[metalthrashin'mad]

When I listen to an album a lot of the time I find that my favourite song on it is one of the longest on it. Sometimes a song being a lot longer than the others gives it such a lot more scope and time for interesting musical ideas to develop. When long songs are done well they can be a lot better than songs of a standard length as they have to do something different to a verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure (not bashing that at all, some of my favourite artists use that style and it works for them) and so there is likely to be a lot of originality.

With the standard pop song being 2:40-4 minutes what songs do people like that tend to be a lot longer than this? Here are some of mine:



Love all of these songs, and tons more long ones.

[Livingstone]

The End by The Doors

[metalthrashin'mad]

(Original post by Livingstone)
The End by The Doors

YES! Although I kind of prefer when the music's over

[mattamz]

Best song on that album imo



Another one i like.

[Livingstone]

(Original post by metalthrashin'mad)
YES! Although I kind of prefer when the music's over

They both rock my socks

[Manitude]

This is one of my favourite songs of all time:


And these are pretty close:




Not a favourite by a long shot, but VEEEERY long:


Recently discovered, only listened once so can't consider it a favourite yet but it is very good, and very long:

[DJMayes]

Dream Theater's "Octavarium" is an amazing song that clocks in at 24 minutes. "The Odyssey", by Symphony X, is another personal favourite that is roughly the same length

The longest song I've ever heard was "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence", also by Dream Theater, which lasts a monstrous 42 minutes! It's a good song but certainly stretches the limits of how long a song should really be.

[The_master616]

LOL Avenged Sevenfold.





/Thread

[Betacra]

My top 5 songs over 20 minutes in order of how I like them:

[rural_boy]

I'm not going to post it because I can't be bothered; Desolation Row by Bob Dylan, such a great song!

[Pheylan]

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray
Led Zeppelin - In My Time of Dying
Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand
Neu! - Hallogallo
Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive
Neutral Milk Hotel - Oh Comely
The Velvet Underground - Heroin

[Lorem Ipsum]

Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull?

[Betacra]

(Original post by The_master616)
Opeth - Beneath the Mire

Agalloch - Fire Above, Ice Below

I love these songs, Beneath the Mire is one of the best songs on Ghost Reveries.

FACB is probably Agalloch's best.

[Patriot Rich]

Not especially long. I used to listen to a lot of Dream Theater who consistently produce 20-40 minute songs. The thing with Springsteen is that some of his albums, particularly Born to Run, could be an album by themselves. Although my favourite song on that album is actually the shortest one, Night, just under 3 minutes, which is unusual since I'm usually more for the ballads.

[cdvdtz]

The Joy Formidable have quite a few longer songs on their album. "The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie", "Whirring" and "The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade" are all fantastic songs.

[billybo_h]

(Original post by Pheylan)
Neutral Milk Hotel - Oh Comely

I was going to say this, it is a great song.

How about Flaming Lips 24 hour song. I have only listened to some of it, but it seems all right. There are some clunky sections though.

Both Late Night, Maudlin Street and Life is a Pigsty by Morrissey are great songs and the Cure's Pictures of You, The Same Deep Water as You and Disintegration are all 7+ minutes and are some of my favourites.

I find any extended instrumental sections in songs tend to start get boring after a while, as I find lyrics the most intriguing part of music, therefore it is down for the singer/lyricist to keep me enthralled for an extended period of time.

[kog]

Three I personally love;







But i love pretty much all pink floyd songs :P

[dreadnaut]

(Original post by DJMayes)
Dream Theater's "Octavarium" is an amazing song that clocks in at 24 minutes. "The Odyssey", by Symphony X, is another personal favourite that is roughly the same length

The longest song I've ever heard was "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence", also by Dream Theater, which lasts a monstrous 42 minutes! It's a good song but certainly stretches the limits of how long a song should really be.

I love the (extra) long DT tracks. I've been jamming to The Count of Tuscany at work a lot recently. I guess when you put In the Presence of Enemies parts 1 and 2 together its pretty long as well.

[Betacra]

I think Alice by Sunn 0)))))))))))))))))) is quite good, but I just find most their stuff bores me to tears, same goes for most drone though tbh.

[SecretDuck]

I like trance music and this is the longest at nearly 13 minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx0KI...e_gdata_player