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10 Worst Rock Operas

For every rock opera as artistically and commercially successful as Pink Floyd' s 'The Wall' or Green Day's 'American Idiot,' there are several more that barely earn their classification as a "musical." Here are 10 concept albums that were notably unclear on the concept.

'Psychoderelict,' Pete Townshend10. 'Psychoderelict,' Pete Townshend
If the Who get two entries on any Top Ten list of best rock operas, resident storyteller Townshend can surely take a mulligan for this wild, loopy swing from 1993. Voice-over dialogue advances a garbled tale of an aging rocker, while the actual aging rocker putters around with half-done riffs and salvaged synth parts from some of the Who's most recognizable hits. Shanked it!




'Greendale,' Neil Young 9. 'Greendale,' Neil Young
Well known for his brilliant flights of fancy and his periodic lapses in judgment, the great Neil Young took a stand against the Bush administration with his 2003 environmental opus, telling the story of the Green family. They're Green -- get it? Young normally shoots sparks when he's jacking up the electric bill with his sometime compadres in Crazy Horse. Here, they sound almost literally like they're phoning it in.


'The Pick of Destiny,' Tenacious D 8. 'The Pick of Destiny,' Tenacious D
Yes, we're aware this 2006 Tenacious D concept album is a parody. The guest appearance of Meat Loaf, not to mention Dave Grohl as the Devil, makes that apparent. But if a little Jack Black goes a long way, this much goes so far we may never find our way back.






'Goes to Hell,' Alice Cooper7. 'Goes to Hell,' Alice Cooper
In this one from 1976, the ghoulish rocker serves up a goulash of styles: twangy ballads ('I Never Cry'), beatnik jive ('I'm the Coolest'), Neil Sedaka-ish piano-pounding ('Give the Kid a Break'), even disco rock ('You Gotta Dance'). For these transgressions and more, the onetime hellion deserved to be banished forevermore to the golf courses of Arizona.




'The Beat Goes On,' Vanilla Fudge6. 'The Beat Goes On,' Vanilla Fudge
A true epic of overindulgence, in 1968 the Fudge followed up their breakthrough single, a heavy cover of the Supremes' 'You Keep Me Hangin' On,' with an absurdly high-concept symphonic suite based on a recurring motif of Sonny and Cher's 'The Beat Goes On.' There are variations on Beethoven, spoken-word interludes, sitars, even -- we kid you not -- a Hitler sample. Dig it!



'... The Life of Chris Gaines,' Garth Brooks5. '... The Life of Chris Gaines,' Garth Brooks
The country superstar's weird, grunge-y alter-ego seemed like a momentary excuse to play dress-up in overlong bangs and a soul patch. In 1999, apparently tired of catering to the riding-mower set, Brooks imagined himself an alt-rock heartthrob with a big-scale biopic on the way. No one bought it.




Blows Against the Empire 4. 'Blows Against the Empire,' Jefferson Starship
The first album released under the new Starship name, in 1970, this was really a Paul Kantner solo project, with help from some members of the Airplane themselves, the Grateful Dead and many others. Predictably, it's a fuzzy-headed affair, from a folkish ditty that envisions a 'Baby Tree' to a ponderous orchestration about "civilized man."



'Kilroy Was Here,' Styx 3. 'Kilroy Was Here,' Styx
Set aside for a moment the fact that Dennis DeYoung's chintzy 1983 concept album about humankind's mechanized future gave us the timelessly laughable couplet "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." The rest of the album is pretty much unbearable. Although the show-stopper 'Don't Let It End' promises to keep rock 'n' roll alive, 'Kilroy' represented the lethal blow for Styx's once-actually-rocking image.



'Bat Out of Hell,' Meat Loaf 2. 'Bat Out of Hell,' Meat Loaf
Mr. Loaf, the 'Rocky Horror' alum, made his unlikely commercial breakthrough with this 1977 song cycle about teenage lust that was destined to become the fifth-best-selling album of all time, spawning two sequels. His shmaltzy power ballads set the table for a style that has yet to go away, while the oafish baseball metaphor of 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' wins a Lifetime Achievement trophy from the Campy Awards.



'Music From the Elder,' Kiss1. 'Music From the Elder,' Kiss
When four grown men in high-heeled boots and comic-book catsuits get all pretentious on our asses, there's something seriously wrong in the world. It must be, as Kiss suggested, 'A World Without Heroes.' We're thinking the legendary misstep of this leaden zeppelin from 1981 is the main reason this band may never get near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, no matter how many times they holler, "Hello, Cleveland!"



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ldc2k

You are a ******* retard, i hope a gang of hooligans who have actually good taste in music rape you into oblivion

November 17 2011 at 1:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ash Brookes

Dear Mr Sullivan - 'The Elder' is a Stunning album - an album which most KISS fans have bought and love to this day (nearly 30 years after its first release) - to rate it as #1 is a reflection that you obviously hate KISS most of all, and would lambast ANY release. 'getting pretentious on our asses'? My My Mr Sullivan, with THAT kind of vocabulary, WHO is being pretentious??
One assumes you have, and always will be, confined to 'reviewing' bands and artists releases 'online', from the comfort of a very messy and jizz-stained kleenex-ridden bedroom - never once being 'cool', but using your supposed position as 'reviewer' to just SEEM it. If youve ever listened to ANY of the albums (in whole, or in part) that you have condescended to pick holes in, then I'd be a VERY surprised music fan. Your apparent 'reviews' read as though they have been copied and pasted from any review of those albums in the intervening years since they were released, by any (similarly bitter) 'journalist'. I detect that your attempts at music stardom (probably MANY years ago) were stamped all over by much better and more talented beings!


If the number of tribute bands a band has is a measure of influence and popularity, KISS are probably THE most 'tributed' band - with at least one in almsot every City of the U.S, and 2 or 3 in every country outside of America; add to that their influence on bands and artists as diverse as Nine Inch Nails and Country Star Garth Brooks and those of most genre's inbetween (Metal, Rock, Pop, 'Americana', Punk; and even Classical - thanks to 'The Elder!) - this CLEARLY shows how important KISS' contribution to 'Rock n Roll' has been over the last 4 decades. KISS' denial from the Rock n Roll hall of fame is down to the stuck up and the jealous people. People, like YOU, Mr Sullivan.

October 17 2010 at 2:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Raincheck75

I totally agree with you Scott. Loved Pete's album when it came out in my high school years. I know it was always panned but couldn't figure out why. I thought it was fun and thought provoking. I saw a YouTube of Pete solo at an outdoors show from the mid or late 90s. He introduced "Now and Then" and said it was from the album. He called the album a "critical and commercial bomb". The 1993 pay-per-view concert of it is now on DVD. It didn't come off the same to me as when I first saw it on PBS in 1994. Pete's voice is really shot as if he had a cold or something.

I don't get the diss of Meat Loaf either. A lot of people consider that a cult classic.

April 24 2010 at 3:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Louis

This blogger is an idiot, saying KISS will never be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Why ABBA is in?? It's not RnRoll!!

What is the part of over 100 millions albums sold, or 36 years of recording and touring infront of millions of fans, or one of the most recognized band in the history, or their tons of fans (old and young, who fell in love with the music first) don't you understand??

April 22 2010 at 8:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

You forgot Rick Wakeman's "The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable"...on ice.

April 21 2010 at 6:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chaos

ROlling Stone Magazine gave KISS' The Elder high reviews. They hate KISS. The band badmouthd the album because its not a goof fit with the fans. The reviewer(s) here hate it because they hate KISS.

April 21 2010 at 7:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

I totally disagree with Pscychoderelict....Great album. Saw the tour in 1991....one of the best shows I've ever seen. And I've seen hundreds!!!!

April 20 2010 at 1:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
andrew phillips

you forgot Queensryche(ALL)

April 18 2010 at 4:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick Jefferies

I have to protest about your ¨review¨ of Blows Against The Empire. Pretentious and personal, maybe. Paul Kantner and Grace Slick were expecting the child that would later become MTV VJ China Slick, hence the Baby Tree lullaby on bluegrass banjo, but there's some great musicianship in there and some outasight song concepts. Anyway if you can't tell fed-back, fuzzed-up and chorussed electric bass from ¨orchestration¨ (Sunrise) then I suppose you didn't listen too carefully and your opinion ain't worth doodly-squat nohow...

April 17 2010 at 8:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply