what is the longest song ever (in minutes)?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (126 of them)

The funny thing about the dude who started this thread is not the self-promotion but the fact that he thinks his song is the longest ever!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link

"Heaven Sent" by Half Japanese is 60 min long

― Chris Marx, Wednesday, 22 September 2004 13:13 (nineteen years ago) link

The funny thing about the dude who started this thread is not the self-promotion but the fact that he thinks his song is the longest ever!

yeh, but have you checked out his website? that is *COOL*. i'm gonna have a listen when i get home.

right, back to work

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 22 September 2004 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Apparently it was all one single "song"

http://www.startribune.com/stories/457/4968126.html

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link

the longest song ever was composed and is/was/alwayswillbe conducted by the great maestro, god. some, like descartes, have called the piece "harmony of the spheres." god clicked his baton four times (it's in 4/4, natch) and it was off. it might end or it might not, depending on the whimsy of the maestro.

this is dumb.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

fiendish, you joker! He doesn't even have a site!

― Bimble (bimble), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 19:34 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Got to be Chris Butler's "Devil Glitch" which clocks in at 69 minutes.

More here:

http://www.nutscape.com/ChrisButler/devil.htm

― KeithUK, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:36 (nineteen years ago) link

He used to be in the Waitresses.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:41 (nineteen years ago) link

how come there's so many answers of things that are so short? it's not uncommon at all to have songs that take up a full cd. and that's just what can be put onto one cd. some friends of mine and i made and recorded a song that was a week long. there was 10 of us working in rotation.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I think for it to count as a "song", it has to not be classical or avant-garde, and it has to be planned out completely beforehand (i.e. not a jam).

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link

still some flexibility there. there's a great many things that we call songs where spontaneous things happened during the recording. for instance, in the thing that i took part in, we broke it down in 10 minute increments with a set framework of chords/notes and tempos and rhythms and sounds. we have, unfortunately, not yet listened to the whole piece straight through.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

I thought the longest song every recorded was a blues jam by several artists that lasted several days long nonstop! Have been trying to find out who the participants have been included in this venture. Bless all ya moozac lovin Blogs.

― Bella Blog, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 05:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Terry Riley's Dream House (and other sound installations) are in theory infinite in length, but I dunno if that really counts as a "song".

― tr0n (Soultron), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 06:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Err, make that La Monte Young. I always get my minimalists confused...

― soultron (Soultron), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 06:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Another contender is "It's a small world after all" as played day and night at Disney world. Infinite loop? yes.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 09:15 (nineteen years ago) link

There's that Gavin Bryers thingy "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" which re-appears every so often on a new format, and is basically as long as they can fit on the format!!!!! (ie the original is 22 mins on vinyl, the remake with Tom Waits is 74 mins on a CD!!!!!) He's probably working on a version on for tha iPod/Creative Xen/MagicDonkey PloppyPlayer which lasts 235 squillion hours, 45 minutes and 34 seconds!!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

this piece, longplayer, will have lasted over a thousand years once the performance has finished

― nick.K (nick.K), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

TV Victor "Agai" 71:03
La Monte Young "Well Tuned Piano" (DVD version) 6 hours plus

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link

six months pass...

"Metal Machine Music" by Lou Reed clocks in around 65 minutes. It came out in 1975, and was split up onto four sides. Lou himself said "anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am."

― mple bugg, Thursday, 4 August 2005 09:37 (eighteen years ago) link

It's not a song tho, is it?

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:00 (eighteen years ago) link

"Love Is Hurting Me" by Michael Jatas (15:12 minutes)

― coral/coral/coral, Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Ah! But "Never Buy Texas From a Cowboy" by the Brides of Funkenstein is 7 seconds longer and if "Love Is Hurting Me" by Michael Jatas (15:12 minutes) is as good as that then it must be fucking immense!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Thursday, 4 August 2005 10:06 (eighteen years ago) link

"Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void" by The Harmony Rockets (Mercury Rev) is 42 minutes long.

― Bong Boy (sgertz), Thursday, 4 August 2005 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link

i hvae a song by Dream Theater thats 42 sumtin minutes long, called six degrees of inner tubulence. on top of that its not some sissy love-whore singin the same phrazes over and over for 15 mins, its one massive guitar solo plus drum solo, base solo. Dream Theater is known for their long songs. like A Change Of Seasons which is 23 mins long and also one big guitar, drum, base, vocal, and synth solo smacked into one.

― mikael sewerin, Sunday, 14 August 2005 08:35 (eighteen years ago) link

and honestly u cant call that john cage shit music, its just some retard tryin to break a record if u sped it up a bit mebbe it would be worth SOMETHING to SOMEBODY but who the hell cares if some idiot decides to make it his life long pursuit to make a song 600 years just by slowin it down to 3 notes a year.

― mikael sewerin, Sunday, 14 August 2005 08:40 (eighteen years ago) link

What I might say is, who the hell cares about a 42 minute guitar solo, but then again I am a sissy love-whore.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 14 August 2005 09:20 (eighteen years ago) link

How do I love Googlers? Let me count the ways...

― Shockah Shockah Hey!!! (noodle vague), Sunday, 14 August 2005 09:23 (eighteen years ago) link

"Art of Life" by X-Japan it goes for around 29 mins and it is one of the most beautiful, Artistic, epical, lyrical songs ever made, a mix of classic and rock, Japanese and English this truly is a masterpiece
the live being one of the most spectacular pieces of music i have ever seen (live going for 34:02 and DVD alone costing well over $100)its one of those pieces of music that make you feel all emotion at once it doesn't give you enough time to hold on to a certain emotion without throwing somthing completly random at you, by the end leaving you thinking about "what is life" the song has so much meaning that may not be evedent the first time you listen to it like what the Piano solo actually is ment to symbolise
if anyone is farmiliar with Japanese music, they would know what an amazing composer Yoshiki is
in my opinion Hideto Matsumoto (1964-1999) was the greatest guitarist to ever live.
R.I.P hide xXx

― Eilea Petersen, Friday, 26 August 2005 14:40 (eighteen years ago) link

I swear to God anyone putting anything under 70 min. is retarded. Robert Rich has a song 420 min. long but it was a performance. Corrupted have a song that is like 134 min. or something, but there has to be longer.

― Jim Haras, Saturday, 27 August 2005 10:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Another contender is "It's a small world after all" as played day and night at Disney world. Infinite loop? yes.

Qualifies as longest lock groove at least.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 27 August 2005 13:03 (eighteen years ago) link

If live versions count, there are a number of sad contenders in the US jam-band domain.

More (cannabis-)inspiring, live sets by Spacemen 3 would drone-extend songs up to an hour long, dozing out and turning amps off then back on, etc.

― blunt (blunt), Saturday, 27 August 2005 23:27 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

The song that never ends. lol.

― , Tuesday, 27 September 2005 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link

"Jerusalem - Sleep (58 mins)"

In 2003 this was released as the original "Dopesmoker" version. I picked it up this summer, in all it's single riff-63 minute-31 second glory.

― french diplomacy (french diplomacy), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 05:21 (eighteen years ago) link

This has been done before (many times), but once again: Longest thing I personally own is LaMonte Young's "Dorian Blues In G", all 2:02:14 of it.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 07:57 (eighteen years ago) link

is the longest song that we've heard of and made the charts is beatles "hey jude" at over 7 minutes.
don mclean american pie seems like 3 hours.lol

― retroman, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 08:07 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

hey wat is ohh umm its the best song in the world it is like a jamaican guy singing the chorus saying " In the middle of the night we fly high" or something and ive tryed looking up middle of the night and not under there do u no what it is

― james prodgg, Monday, 17 October 2005 10:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Hey umm more info is that look up in the web site www.putfile.com and type in best fussball in search and then look through some of them and when you come to like a awsome song one thats it PLEASE DO IT and try and tell me

cheers

― james Prodogga, Monday, 17 October 2005 10:50 (eighteen years ago) link

What is the longest number one single ever (in minutes)?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Hey Jude then?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:03 (eighteen years ago) link

But was the album version #1, or just the single? THe single is about 4 minutes, yeah?

Richard Harris's MacArthur Park - ~7 minutes. (Assuming it was a #1 .. was it?)

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link

"Blue Monday" is pretty f-ing long, isn't it? 7 and a half minutes, possibly.

Also, I'll cast my vote for Satie's "Vexations," which is around 1,700 minutes long and has, unlike many of the longer songs on this thread, been performed live in its entirety.

Or, in the spirit of the first poster, how about my own composition, "Im Anfang War die Tat," consisting of an unspecified number of performers hitting a single gong once in unison every six seconds for twenty-two minutes, to be repeated 1235781297509812751923597986798403163746 times?

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Monday, 17 October 2005 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd also add that ILM is the first place I have ever seen the words "Gavin Bryars" and five consecutive exclamation points in the same sentence.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Monday, 17 October 2005 15:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Has any one found the song i was lookin for???

go to putfile.com and type in football and look for the one sayin greatest..... f** u no pssss please try and its a great website any way

― prepy, Thursday, 20 October 2005 09:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Cornershop did a 24 song on-line. Once.

― re (rde), Thursday, 20 October 2005 09:42 (eighteen years ago) link

>>Hey Jude then?

>>But was the album version #1, or just the single? THe single is about 4 minutes, yeah?

Hey Jude was a stand-alone 45, never included on an LP until the grab-bag "Beatles Again" comp from 1970 (and even then, only in the US). Wasn't there some yarn about extending the ending so that it would be a second or two longer than MacArthur Park? Not even sure that MacArthur Park made the top spot in the UK. Anyway, longest UK No1 is, rather depressingly, Oasis' "All Around The World", wich apparently clocks in at 9'38". (Shortest UK chart topper, for the record, is Adam Faith's "What Do You Want", at 1'38".)

http://www.everyhit.com/record7.html

― harvey.w (harvey.w), Thursday, 20 October 2005 09:42 (eighteen years ago) link

the flower kings have some of the longests songs,if you count the whole garden of dreams as one song then its almost exactly 60 minutes.Transatlantic have some that clock at 30 minutes.The Divine wings of Tragedy by symphony x and octavarium by dream theater.If you count six degrees of inner turbulence as one song it clocks in at 45 minutes about.The same thing with a pleasant shade of grey with Fate's warning.

― shawn McNally, Friday, 21 October 2005 04:58 (eighteen years ago) link

" The Devils Glitch " Is about 69 minutes, longest pop song.

― Kurt seymour, Thursday, 3 November 2005 02:53 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

the song alisas retaurant is about 18:27 sec. long and if u lissten to the song that never ends on lamb chops it is about infnet langth but is about 6 hours on my computer

― Craig Beer, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Didn't one of the dream syndicate build some kind of music-making perpetual motion machine back in, oh, 1972, that has been automatically generating aleatory music ever since?

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 23:14 (eighteen years ago) link

(sorry...I mean the John Cage students, not the paisley underground pop band)

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 23:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 26 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

It annoys me when people refer to instrumental compositions as songs. Songs have singing.

― Steve Goldberg (Steve Goldberg), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Iron Butterfly's - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda!
Damn this song is long....

― muffin, Thursday, 1 June 2006 06:28 (seventeen years ago) link

It annoys me when people refer to instrumental compositions as songs. Songs have singing.

Hi Geir!

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 1 June 2006 07:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I hardly think that opinion is limited to Geir. Beethoven's piano sonatas are not songs. Schumann's Liederkreis are songs. It seems like a pretty easy distinction.

― Steve Goldberg (Steve Goldberg), Thursday, 1 June 2006 08:55 (seventeen years ago) link

K I just thought this would be fun. My songs I know arent as long as the ones you know and I dont really know those songs. but I have a couple that are around 9 minutes long
Bon Jovi-November Rain
Phil Collins&Genisis "Tonight, tonight, tonight"
Don Mclean- American pie
Those are 3 very good songs!
Everythigns else I have is 7.3 and less.
Ok so I have a few more
Fleetwood mac-17.18-"The Madge Sessions"
Jimmy Eat World-16.11-Goodbye Sky Harbor
Prince-25.59-The war
Alright so thats just from me. Thanks People.

― Ashleigh Johnson (sweetypup8624), Monday, 12 June 2006 08:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually I think it's Michael Jatas with "Love Is Hurting Me", it's like fifteen minutes! You can check it out by going to putfile.com and typing in football and looking for the one sayin greatest.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 12 June 2006 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.