100 (BST) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Concept Albums (was: a pair of pants) > Somebody said: >>> This got me thinking... what is everybody's favorite "concept >>> album"? Hard to say, but my LEAST effin FAVOURITE is effin 'Olias of Sunhillow' by John effin Anderson!! My effin flatmate borrows my effin CD player all the effin time to play that effin pile of eff. And I effin hate it! Aargh! - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:00:13 +0100 (BST) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: chapin >>>>> "DElaineMcD" == DElaineMcD writes: DElaineMcD> totaled his vw rabbit on the long island expressway on DElaineMcD> a rainy night, if memory serves. I always thought he was squished by an artic (== semi) that drove over his (vw porsche?) sports car. That would explain the serious of dreadfully sick Harry Chapin jokes that flurried round about then. - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:25:07 +0100 (BST) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: Paranoia strikes deep >>>>> "Mike" == M R Godwin writes: Mike> The last two traded tapes I have received have been labelled Mike> "Opened and resealed for Customs examination by H M Customs, Mike> UK". Mike> Is this now a regular practice for packages entering the UK? Mike> It makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Happens now and again to the stuff I receive from Catherine. There's nothing you can do about that's worth the worry, for: - you can't stop 'em - it's loads better than it used to be, when you had to use packaging that could be opened, inspected and reclosed without being damaged... Stewart (v happy as the second NMH CD is released in the UK on 1st June...) - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:13:02 +2910 From: dlang Subject: re: to St mark the sharked Quail wrote: >I wanna get outta Dodge before Nietzsche's abyss has the last >laugh, know what I mean? And that flash bastard Vinnie replied >I didn't know you were ever in her. Well I'll be a monkeys dork if old Vinnie here hasn't gone and given me the excuse I asked for to go on the offensive and get stuck into the bugger for impuning the reputation of Ms Dodge. Don't come the raw prawn and act like a bloody sky pilot you bloody trouser snake. If I'm right, you were implying that the Quail was slipping the sheila a length of the beef bayonet. Not on my son , not on, stop acting like a bleeding rod walloper, sort out your act,, or I'll go crook on yer and give yer a bunch of fives round yer bracket until I'm bloody shagged out and I'll snork my king sized green gollies at yer to boot, if you're not careful. I hope yer can take the hint yer dag or I'll make sure you end up a cot case and thats gods own truth, you piss artist! Now I'm sure miss D doesn't need this old fart to stand up for her, and if she takes this amiss, then I'll feel like a hat full of arseholes and I apologise pronto,but I'm sure Vinnie will be pleased as he's been begging for a mouthful for weeks,I bet hes gone mullagatawny just reading this. Digger dave ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:56:46 +2909 From: dlang Subject: heinlein I note with minor disgust that several fellow fegs are putting the death of Heinlein ahead of that master of science fiction. Philip K Dick.I was at one time a bit of a Heinlein freak myself, but that was when I was MUCH, MUCH younger. As I passed into what passes for me as maturity( I know , I know, me saying I'm mature seems a contradiction in terms , but believe it or not I do have a serious side, its just buried pretty deeply) I became disenchanted with Heinlein, mainly due to his conservatism ( yes I know he's a sexual libertine but he has no social conscience, the man has no heart) ,sexism, , egotism and his tendency to write the same old crap and spin it out over 600 plus pages. So I threw all of his books away, apart from "stranger in a strange land", which is probably his best work. . Now I know Dick also repeated his themes, but he managed to do so in endlessly interesting and innovative ways and above all he did it with humour. Even his bleakest tome , "through a scanner darkly "has some wonderful black humour and his last books have some intriguing religious themes to boot. So I gotta say this, Dick was THE MASTER and all the rest stand in his shadow. His regular novels were poor, but his science fiction keeps me interested even after 20 years, whereas I never read Heinlein more than once.Frank Herbert was good, but self indulgent, just like most Sci fi writers get after a while. dave ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 21:29:26 +2910 From: dlang Subject: heinlein I note with minor disgust that several fellow fegs are putting the death of Heinlein ahead of that master of science fiction. Philip K Dick.I was at one time a bit of a Heinlein freak myself, but that was when I was MUCH, MUCH younger. As I passed into what passes for me as maturity( I know , I know, me saying I'm mature seems a contradiction in terms , but believe it or not I do have a serious side, its just buried pretty deeply when i post to this list) I became disenchanted with Heinlein, mainly due to his conservatism ( yes I know he's a sexual libertine but he has no social conscience, the man has no heart),sexism, , egotism and his tendencyto write the same old crap and spin it out over 600 plus pages. So I threw all of his books away, apart from "stranger in a strange land", which is probably his best work. . Now I know Dick also repeated his themes, but he managed to do so in endlessly interesting and innovative ways and above all he did it with humour. Even his bleakest tome , "through a scanner darkly "has some wonderful black humour and his last books have some intriguing religious themes to boot. So I gotta say this, Dick was THE MASTER and all the rest stand in his shadow. His regular novels were poor, but his science fiction keeps me interested even after 20 years, whereas I never read Heinlein more than once.Frank Herbert was good and i mourn his passing but he still was not in the same class as Dick. If you doubt me a quick read of " the three stigmata of palmer eldrich " should put you right. dave ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:33:54 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: heinlein On Fri, 22 May 1998, dlang wrote: > I note with minor disgust that several fellow fegs are putting the death of > Heinlein ahead of that master of science fiction. Philip K Dick.I was at one > threw all of his books away, apart from "stranger in a strange land", i'd never care to do without many of his early novels: the unpleasant profession of jonathan hoag, door into summer, the rolling stones, even up to glory road. but the beast and post-beast books were dreadful. worst kind of misogyny, to my mind -- the kind that denies it's misogyny at all. blech. me, i miss ted sturgeon. yeah, yeah, same story over and over again, but ted had a lot of heart. - -- d. - - oh,no!! you've just read mail from doug = dmayowel@access.digex.net - - and dmw@mwmw.com ... get yr pathos at http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/ - - new reviews! tunes, books, flicks, etc. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:21:59 -0700 From: Jason Thornton Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V7 #199 luther wrote: > NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 > > > now Carl Palmer will start stalking us...again... :-) Ooohhhhh! *CARL* Palmer! And here I sat through an entire Power Station concert, shotgun under trench-coat, for nothing... Sneakin' Sally through the alley, --Jason Concept album: David Bowie "Diamond Dogs" np: Charlie Hunter "Return of the Candyman" - --Jason ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:39:19 -0700 (PDT) From: griffith Subject: John Davies Cale Since I'm too lazy to sift through the saved digests, can someone recommend a John Cale disc that would be a good introduction to his work outside of the Velvet Underground? It looks like my wife wants to go to one of his shows in L.A. next month (basically to see the opening act - The Creatures), and I like a little Intro To Cale 101 before the show. Thanks in advance... griffith = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Griffith Davies hbrtv219@csun.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:56:03 -0400 From: kenster@MIT.EDU (Ken Ostrander) Subject: concept albums, clowns, etc. >This got me thinking... what is everybody's favorite "concept album"? who can settle on just one? _uncle meat_, _quadrophenia_, _syncronicity_, _skylarking_, _raindogs_, _the wall_, and, of course, _metal machine music_. ;) >Can't believe no one's mentioned Husker Du's Zen Arcade, so I guess I'd >better. ooh, that's a good one too. >>So, I'm away for two weeks and Sinatra dies. I love a lot of Sinatra's >>music (with reservations. Whoever wrote 'Send in the Clowns' should be >>roasted over a slow flame. Appalling song). kind of like that haunting melody works its way on all of us. who doesn't understand kramer's fear of those damnable circus freaks now? >good. (Who the fuck has JOURNEY albums? And can anyone else back me up >on the Journey arcade game? That's the only way I know them at all.) i remember that thing! i never got a chance to actually play it since it was always surrounded by these big, smelly-looking dudes with those denim concert jackets. pretty stupid idea, if you ask me. kind of like the milton bradley duran duran board game that made them no money; but would probably garnish a tidy sum these days if you had one. KEN "who likes garbage, superchunk, and at least one lenny kravitz song" THE KENSTER now playing: mekons _me_ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 98 13:00:05 EDT From: Ross Overbury Subject: Re: Concept albums, clowns, etc. KEN said: > >And can anyone else back me up > >on the Journey arcade game? That's the only way I know them at all.) > > i remember that thing! i never got a chance to actually play it since it > was always surrounded by these big, smelly-looking dudes with those denim > concert jackets. pretty stupid idea, if you ask me. kind of like the > milton bradley duran duran board game that made them no money; but would > probably garnish a tidy sum these days if you had one. The Kiss pinball machine, on the other hand, was entirely appropriate. - -- Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada email: rosso@cn.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 98 12:57:09 EDT From: Ross Overbury Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Concept Albums (was: a pair of pants) Poor Stewart complained: > > > Somebody said: > >>> This got me thinking... what is everybody's favorite "concept > >>> album"? > > Hard to say, but my LEAST effin FAVOURITE is effin 'Olias of > Sunhillow' by John effin Anderson!! My effin flatmate borrows my effin > CD player all the effin time to play that effin pile of eff. And I > effin hate it! Aargh! I'm grateful to Jon Anderson for having released this album. For years before its release I thought I was unable to understand Yes lyrics because of my own shortcomings. When I read the "story" that accompanies this recording (gatefold LP -- is the story still in the CD?) I finally realised I had no problem with his lyrics at all. It's obvious the man doesn't actually speak English. It seems he's learned a few words phonetically, and repeats them in semi-random sequences that vaguely resemble English grammar and syntax. He's still got one of the great pop/rock freak voices of all time. - -- Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada email: rosso@cn.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 11:48:09 PDT From: "Alex Wettreich" Subject: Re: doug's recommendation I must heartily second Doug's recommendation of Cotton Mather's _Kon-Tiki_. It is a melodic tour de force, and no mistake. I'm inclined to believe that the lyrics are worth puzzling out, and I know that they at least mean something to songwriter Robert Harrison (CM's previous release is much more straightforward, both musically and lyrically). Tangential Robyn content: A few months before the record came out, I was invited to Robert Harrison's house to listen to some rough mixes for the record, which was, for the most part, recorded in his spare room. He was trying to decide whether to use the acoustic or full band version of a song called Spin My Wheels, and I mentioned the ineffably cool fade in/out of Ghost Ship on GoF. Perhaps he might want to use the full band version, but "pull a Ghost Ship" with the acoustic version somewhere on the record? He seemed pretty pleased with that idea, but that's not how things ended up. The acoustic version is on the record, leaving an epic, harmony-drenched arrangement to await anthologization. Anyway, yeah. Get it. Cheers, Alex >i recommend heartily cotton mather's _kon tiki_ doing lots of >spinning last night and this day, reminding me in bits and pieces of john >lennon (vocal resemblance mostly, but also a near homage to "for no one" >for a few seconds and similar oddments), bob dylan (on purpose), big star >(surely ditto), xtc, game theory, the pixies, and, yes, his robyn-ness. >also some of the ramshackle over the top melodicness of gbv, but without >the slipshod production and the eensy song shards. > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:36:46 -0500 (CDT) From: Gregory Stuart Shell Subject: Re: concept albums, clowns, etc. > >Can't believe no one's mentioned Husker Du's Zen Arcade, so I guess I'd > >better. > or Hemispheres and 2112 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 May 98 14:41:53 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Operation: Sergeant Olias Skylarking of the Moon Oh, man. Concept albums! I assume it is not a surprise to anyone on this List that I just loooove concept albums? I mean, really, *really* dig them? So keeping in mind that I began my musical life as a Prog Rocker -- and hey, I still *love* Rick Wakeman's groovy first solo albums! -- and with full knowledge that the following is about to make Eb and Luther sick, let me stand on a chair and hail some of my favorite concept albums. I warn you, this post is a long, rambling, uncritical rave, so if you can't stand any song that goes over three minutes without vocals, better delete now. My personal *favorite* is Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick." Just bloody marvelous, and if you haven't heard the newly remastered version -- complete with the classic newspaper tucked into the CD! -- then go and buy it. Fantastic! The complexity is never allowed to run over the melodies and subject material -- a balance Tull has almost always maintained. I think Jethro Tull did concept albums better than anyone, even Floyd, and "Aqualung," and "Passion Play," are superb, too. And to top that, they then did a whole bloody concept *cycle* of three albums that track rustic life from the forest to the countryside and out to the sea: "Songs from the Wood," "Heavy Horses," and then "Stormwatch." Oh, I just love these albums! "Dun Ringill" gives me chills, and the lyrics for "Something's on the Move" are just sheer poetry. And "Hunting Girl," heh heh. . . . sign me up! My other favorites are "Quadrophenia" and "Tommy," by the Who of course, and both albums helped me survive Junior High School -- I am *sure* some of you know what I mean! And then there's Genesis's awesome "The Lamb Lies Down on Braodway." Man, when I first heard that album it simply blew my mind. To this day I can only listen to it once a year, it's just that good. (I like to keep it special!) Since so many of you have mentioned Pink Floyd's whole slew of albums, I'll not mention them, save to remark that I personally enjoy "The Final Cut" more than any "Floyd" album to follow Roger's departure. To other Feg opinions: I agree with Michael and Marcy that Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood" is a great -- and overlooked -- album; and Eddie -- I happen to also like "Operation Mindcrime." I saw Queensryche live on that tour in the FRONT ROW and Geoff Tate reached out and grabbed my hand during "Suite Sister Mary." Sure, it's a fanboy thing to say, but it was pretty fucking cool! So we will stand together as the other Fegs go somewhere privately to heave. As a matter of fact, I can hardly wait to see their reaction to all those IRON MAIDEN CDs in my collection! And I still listen to them, too, when the stars are right. (Funny that your name is "Eddie," yes?) As far as ELP goes, "Tarkus" and "Brain Salad Surgery" are not really concept albums. They both just were records that contained a maulti-part side-length song, like many discs by Rush and Yes. (Although "Tales from Topographic Oceans" ranks up there with "Days of Future Passed" and "Thick as a Brick.") King Crimson has not really made any concept albums . . . As mentioned, "Red" is really not a concept album, though most of the songs seem to be about fear. And even their earlier long songs that have several "parts?" Remember those titles -- like "In the Henhouse of the Fuschia Chicken, including Moonglow Wormchild and Dance of the Pecking Puppets?" Well, Fripp has long since admitted that there really were no "parts" as such, but KC were contracted and paid for based on number of songs, not length, so he added spurious parts to make it seem like there were more songs. Heh. Fuckin' Bob. And Luther -- that armadillo thing on the cover of "Tarkus?" Man, how can you say you don't know what that is? It's . . . the . . . the *thing,* man, that fights the Manticore, you know . . . and um . . . maybe stops Armageddon . . . uh. . . and eats priests, too . . . um, yeah, cool! Wanking, indeed. That's some might fine wanking in there! On the less art-prog bombastic side, (And I LOVE bombast, dammit!) I also really like: Hawkwind's "Chronicles of the Black Sword," based on Moorcock's Elric series; Bowie's "Diamond Dogs," loosely based on _1984_, and Robert Calvert's "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters," a Hawkwindish project. Can Byrne/Eno's "Life in a Bush of Ghosts" be considered a concept album? Only as much as NMH's "Aeroplane" and XTC's "Skylarking" I suppose. . . . And *new* concept albums that are pretty OK in my book are Bowie's "1.Outside" and Radiohead's "OK Computer." And of course, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," which is more in the vein of "Skylarking." Oh, yes -- and who can forget Lou Reed's "New York," "Songs for Drella," and "Magic and Loss?" A wonderful trio. (And if you stretch the old imagination, "Set the Twilight Reeling" is a concept album organized around his divorce and his falling in love with Laurie Anderson.) Ahhh . . . . even now I am feeling a heavy desire to retreat into my den and place "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" on the old CD player. . . . God . . . must stop typing before . . . before I mention Amon Duul. . . . Germans . . . - --The Great Quail, including "March for Bombast" and "All Hail the Sonic Assassins." - ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | Literature Site - The Libyrinth: TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth www.rpg.net/quail | Vampire Site - New York by Night: riverrun Discordian Society | www.rpg.net/quail/NYBN 73 De Chirico Street | Arkham, Orbis Tertius 2112-42 | ** What is FEGMANIA? ** "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #200 *******************************