Comments on: Timing is everything (v2.42)

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:14:45 +0000

Or, for that matter, you could get into the 40-minute range with Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” or Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells,” both of which were cruelly truncated for radio play: “Tubular Bells,” in its guise as a theme to The Exorcist, is the longer of the two, at a mere 3:18.

By: unimpressed

unimpressed — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:40:14 +0000

_In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida_ was 17:38, Rare Earth had a live version of _Get Ready_ that was 23:38, and Frampton’s live version of _Do You Feel Like We Do_ was 14:19. These I know off the top of my head, but with a little skull sweat I could come up with others.

These were the versions I had on vinyl and listened to them extensively, these versions are the ones I prefer; any of the shorter versions sound…abbreviated.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:31:38 +0000

Hotel California is 6:54 on the Hell Freezes Over album.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:27:13 +0000

I prefer “songs” that range from 20 to 50 minutes although if it’s really outstanding even 90 minutes is not a bit too long.

Seriously though… talking about pop and rock and roll songs, I like longer songs if they’re good. American Pie… umm…. how long is Hotel California? I forget; it seems like that one is rather long but not too long. And I’m surprised that, with six comments already, no one has mentioned the greatest long song ever: Alice’s Restaurant 18:20

By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:06:54 +0000

Well this is a bunny trail, but sort of related. I thought I was going to grow old and die, listening to Mariah Carey sing on American Idol this week. She whined on, and on, on, on, and ON. I was hoping that Ryan would walk on stage and cut her off. It was awful and it was boring.

By: sya

sya — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:53:47 +0000

Maybe this makes me too anal, but I’d like to see an actual distribution for song durations for the top 100 songs from say, oh, the past 50 years.

By: Michael Bates

Michael Bates — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:33:45 +0000

One of the songs that shows up as 2:42 in my iTunes is Bob Wills’ “Weary of the Same Ol’ Stuff.”

By: CGHill

CGHill — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:56:43 +0000

The single version ran a modest 2:52; my own reedit was a reticent 2:00.

A classic-rock station around here once spewed forth an edit running about eight and a half minutes. Split the difference, as it were.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:52:01 +0000

And yet the version of In-a-Gadda-da-Vida on my .mp3 player, at 3:03, strikes me as too short.

The fact I always heard the long version from my brother’s Iron Butterfly LP may have something to do with my opinion.

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:03:55 +0000

Unlike “Inna Gadda Davida,” which was way too long.