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
Dream Theater does a really long song almost every album, but they all have words
Images and Words, for that matter.
Stream of consciousness from train of thought and dance of eternity from meteropolis pt. 2 are really good, long-ish instrumentals that kind of tell a story.
And to answer OP: Metropolis pt.2 by dream theater is a great concept album that has an interesting story to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1CPB-gBhcNVqwY0-fWgIdjnkPeMcfFFE David Bowie narrates Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘Peter And The Wolf’. The narrator tells a story and the orchestra illustrates by using different instruments to play a “theme” that represents each character in the story.
For modern stories I like The Curse. It’s about an archeologist that falls in love with a mummy that comes to life.
The Mystic Crystal by Ninja Sex Party is a great story song.
Also most of TWRP has songs that tell stories, like Starlight Brigade or Black Swan
Badger Badger Mushroom
Arlo Guthree’s Alice’s Restaurant has you covered. I play it every Thanksgiving.
So does my family! I think it’s a New England thing.
EDIT: I haven’t had coffee and missed the “without words” part. Sorry, but enjoy regardless.
City Hall by Tenacious D
For comedy, Better Midler’s Otto Titsling tells an urban legend about how the bra was invented and it’s freaking hilarious, with great singing.
If you want something more powerful but emotional, Linkin Park’s album, 1000 Suns, if you listen to it, in order, tells the horror of the atomic bomb in a way that feels like your just listening to awesome rock music. Follow that up with the song Mike Shinoda; the rapper/musican/writer from Linkin Park; made called Kenji and it paints a dark story about how his own family was locked inside US concentration camps, during WWII, just because they were Japanese. Family/Friends died in that camp… and those that got out found their houses destroyed and graffitied by racists. It’s really powerful and shows a side of the band that most people don’t know.
I figured there’d be plenty of mentions of Rush’s 2112, but they have a lot of other songs that fit the bill too. The Necromancer, Fountain of Lamneth, Xanadu, Natural Science (well I guess that’s more of a rant than a story), Cygnes X-1 books 1 and 2. Since you say maybe without words, La Villa Strangiato.
If you want to stick to classic prog then Yes has some songs that fit the bill too like America and Harold Land. I confess to not really understanding the lyrics of most of the rest of Yes’s discography, they can be really poetic, but I think the whole Closer to the Edge album fits on it’s musicality alone. The title track’s a freaking journey.
Led Zeppelin has a few of these too, though musically they are a little repetitive. Achilles Last Stand, Battle of Evermore, Gallows Pole.
Avenged Sevenfold - Exist is a 15 minute song that is about the big bang all the way to Earth forming and cooling.
American Pie - Don McLean it’s the history of rock and roll from the 50s through the 60s
Cats in the cradle, has no one said this one 😭 😭 😭
Thick as a Brick
