According to Google the longest song ever recorded is “Shri Ramcharitmanas”, recorded by Dr. Jagadeesh Pillai, which lasts 138 hours, 41 minutes, and 20 seconds, released in April 2023. To the best of my knowledge nothing by Yes, Jethro Tull or The Grateful Dead comes anywhere close to that, but all three have form in cramming as much as possible onto a side of vinyl. So what’s your favourite long song? Let’s see if we can crash the Forum by posting the longest and best.
For starters, here are a couple of blistering performances by Neil Young, acknowledged master of the lengthy jam. For your delectation I give you a barnstorming “Ordinary People” and the full version of “Sixty to Zero”, clocking in at just shy of 20 minutes. Over to you.
….while here’s an even longer, slower and more majestic version of Ordinary People from just last year.
TBH, I prefer Till The Morning Comes, mentioned on the “short songs” thread…
(I’ll get me long coat…)
Green Eyes – Kate Wolf
I think I misunderstood the assignment but it’s a lovely song anyway.
Or ….
That is such a beautiful and moving song. Wilco are the greatest.
Well it’s either Echoes or Shine On You Crazy Diamond, obviously. But to avoid the obvious, I’ll go with the over 15 minutes live version of Catch The Rainbow from the On Stage album.
This was the first to come to mind. From around the time I started to like his music…Not sure if this is the full length album version.
I’ve got that 39:58 cd single by The Orb. The one when they went on ToTP, they just sat and played chess. Blue Room, it is called. Here it is:
Sublime
And here’s the 21-minute live version of This Is What She’s Like by Dexys, which was a paltry 12 minutes on the original LP.
Iron Maiden upped their prog credentials pugging Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (just under 14 minutes) on to Powerslave.
Each album has contained at least one track around the 10 minute mark, but by Book of Souls they’d upped their game and Empire Of The Clouds clocked in at 18 minutes
Punk-Prog … The Damned – Curtain Call
The best long song is “The Adventures of Greggary Peccary” by Frank Zappa
The second best long song is “Inca Roads”, also by Frank Zappa
The correct answer of course is The Flaming Lips – who released a 24-hour song:
…see you tomorrow!
Fantastic.
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad – Derek And The Dominoes Live At The Fillmore version
Slightly All The Time – Soft Machine
Bollocks to youtube clips.
how about a song that lasts for a thousand years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longplayer
I haven’t clicked on the link but is it anything at all by the Grateful Dead?
Would you believe me if I told you it was by the banjo player from The Pogues?
Yes I’was going to post it but you beat me to it Sal.
That is wonderful @kid-dynamite.
In the notes there is a link to this composition by John Cage.
ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting (after Longplayer) musical performance yet undertaken.[1] Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his 1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70 minutes.[2]
An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. This makes it the longest running non-computerized piece currently being performed. The most recent note was played on February 5, 2024. The next note will be played on August 5, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Slow_as_Possible
On the album LIVE IN JAPAN, John Coltrane’s version of My Favourite Things lasts just under an hour.
Wonderfully unhurried, there’s a magnificently minimalistic feel about it all.
“November” by Dennis Johnson cannot be considered brief.
I have the R. Andrew Lee recording of the piece, and that lasts about five hours.
It’s not exactly a toe-tapper.
This one always springs to mind though I could post a raft of African songs that take a whole side. And Canned Heat’s Refied Hockey Boogie took up both sides.
I have a 40+ minute version of Sister Ray on the Quine set.
Please tell us a little more about your long African favourites. @Junior-wells.
As you say, 10 minutes is short for a musician like Sam Mangwana.
The same goes for a musician like Nusrat Al Khan.
13 minutes just fly by.
Bobby by Sunny Ade – one side
Fela well pick what you want
Suite Lettre No 2 Franco and Rochereau
Partagez – Josky Kiambakuta and Franco
Manu Dibango – Tropical garden
Dollar Brand – Mannenberg
France Oh miguel
Mandjou – Les Ambassadeurs
Sina Makosa – Les Wanyika
charo nyi wasi – Maroon Commandoes
No mention yet of Terry Riley’s magnificent IN C?
A constant source of inspiration to new generations of musicians.
from a whole variety of backgrounds….
Similarly, there’s Manuel Göttsching’s fantastic E2-E4, at just under an hour.
Well if we’re going to have classical minimalists, I’ll raise you Steve Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians, clocking in just under an hour, depending on what pace you take it at. Now, you could be picky and say that it’s broken down into movements, but you can’t see the joins.
Oh, and it’s sublime.
I’ve a CD of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet (1979), which consists of a single movement that runs for about 79 minutes – although performances can last longer.
His second string quartet is also a single movement, lasting for around 6 hours. It was made available as either a DVD or a 5CD set.
Then there’s the madness of Erik Satie’s Vexations. It’s a fairly short solo piano piece, however Satie’s notes stated: “In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.” (“Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses.”) This was probably meant as a joke, but it has been performed several times in full. The first was organised by John Cage in 1963, featuring a relay of many pianists, including Cage himself, David Tudor and John Cale. That performance lasted for 18 hours, with only one member of the audience witnessing it all.
There’s Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, of course. I won’t bother posting a link ‘cos you can all hum it.
The New Orders have form.
They did an early version of 586 (which later appeared on Power, Corruption & Lies) for a video sountrack.
Then a 17-minute version of Elegia from Low-Life.
And then there’s The Peter Saville Show Soundtrack from 2003, at half an hour.
I managed to get a copy of that Peter Saville CD from ebay and it’s lovely but never heard that 17 minute ‘Elegia’ before, thanks for the link!
Elegia is on the 2CD Deluxe Edition from 2008. Stand by your PMs (but don’t hold your breath, I need to go and find it first).
One of my favourite NO tracks (along with the video mix of Perfect Kiss).
Unfortunately the extended version didn’t get the Steven Wilson magic fairy dust on the recent Blu Ray release.
Aha thanks to the box set being on streaming I am listening to it now and it’s sublime.
Side 2 of Moving Waves – 23 minutes of Dutch brilliance!
There’s a 46 minute live version of this on their Focus Live 1971-1975 album…
Paging @Colin-H. I expect that there is a MHO song that started sometime in 1971 and was finished in January 1974 when JM dissolved the group.
Never afraid of irony, the MHO recorded a song called “One Word” which lasted nearly 25 minutes. Listeners are still grateful that they didn’t follow through with the threat to record a song entitled “The Oxford English Dictionary”
I do like a long song and these three are always in my “top 10 tracks” (I won’t post the videos as they are all well known).
– Dire Straits / Telegraph Road
– Pink Floyd / Shine On You Crazy Diamond
– Genesis / Cinema Show
The Baldy-headed boffin Brian Eno has a few hour long pieces. Thursday Afternoon, Neroli, New Space Music, Reflection.
The last one of these (Reflection) is the most interesting. Firstly, he replaces the master on streaming services four times a year, as seasons change. Secondly, the native form of the piece is an app on the iPhone/iPad, which can play forever and never repeat – the streaming services just get an excerpt from whatever it’s doing at that point. I’m not sure if this is a well-known fact. The released version of Reflection is the only one that has a direct human hand in it, since it has an edit to make it into a coherent piece.
A friend of mine who knows way more about this stuff has had a go at creating something on the same basis. I quite like it:
Not sure if it counts as a ‘song’ but Miles Davis’ “Calypso Frelimo” clocks in at an impressive 32 mins 07 seconds. It only just outlasts “He Loved Him Madly”, which was a mere 30 mins.
Tribute to Jack Johnson 2 sides , 2 tracks. Right Off and Yesternow from memory.
Terry Riley – Poppy Nogood & The Phantom Band
If you hadn’t had to turn the album 9ver this would have been a 43 minute track.
Although originally segued together as a continuous piece for Rupert Atwill’s Rainbow Dome at the Festival Of Mind-Body-Spirit at Olympia in April 1979, the two sides on the vinyl album are two distinct compositions.
Side one is composed by Hillage’s partner Miquette Giraudy (Garden Of Paradise) and side two composed by Hillage (Four Ever Rainbow).
Thanks Mike I’d never noticed that.
Both still nice and long, of course.
Thinking back, it’s possible that only Four Ever Rainbow was looped continuously in the actual Rainbow Dome at the festival.
I went to the festival (very into G.I. Gurdjieff’s writings at the time) but my memory of it just isn’t that good.
I was gutted when lockdown cancelled the tour to support this album.
The most consistent longster is surely Mike Oldfield. Once the format had moved from the constraints of vinyl, he went the whole hog and decided Amarok was just one track, cracking the hour barrier. I love this too.
Turn your quivering nerves in my direction
Feel the energy projection of my cells wishes you well.
Some Four Tet loveliness
This is always worth the journey
Gavin Bryars Ensemble – The Sinking of The Titanic
.
Also available: Several recordings by The Necks.
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO – Promises
Best album of 2021
Looks like I’ll need to add a few more to this. My favourite long ‘uns are Ordinary People (above), Creedence’s version of Heard it on the Grapevine, and, oddly, two versions of Walk on By, Isaac Hayes’s and the Stranglers’.