This thread's fun, so let me touch only a few bases: I think virtually any of the Parliament or Funkadelic albums through the late '70's were concept albums done very well. Becuase of the tone of this list, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone here who didn't give large thumbs-up concerning Willie's Red-Headed Stranger LP. Any of Public Enemy's LP's were also concept albums that in the early days were responsible for some great noise-bringin. Whoever stated the Kinks of the late '60's, toss my hat into that ring. As far as The Who are concerned, Tommy and Quadrophenia are almost insufferable in their pretension, but they do have some moments. Their best conceptual moment for me is their Who Sell Out record which is tracked as if it were a radio show. Add to that "A Quick One While He's Away," a rock-opera that, pound-for-pound, did more in its 7-minutes than either of their "opuses" put together. But, maybe it's just me. Finally, I'll put a vote in for the American Graffiti soundtrack, which works a as a concept album in the same way the movie works as a concept movie. However, Sgt. Pepper's is not a concept album, even though it is billed as such, while Wilco's Being There sure doesn't seem like a concept album, but if you believe the press-clippings, it is. Ditto on Exile On Guyville, which I never thought was a song-for-song response to Exile on Main Street (Consult the "Just because it makes for good copy, doesn't mean it's true" file), but could nevertheless be considered a concept album. Lance . . .
