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Zeppelin's "Tolkien stuff" is literally a handful of lines in a total of three songs of all the songs they did and people act like they did LoTR concept albums

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download)

Like it's totally normal or reasonable to devote multiple lines across *three* songs to your Tolkien/orc bullshit fixation.

Silby, check out "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers".

I probably won’t tbqh my current project is getting into the contemporary emo revival, thanks brad

Anyway the main one i was thinking of is Camel (Nimrodel/procession/the white rider) xxp

I can only think of a few others with specific, direct Tolkien references tbf, but more vaguely Tolkien-inspired nonsense is more common.

And Rick Wakeman did a LOTR concept album eventually.

p sure Genesis *did* go there, in at least 1 song

"I Can't Dance"

Zeppelin's "Tolkien stuff" is literally a handful of lines in a total of three songs of all the songs they did and people act like they did LoTR concept albums

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download)

Like it's totally normal or reasonable to devote multiple lines across *three* songs to your Tolkien/orc bullshit fixation.

― Fauna Sukkot (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, June 30, 2021 11:48 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

no it's too cool to be normal

did rush do any tolkien shit, it would fit my stereotype of them

Yes, they did.

lol

from rush:

rivendell
the necromancer

p sure that's it unless i'm forgetting something

Where’s the Tolkien/orc bullshit of today?

re: genesis i found this:

Genesis
It’s no great surprise that prog bands were way into Lord of the Rings. “Stagnation,” from Genesis’ 1970 LP Trespass, isn’t explicitly about Middle Earth, but many fans have noticed lyrics that seem to evoke Gollum: “Will I wait forever, besides the silent mirror/And fish for bitter minnows amongst the weeds and slimy water.” The song came out within months of “Ramble On” and “The Wizard.” Clearly, 1970 was a good year for LOTR-rock.

seems like they are stretching a bit, never actually heard trespass

p sure Genesis *did* go there, in at least 1 song

― Fauna Sukkot (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, June 30, 2021 11:56 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's no fun
being an unseated Aragorn

"Stagnation" is explicitly a post-apocalyptic song about the last human on earth.

ok yeah seemed a little bullshitty

if there is Tolkienism in rock today, I'd guess it was some power metal bands that are too obscure for me to know about

I used to wonder if side 2 of Fly By Night was Tolkien-inspired:

"Fly By Night" (from the Shire)
"Making Memories" (on the road)
"Rivendell"
"In the End" (OK, they skipped some stuff in the middle)

"The Wizard" is a good example of vaguely Tolkien-inspired nonsense, or is it Tolkien-specific?

greta van fleet must have something like this somewhere

lol their first EP has a song called flower power

The Decemberists had a video that recreated a chapter from Infinite Jest

OK, they skipped some stuff in the middle)

Lol

I don't think Uriah Heep use any actual Tolkien language, but the fantasy elements are very similar.

Ha, I was thinking of Black Sabbath.

Geezer said he was reading LOTR when he wrote the Wizard

oh I just thought of a good possibility (post 70s)....Enya??

Blind Guardian wrote an entire album about the Silmarillion

the band Shadowfax obv

Yeah, if we're not limiting this to 70's/UK, all bets are off really

unfortunately tolkien also is popular with nazi metal bands as a way to do unsubtly coded race war type stuff

Never mind Tolkien actually, where’s my Earthsea bands???

I mean something like "olias of sunhillow" is tolkienesque af, the thing about 70's English prog not being as tolkien-oriented as people tend to think only makes sense to me if it doesn't count unless the singer says "mordor"

No, I actually do think that people overstate the Tolkien/fantasy/sci fi element wrt the major albums by the major British prog bands.

Tbf, I don't read that much fantasy or sci fi so I could be missing a lot of references.

I thought "The Wizard" was about the local LSD dealer?

Hard to tell, he's never talkin

As someone said earlier, Bolan was a lot more Tolkienesque than LZ or any prog band, but in a charming wtf-is-he-on-about kinda way.

lmao, now I need to hear the Zep concept album about the psychodramas of Sesame Street

Grover the Hills and Far Away

Like epic medieval fantasy narrative isn't what I get from e.g. Red or The Yes Album or Aqualung or Selling England by the Pound and there are a lot of other things going on textually that are more interesting imo.

More of an Edward Lear/Lewis Carroll lyrical influence in 70s prog I'd say.

Donovan had his share of Tolkienism as well..

It sort of started with psych folkers like Donovan, Incredible String Band, Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The Edward Lear/Lewis Carroll stuff is more typical of the 60's psychedeluc "nursery rhymes"
The Tolkien stuff seems to have its roots in that scene, though - one of the main psych clubs was called Middle Earth!

Xp!

just occurred to me there's probably a gang of horrific Game of Thrones inspired music

Zappa claimed that his album Thing-Fish was influenced by Tolkien.

Grover the Hills and Far Away

― I can yeet a yeti (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, June 30, 2021 1:47 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bert, I'm Gonna Leave You

Gang of Thrones

Will admit this thread has got me to recognize more Tolkien influence in these things than I was thinking. Still haven't made it through anything other than The Hobbit. I did watch one of the movies, which ruined some of those Zep songs a little for a while.