What’s the Big Idea explores 30 remarkable concept albums, drawing on fresh, first-hand interviews with the artists behind their creation.
Author Bill Kopp turns us down the darkest road of musical blind-spots to take on the concept album, a previously shunned genre that is now deemed worthy of your curiosity. ‘And then you hear something like Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, and The Turtles Present Battle of the Bands, or S.F. Sorrow’, says Kopp, ‘and you’re REALLY second-guessing yourself now, right? As it turns out, there’s something genuinely interesting about this “concept” in itself, and it lends us a look into a world when musical creativity really had been unleashed in its full glory.’
If this extravagance generated a lot of audio garbage, it’s fair to say that very few people even get that chance anymore, despite the ease of home recording. Even Captain Sensible and The Church committed their ‘big ideas’ into noteworthy efforts, along with Hawkwind, William Shatner, Ghostface Killa, and of course, Pete Townshend, who offers an exclusive interview here.
HoZac, 244pp, 15cm x 21cm, illustrated paperback, 2026
