For a mainstream option, "Helter Skelter" is an easy pick. No wonder someone like Manson heard it and killed those poor folks.
Captain Beefheart - Doctor Dark It dwells in Trout Maskism, but it makes a proper song out of it, for God's sake. An album of this would be the future, and conclusion, of rock. Edit: you added most famous in your post-headline. Maybe not this example, then. But you get my point.
Bohemian Rhapsody. “A single? Are you out of your mind? It’s six minutes! And it’s got a bloody opera in the middle! Who’s going to dance to this? Don’t be ridiculous……”
Not saying Bohemian wasn't new territory by going full fledged opera, but weren't Tommy, Quadrophenia, and especially Sparks' "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" (1974) all pretty strong precedents? I mean, by 1975 there was a lot of prog and glam mixing classical and operatic elements already so it was the logical conclusion of that environment.
I just can’t get over this, I keep playing it. Del Shannon, Runaway, a 1987 appearance on Letterman. It’s so hot, so cool. Dave’s intro, Del’s intro, Del’s smile to Paul to let it rip.
I was thinking "Only Shallow" ... ... and "My Generation," "Baba O'Riley," and "Tomorrow Never Knows." -E
I thought the Fly was a HUGE rip off of both The Stone Roses and Creation Records (at that time) in general. It took me a while to embrace that record but it seemed like such an obvious lift. -E
I think if the music of "My Gen" itself doesn't do it (and I can see why) then the coda and the lyrical content surely does. -E
What are you talking about? They sound nothing like each other. Huge rip off yeah right. If it is the funky drum sound you are talking about, it wasn't invented by the Stone Roses. The Roses pulled that riff off mid 70's soul records.
"Moonlight Mile" by the Rolling Stones. The closest parallel I can think of is Van Morrison, but the majority of his celebrated "epics" came after "Moonlight Mile", suggesting that song influenced him more than the other way around. Astral Weeks definitely could have been an influence, but those songs are a lot more liquid and cerebral than "Moonlight Mile". Perhaps there's a folk troubador who opened for the Stones in Oregon in 1968 I'm unaware of, but I always look at "Moonlight Mile" as a band so in tune with their talents that they can transcend genre and style and invent something completely their own.
I wasn't saying The Roses were unprecedented, I was just saying that the precedent for "The Fly" was immediately apparent, so much so that, at the time, I thought it was a huge rip off. I've come to love Achtung Baby, and like "The Fly." -E
Which Stone Roses song in particular? I have their first two albums and no songs sound remotely like The Fly to me anyway.
Not to rain on the parade, but many of these examples are just slight twists on something that came before. Still brilliant but unprecedented?
