Do you know a long song that doesn’t repeat itself and sort of tells a story through music (maybe without words)?
there is a hindi song which is sorta long (5 mins without music, 6 with) - Breathless (not really breathless, but full song done in just 16 breaths(that is roughly 3 per minute), but almost none are easily audible) - it is a romance story - meetup - love blossom - heart break - life ruined - reunion - together forever. The lyricist is one of the best hindi/urdu lyricist, maybe among the best in the world
also there are many old classical concerts (for example - beethoven) which are music only and at times were in conjunction with plays or dramas going through stories
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Bowie - “Cygnet Committee”
Exquisite Corpse is ostensibly a George Watsky song but the featured artist list includes Adam Vida, Chinaka Hodge, Grieves, Wax, Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs and Dumbfoundead
It’s called what it is for a reason, and it’s also a 10-minute long epic poem about the post-apocalypse. One of my very favorites.
It’s all words though.
Badger Badger Mushroom
2112 by Rush
Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day
And almost anything by The Mars Volta
Green Day actually has quite a few, it would really be worth listening to their entire discography. They started out with a lot of teenage love songs (angst and longing) and over the years it faded but love is still a very common topic for Green Day!
Most recently, Father to a Son, from the album Saviors.
I’m not sure anything with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez can be said to have a narrative. You’ll go on quite a journey, but it’s not really a story.
Eminem - Stan
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
Metallica’s
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To Live Is To Die.
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Orion
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Aqualung by Jethro Tull may meet your needs. If you’re Will ng to flexible in your definitions the the Crane Wife cycle by the Decemberists might also fit .
(maybe without words)?
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. It’s not that long though.
In the hall of the mountain king is part of the work Peer Gynt. The whole thing is about 2 hours, but there’s a shorter version consisting of two suites which is about 30 minutes long. Here’s a version with some extra incidental music included at the end - here’s a performance of just the first suite.
Its technically an album, but the “continuous mix” of Thomas Bergersens American Dream
We Lost the Sea had some songs that retell stories, mostly through audio:
- Challenger parts 1&2 are my favorite, about the Challenger disaster
- The Last Dive of David Shaw is also very good
The Phant albums together tell a story, the first 4 albums were even bundled with short novels.
Olias of Sunhillow alternates between instrumental and lyrical tracks, and both tell the story of a bucolic species going to space in a wooden boat. It is the proggest of prog rock. If you enjoy anything by Yes, this is the main lead guy’s solo debut, and it is right in the same notch as Fragile and Close To The Edge.
The Wall and American Idiot always springs to mind when I think of story albums.
