60s mini-epics of pop...

"Omaha," Everly Bros.

Also watch out for tracks by the likes of The Ivy League/Factotums/Consortium/Montanas on the Rubble/Ripples comps.

The Herd - Tales of The Underworld

The Carpenters, Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Poco, Crazy Eyes

The Monkees, "Shorty Blackwell"

Earth Opera, "The Red Sox Are Winning"

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, Arkansas Coal

what is that???? more info please.

not sure if its pop though...

Yeah, "Shorty Blackwell" was painfully misguided. Micky Dolenz's ode to his cat. Now that he's the morning DJ on WCBS, I should try to call in and ask him about that.

"The Red Sox Are Winning": see http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:25o20rnac48p~T1 for a pretty apt description of what Earth Opera were all about. A remnant of the "Bosstown" hype. This song is basically a mock cheer of "let's kill all the hippies!" But now that I'm looking at their AMG entry, I think "The Great American Eagle Tragedy" may be a better example: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ck9as36ba3bg~T1

- Yes! I play this once every summer - last year it finally worked!

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Dusty Springfield yet. Now there's emotional grandiosity.

Lesley Gore springs to mind as well.

For a truly awful example of an epic that just doesn't work, I nominate "In the Yaer 2525" by Zager & Evans.

In fact, a lot of the SF summer-of-love bands started with epic short-form pop. Early Dead (St. Stephen, China Cat Sunflower). Jefferson Airplane throughout its career (almost anything on Surrealistic Pillow, Lather, Crown of Creation, most of Volunteers, most of Blows Against The Empire).

MC5, too, for that matter. What else are Kick Out The Jams and Rocket Reducer #5? And The Doors. And Crosby, Stills & Nash. And Donovan and Leonard Cohen -- almost every damn thing. T-Rex.

And then there's Manfred Mann, with its epic version of The Mighty Quinn.

Which leads back to the origin. After Highway 61 and Sargeant Pepper (or Blonde on Blonde and Revolver, or whatever), pretty much everyone in the world was trying to do something "meaningful" and overblown like that, without necessarily abandoning short-form pop that might get played on the radio.

Love, "The Castle"

Captain Beefheart, "Autumn's Child"

Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited" (1970)

Gilberto Gil, "Sunday at the Park"

I think that all of these went somewhere that pop hadn't quite seen the light of day yet.

Pretty much any track on A Saucerful of Secrets, too.

"Party Girl" also has that great steal from "You Never Give Me Your Money" on the coda.

And if you go for "My World Fell Down" (lead vocal by Glen Campbell, by the way), make sure you get the long version (3.45 or so). Check 'Nuggets.' It's also a bonus track on the Sagittarius CD. Strangely enough, the long edit was the single, while a shorter one appeared on the original LP.

Dwight Twilley Band, "Sincerely," "Baby Let's Cruise," "You Were So Warm"
20/20, "Cheri" (so dramatic!)

Too right ... esp. I Close My Eyes & Count to Ten

also anything by bergen white

Also huge seconds on the above Everlys track from "Roots," "I Wonder If I Care as Much," maybe the greatest damn thing they ever did. And Gal Costa's "Divine Marvelous," which to my ears is about as great a piece of super-pop as anything I know.

Also huge seconds on the above Everlys track from "Roots," "I Wonder If I Care as Much," maybe the greatest damn thing they ever did. And Gal Costa's "Divine Marvelous," which to my ears is about as great a piece of super-pop as anything I know.

Fantastic though "Interstellar Overdrive" clearly is, I doubt one could call it pop, and likewise a few of the heavier rock piece cited upthread.

Yes, I am well aware of Scott Walker and Shangri La's, and it's certainly true that they fit, though much of this sub-genre, as it is in my head, stretches from 1966-69. "Copenhagen" is an especially good call; a real heartbreaker on my favourite record of his.

I think key definitions of this 'mini-epic' category could be: (1) playfulness with the pop-song form, (2) a quite extraordinary expansiveness of production, instrumentation, performance or emotion; 'mind-expanding', 'heart bursting' excess, (3) there can be a whimsicality, but also a deadly seriousness which threatens to veer off the tracks into the absurd, or, (4) a multi-part structure, with dramatic contrast between the segments: "Love is Love", "Eloise", "Excerpt from a Teenage Opera" particularly illustrate this with the broadest possible strokes.

I will add these songs:

The Aerovons: World of You
Amen Corner: (If Paradise Was) Half As Nice (hope i've got the parentheses right, there!) (it's the emotion here, and the almighty 'epic' of the music)
Pink Floyd: Arnold Layne & See Emily Play (don't ever underestimate these beside "Piper"; I've re-listened to them recently and quite mindblowing they are)
Scott Walker: The War is Over (strident, elegiac grandeur, bidding goodbye to the decade, battles clearly lost)
Bonzo Dog Band: My Pink Half of the Drainpipe (not particularly grandiose, but utterly a mini-epic of mundanity, skewering sour, philistine middle, 'little' England)

Would be good to hear of a few more latter-day examples, too... nothing as startling as the Nick Nicely stands out in my mind at the moment. Little of the Dukes of Stratosphear stuff is particularly 'epic' in any way, barring perhaps "Pale and Precious".

I thought I had a coupla suggestions, but they're more in the "rock" than "pop" category (plus the Association one was already mentioned) so I'll just enjoy the list without screwing it up.

which song broke up the band for a while, I believe.

Tim Buckley - Goodbye and Hello (the title track)

There is a 60s mini-epic that's almost a carbon copy of Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin, though it bears a resemblance with David McWilliams Days of Pearly Spencer as well. It's a slowly moving song. When the vocalist is done, the song fade-out takes forever and consists of epic violins and a melotron repeating a very very melancholy mellotron melody over and over.

Impossible question, I know, but: who and what is it?!!
I grew up with this song in de seventees, as part of the radio's golden oldies selection. I have no idea about the artist or name of the song and can't remember any part of the lyrics.

Please shoot, al possibilities are welcome...

added to the thread in general:

Evie Sands - "Crazy Annie", "Any Way That You Want Me"
B.J Thomas - "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"
Isaac Hayes - "One Woman"
Lee Hazlewood - "Wind, Sea, Sky & Sand"

Has "Goin' Back" been mentioned? Both the Dusty Springfield and The Byrds versions qualify, in their own wonderful ways.

I refer you all again to Colin Moulding's greatest-ever composition, 'What In The World??...', oh, and The Mole From The Ministry, anyone?

As for The Beatles, was Day In The Life just too obvious to mention?

theres so many good songs here OMG

The Millenium "It's You"

^^gr8 song

p2p networks were my 60s pop dealer back in highschool. This is like recalling the biggest highs.

richard harris - "macarthur park"

my son recently discovered this and thinks it's the most LOL-tastic ridiculous pop epic ever.

the lyrics and harris' delivery are silly but the orchestration & melody are great

You do of course have "In Held In Twas I" by Procol Harum, or doesn't a 16 minute epic count as "pop" maybe?

Eric Burdon's "Sky Pilot"