what is the longest song ever (in minutes)?

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"The Song that Never Ends"?

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Monday, 25 August 2003 16:57 (twenty years ago) link

I like how the opening paragraph of that article is barely comprehensible.

― Sam J. (samjeff), Monday, 25 August 2003 17:05 (twenty years ago) link

By the way, it's gonna get boring if this Michael Jatas dude keeps on doing this for long. Is there some ILX protocol against shameless self-promotion?

No, unless you count people heckling the promoter with cries of shame.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 25 August 2003 17:27 (twenty years ago) link

Even someone with only passing musical knowledge should know that fifteen minutes is nowhere near the length of the longest song ever.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 25 August 2003 18:02 (twenty years ago) link

THe longest song I've heard is Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness." Honorable mentions:

Sleep - Jerusalem - 52 minutes
Dream Theater - Change of Seasons - 23 minutes
Opeth - Black Rose Immortal - 20 minutes
Edge of Sanity - Crimson - 40 minutes
Symphony X - The Oddysey - 24 minutes
Subhumans - From the Cradle to the Grave - 16 minutes (that's fuckin long for a punk song!)

― Andy Cross, Tuesday, 26 August 2003 04:30 (twenty years ago) link

The longest midi karaoke file that I know of is Marillion's 'Grendel', which comes in at around 17 and a half minutes. Which is a whole lotta midi.

But the laurels for longest song must surely go to Remonstrance. They play till they're unplugged - which is sometimes for days. They're the David Blaine of musical endurance.

― C (Deeping), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:51 (twenty years ago) link

Anything with a locked groove, so 'I am the beat' by The Look. Lasts as long as your needle.

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 12:05 (twenty years ago) link

Subhumans - From the Cradle to the Grave - 16 minutes (that's fuckin long for a punk song!)

There's apparently some obscure Eighties hardcore punk song--recorded as an attempt to create the longest hardcore song anyone would bother to record--out there that lasts thirty minutes. According to the 'zine review I read, it ends up with the singer singing "I'll Tumble For 'Ya" over and over again.

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 23:28 (twenty years ago) link

Was Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" one song or what?

― Scaredy Cat, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 20:59 (twenty years ago) link

i'm sorry, but 639 years is a whole lotta years, i suspect the organ'll break down before the piece is done. are they gonna rotate the organists, or just put weights down on the keys and come back every couple of years? and how is 639 years really as slow as possible, i mean, couldn't they possibly go on another year? then 639 wouldn't be the slowest possible. plus, if they just decided last-minute (of course, on the scale of this piece, last-minute could actually mean a few years) to extend the piece, it's just fuck up the meter. of course, only god would notice, but he'd be mightily pissed.

― Felcher (Felcher), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link

three months pass...

the longest song i know of would have to be Art of Life by X Japan (a great japanese heavy metal band.) the studio version runs about 28 mins, but the live version is around 38, 40 mins.

― andrew mitchell, Thursday, 11 December 2003 03:12 (twenty years ago) link

This bit of that BBC Cage article is delightful innit:

The performance follows a legal case in which composer Mike Batt was forced to pay a six-figure sum to Cage's publishers, who accused him of plagiarising a silent piece of music.

Anyone know anything about this?

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Thursday, 11 December 2003 04:42 (twenty years ago) link

i'm too lazy to look it up myself, but if you do a google search for "john cage" and "mike batt" you'll probably get a million hits. the case played out in just the last two or three years. the basic issue was that batt included a silent track on a cd and, as a joke, credited it in the packaging as a "cage/batt" song. it wasn't the silence that sparked the suit; it was the songwriting credit. because of the credit, cage's publishers wanted royalties. a bizarre suit, to say the least.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 11 December 2003 05:29 (twenty years ago) link

nine months pass...

Mike Oldfield - Amarok, 60:07

― Feri, Wednesday, 22 September 2004 12:05 (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!

― 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

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

didn't eno want to design a computer program that would play a song forever? did he ever do this?

― jackl (jackl), Friday, 17 March 2006 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought i would just say this but i just recorded a 30 minute solo (guitar) and thought id say that and i think one day im going to try and recorde a solo and not stop till my fingers bleed(anyone ever done that before?)

― Dom Muz, Saturday, 18 March 2006 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link

the longest song i have are as follows:

Starship Trooper - Yes .......9:24
Are You Receiving Me - Golden Earing ......9:33
Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd ....9:41
Born Slippy (Nuxx) - Underworld .....9:44
Sheep - Pink Floyd .....9:46
All I Want Is You - U2 (there is a 2 or so minute break after 6:30 then next song comes on) .....9:52
Desolation Row - Songdog .....9:55
Free Bird - Lynard Skynard .......10:07
Talk (Junkie XL Remix) - Coldplay ......10:14
Carmichael - Neil young .....10:20
Natural Beauty - Neil Young ......10:23
Achilles Last Stand - Led Zeppelin ....10:25
Lazy (Live) - Deep Purple .......10:27
Concerto de Aranjuez - John Williams .......10:27
Maybe Today - Carbon Leaf .....10:29
Carouselambra - Led Zeppelin ......10:34
Trainspotting - Primal Scream .....10:34
In My Time Of Dying - Led Zeppelin .....11:02
Heard It Through The Grapevine - CCR ......11:06
Pigs (Three Different Ones) - Pink Floyd .......11:28
Driftin' Blues - Eric Clapton ....11:31
The End - The Doors ......11:42
A Saucerful Of Secrets - Pink Floyd ......11:59
Lazy - Deep Purple featuring Satriani and Paice .....12:19
Kashmir - Page And Plant ....12:28
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) - Pink Floyd ....12:31
Machine Gun (Live) - Jimi Hendrix ....12:36
Song That Made Us What We Are Today (Demo) - Red Hot Chilli Peppers .....12:56
Grandpa's Interview - Neil Young .....12:57
Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast - Pink Floyd ......13:30
Do You Feel Like I Do (Live) - Peter Frampton ......13:30
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) - Pink Floyd ......13:34
Highlands - Bob Dylan .......16:31
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly .......17:02
Dogs - Pink Floyd ......17:08
Moby Dick Live - Led zeppelin (John Bonham drum Solo) ....19:23
Fly on the Wall - The Beatles (A bonus disc for Let It Be...Naked ,ITs just them in a studio practicing going through songs) .....21:58
Echoes - Pink Floyd ....23:28
Atom Heart Mother: Father's Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung/M - Pink Floyd .......23:45

damn soo many more that could go at the start smaller ones about 30 more timing at 9, 8 and 7 minutes

cheers

― Jamie, Saturday, 25 March 2006 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Atom Heart Mother: Father's Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung/Mind Your Throats Please/Remergence

sorry didnt finish the title :P

― Jamie, Saturday, 25 March 2006 16:51 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

chillout sescion ibiza by cafe del mar 78 minutes

― 222222, Saturday, 29 April 2006 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

this crazy little number i know called life

― A|ex P@reene (Pareene), Saturday, 29 April 2006 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

definetly "the complete harry potter" by J.K. Rowling. on i-tunes it's $249!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― ptinka yagoslav, Friday, 19 May 2006 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

no way, its "smear some doo-doo on me!" by chalk-chewers

― jebudia goldstien, Friday, 19 May 2006 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

poop

― poop, Friday, 19 May 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link

the band sleep has a song called dopesmoker that is on a double lp released a few years back that runs about 63 minutes and 31 seconds and im actually listening to it right now. i realize that this is an old thread, but i though that the sleep classic deserved its mention. though im not a stoner, i love this stuff, and i think its hilarious when the first line of lyrics kicks in around 8 min. and a half and the guy bellows out the line "drop out of life with bong in hand." these guys used to be in i think asbestos death, and they have been very influential to stoner metal and doom metal and sludge since then.

― seth h, Monday, 22 May 2006 07:40 (seventeen years ago) link

i just realized that someone else had posted that, sorry for waisting your time (commences sobbing).

― seth h, Monday, 22 May 2006 07:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Absolutego is over 65 minutes long (not including that Dronevil track).

― Ivan Gallardo (Ivan), Monday, 22 May 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

its john conltrane with 150 minutes, it was an live performans

― rikkel, Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I vote for that Mars Volta song that ended the last record ... even though I think it lasts a little more than a half hour, it loses nothing in the way of intensity or tempo until the requisite relaxed warble segment about 20 minutes into it. because of that, the thing feels like it goes on for about 90 minutes.

― O'Connor (OConnorScribe), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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