Rod's Ramblings
A podcast reminiscing about cultural events and how they affected this sixty something. Join me as we travel on a nostalgic journey through the cultural events that have shaped our lives. From classical composers, iconic music moments, rock stars and unforgettable TV shows. Let’s reminisce about how these events have influenced us all. Whether you’re a fellow baby boomer or just love a good story, Rod’s Ramblings offers a heartfelt, informative and entertaining look at the stories behind these great events. Cheers, Rod.
Rod's Ramblings
The Rewind Series - Concept Albums, Rock Operas, and the Evolution of Rock Musicals
Exciting News! 🎧 I've uncovered the original audio files from the very first series of "Rod’s Ramblings" which was broadcast in 2022 and am thrilled to share them with you. Thus, I proudly present "The Rewind Series. "Can you distinguish between a concept album and a rock opera? Discover the captivating world of rock musicals, concept albums, and rock operas as we navigate their fascinating evolution. We'll journey through time, from Woody Guthrie's "Dust Bowl Ballads" to The Beatles’ "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," uncovering the intricate history, subtle differences, and thematic power these musical formats hold. Join me as we explore iconic works like The Who's "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," while celebrating how rock musicals like "Hair" and "The Rocky Horror Show" have captivated audiences worldwide and propelled artists to legendary status.
As part of The Rewind Series in this, the 10th episode of Rod's Ramblings, I reflect on the intriguing distinctions between concept albums and rock operas, bringing official definitions and historical context to light. Experience the magic of rock musicals, which have paved paths for artists like Meat Loaf and Ian Gillan, while also providing platforms for mainstream stars to showcase their vocal talents. Together, we'll unearth the elements that blur the lines between these genres, delve into lesser-known treasures like Nirvana's "The Story of Simon Simapath," and challenge ourselves to pinpoint the first true rock opera.
Hello there and welcome to the 10th episode of Rod's Ramblings. I hope you're well and thanks again for listening. When I started this podcast back in October, I never dreamt that I would be producing a 10th episode. Thank you so much for all your support. It really is appreciated.
Speaker 1:I'd like to spend this episode talking about how our favourite music has evolved into different forms of entertainment. I'd particularly like to focus on rock musicals, concept albums and rock operas and how it's increasingly difficult to decide which is which Concept versus opera. That is, not rock musicals, for example. If you'd asked me to name a rock opera, I'd immediately think of the who's albums Tommy and Quadrophenia, two great albums, both of which have been made into musical films and described as both a concept album and a rock opera. There is a great history of rock musicals that have enabled artists to develop great careers. The first musical which could be categorised as rock was the final performance of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1957. Even though it's been referred to as the first recorded rock musical, only one song actually had a rock and roll style. Other musicals include Hair, which became a vehicle for Meatloaf to develop his singing ability, and go on to perform the Bat-Heads of Hell trilogy. Ian Gillan, who was the lead singer with Deep Purple, starred in the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables, has opened the door for the likes of Hugh Jackman, russell Crowe, anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried to show off their vocal abilities. The Rocky Horror Show by Richard O'Brien has provided audiences across the globe with the opportunity to dress up, and the song let's Do the Time Warp Again has enabled Mrs C's cousin to dance his way into family history. God bless him. If you look through the list of upcoming events at your local theatre, you'll see many examples of the insert name of rock star story. This demonstrates how the rock musical has become an established form of entertainment.
Speaker 1:It's pretty easy to identify a rock musical. It's much harder, however, to differentiate between a concept album and a rock opera. I've got memories of reading interviews in the New Musical Express with band members talking about the forthcoming release of their new album, which they describe as a concept album or a rock opera, sometimes both in the same interview. So let's have a look at their official definitions. Is defined as a collection of several pieces of music made available as a single item on an LP, cd or via the internet, on which all the pieces of music are based on a single idea. It then gives an example as the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which took 13 individual rock songs and transformed them into a concept album by weaving them together within an imaginative theme and packaging.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the history of the concept album. The first concept album is believed to be Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads, which was released way back in 1940. It consisted of semi-autobiographical songs about the hardships of American migrant labourers during the 1930s. Also credited as the inventor of the concept album is Frank Sinatra. Following the release of the Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946, biographer Wilfried Wald said that Sinatra sequenced the song so much that the lyrics created a flow from track to track, affording an impression of a narrative, as in musical comedy or opera. He was the first pop singer to bring a consciously artistic attitude to recording.
Speaker 1:Moving forward to the 60s, nat King Cole was an early pioneer of concept albums, with Wild Is Love being a suite of original songs about a man's search for love. It was during this period that the term rock opera started to be used. Examples are the Beach Boys, pet Sounds, the Beatles Revolver and the who's the who Sellout. The Collins Dictionary defines a rock opera as an album that tells a story through the songs it contains. So you can see why albums can get described as both concepts and rock operas. Let's go with the idea that if the songs tell a story, it's a rock opera and if the songs are linked by a theme it's a concept album. With this in mind, I challenged myself to find the first rock opera. During my research, I found a reference to the Story of Simon Simapath by Nirvana. I've listened to a lot of material by Nirvana, but I've never come across this before. Further investigation identified that the album was released in October 1967. Now, hang on. Kurt Cobain wasn't born until February of that year. I'm sure that even he wasn't writing songs when he was only eight months old.
Speaker 1:This Nirvana was a different band from the one that smelt like teen spirit. There were, in fact, a British partnership of Irish musician Patrick Campbell Lyons, greek composer Alex Syropoulos and Ray Singer that played psychedelic pop music. In 1996 they released an album called Orange and Blue, which contained a cover of the song Lithium, which had been recorded by Cobain and the Boys. According to the band's official website, this was intended as part of a tongue-in-cheek album called Nirvana Sings Nirvana that was aborted when Kurt Cobain died. That's a great title, isn't it? Shame it didn't go ahead. The original British group filed a lawsuit in California against the Seattle band in 1992. The matter was settled out of court on undisclosed terms that apparently allowed both bands to continue using the name and issuing new recordings without any packaging, disclaimers or caveats to distinguish one Nirvana from the other. To distinguish one Nirvana from the other. Music writer Everett True has claimed that Cobain's record label paid $100,000 to the original Nirvana to permit Cobain's band to continue using the name.
Speaker 1:The Story of Simon Simapath was Nirvana's debut album, released in 1967. On the back cover is a text story, the Story of Simon Simapath, a science fiction pantomime which links the song titles. The story goes like this it deals with a boy named Simon Simapath who dreams of having wings. He is lonely and, after reaching adulthood, goes to work in a computer office block. He suffers a nervous breakdown and is unable to find help in a mental institution, but gets aboard a rocket, meets a centaur who will be his friend and a tiny goddess named Magdalena who works at Pentecostal Hotel. Simon and Magdalena fall in love and get married and then have a jazzy party. A simple story, but a story all the same, making it a viable qualifier as a rock opera.
Speaker 1:Another contender for one of the first rock operas was SF Sorrow, which was released by the Pretty Things in 1968. The Pretty Things were formed in 1963 by Dick Taylor, phil May, john Stax, brian Pendleton and Pete Kittley. Taylor's previous band was Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, where he shared the stage with none other than Keith Richards, who he went to Sidcup Art College with, and Mick Jagger when Brian Jones was forming Rolling Stones in June 1962, all three joined Brian along with Ian Stewart. Because there were too many guitarists, taylor switched to bass guitar for five months before quitting the band to go to the central school of art and design. Good decision, maybe not?
Speaker 1:The SF Saro album consists of 13 tracks telling the title character's rather depressing life story. It's been likened to Pink Floyd's the War as the story of a man who builds a mental war to protect himself from the hardships that he has experienced, and at the end of the album he identifies himself as the loneliest person in the world. The story does meet its description, doesn't it? A great storyteller-songwriter from my era was Ray Davies of the Kinks. It's not surprising, therefore, that a couple of their albums are contenders for one of the first rock operas. The Kinks of the Village Green Preservation Society was released in 1968 and was a collection of vignettes of English life, such as the Village Green, sitting by the Riverside and Last of the Steam-Powered Trains.
Speaker 1:Their next album, arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire, was released a year later and was originally written as a potential play for Granada Television, revolving around Arthur Morgan, a carpet layer who emigrates to Australia with his family in search of a better life. Ray Davies says that it was based on Ray and Dave's sister Rose and their brother-in-law, arthur Anning. He described the album as a concept, but if we accept that the collected songs tell a story, it could be classed as a rock opera. All four of these albums could have been the first rock opera, but neither Simon the Simopath or SF Sorrow would have won any awards for uplifting lyrics, would they? As we approach the end of the podcast, I think we've just got enough time to play the odd one out round. Which one of these is the odd one out? Jimmy Cooper, todd Chavez or Tommy Walker? Have a think about it and I'll give you the answer in a little while.
Speaker 1:Getting back to our rock opera theme, there have been many albums since those early days of Simon, simapath, sf, sorrow and Arthur, including the Black Parade by my Chemical Romance, american Idiot by Green Day and the Lamb Knives Down on Broadway by Genesis. The Black Parade is a rock opera centering around the character of the patient. It's about his passage out of life and the memories he has of it. The patient dies and death comes for him in the form of a parade. This is based on singer Gerard Way's notion of death appearing to a person in the form of their fondest memory, in this case seeing a marching band when he was a child. When the band performed the album on stage, they adopted the alter ego of the Black Parade, in a similar way that the Beatles became Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album was produced by Rob Cavaglio, who also worked with Green Day on their American Idiot album.
Speaker 1:The Green Day album was inspired by contemporary American political events, particularly 9-11, the Iraq War and the presidency of George W Bush. Having said that, there are only two explicitly political songs on the album American Idiot and Holiday. Billy Joe Armstrong said that he wanted to draw a casual connection between contemporary American social dysfunction and the Bush ascendancy. While the content is clearly of the times, he hoped it would remain timeless and become more an overarching statement on confusion. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was the last Genesis album that Peter Gabriel played on. Gabriel uses his songwriting skills to tell the story of Raoul, a Puerto Rican youth from New York City who is suddenly taken on a journey of self-discovery and encounters bizarre incidents and characters along the way. I think that the line between a concept album and a rock opera is still very blurred, as Gabriel described the Lamb as a concept album and in 2019, the online magazine Discogs placed the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway at number five and Ziggy, stardust and the Spiders from Mars at number 2 in their best rock opera top 10. As much as I love the Ziggy album, I think it's more of a concept than an opera.
Speaker 1:Have you had a chance to identify our odd one out yet? The question was which of these is the odd one out Jimmy Cooper, todd Chavez or Tommy Walker? The answer is Jimmy Cooper and Tommy Walker were characters in the rock operas Quadrophenia and Tommy. The answer is Jimmy Cooper and Tommy Walker were characters in the rock operas Quadrophenia and Tommy respectively, whereas Todd Chavez was a character in the Netflix animated movie BoJack Horseman, who writes a rock opera. Thank you for listening to my thoughts about rock musicals, concept albums and rock operas. I do hope you've enjoyed it. I'm off to watch a video of our Rob doing the time warp again. So until the next time on Rod's Ramblings, cheers and take care.
