Must be 7 minutes ++. Here's a list to start it out ...

14:23 -- Lynyrd Skynyrd - All Time Greatest Hits (2000) - Free Bird (Live)

12:48 -- Harry Chapin - Bottom Line Encore Collection (1998) - Thirty Thousand Pounds Of Bananas

11:58 -- Meat Loaf - The Very Best Of (1998) - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)

8:56 -- Joe Walsh - But Seriously, Folks (1978) - Life's Been Good

8:28 -- Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I (1969) - How Many More Times

8:27 -- George Thorogood & The Destroyers - The Baddest Of (1992) - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

8:24 -- Meat Loaf - The Very Best Of (1998) - Paradise By The Dashboard Light

7:54 -- Golden Earring - The Continuing Story Of Radar Love (1989) - Twilight Zone

7:42 -- Joe Walsh - You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind (1976) - Rocky Mountain Way

7:11 -- Harry Chapin - Bottom Line Encore Collection (1998) - Sequel

7:07 -- The Beatles - Hey Jude [4-Track, 7 1-2 IPS] (1970) - Hey Jude

8:02 - Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

17:10 - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

8:42 - Locomotive (Complicity) - Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II

7:24 - No More Tears - Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

9:24 - Estranged - Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II

8:58 - November Rain - Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I

Those are just some of my favorites. I'll put out some more tomorrow.

18:37 Alices Restaurant Massacre-Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant

8:28 - Don McLean - American Pie

Cool, here's another ...

13:54 -- Peter Frampton - Greatest Hits (1996) - Do You Feel Like We Do (Live)

Tom Masa said:

> 18:37 Alices Restaurant Massacre-Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant

Wow. That's definitely one long track. I just listened to the entire thing and vaguely remember hearing it in the past. I had to hit Google to learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...Restaurant

From the album I got the tune:

18:37 -- Arlo Guthrie - The Best of Arlo Guthrie (1977) - Alice's Restaurant Massacree

It's going to be pretty hard to beat that (in regards to length anyway). Not really sure if it fits into the "best" category, although, I suppose that's subjective.

The Doors - The End

Favorite Long Songs:

25:25 - Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin (Live from How the West Was Won)

20:34 - 2112 - Rush

11:04 -I Heard It Through The Grapevine -Creedence Clearwater Revival

44 mins - Thick As A Brick (Part I) and Thick As A Brick (Part II)-Jethro Tull.


Then there is one of my all-time favorite bands- the guys known for their long songs (which is why we never heard them on the radio much because they refused to cut the length of their songs to a radio friendly length of about 3 1/2 minutes). I doubt if any of their songs were under 10 minutes when played in concerts (although they shortened a few for radio airplay....)These are some of my favorite long songs ever:

19:30 - Franklin's Tower - The Grateful Dead

18:44 - Playing In The Band - The Grateful Dead

17:26 - Eyes of the World - The Grateful Dead

15:12 - Cassidy - The Grateful Dead

13:25 - Fire on the Mountain -The Grateful Dead

Try this one on for size!

Clocking in at 240 minutes, or 6 HOURS "Chew and Hiccup" by Book Oven is the longest song ever recorded.

http://answers.yahoo.com/...140AAzhrHZ

[This message has been edited by Kyle L. Varnell (edited 5/3/2008).]

While I am more of a fan of the two minute and 45 second single, there are a few that come to mind:

9:25 - Hibernation - Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes - Tooth, Fang & Claw

Finest rock guitar instrumental of all-time?

7:22 - Lazy - Deep Purple - Machine Head

Crank-it-out jam as Lord and Blackmore trade riffs on one of the best rock albums of all time

7:30 - Jessica - Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters

The perfect song to hit the road on a sunny Montana morning, fishing pole in the back of the truck as you head to your favorite hole with a cup of hot coffee in your hand.

7:11 - Josephine - Slobberbone - Everything You Thought That Was Right Is Wrong Today

Noveau southern rock classic.

ditto on CCR's cover of "Heard It Through The Grapevine"....the band never sounded finer.

7:32 - Cold Sweat - James Brown - Cold Sweat.

The end of this song has the finest screaming I have ever heard on record....period. "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" might be better....but alas, it only clocks in at 6:58, and thus is ineligible for this list.

There are several live recordings of the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star" that are over 40:00 long and one I know of as long as 47:00.
Several GD live recordings of various songs run over 20 minutes.

Well, I guess I've been smacked down in thinking 18 minutes might have been the longest. But, remember, we're going for "Best Longest Songs Ever" though.

This aint the Best song but way too long! The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Song by Gordon Lightfoot

The ship sank quicker than the song about it!!!

Webmaster
All Grateful Dead music qualify as "Best".

Live versions of "Heroin" and "White Light, White Heat" on Rock'n'Roll Animal by Lou Reed.

"Midnight Rambler" from Get Yer Ya Yas Out.

[This message has been edited by Bob Netherton (edited 5/3/2008).]

Oh man....put a bullet through my head if I ever have to listen to a long Grateful Dead song again...I remember at the two Dead concerts I attended, when the drum solo started, that was time to go take a leak, get a beer, buy a hot dog, shoot the breeze with some stranger....then come back to your seat, and the solo would still be going on.

The Dead's shorter songs are much better than those overblown live songs.

As far as best longest song ever, I would have to vote for "Mountain Jam" by the Allman Brothers on the old Eat a Peach double LP....33:58.

14:23 -- Lynyrd Skynyrd - All Time Greatest Hits (2000) - Free Bird (Live)

This song got me in trouble once because I told my girlfriend I had been listening to it all day (on instant messenger) and she had never heard it so I sent her a link to the lyrics and she got all upset cause she thought I was trying to break up with her or something. Didn't even occur to me what the lyrics were, I just like the guitar solo :P.

The Dead put out some great music but they also put out a lot of snoozers. There's some all-Grateful Dead-all-the-time stations on the net that tend to favor the long ones.

My point exactly, Bob. personally, I think if you have pristine electronic copies of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, you own all the Dead recordings you ever need to own.

And, bludgeon me with a chainsaw if I have to listen to "Free Bird Live" one more time....I am quick hitting the alternative station buttons if that over-played dinosaur monstrosity is played by the local classic rock station, or wherever I am traveling. "Call Me the Breeze" is much better.

7 minutes is a tough threshold. Say 6, and I'd have alot more to choose from.

How about Metallica "One" The peak before the high-dollar decline.

AC/DC - Let There be Rock (live). The live version on "If You Want Blood You've Got It" probably gets the nod over the live version on "AC/DC Live" released in 1992.

NoFX - The Decline. Actually, this was just the only punk song that I could think of that was long enough to qualify.

--Bill

The Dead put out some great music but they also put out a lot of snoozers. There's some all-Grateful Dead-all-the-time stations on the net that tend to favor the long ones.

But then again Bob if your mind's been chipped away by every psychedelic drug under the sun for the last 40+ years you might not really know (or care) what constitutes a good or bad song

8:36 - Master Of Puppets - Metallica

God how could I have forgotten THAT one.

RIP Cliff Burton.

One word (or is it three?) --- Innagadadavita by Iron Butterfly

I said a hip hop the hippie hippie hippie
to the hip hip hop, a ya don't stop

Rappers Delight - The Sugarhill Gang

Best part of the song:

have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just aint no good
i mean the macaronis soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood
so you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin that you're full
and then your friend says ma "he's just being polite"
he aint finished uh uh that's bull
so your heart starts pumpin and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there's plenty of food
so he piles some more on your plate
while the stinky foods steamin your mind starts to dreamin
of the moment that it's time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin
into something that looks like cheese
oh so you say that's it i got to leave this place
i dont care what these people think
im just sittin here makin myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks
so you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate

I saw the lead singer (Doug Ingleof) of Iron Butterfly play in a small club once with what's left of the band and 3 or 4 much younger guys. He was chatting with the audience quite a bit...He said the song was supposed to be "In The Garden of Eden", but they were so [email protected]#ked up when they were recording it that he slurred the words as In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and the recording studio liked it so much (or perhaps just didn't want to deal with a bunch of wasted, drunken sots any longer than they would have to) that they just decided to go with that version.

American Pie by Don McLean was one of the longest songs I ever heard played on the radio (I looked it up and it lasts for 8:30 min). Even though it's not a favorite any more, it was at one time (like when I was about 5 or 6 ;-)

A bumpersticker I saw on the back of an old VW bus "Who are the Gratefull Dead and why are they following me?"

Here's another I rediscovered today ...

9:00 -- Jackson Browne - Running on Empty (1977) - The Load-Out

For those of you too young to know why songs were usually limited to 22-24 minutes, vinyl albums in the LP format (long play) could only be made with that long a groove at 33 1/3 RPM's.

I'm not sure why there aren't more longer tunes around these days with CD's? I know there are plenty, many of them aren't any good, just long.

I suppose it comes down to being marketable and able to get airplay. That's becoming less of a factor more and more with MP3 format and Internet downloads. By the way, the MP3 format might be convenient, but the sound quality really sucks! Compare a CD to an MP3 and you will be amazed. Then compare an LP to a CD, the LP will have an even richer sound. Too bad they're so hard to play in the car or while jogging.

[deleted - spam]

Worst long song ever: Alice's Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie. Good gad, it's horrible!

You can get anything you want ... I want the frakking song to end. What's more, I want it to have never existed.

Kyle wrote:

8:36 - Master Of Puppets - Metallica

God how could I have forgotten THAT one.

RIP Cliff Burton.

Master rules, but I prefer Orion (8:25). STILL my favorite song of all time. I listened to it before every single athletic competition I was ever involved in. Never gets old. Cliff's favorite song, by the way.

And if Orion is my #1 favorite, Lateralus (9:24) by Tool is #1a. The Grudge (8:36) also ranks highly. As Levi has noted, I've posted the lyrics in these forums on more than one occasion.

[This message has been edited by Brian A. Reed (1/18/2010)]

Really dating myself, but if you enjoy a good drummer try Benny Goodman's recording with Gene Krupa of "Sing, Sing, Sing." Something like 14 -18 minutes long. Think it varied with conditions. It's jazz.

[This message has been edited by Bill Zook (1/18/2010)]

Does "Paul Revere" by The Beastie Boys count

The Flower Kings - "The Truth Will Set You Free" 31:01
Transatlantic - "The Whirlwind" 77:54
Yes - "Close To the Edge" 18:43

All absolutely brilliant

7:48 foreplay-long time by boston

boston is one of my father's favorite bands of all time, and as a result mine too. (on a really creepy note, i think when he passes i'll play it at his funeral.)

[This message has been edited by Christen LeBlanc Ramsey (1/18/2010)]

Sorry you don't like Alice's Restaurant, Brian. Being from the Sixties and Seventies and having a sense of humor I have to say I love that story/song and often quote a line or more from it. "One big pile is better than two little piles..." etc...
Fish, I think the Grateful Dead crowd all moved up here to Kalispell, they have an interesting commune in the woods halfway up a mountain near here. If nothing else it's a good VW van junkyard.
My favorite long song? Maybe "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan. Interesting story.

11:21 Desolation Row...Bob Dylan