Rock Operas?

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Everybody knows about that one and that one, but what about some others?

One of the first others I stumbled on to was 'SF Sorrow' by The Pretty Things. Another is Genesis's 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' which I'm not sure is a Rock Opera versus just a concept album.

Savatage did one of the earliest, 'Streets, A Rock Opera.' Some of their others might qualify in that they tell a story. Members from that went on to TSO and did a couple including 'Night Castle'.


Uriah Heep's 'Magician's Birthday' sort of fits.

 

[Captante]

Only ONE comes to mind initially and its the obvious one.

Listening to you, I get the movie


The only other "Rock Opera" I can think of is also by the Who.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Only ONE comes to mind initially and its the obvious one.


The only other "Rock Opera" I can think of is also

Yeah, ummmm ....

Everybody knows about that one and that one, but what about some others?

 

[nakedfrog]

Repo: The Genetic Opera, but it's also a movie.
I think Green Day's "American Idiot" was considered a punk rock opera.

 

[Captante]

Yeah, ummmm ....

I don't see YOU coming up with anything!

How about THIS one?

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle

 

[Torn Mind]

Seems like the Eminence Front GM car ads did not make enough new The Who fans. I have read about Quadraphenia, have not heard it yet.

(Haven't explored much else of The Who beyond Eminence Front and Baba). Eminence Front is top tier because the lives are varied from the original...which IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. (Beethoven, Mozart, JoJo. They love variation).

 

[BurnItDwn]

Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Ayreon has taken me on epic journeys for over 25 years.

Ayreon - The Human Equation might be my most favorite, but, Arjen gets the most amazing casts working together to make amazing works.

Worth a mention is a bluray from their live show "The Theater Equation"

 

[nakedfrog]

Seems like the Eminence Front GM car ads did not make enough new The Who fans. I have read about Quadraphenia, have not heard it yet.

(Haven't explored much else of The Who beyond Eminence Front and Baba). Eminence Front is top tier because the lives are varied from the original...which IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. (Beethoven, Mozart, JoJo. They love variation).

I've gone back and forth on whether Tommy or Quadrophenia is better. Definitely worth a deeper dive if you're not particularly familiar with The Who, they have a ton of great tracks.
With your bent towards classical, you could look up their take on "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

 

[IronWing]

IMHO, Quadrophenia is vastly superior to Tommy. Another very good rock opera is Jesus Christ, Super Star (original cast recording, this is critical).

Hair often gets labeled as a rock opera but 3 5 0 0 is the only rock tune in the whole thing.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Seems like the Eminence Front GM car ads did not make enough new The Who fans. I have read about Quadraphenia, have not heard it yet.

(Haven't explored much else of The Who beyond Eminence Front and Baba). Eminence Front is top tier because the lives are varied from the original...which IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. (Beethoven, Mozart, JoJo. They love variation).

You might really enjoy Q musically. Townsend is classicly trained and it shows in many of their pieces. Some of their harder rock tunes are quite good musically, generally better than most of the rock bands. ELP and Wakeman/Yes fit in there too. Some of Wakeman's stuff is more classical that rock.

Ayreon - The Human Equation might be my most favorite, but, Arjen gets the most amazing casts working together to make amazing works.

I have 'The Source' and it features Simone Simmons of Epica. I also have 'Theory of Everything.'

 

[pmv]

Not sure how it's defined. Does Pink Floyd's The Wall count?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Some say yes, but I'm not sure I do. There is a fine line between rock opera and concept album. I put The Wall there. Most of Kamelot, Epica, Nightwish, Communic and other symphonic rock to me goes in Concept.

Nightwish's 'Human Nature' might be more opera-ish. Their 'Imaginarium' is a movie soundtrack essentially.

 

[Torn Mind]

I've gone back and forth on whether Tommy or Quadrophenia is better. Definitely worth a deeper dive if you're not particularly familiar with The Who, they have a ton of great tracks.
With your bent towards classical, you could look up their take on "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

In the Hall of the Mountain King comes off as hilariously modern and clowny after listening to it a minute ago. Like I'm entering an evil circus or something.


My bent is into "set tunes with spicy runs and figurations".

My crazy thoughts include:

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto gives vibes of Mariah Carey. Like the clarinet sounds literally like a fembot Mariah Carey to my ears.....

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

In the Hall of the Mountain King comes off as hilariously modern and clowny after listening to it a minute ago. Like I'm entering an evil circus or something.

And then there are the versions by Savatage and TSO.

 

[Captante]

Not sure how it's defined. Does Pink Floyd's The Wall count?

Borderline but I'll give it a nod.

IMHO, Quadrophenia is vastly superior to Tommy. Another very good rock opera is Jesus Christ, Super Star (original cast recording, this is critical).

Hair often gets labeled as a rock opera but 3 5 0 0 is the only rock tune in the whole thing.

IDK I think Hair is qualified .... I can still recall the lost feeling I had at the end of the movie when the point of the story really hit me. (I had seen the play as a really little kid & totally not gotten it)

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Hair is a play and the music is show tunes, even though it may not have been intended that way.

 

[Captante]

o·pe·ra

/ˈäp(ə)rə/

Definition of Opera

1. a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists.
   "it was the best performance of the opera he had ever heard"
   • opera as a genre of classical music.
     "a very grand program of opera and ballet"

rock and roll

\ ˌrä-kən-ˈrōl \

Definition of rock and roll

popular music usually played on electronically amplified instruments and characterized by a persistent heavily accented beat, repetition of simple phrases, and often country, folk, and blues elements



Per the above (ripped from Mirriam:Webster) the definition is broad.

 

[pmv]

All I know of Quadraphenia is remembering when the film came out, and the thing that most struck me about it (both from the odd bits I saw - never seen the whole thing - and from what others said) was how it apparently made no attempt at all to conceal the fact it was filmed in the late 70s, despite being ostensibly set in the 60s.

 

[nakedfrog]

In the Hall of the Mountain King comes off as hilariously modern and clowny after listening to it a minute ago. Like I'm entering an evil circus or something.


My bent is into "set tunes with spicy runs and figurations".

My crazy thoughts include:

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto gives vibes of Mariah Carey. Like the clarinet sounds literally like a fembot Mariah Carey to my ears.....

Aha. Runs are not particularly interesting to me.

 

[Spacehead]

Does one side of an album count? Rush - "2112", "The Fountain of Lamneth" or "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres"?
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime 1 & 2 i think would qualify.

Definitions are so seemingly random it's hard for me to tell.

How about Coheed & Cambrias works? I'm kinda new to them & i've only ever listened to songs randomly but i've been told they tell a story?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

2112 is iffy. Don't know the others by Rush.

Mindcrime .... maybe

C&C is a weird gig. The whole series of music is about his comic strip. I like the music, but I don't do comics.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Queensyche: Operation Mindcrime
The Who: Tommy
Dream Theater: Metropolis Part 2
Dream Theater: 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Dream Theater: The Astonishing
Styx: Killroy was Here
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Pretty much anything Ayreon
Coheed and Cambria

 

[pmv]

All I know of Quadraphenia is remembering when the film came out, and the thing that most struck me about it (both from the odd bits I saw - never seen the whole thing - and from what others said) was how it apparently made no attempt at all to conceal the fact it was filmed in the late 70s, despite being ostensibly set in the 60s.

I mean, looking it up, they are listed as "goofs" but I don't think they really qualify as "mistakes" in that it seems more that they took a conscious decision not to bother making the slightest attempt at a "period" setting. People wearing "Motorhead" t-shirts, shots of an Intercity 125 (British Rail's new super-modern train that was introduced with great fanfare in 1975), cinemas showing movies that were released in '79.

Funny thing is that it probably matters less and less the more time passes since the film was made, because from 2021 perspective the details of 1960s trains and car models vs 1970s ones probably seems like very geeky nitpicking. But when it was released I remember people got quite confused as to when it was supposed to be set.

Quadrophenia (1979) - Goofs - IMDb

Quadrophenia (1979) - Goofs on IMDb - bloopers, mistakes, errors in continuity, plot holes, anachronisms, spoilers and more.

www.imdb.com

 

[DigDog]

Well there's Phantom of Paradise which is literally a rock opera about a rock opera.

I guess pretty much every musical in the traditional sense (relying mostly on music rather than dialogue) counts as a rock opera.

Jesus Christ Superstar would fall in the definition of rock opera. So would the Rocky Horror, probably, given that most of the story's development takes place during the songs ...

 

[JPS35]

...and the winner is: