Although you may not be familiar with the term, I'm sure you're probably all familiar with the rock lyric phenomenon known as the "mondegreen." This is the term for misheard lyrics, whether it's Jimi Hendrix making out with another guy, or John Fogerty giving directions to the bathroom. I'm been guilty of this quite a few times myself. My favorite instance is the Warrant song "Heaven." By misunderstanding two lines of the song, I complete misunderstood the narrative behind it. Here's what I thought the opening lines were:
Got a picture of your house.
You're standing by the door.
It's black & white and faded,
and looking pretty worn.
See the fact without a word.
See the wedding in the back.
Memories of a greater man,
they're really coming back.
Now, from the highlighted lines and the rest of the song, I pieced together the story here. In his younger days, the singer had been in love with a girl. It seemed like they'd really last. It seemed like they were going to share their lives together. It seemed like "Heaven" wasn't too far away. Sadly though, things don't always work out. The promise of their relationship didn't hold, and now he's left looking at old photographs and regretting his lost love. He sees the "fact" of the wedding and that she moved on and married someone else. He sees it "without a word", because...well, it's a photograph. It would be nice, touching, and make perfect sense if it wasn't for the fact that the highlighted lyrics should actually read:
See the factory where I worked,
silhouetted in the back.
Ohhhh...Oh, I see. This is just a story about how they were young and he worked in a factory or something. Yeah, that's pretty deep. Thanks a lot Warrant for ruining the song with your "actual" lyrics. Okay, moving on.
In the world of country music, I've noticed a somewhat similar phenomenon. The problem here isn't mis-hearing the lyrics. I can understand the words just fine. It's just that sometimes in the interest of rhythm and rhyme schemes, sentence structure gets sacrificed. I know what they're trying to say, but if I really feel like being a smart-ass (which I usually do) then it's easy to take these things the wrong way. Here, I'll show you what I mean with the Colin Raye song "Love, Me":
I heard those words just hours before
my grandma passed away
in the doorway of the church
where me and Grandpa stopped to pray.
"Look over yonder, boy. There's a church where we can pull on over and get some prayin' done."..."But Grandpa, I think Grandma's starting to stroke out. She's twitching all funny and foaming at the mouth."..."Well, bring her along. Ain't no better place to die than the house of the Lord. Let's just hope we don't lose her before we get her through the door. Yee Haw!" Or then we have the Bryan White song "Rebecca Lynn":
I said, please, Becky would you marry me
prom night in the car out by the curb.
Alright Becky, maybe it's not my place to give relationship advice, but I think this guy might be moving a little fast. I know he bought the corsage and paid for dinner, but isn't a little much expecting you to marry him on Prom night, and in a car out by the curb of all places? Not exactly a girl's dream wedding, and how is this supposed to work? Where are the guests supposed to sit, the back seat? Heck, where's the minister supposed to be? Maybe the "car" is a taxi and the driver doubles as a justice of the peace. Maybe he's talking euphemistically. Maybe he's talking about getting "married" in the conjugal sense. If that's the case, we'll leave you kids alone and move on to the Billy Ray Cyrus song "Could've Been Me":
My buddy John said you looked real pretty,
and you acted like you were in love.
He said the preacher asked for objections,
and he thought about standing up.
Well, I told John he must have been crazy,
because you were just about to say, "I do."
He just gave me a wink and said all he could think
was it could have been me with you.
Now, technically, I suppose there's no problem with the grammar or sentence structure here, but I can't be the only one who thinks that last line sounds just a little tiny bit like John is proposing a union with Billy Ray that's still illegal in many states, especially with his heavily suggestive wink. Hey John, I appreciate that you're trying to be a good friend and everything, but you gotta give poor Billy Ray some time here. Can't you see that he's still trying to get over this girl? Be patient, man. Just don't come flying out of the closet like that when the guy's clearly got a broken heart.
Anyway, see you all later.
It's hard to pick just one Pink Floyd Album for this list. They were the veritable masters of the "concept album." It's a close call between this and The Wall, but in the end I have to go with Dark Side of the Moon, even though The Wall probably has more of my favorite songs on it. No, I have to go with Dark Side of the Moon because of its tight composition and unique sound. Nothing else sounds like Dark Side of the Moon, not even another Pink Floyd album. It has this soft, dream-like quality about it. It's soothing and unnerving at the same time. Roger Waters wrote each song about the different pressures in modern life that drive people insane, and you feel just a little bit like you're going to lose your mind listening to it. Pink Floyd is great at making music that actually...sounds like things. The intro to "Time" sounds unmistakeably like a giant, massive clock towering over you, oppressive in its stoic indifference to human mortality. "Money" sounds like a hedonistic orgy of excess amid piles and piles of cash. I won't get into the whole "Wizard of Oz" thing; it's probably nothing more than a coincidence or synchronicity. But if someone were crazy enough to try and pull something like that off, it would be Pink Floyd. 
This might seem like a strange entry on the list, but there are really very few good solid country albums. Most of them are just a random collection of songs with no real theme or style holding it all together. In the world of country music Home is almost a concept album. It has a very stripped-down bare bones style to the sound that runs through the whole album. It has the charm of sounding like a family gathered around a campfire singing songs; a really talented family. It's just basic old school, down home, country music. The songs are great from start to finish, from the catchy "Long Time Gone" to the haunting "Top of the World." It's unfortunate that their country music careers got sidetracked over their comments concerning the Iraq war. Their name is unmentionable in certain country music circles even today. But people's opinion of their political views really should have no bearing on their evalution of their musical talent. 
If you haven't heard this album, you're really missing something. The term "Rock Opera" gets thrown around, but nothing quite captures the essence of the idea like Bat Out of Hell. The lyrics are almost deliberately cheesy, bordering on the ridiculous, and yet it's all so damn...uplifting. You find yourself swept away by it all in spite of your better judgment, and that's kind of the whole point and the real achievement of the album. Even after listening to it like a million times, it's hard to say whether there's a single storyline here or just a bunch of separate love songs. I like to think it's all one big story. It's a kind of tongue-in-cheek treatment of the male fear of commitment and the restless yearning for conquest that finally gives way to tenderness and true love. It's epic musically and in its concept. There are only a few things, books, movies, ect. that I would describe as "the great things in life" with the hope that you would know what I'm talking about. Bat Out of Hell is one of those things.
Much like Vitalogy, Melancholy & the Infinite Sadness is held together more by a style than a concept. There's something about The Smashing Pumpkins' music that conjures up images and memories from early childhood. It's that brief glimpse of the rocking horse in the sunbeam or those colored blocks you used to play with. It's that time you chased fireflies with the neighbor girl or you cried because you were lost in the dark. It's the illustration of the fairy god-mother in your book of bed time stories that lulled you to sleep when your hair was still wet from taking a bath. Nowhere is this feeling more evident than Melancholy & the Infinite Sadness. This is definitely the band's masterpiece; the full achievement of their signature sound. As a double album, it's overflowing with creative energy. Nearly every one of it's 28 tracks is indispensable. As long as it is, I can listen to the whole thing through without growing restless or bored with it. Time slips away as I'm lulled into it's unique dream.