As a writer and performer of long songs myself, I sometimes think it's important to remind myself of the ground rules. I am entitled to sing or write songs that are as long as I choose. But nobody is obligated to listen. If my objective is to perform the song/tell the story my way, I have the right to do that, but I may have to get by with a very small audience. If I want to find a meeting place in the middle -- respecting the narrative, but also hoping to encourage some folks to listen -- I need to do some judicious editing.

If I want to perform long songs AND lecture the audience about their short attention spans, I will likely not end up with much of an audience at all.