You'd think concept albums were things purely for proggy rock followers of Pink Floyd or Rick Wakeman. A phenomenon of those pompous days before punk spat on all of them!
What place for them in this century, the age of the download, shuffle and individual song?
Yet - and this is a huge YET - I maintain the 21st century has actually produced the most captivating by a long way.
The greatest singer-songwriter of all time Tom Waits even released two in the same year, 2002.
Both 'Alice' and 'Blood Money' were written for theatre, in a similar way to The Who's rock operas made into films.
Although the play was produced in 1992, 'Alice' wasn't out till much later and, like the other, Waits' wife Kathleen Brennan was integral to the song-writing.
The imagery and language of both Carroll's Alice books is prevalent and music suitably strange and atmospheric, ranging from balladry to angular jazz, with an often melancholic mood.
Characters such as 'Poor Edward' and 'Table Top Joe' certainly belong in a modern underworld.
Like 'Blood Money' and his earlier 'The Black Rider' Waits develops the music of Kurt Weill.
'Blood Money' comprises songs for the play 'Woyzeck' by Georg Buchner, premiered in Copenhagen in 2002.
As a concept, it's held together not by language and character, but by the feelings of the protagonist and some of the darkest lyrics are set off against the most pacy sounds.
Though it's more disparate than 'Alice', it's also more personal :listen to 'All The World is Green', such a sensitive love song.
The fact that he released them simultaneously is remarkable.
If you're put off by his growling, gritty vocals then you're missing one of the genuine geniuses of contemporary music.
Along with Loudon Wainwright and Tom Russell, Waits has continued to produce music to excite and challenge.
Tom Russell? Is the usual reaction to the singer-songwriter that Beat Poet Ferlinghetti once described as America's finest.
His concept album 'Hotwalker' came out in 2005 and is a remarkable collage of songs, narratives and samples, with readings by Kerouac and Bukowski and a snatch of comedian Lennie Bruce.
It's primarily a celebration of the work of Charles Bukowski and his influence on others, Russell included, when he grew up in LA.
The only track which stands outside this is his tribute to Dave Van Ronk 'the Pope of Greenwich Village', a very moving spoken narrative with musical accompaniment which contrasts the Coen Bros film 'Inside Llewyn Davies', supposedly based on Van Ronk's life.
Though Russell directs the whole affair, his compere is the incomparable Little Jack Horton a 'circus midget' and one-time friend of Bukowski.
Unlike the Waits albums, it's essential to listen to this as a whole to appreciate the energy and vitality of its protagonist. Though the music is primarily country and folk, Russell uses other forms - such as jazz and folk songs of that era - to add authenticity.
This is a concept album like no other : a celebration of lost voices, reborn through both story and song.
Another American musician who stands alone and has influenced a number of important contemporary artists like Ireland's Villagers, is Sufjan Stevens.
Like Waits he has brought out two concept albums, the first being 'Michigan', and the second 'Come on feel the Illinoise!'
It was Stevens' mad plan to bring out an album for every state in the US, but he stopped after two!
'Illinoise!' is the masterpiece of the two : so ridiculously ambitious you'd think he'd have done a Wakeman and descended into pretension.
Not so, because it's so quirky and visionary and also because for every intense orchestral piece there's a spare, banjo-accompanied song.
It's all tied together by the state itself and especially Chicago.
However, this is no travelogue or simple observation.
There are UFOs, Zombies, sympathy for a serial killer, the ghost of poet Carl Sandburg and a homage to a skyscraper.
Like 'Hotwalker' it's full of eulogies. Like the poetry of Whitman it embraces the spirit of an America of openness and discovery, yet with a mysticism stemming from Stevens' own unique form of Christianity.
Shifting to England, where Robb Johnson's 'Gentle Men' was released earlier this year and is very much an alternative commemoration of the !st World War.
For anyone unfamiliar with him, he is a seasoned activist, still a Primary teacher and England's most under-rated singer-songwriter over many years.
He is to contemporary folk what Ken Loach is to film : witty, compassionate and never afraid to share his left-wing opinions.
'Gentle Men' is an extraordinary exploration of the lives of Johnson's grandfathers, who both fought in that war.
Like 'Hotwalker' it's interspersed with music from that era, though the sense of time is often created by using brass bands and Music Hall-styles.
Apart from the great song-writing, it's vital listening because of the interplay of the three main vocalists : Johnson, Roy Bailey and Barb Jung.
The movement between present and past is constant and there is a prevailing critique of class divisions and how war heightens them.
This is Johnson's most ambitious project to date and all his characteristic humour, satire and indignation are there, but above all he pays tribute to the lives of his two relatives.
There is much cultural ado about the 1st World War, but this is the most enlightening anti-war creation I've experienced : never pontificating, always speaking through the people involved.
One of the best concept albums of the last century was Geraint Jarman's 'Mabinogi', composed initially for a multi-media show in Cardiff Castle.
So, it's fitting I should make Gruff Rhys's 'American Interior' my final selection.
Film, book, stage show (and probably t-shirt!) this album tells of Rhys's retracing the steps of his infamous ancestor, the eccentric 18th century explorer John Evans, who journeyed across America in search of a tribe of Welsh-speaking 'Red Indians'.
In typically original fashion, Rhys even imagines his ancestor accessing emails in '100 Unread Messages'.
The exploration is better appreciated after seeing Rhys's hilarious live set.
The album's an allegory for any voyage of discovery : although Evans's intention would seem rather pointless , he actually achieved a great deal on the way, such as mapping the wilderness.
Rhys brings it off brilliantly through his sheer variety of musical approaches and ever-catchy tunes. He makes Evens come alive as his experiences merge with Rhys's own on songs like 'The Whether (Or Not)'.
John Evans sets out to find a tribe and ends up finding himself.
The word 'genius' is bandied about by the likes of Jools Holland, but in Gruff Rhys's case it's a definite .
Amazingly, I haven't even mentioned those two concept albums which deal so superbly with the effects of the economic crisis on the States, namely Springsteen's 'Wrecking Ball' and Loudon Wainwright's 'Songs for a New Depression' and, above all , the greatest songwriting team since Lennon- McCartney, i.e. Scott-Yeats in The Waterboys' 'An Appointment With Mr Yeats'.
Nobody listens to albums any more , do they?
Well, if that's the truth then they're missing out on so much.
ROD TOLCHOCK AND BARRY LAMP-POSTS
for Dave Evans
1975, a damp dark November evening
in Barry town (but not from Steely Dan),
local singer-songwriter Rod Tolchock
announced his master-plan.
Doing the Railway, the folk club
as he always did,
he usually sang his memorable
ode to the area's lamp-posts ;
and we would all sing along
except a few trad-folkies
waiting for the inevitable finale
of 'Goodnight Irene'.
Rod, in his tea-cosy hat
(literally, complete with stains),
his pig-tail sticking out the spout
like a pour of silvery-brown.
Rod, in his colourful kaftan
and his powerful aroma
we had an inkling
(the youthful girls inhaled him).
Rod, who we expected
to do a Shane MacGowan
(before The Pogues, of course)
and fall into the audience.
Rod, who announced his concept album
'Barry Bus-shelters' that wet night
and claimed he'd do a tour
and perform in each one.
Rod,who sang about the one opposite
and some bloke who'd told him
he'd seen a whale off The Knap
and would he like to buy acid?
Max Boyce was all the rage at the time
and Rod was like a visitor from another planet ;
I wrote something like that in my report
for the 'Barry & District', but they never published it.
It was the beginning and end of his concept
and his grand tour never even started.
He returned to that raucous chorus :
'Barry lamp-posts light up my life!'
What place for them in this century, the age of the download, shuffle and individual song?
Yet - and this is a huge YET - I maintain the 21st century has actually produced the most captivating by a long way.
The greatest singer-songwriter of all time Tom Waits even released two in the same year, 2002.
Both 'Alice' and 'Blood Money' were written for theatre, in a similar way to The Who's rock operas made into films.
Although the play was produced in 1992, 'Alice' wasn't out till much later and, like the other, Waits' wife Kathleen Brennan was integral to the song-writing.
The imagery and language of both Carroll's Alice books is prevalent and music suitably strange and atmospheric, ranging from balladry to angular jazz, with an often melancholic mood.
Characters such as 'Poor Edward' and 'Table Top Joe' certainly belong in a modern underworld.
Like 'Blood Money' and his earlier 'The Black Rider' Waits develops the music of Kurt Weill.
'Blood Money' comprises songs for the play 'Woyzeck' by Georg Buchner, premiered in Copenhagen in 2002.
As a concept, it's held together not by language and character, but by the feelings of the protagonist and some of the darkest lyrics are set off against the most pacy sounds.
Though it's more disparate than 'Alice', it's also more personal :listen to 'All The World is Green', such a sensitive love song.
The fact that he released them simultaneously is remarkable.
If you're put off by his growling, gritty vocals then you're missing one of the genuine geniuses of contemporary music.
Along with Loudon Wainwright and Tom Russell, Waits has continued to produce music to excite and challenge.
Tom Russell? Is the usual reaction to the singer-songwriter that Beat Poet Ferlinghetti once described as America's finest.
His concept album 'Hotwalker' came out in 2005 and is a remarkable collage of songs, narratives and samples, with readings by Kerouac and Bukowski and a snatch of comedian Lennie Bruce.
It's primarily a celebration of the work of Charles Bukowski and his influence on others, Russell included, when he grew up in LA.
The only track which stands outside this is his tribute to Dave Van Ronk 'the Pope of Greenwich Village', a very moving spoken narrative with musical accompaniment which contrasts the Coen Bros film 'Inside Llewyn Davies', supposedly based on Van Ronk's life.
Though Russell directs the whole affair, his compere is the incomparable Little Jack Horton a 'circus midget' and one-time friend of Bukowski.
Unlike the Waits albums, it's essential to listen to this as a whole to appreciate the energy and vitality of its protagonist. Though the music is primarily country and folk, Russell uses other forms - such as jazz and folk songs of that era - to add authenticity.
This is a concept album like no other : a celebration of lost voices, reborn through both story and song.
Another American musician who stands alone and has influenced a number of important contemporary artists like Ireland's Villagers, is Sufjan Stevens.
Like Waits he has brought out two concept albums, the first being 'Michigan', and the second 'Come on feel the Illinoise!'
It was Stevens' mad plan to bring out an album for every state in the US, but he stopped after two!
'Illinoise!' is the masterpiece of the two : so ridiculously ambitious you'd think he'd have done a Wakeman and descended into pretension.
Not so, because it's so quirky and visionary and also because for every intense orchestral piece there's a spare, banjo-accompanied song.
It's all tied together by the state itself and especially Chicago.
However, this is no travelogue or simple observation.
There are UFOs, Zombies, sympathy for a serial killer, the ghost of poet Carl Sandburg and a homage to a skyscraper.
Like 'Hotwalker' it's full of eulogies. Like the poetry of Whitman it embraces the spirit of an America of openness and discovery, yet with a mysticism stemming from Stevens' own unique form of Christianity.
Shifting to England, where Robb Johnson's 'Gentle Men' was released earlier this year and is very much an alternative commemoration of the !st World War.
For anyone unfamiliar with him, he is a seasoned activist, still a Primary teacher and England's most under-rated singer-songwriter over many years.
He is to contemporary folk what Ken Loach is to film : witty, compassionate and never afraid to share his left-wing opinions.
'Gentle Men' is an extraordinary exploration of the lives of Johnson's grandfathers, who both fought in that war.
Like 'Hotwalker' it's interspersed with music from that era, though the sense of time is often created by using brass bands and Music Hall-styles.
Apart from the great song-writing, it's vital listening because of the interplay of the three main vocalists : Johnson, Roy Bailey and Barb Jung.
The movement between present and past is constant and there is a prevailing critique of class divisions and how war heightens them.
This is Johnson's most ambitious project to date and all his characteristic humour, satire and indignation are there, but above all he pays tribute to the lives of his two relatives.
There is much cultural ado about the 1st World War, but this is the most enlightening anti-war creation I've experienced : never pontificating, always speaking through the people involved.
One of the best concept albums of the last century was Geraint Jarman's 'Mabinogi', composed initially for a multi-media show in Cardiff Castle.
So, it's fitting I should make Gruff Rhys's 'American Interior' my final selection.
Film, book, stage show (and probably t-shirt!) this album tells of Rhys's retracing the steps of his infamous ancestor, the eccentric 18th century explorer John Evans, who journeyed across America in search of a tribe of Welsh-speaking 'Red Indians'.
In typically original fashion, Rhys even imagines his ancestor accessing emails in '100 Unread Messages'.
The exploration is better appreciated after seeing Rhys's hilarious live set.
The album's an allegory for any voyage of discovery : although Evans's intention would seem rather pointless , he actually achieved a great deal on the way, such as mapping the wilderness.
Rhys brings it off brilliantly through his sheer variety of musical approaches and ever-catchy tunes. He makes Evens come alive as his experiences merge with Rhys's own on songs like 'The Whether (Or Not)'.
John Evans sets out to find a tribe and ends up finding himself.
The word 'genius' is bandied about by the likes of Jools Holland, but in Gruff Rhys's case it's a definite .
Amazingly, I haven't even mentioned those two concept albums which deal so superbly with the effects of the economic crisis on the States, namely Springsteen's 'Wrecking Ball' and Loudon Wainwright's 'Songs for a New Depression' and, above all , the greatest songwriting team since Lennon- McCartney, i.e. Scott-Yeats in The Waterboys' 'An Appointment With Mr Yeats'.
Nobody listens to albums any more , do they?
Well, if that's the truth then they're missing out on so much.
ROD TOLCHOCK AND BARRY LAMP-POSTS
for Dave Evans
1975, a damp dark November evening
in Barry town (but not from Steely Dan),
local singer-songwriter Rod Tolchock
announced his master-plan.
Doing the Railway, the folk club
as he always did,
he usually sang his memorable
ode to the area's lamp-posts ;
and we would all sing along
except a few trad-folkies
waiting for the inevitable finale
of 'Goodnight Irene'.
Rod, in his tea-cosy hat
(literally, complete with stains),
his pig-tail sticking out the spout
like a pour of silvery-brown.
Rod, in his colourful kaftan
and his powerful aroma
we had an inkling
(the youthful girls inhaled him).
Rod, who we expected
to do a Shane MacGowan
(before The Pogues, of course)
and fall into the audience.
Rod, who announced his concept album
'Barry Bus-shelters' that wet night
and claimed he'd do a tour
and perform in each one.
Rod,who sang about the one opposite
and some bloke who'd told him
he'd seen a whale off The Knap
and would he like to buy acid?
Max Boyce was all the rage at the time
and Rod was like a visitor from another planet ;
I wrote something like that in my report
for the 'Barry & District', but they never published it.
It was the beginning and end of his concept
and his grand tour never even started.
He returned to that raucous chorus :
'Barry lamp-posts light up my life!'
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