Its called opera.
Tommy is the rock opera album by the who that is all one story
This question has some weird conditions on it - "doesn't repeat itself" is the most troubling one. Pi has an infinite number of sevens in it (so it repeats the same values quite often) but it's unique in its entirety - it also has infinitely long blocks that are repeated because, you know, infinity be weird like that.
I'd point you to a symphony like Vivaldi's Seasons or, if you're willing to substitute "words I can't understand" for "words" (and don't happen to speak German) Der Ring des Nibelungen. While the later does have talkie bits understanding those gives you barely any more context than the raw emotion of the music.
But, both of those (and all music that doesn't suck) relies heavily on repetition... but they're also unique overall (unless they don't have a strictly defined form aka jazz but now we're really in the weeds)
Yeah, I don't mean that it doesn't have repeating things, I don't know how to describe this better. Just not the same thing for an hour, but flowing to different states, moods, melodies, y'know
Ah that's quite fair. Vivaldi's Seasons is a lot of fun then and I might add Dvorak's Symphony for the New World to the pile as well.
Thick as a Brick
Halloween by Helloween.
2112 by Rush.
Waters of Black Mesa https://youtu.be/NNJS0iO9uyo
This pleases me.
I'm also ignoring the without words part to share Aesop Rock.
The Hurricane by Bob Dylan
Not a song, but two whole "fuzz rock/metal" albums written to work as one long story: Howling Giant's Black Hole Space Wizard Part 1 and 2
The story isn't super direct, but it's about an escape ship fleeing the dying earth, crashing (Part 1) leaving one survivor, and him going on a maddened journey to become the earth wizard (Part 2).
A bit less obscure is the Protomen's Act 1 and 2, a rock opera fan fiction based off Megaman
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.
These have words but might still fit the other factors:
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen Horses - Patti Smith
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 .
"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one he said"
~ Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds epic
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
Eminem - Stan
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 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
(maybe without words)?
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. It's not that long though.
Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation. Album length track that is a rock opera.
Its technically an album, but the "continuous mix" of Thomas Bergersens American Dream
Dream Theater does a really long song almost every album, but they all have words
Images and Words, for that matter.
A 5-minute long song, it has words but it kind of tells a story
Darkness Fell by Wolfgang(OPM Band)
Blues Traveler - Hook
Bowie - "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud"
Bowie - "Cygnet Committee"
Deathbed by Relient K. Used to be one of my favorites, very heartfelt and bittersweet.
Asklemmy
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~