Longest song by a popular singer/ band

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: vectis
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 08:39 PM

Gordon Hall's version of The Molecatcher mus hold the record.
He did it as an encore once. He started it at 10.55 and finally finsihed at 11.25, a pint and three cigarettes later. I reckon he was making the verses up as he went along.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Bill S from Perth
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 10:13 PM

I note a couple of claims of the shortest songs. Tom Paxton's second shortest must be the Ballad of Spiro Agnew. Here are the full lyrics.
"I'll sing of Spiro Agnew and all the things he's done"

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 01:52 AM

Jean Redpath's version of "The Grey Silkie" runs about eight minutes.

Don McLean's "American Pie" and Phil Ochs' "Crucifixion" should also be mentioned.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 09:40 AM

Spark's Magic Piano runs to 20mins and 35 secs.
OK I know it's not really a song as such, but some of us enjoy nostalgia!

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 09:56 AM

For shortest - Oh, hangman stay thy ggrrll...

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: the button
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 10:35 AM

The shortest has got to be "You suffer," by Napalm Death -- under a second. (And it got radio-play).

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 10:46 AM

Erik Satie's Vexations must be a contender- at 18 hours 40 minutes when first performed in full in 1963. John Cage and John Cale were in the relay team that performed it, and I think they count as "popular".

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 11:04 AM

"Love Chronicles" is an interesting song....a personal epic...and it's actually composed of 3 or four different tunes (all quite good) which are linked together into one enormous song.

Early Al Stewart material is very frank on the confessional side as regards his love life at the time. He later became a good deal more circumspect in his writing.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 11:08 AM

When The Ramsey Lewis Trio played club dates in Los Angeles during the 1960's, they could stretch "The In Crowd" to an entire set in itself, sometimes as long as 30-45 minutes, or longer. I doubt they ever recorded anything close to that in length, however, unless someone knows of a bootleg tape. Of course, it's not folk, but Ramsey's music does have some folk and gospel roots.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: PoppaGator
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 01:41 PM

"A great songwriter is one who can say the most, in an entertaining and/or arresting way, in the shortest possible amount of time?? Discuss!"

Well, there's such a thing as too short a song. It takes few moments to establish a mood or "groove," and then you want to spend a modicum of time enjoying what's been established. The more interesting and compelling the song, the longer you can get away with stretching it out, but the generally accepted "happy medium" seems to be about three minutes.

I just wonder whether this is a "natural" optimum length for songs, based upon some inborn attention-span parameters shared by all humans, or if it's something that has been imposed upon our generations by our shared experience of recorded music, nothing more than our becoming accustomed to the song-length limitations of first the 78 rpm single and then the 45.

As a solo performer, I don't generally include the instrumental "breaks" that are so often part of the original (or at least the best-known) recordings of many songs I "cover," and so my renditions may tend to be about a half-minute or so shorter than versions by groups/bands featuring instrumental soloists. In some cases, I'll compensate by repeating the bridge and the final verse/chorus an extra time, especially when the audience seems receptive and sufficiently caught up in the song.

Discuss!

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,yayaya
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 01:45 PM

Sorry for digressing, but does anyone else find the imperative 'discuss' rather obnoxious?

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: PoppaGator
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 02:02 PM

Sorry about that, yayaya. I was trying for a laugh by repeating that obnoxious imperative, and didn't really expect to offend anyone.

After all, what else do we do here except "discuss"? It is redundant, to say the least, to remind one's readers to continue participation. I humbly withdraw my command to do so.

Jeez, that's the second time in the last 10-15 minutes where I've tried to be humorously ironic and failed. I'd better quit this site for a while and concentrate on work!

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:10 PM

Jeez, that's the second time in the last 10-15 minutes where I've tried to be humorously ironic and failed. I'd better quit this site for a while and concentrate on work!

now THAT was funny!

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Gene Burton
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:22 PM

Dans mon expérience, la perception de la désagréable tend à être le produit de l'esprit désagréable.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:27 PM

"but does anyone else find the imperative 'discuss' rather obnoxious?"

Even when I was going to university I found it obnoxious, and would cringe visibly whenever a prof would say such a thing, needless to say I refused to "discuss" anything.

Charlotte (doesn't have "issues" either)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Leadbelly
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:30 PM

Gene, for all others: In my experience, the perception of unpleasant tends to be the product of the unpleasant spirit.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:46 PM

Re. Genie's message above.

There was a spate of long 45 rpm single releases spanning six or seven minutes in the UK in the last few years of the 1960s. 'America' by The Nice springs to mind as does, and I wish I wasn't able to remember this, Richard Harris's version of 'MacArthur Park', plus, of course, 'Hey Jude'. Some bands got around this by recording singles in two parts, one on the 'A' and the other on the 'B' side. Perhaps the most best known was Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well', though the second side was obviously geared towards recorder fans.

In terms of track length of albums, I don't think it's fair to include the Hayes/Cahill live track as that was a CD release. The Miles Davis album 'Jack Johnson' really did push the LP format to the limit - to this day I've never seen the end of a track closer to the very label itself. Both sides, each featuring just one track, are in excess of 25 minutes.

But, if it's songs only, then Caravan's 'In the Land of Grey and Pink' must be a contender - 22 minutes.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,yayaya
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:58 PM

Gene and Leadbelly: How convenient. That lays all the blame at the doors of others, doesn't it.

Poppagator:
I'm sorry.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Peace
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 05:07 PM

An old buddy of mine, Chris Rawlings, did "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" set to music. I recall it being about 40 minutes long. I thought he'd recorded it to vinyl, but his website doesn't mention that recording.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: PoppaGator
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 05:20 PM

yayaya, your (unexpected) apology is accepted. No big deal. Lets's not make this babbling over a side-issue last as long as any of the songs under discussion here!

Leej, glad you got a laugh out of that! I was hoping for such a reaction, of course.

I didn't really put my nose to the grindstone and concentrate exclusively on work, by the way ~ I just popped down to the BS section where repetitive stupidity is more readily accepted, and contined to split my time, toggling back and forth between frivolity and productivity...

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Leadbelly
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 05:33 PM

GUEST,yayaya: I only tried to translate the french sentence. That's all.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: oldhippie
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 06:02 PM

"Rosalie's Good Eats Cafe" by Bobby Bare is another lengthy song.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 06:06 PM

I had in mind to nominate Alice's Restaurant, but it's not really a song, it's a whole monologue act, with some singing parts.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:29 AM

A quick look in Sir Walter Scotts epic book ' The Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border ' shows The Young Tamlane [ Tam Lin ] has 67 verses.

eric

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,bill S from Perth
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:58 AM

After a morris tour we used to repair to an hostelry for a few songs. When we got the hint, we used to say "we'll sing one more song then we'll go". The landlord would relax before we started "A thousand green bottles hanging on a wall". Sorry I can't tell you how long it is, we were never allowed to finish it

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 01:07 PM

Mikle Oldfield's Tubular Bells (if you count it as a "song") wiht two parts eaxh in excess of 20 minutes is a contender. Amazing to think this was a best-selling album, can you imagine that these days?

Someone mentioned the shortest song as being 16 seconds, evidently they have never heard of Napalm Death, whose "You Suffer", consisting of the words "you suffer" grunted very quickly along with a stabbed guitar chord clocked in at a miniscule 0.5 seconds. Granted, it wasn't a big hit.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 01:23 PM

I don't think you can really call that a song.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:48 PM

don't think you can really call that a song

why not?

if it has lyrics and a tune, then it's a song..IMHO

Charlotte (the view from Ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:52 PM

He's popular, but he' not a singer or a band...a musical friend reminded me of it this morning over coffee when I mentioned this thread.

The Complete Ring Cycle - Richard Wagner

I know, I know...it's many seperate songs, but worth including..IMHO

Charlotte (attempted Wagner once...but I'm alright now ;-) )

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Nick E
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 08:22 PM

Now I have scrolled the whole thread but that does not mean I have not missed it...
When it comes to songs that still get radio airplay
Paradise By The Dashboard light from Meatloaf
And when it comse to last call and the solo singer with the guitar wants to milk it
American Pie by Don Mclean
are what leap to mind

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 10:16 PM

A song that last 0.5 seconds isn't even capable of having a tune. A tune requires more than one note in sequence. It's an outburst of noise, but it's not a song.

If it were, then blowing a car horn would be a song or yelling "OUCH!" when someone drops a bowling ball on your foot would be a song.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Greg B
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 11:01 PM

"I went to the Grateful Dead concert and they played for FIVE HOURS. Man, was that a great SONG!"

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,some guy
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:28 AM

i know its not the longest but a decent long song wld be Dream Theater - Octavarium
24 minutes of unparalleled prog magnificence

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:11 AM

No shit !!!

eric

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:44 AM

Well for all of you who mentioned "Alice's Restaurant" take heart. As Arlo told it after Chip Carter claimed to have found a copy of Arlo's album in the Nixon Record Library, "Maybe Nixon was listening to Alice's Restaurant. I mean, how many things are 18 minutes and 20 seconds long?"

Spaw

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 12:06 PM

the original version of Alice's Restaurant Massacree" - 18:20

Alice's Restaurant (The Massacree Revisted)22:26 (live performance)

Here's an 18 min 33 second version

Charlotte (the view from Charlotte's music room)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 03:03 PM

No beats Um Koultoum (one of many possible spellings of her name), who had been known to stretch two or three songs out for as long as 6 hours in performance, and whose popular recordings could run to an hour-
From her Wikipedia entry:

The duration of Umm Kulthum's songs in performance was not fixed, but varied based on the level of emotive interaction between the singer and her audience. A typical improvisatory technique of hers was to repeat a single phrase or sentence of a song's lyrics over and over, subtly altering the emotive emphasis and intensity each time to bring her audiences into a euphoric and ecstatic state, and was considered to "have never sang a line the same way twice". Thus, while the official recorded length of a song such as Enta Omri (You Are My Life) is approximately 60 minutes, a live performance could extend to many hours as the singer and her audience fed off each other's emotional energy. This intense, highly personalized creative relationship, was undoubtedly one of the reasons for Umm Kulthum's tremendous success as an artist.

here are some recordings--http://www.oumkalthoum.org/audio/ though I suspect only Jack Campin will listen to them--

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Reiver 2
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:50 PM

It's not the longest, but my favorite LONG ballad is "Montrose." Done by Steeleye Span (a tour-de-force for Maddy Prior) on their record "Live At Last" (and it IS a live performance). I just timed it at a few seconds short of 15 minutes. It tells the story of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, covering pretty much his entire life from boyhood through his betrayal and execution and is full of historical references to real people and events that are remarkable for their accuracy, (which I appreciate). I counted 42 verses (including choruses) sung to 3 quite distinct melodies and includes several short instrumental interludes. If you have an interest in Celtic history, don't miss this.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 08:52 AM

The Dylan song ( "She belongs to me") by the Nice mentioned some way above was not a whole LP side as it was on side two of "Nice" with "Rondo '69".
However, "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP started on side one of the LP with the same name and also took up the whole of side two. Oddly the track of the same name on "Works" does not appear on the LP.
As regards 45s, the Nice had "America" which was nearly as long as "Hey Jude", and then there was Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" which took up both sides.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 11:59 AM

I still think Re-Fried Boogie - Canned Heat, wins, clocking in at 40 some odd minutes.
For a song....I think I mentioned the 22 minute version of Tall Ships by Show of Hands, from their current two CD best of, though rumour has it that Fairport's Sloth gets longer and longer with each performance *LOL*

Charlotte (the view from Ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:10 PM

Um Koultoum was way more popular, and way longer--

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's inplugged Apprentice
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:26 PM

'Um Koultoum was way more popular'

in the Arab world probably...in the west...errr no...

I'd do a straw poll and see who has heard of Canned Heat and who's heard of Um Koultoum...

Oh...and I did give her a listen

Charlotte(the view from Ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 03:08 PM

The Allman Brothers did a 22:56 version of 'Whipping Post' on At Fillmore East.

Led Zeppelin did a 26:52 version of 'Dazed and Confused' on The Song Remains the Same

Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' beats both if considered as one song. On the All Music Guide website they have it listed as part 1 (25:36) and part 2 (23:20) so I guess we can each decide how to tabulate it.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 03:18 PM

People are people, Charlotte--and there were said to be more than 4 million at her funeral--it's one world--

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 03:26 PM

'People are people, Charlotte--and there were said to be more than 4 million at her funeral--it's one world--'


I stand by what I previously posted

Charlotte (the view from Ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 06:29 PM

I was going to mention Oum Kolsoum but M. Ted beat me to it. Charlotte, give her a listen long enough to figure out what she was doing, you might be surprised.

I can't place Canned Heat at all. Looking at discographies I can find, I recognize nothing, though I was around when their stuff first came out and I'd probably like them.

For something even longer by a singer who has never been at any risk of popularity, Andy Hunter recorded a small part of the utterly boring Scottish late-mediaeval epic "Graysteil", taking up a whole CD. It makes no attempt at varying the arrangement and his delivery is so expressionless that even that much is about 10 times more than any normal human would want to listen to. It's like hearing somebody tell you about their latest campaign on World of Warcraft.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 09:13 PM

I'm not sure of your point, Charlotte--Canned Heat is not much listened to anymore, and it's been nearly 40 years since they were popular--and, at least where I live, there is a thriving Middle Eastern community--

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Wolfgang
Date: 30 Mar 08 - 08:14 AM

Rolf Zuckowski's song "Und ganz doll mich" at least some years ago was the respective entry at the Guinness book with 3776 lines all written by children. I don't know whether he has ever recorded the full length version. He's popular in Germany, though not with me.

The Devil Glitch" by Chris Butler is the longest pop song recorded according to the Guinness book with 69 min.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Low
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 06:51 AM

wot?

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: GUEST,Nuilt
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 06:52 AM

Yikes!