It doesn’t really make it less impressive, just less unique, but I know a bunch of professional musicians who can all play a large number of instruments really well. One is a friend of mine, and every year he learns another one… I profiled him for a magazine recently, and the list went something included saxophone (his main instrument), recorder (on which he’s given some recitals), electric bass, harmonica, flute, French horn, and a couple of baroque instruments.
I think all of XTC’s work is very harmonically advanced. And I’m a snooty classical musician.
How about some of Elton John’s work? “Butterflies are Free”, for example, where the line is held in suspension through almost the entire song, with resolution only happening at the vamp.
I’ll second (third?) XTC’s work.
…And, pretty much, at the first two phrases of the chorus, but I hope you get my point.
Avalon is one of the all-time great albums.
Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run and Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey are each 3 different songs in one. These two songs seem to be presented as parts 2 and 3 of the Day in the Life saga. He continued this concept with Live and Let Die. I wished he continued in this vein instead of abandoning it.
Elton John’s ‘Butterflies are Free’ song was ‘Somebody Saved My Life Tonight’.
Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was a top 10 album for 13 weeks and in the Billboard Charts for 247 weeks. It’s commonly known as the source of the Exorcist theme music. The album consists of two songs–Part One and Part Two. It is all instrumental save for ethereal background voices and some growling. Mike plays almost all the instruments himself (at the age of 19), and it’s a big list of instruments.
It’s quite complicated for popular music. Even though it’s a fanstastic album, it still boggles my mind that it sold so well.
A few that come to mind (although I am far from a musical expert):
5:15 - The Who
Feeling Stronger Every Day - Chicago
Karn Evil #9 - ELP (Somebody mentioned Brain Salad Surgery, its album)
Carouselambra - Led Zeppelin, and a personal favorite song of mine, but hardly a chartbuster. But I think terrific and comlex as all get-out.
Another nice pick. “Carouselambra” well qualifies – it was on the chartbuster album In Through the Out Door.
I’m a big fan of Phish, in particular their early stuff into their first five albums. However, I always cringed whenever I heard them cover Peaches En Regalia, because they simply butchered it. I’ve never before or since heard such a blatant example of musicians overextending themselves by attempting to play something they were so clearly incapable of playing correctly.
Now, I’m all about anything Zappa, but after the first time I heard a tape of one of their live performances of it, I just wished they’d stop. Sadly, they kept at it.
How about Renaissance? Yes, they totally lost their way after Novella, but Live at Carnegie Hall was the group at its peak, and was one of the best-selling albums the year it was released. Very complex and orchestrated pieces…hearing Scheherazade and Ashes Are Burning back to back proves that.
I want to add Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (all virtuosi who also are capable of switching and playing each other’s instruments), but they are more jazz-bluegrass fusion than rock, not that they don’t ROCK sometimes.
Frank Zappa and Steve Morse (of Dixie Dregs fame) are extremely gifted technical guitarist/composer/arrangers, but I wouldn’t call either of them COMMERCIAL.
Depeche Mode’s Songs of Faith and Devotion is a pretty dense recording. Thanks to Alan Wilder and Flood, there’s a million things going on in nearly every song.
I have got to second Tool. Danny Carey is one hell of a drummer, and there’s just a certain depth to the music you don’t find too many other places. I am thinking of the Aenima and Lateralus albums, here.
If I had to recommend an ELP album to start with, it would be their Live at the Royal Albert. They threw down a pretty good set there.
Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, yup.
Toad the Wet Sprocket, I nominate. The Fear album, and not the songs that got played. Check out the track Pray Your Gods if you get the chance.
How about Paul Simon’s Graceland? It’s an example of a rock musician dabbling outside the form, but so are many other examples listed. His follow-up, Rhythm of the Saints, is even more complex, but didn’t have any radio-friendly hits.
Tears For Fears. And I’m not just saying that “because”. The level of complexity and artistry of the arrangement thereof are two of the primary reasons they’re my favorite group.
Suggested tracks:
*The Hurting - Pale Shelter, Start of the Breakdown
Songs From the Big Chair - Shout (no, really, listen to it again; there’s a lot of complexity in the base line and the buildup), Broken/Head Over Heels
The Seeds of Love - Woman In Chains, Swords and Knives, Standing on the Corner of the Third World, Year of the Knife.
Elemental - Elemental, Mr. Pessimist, Brian Wilson Said
Raoul and the Kings of Spain - Sketches of Pain, Don’t Drink the Water*
Email me at RolandOrzabal “at” cox.net if you’d like a hand getting ahold of any of these.
If you don’t mind a bit – ok, a lot – of disjointedness in your complexity, Radiohead might also be your cup of tea.
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A Toad fan!
I was gonna mention them too. It’s really unfortunate that the critics dismissed them without giving them much of a chance.
Even their hit songs are lyrically complex, if not musically.