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Concept Albums Explained
Join us on Defenestrationism.net as we examine concept albums, track by track, one lyric at a time.
We will be hopping around in time period and genre, starting with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and “Highway 61, Revisited“. Up next, “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”.
All active links are in burgundy.
Early Innovators
The First Concept Albums
Gustav Holst, Woody Guthrie, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis
1922-1960
Highway 61, Revisited
Bob Dylan
1965
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
1965
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles
1967
The Mature Period of the 1970s
Berlin
Lou Reed
1973
The Heart of Saturday Night
Tom Waits
1974
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Genesis
1974
Trick of the Tail
Genesis
1976
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Australian Release)
AC/DC
1976
Death of a Ladies Man
Lennard Cohen
1977
The Rambler
Johnny Cash
1977
80s Weirdnesses
The Dreaming
Kate Bush
1982
Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
The Pogues
1985
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Madian
1986
Frank’s Wild Years
Tom Waits
1987
90s Hip-Hop
Edutainment
KRS-One (Boogie Down Productions)
1990
The Score
The Fugees
1996
The Carnival
Wyclef Jean
1997
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
1998
Blackstar
Mos Def and Talib Kweli
1999
21st Century Renaissance
Stankonia
Outkast
2000
Toxicity
System of a Down
2001
Alice
Tom Waits
2002
Greendale
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
2003
The Black Parade
My Chemical Romance
2006
Opheliac
Emily Autumn
2009
Crack the Skye
Mastodon
2009
Born Like This
MF Doom
2009
Transcontinental Drift
Lyricists’ Watch
2014
To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
2015
Emperor of Sand
Mastodon
2017
September 11th Response Concept Albums
The Rising
Bruce Springstein
2002
Scarlet’s Walk
Tori Amos
2002
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