Longest songs you know
Many years ago, both my friend and I bought an EP by Cathedral called Statik Majik, but he bought the CD and I bought the vinyl. The last track on that went down in legend between the two of us. It's a masterpiece of a track called The Voyage of the Homeless Sapien and as the years have past (it's been out for around 1999 (or so my recently bough CD says! I'm sure it's older than that), the track in question has grown in length in memory and we seem to remember it as being 10 minutes plus, probably helped on my side by the fact the song took up one entire side of the 12" at 33rpm. It's actual run time is actually 22:44. Still a long song IMO.
But, it got me thinking if anyone knows of anything as long or longer?
The first song that springs to mind is Jerusalem by Sleep which was a one track album, clocking in at 52:08!
They must be proper songs/music though! None of these "QI" type things were some guy plays one note every 3 months :lol:
But, it got me thinking if anyone knows of anything as long or longer?
The first song that springs to mind is Jerusalem by Sleep which was a one track album, clocking in at 52:08!
They must be proper songs/music though! None of these "QI" type things were some guy plays one note every 3 months :lol:
Post edited by Bermondsey Bob on
Comments
technology is a factor e.g. you can get away with not cutting out stuff that you do on vinyl with cd (you'd break the cutting tip on a press with some sub bass). to get more space on a record you eq out stuff like bass more ,Hz wise to get more tracks on, well they did in older times esp. on compilations.
with cd, you could have a silly amount of mp3 vs audio on it, a few folk have put "albums" out on dvd .. but then are they albums ?
not sure how much space is on a 2" 24 track reel , but obviously with hard drive recording that's sorta redundent now.. except if you are outputting to tape to get pseudo analog warmth.
generally not a fan of ridiculously long songs. anything longer than 7 or 8 minutes and you need a very good excuse
I liked that track. It was very silly. Although it's one track, it's broken up into some quite distinct sections. I remember shouting for them to play it once at a live gig, and just got the response "we haven't got time!"
I remember it being on an EP with Cosmic Funeral, which I thought was a pretty cool track, though they did occasionally play that one live.. ;-)
You beat me to it, I was just gearing up to mention it before realising that you had already.
To quote Father Ted, "..It's just the same note, over and over again" :lol:
Close - it was The Orb's Blue Room, and it was 39:57, apparently to get around some rule Gallup had brought in that said anything over 40 minutes was an album, not a single.
Agreed - can't think of all that many songs over 10 minutes anyway. There was a 10-minute song on Moderat's last album I quite liked, and an 11-minute house tune I rediscovered a few months ago... but that's about it.
Tubular Bells? Does that count?
Didn't know that, but there's that song "The Beat" by The Look that was pressed in the same way, so it goes "I am the beat" over and over until you turn the thing off.
I bought a promo copy of that album for a few quid before it came out and even tough my copy has the track broken up into more manageable 18 minutes chunks, I've yet to make it though the whole thing :lol:
yeah I think with electronicy type tunes (as opposed to 'songs') it doesn't matter so much if they go on for ages. goldie - timeless:inner city is 20 minutes+. oval - do while is a 24 minute ambient track, there's probably tons of long ambient tunes
I think the original Rapper's Delight is still the longest ever hip hop track, not 100% sure though
I'll see your Rapper's Delight (14:46) and raise you a Rappin and Rocking The House (at least 14:56, not sure about the ending!)
(cue loads of "Rap isn't music!" comments from the usual bunch of grandads :-P)
Actually, that made me think of the ambient Burzum stuff, so I've looked that up and there's a track called Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Saule Der Singularitat on the Filosofem album that clocks in at 25:11 :-)
22:46
Off topic: didn't someone (Monty Python, I think) release an LP that had two different play-throughs (or whatever you call a complete play-through of one side of an LP) on one side of an LP, so that when you started the record, you could end up listening to one or the other? It was a practical joke, as then people wondered why the LP sounded different to when they'd last played it?
I think it was one side only, the only side of the LP had a normal recording.
That was Matching Tie and Handkerchief (I think) and yeah they played with the groove and had different audio, just to confuse the hell out of people :-) I think you're right btw sure it was just the one side.
Oh, longest song.... Close to the Edge, Yes, just over 18 minutes, and Suppers Ready, by Genesis, weighing in at 23m - both prog rock classics ;-)
I'm sure Terrorvission released a 10" that was double groved so you took pot luck on what songs played. I've got it somewhere so I'll look it up when I'm on a week off in a couple of weeks :)
Very true, but Close to the Edge is my favourite of Yes' long uns - although you're right, Gates of Delirium is excellent. I have a soft spot for Ritual: Nous sommes du Soleil too (just under 22m) even though the rest of that album is pretentious claptrap...
:-)
Enjoy Records must like their hip-hop lengthy...
You're right about Topographic Oceans though. I don't hate it but I find it really hard to listen to in one go.
just remembered this track by Tortoise. takes up the whole first side of the album it's from. krautrock-ish type track that keeps building, good stuff
No one's mentioned this one yet:
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence 42:04
The Count Of Tuscany 29:16