Longest song by a popular singer/ band

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 03:02 PM

John Cage's As Slow As Possible was started on a German church organ five years ago and is due to finish in 635 years' time.
More likely to win this contest: Refried Boogie by Canned Heat lasts 41 minutes.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 03:00 PM

It depends on who sings the song, you see. We have a guy at our local song circle who cycles through most songs in half the time it took the original artist to do them. ;-) Then you have the opposite extreme, the very slow rendition, but that's not so common.

**************

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in my opinion, lasts just about exactly the right amount of time. It's an epic song of an epic story, and it tells the whole story. Very cool. I've noticed that people either love it or hate it, and this could have to do partly with whether the story itself really interests them or not, I think. If you're deeply interested in and caught up in the details of a story, you don't mind it taking a long time, because you want to savour every moment and image. If, on the other hand, it basically just doesn't grab you, then you can't be bothered sustaining the attention for very long (if at all).

Some other long songs of that type (they either grab you...or they don't) are Buffy Sainte-Marie's epic "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" and Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy".

People who don't like those songs are not criticizing the song on its intrinsic merits, in my opinion...they are simply making it quite clear that the subject matter doesn't interest them very much for whatever reason...or perhaps the singer's style doesn't interest them.

If the subject matter fascinated them and if they loved the performer too, they'd love the song.

When you love someone or love what they do, you just can't get enough of it. When you don't care, well, your attention span will be quite short.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Leadbelly
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:57 PM

Ha, I just dicovered that Arlo Guthrie managed to lengthen "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" up to 18.20! It's on Arlo's "Alice's Restaurant"-LP (reprise-records).

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:43 PM

Frankie and Johnny.


A

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:35 PM

Dylan's "Highlands" is very long, and also Loreena McKennitt's song of Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shallotte". She released it in a shorter version for radio...in the full length version (Lord Tennyson's full poem) on the album. Either way it can send chills down your spine, but I like the full length version best of all.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:34 PM

Didn't the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald go on for about an hour and a half?

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Shaneo
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:34 PM

Me And The Rose, by Christy Moore 13-20

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Arkie
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:31 PM

Bob Dylan's Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands is 11:20, Jon Anderson's version at 12:03 and Jamie Brockett's version of the USS Titanic is only 13:31 so they aren't contenders. Did Michael Cooney ever record Tam Lane? His live version would exceed 20 minutes I think.

Subject: RE: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:27 PM

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a seventeen-minute, ten-second rock song by Iron Butterfly, released on their 1968 album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,

Subject: Longest song by a popular singer/ band
From: Leadbelly
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:16 PM

Johnny Rivers'self-composed song "John Lee Hooker", recorded at the Whisky a GoGo has a duration of 15 minutes and 40 seconds.
But I think he isn't the absolute champion. Any suggestions?

Manfred