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Favorite songs over 8 mnutes long?


GivenToFly

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Anything over 15 minutes is most likely not gonna be good. At that point you will either get repetitive or have some really disjointed stuff with a unifying theme really. You see these track here and there, 23 minutes long, 35 minutes, or a whole disc. What's the point? It's always a sequence of moments that make sense individually, some may really good in fact, but what's point in having them as a single song? Why not split the tracks and give them each their own name? All you do is make it harder for the listener to skip the parts that he doesn't like. And it only comes across as a gimmick: "ok, so we've got 5 songs, 6 minutes each, let's play them in sequence with awkward so called segues and say it's just one song. And then we'll play the first one again at the end and say we've got a theme!"

I mentioned Estranged (by GNR) and Telegraph Road (by Dire Straits) in my list. I love them, I know them by heart, they're my two favorite songs, and they're 9 and 14 minutes long respectively and go through a series of changes each of them. But it makes sense! You cannot possibly imagine any part of these songs on its own. I think that's where you can see mastery in songcraft best: in segues. How well does an artist do transitions between parts of a song

Wrong.

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Fuckin' beast song. It's my favorite as of late, too.

LOL @ whoever picked The Angel and the Gambler. Its length is one of its biggest flaws in my opinion. I think the chorus is repeated ~30 times. But I have to admit, most of my favorite Maiden songs are 8+ minutes.

Ayreon -- Into the Black Hole

Black Sabbath -- Megalomania, Wheels of Confusion

Bob Dylan -- Desolation Row

Bruce Dickinson -- Cyclops (best song off the record), Book of Thel

Deep Purple -- Child in Time

Elton John -- Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Guns N' Roses -- Coma, Estranged, Locomotive, November Rain

Iron Maiden -- Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Sign of the Cross, Paschendale, The Clansman, The Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Alexander the Great, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, When the Wild Wind Blows, The Talisman, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, The Unbeliever, Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad, Dance of Death, For the Greater Good of God, The Legacy.

Judas Priest -- Cathedral Spires

Led Zeppelin -- Achilles Last Stand, In My Time of Dying

Mastodon -- The Last Baron, The Czar

Megadeth -- She-Wolf (Rude Awakening)

Porcupine Tree -- Gravity Eyelids

Queen -- The Prophet Song

Queensryche -- Suite Sister Mary

Rainbow -- Stargazer

Rush -- Xanadu, 2112, La Villa Strangiato, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres, The Camera Eye

Temple of the Dog -- Reach Down

Timothy Mahr -- Endurance

cool to see another cathedral spires fan :thumbsup:

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Anything over 15 minutes is most likely not gonna be good. At that point you will either get repetitive or have some really disjointed stuff with a unifying theme really. You see these track here and there, 23 minutes long, 35 minutes, or a whole disc. What's the point? It's always a sequence of moments that make sense individually, some may really good in fact, but what's point in having them as a single song? Why not split the tracks and give them each their own name? All you do is make it harder for the listener to skip the parts that he doesn't like. And it only comes across as a gimmick: "ok, so we've got 5 songs, 6 minutes each, let's play them in sequence with awkward so called segues and say it's just one song. And then we'll play the first one again at the end and say we've got a theme!"

I mentioned Estranged (by GNR) and Telegraph Road (by Dire Straits) in my list. I love them, I know them by heart, they're my two favorite songs, and they're 9 and 14 minutes long respectively and go through a series of changes each of them. But it makes sense! You cannot possibly imagine any part of these songs on its own. I think that's where you can see mastery in songcraft best: in segues. How well does an artist do transitions between parts of a song

I kind of agree with you. If a song is long, but has enough ideas to flesh out the whole length of it, then I usually enjoy it. But when songs are long just for the sake of being long, dragged out with five and six and seven minutes of soloing, like with a band like Dream Theater, then it's completely uninteresting to me. Songs with the structure and inspiration to hold itself together for the duration are what I love.

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Anything over 15 minutes is most likely not gonna be good. At that point you will either get repetitive or have some really disjointed stuff with a unifying theme really. You see these track here and there, 23 minutes long, 35 minutes, or a whole disc. What's the point? It's always a sequence of moments that make sense individually, some may really good in fact, but what's point in having them as a single song? Why not split the tracks and give them each their own name? All you do is make it harder for the listener to skip the parts that he doesn't like. And it only comes across as a gimmick: "ok, so we've got 5 songs, 6 minutes each, let's play them in sequence with awkward so called segues and say it's just one song. And then we'll play the first one again at the end and say we've got a theme!"

I mentioned Estranged (by GNR) and Telegraph Road (by Dire Straits) in my list. I love them, I know them by heart, they're my two favorite songs, and they're 9 and 14 minutes long respectively and go through a series of changes each of them. But it makes sense! You cannot possibly imagine any part of these songs on its own. I think that's where you can see mastery in songcraft best: in segues. How well does an artist do transitions between parts of a song

I kind of agree with you. If a song is long, but has enough ideas to flesh out the whole length of it, then I usually enjoy it. But when songs are long just for the sake of being long, dragged out with five and six and seven minutes of soloing, like with a band like Dream Theater, then it's completely uninteresting to me. Songs with the structure and inspiration to hold itself together for the duration are what I love.

yeah i tend to agree, i listen to alot of songs in the 9-11 minute mark and they always keep my attention. i have listened to many dream theater songs and just have been bored halfway through the song lol

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LOL @ whoever picked The Angel and the Gambler. Its length is one of its biggest flaws in my opinion. I think the chorus is repeated ~30 times. But I have to admit, most of my favorite Maiden songs are 8+ minutes.

That was me. A lot of interesting instrumental stuff is happening while the chorus keeps being repeated. Add to that a very subtle crescendo in the vocals and the chorus becomes sort of a rhythm section, while some wicked solos are happening along. And it has a pretty good beat to it too. That's why I don't mind the repetition.

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John Frusciante - Before the Beginning

I'm going through the thread, listening to the ones I haven't heard before. This is the only one so far that I can say I'm really enjoying. Very good song!

'Before the Beginning' is actually Frusciante's version of 'Maggot Brain', another of the songs I listed. Glad you liked it!

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Future Love Song (Demo) - Kevin Max...Not only is it 12 minutes long, it's vastly superior to the finished version.

Coma - Guns N' Roses

Estranged - Guns N' Roses

Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day

November Rain - Guns N' Roses

Kashmir - Led Zeppelin

The Prophet's Song - Queen

Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go - Soft Cell

Frankie Teardrop - Suicide...Fucking creepy as hell

I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meat Loaf

Jesus, I / Mary Star of the Sea - Zwan

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cool to see another cathedral spires fan :thumbsup:

It's funny. For a long time, my favorite Judas Priest song was Sinner (from Unleashed in the East), but that's really changed recently. Cathedral Spires is my favorite now. It's probably one of my all-time favorite songs, too. I never understood why it never got more attention.

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