Long songs that you did not realized were lengthy

[kphoger]

Not many single-disc albums clock in at over 71 minutes;

Somehow, a lot of the first albums I owned were somewhere between 50 and 70 minutes.  This led me to believe that was the norm, such that I felt like I was getting ripped off whenever I ended up with a CD that was only 35 or 45 minutes long.

As an example, one of the earliest albums I owned was U2's 'Rattle and Hum', which has 17 tracks and clocks over 72 minutes.  Another was the one I mentioned, 'Wish' by The Cure, which clocked 65 minutes.



I remember being keenly aware of how long different songs were on all sorts of albums, because I was big into making mix tapes.  In the process of making a mix tape, when you start getting close to the end of the side, you have be shrewd in picking the right songs:  short enough to actually fit on the tape, but long enough to not have a bunch of silence at the end.

[Big John]

^^ On 8-track tapes, a song would frequently stop in the middle while the track was switching.

[kphoger]

^^ On 8-track tapes, a song would frequently stop in the middle while the track was switching.

That would annoy the HECK out of me.  I don't even like to shut the car off and come inside if a song on the radio or CD player hasn't come to its end yet.

[amroad17]

If I did not enjoy the following song, I would think that it would be waaaay too long: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John which clocks in at 11:07.

[abefroman329]

If I did not enjoy the following song, I would think that it would be waaaay too long: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John which clocks in at 11:07.

Yeah, it's 11:07 of awesome.

There's a story, possibly apocryphal, that the maximum amount of music a first-generation CD could hold was X minutes because the Japanese wanted to fit some classical work or other on a single disc.

[1995hoo]

If I did not enjoy the following song, I would think that it would be waaaay too long: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John which clocks in at 11:07.

Yeah, it's 11:07 of awesome.

There's a story, possibly apocryphal, that the maximum amount of music a first-generation CD could hold was X minutes because the Japanese wanted to fit some classical work or other on a single disc.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Roughly 74 minutes. Later-generation CDs can fit up to about 80 minutes. That's always been one of the things that bugged me–if I were to transfer my collection of mixed tapes to CD, I couldn't because they're all on 90, 100, or 110-minute cassettes. (I suppose I could use rewriteable CDs that I could then rip to my PC and then burn it all to DVD-Audio, but that would take a lot of time.)

[abefroman329]

If I did not enjoy the following song, I would think that it would be waaaay too long: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John which clocks in at 11:07.

Yeah, it's 11:07 of awesome.

There's a story, possibly apocryphal, that the maximum amount of music a first-generation CD could hold was X minutes because the Japanese wanted to fit some classical work or other on a single disc.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Roughly 74 minutes. Later-generation CDs can fit up to about 80 minutes. That's always been one of the things that bugged me–if I were to transfer my collection of mixed tapes to CD, I couldn't because they're all on 90, 100, or 110-minute cassettes. (I suppose I could use rewriteable CDs that I could then rip to my PC and then burn it all to DVD-Audio, but that would take a lot of time.)

Yeah, that's the story.

You could rip the tapes to MP3s and burn the MP3s to a CD, provided you had a CD player that can play MP3s.

[Takumi]

I've always wondered why there was never another push to increase the maximum time on a music CD in the 90s.

[abefroman329]

I've always wondered why there was never another push to increase the maximum time on a music CD in the 90s.

Probably because there were a whole bunch of other technologies that were being developed in the 90s.

[US71]

60's on 6 played the extended version of Sky Pilot yesterday. I never realized it was a long song, having only heard the short version before.

[kevinb1994]

60's on 6 played the extended version of Sky Pilot yesterday. I never realized it was a long song, having only heard the short version before.

Yeah that's another one you rarely hear.

[kphoger]

I like to think the long songs are for when the DJ has to take a bathroom break.

[abefroman329]

I like to think the long songs are for when the DJ has to take a bathroom break.

That is absolutely how they were utilized, particularly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita.

[US71]

I like to think the long songs are for when the DJ has to take a bathroom break.

Alice's Restaurant and Had a Dream/ Sleeping with the Enemy were common when I was in college. I'd be working overnights at Road Runner and the DJ would play one of these or something else when it was time for a bathroom break.

[kphoger]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

[abefroman329]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

There used to be a classic rock station in DC that, on Thanksgiving, would play literally ANY FCC-approved song if you called in and made a donation to charity.  And if they got enough people to pledge enough money towards it, they would play Alice's Restaurant.

[kevinb1994]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

There used to be a classic rock station in DC that, on Thanksgiving, would play literally ANY FCC-approved song if you called in and made a donation to charity.  And if they got enough people to pledge enough money towards it, they would play Alice's Restaurant.

There's a rock station that has always played Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving. Don't recall which one.

[1995hoo]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

There used to be a classic rock station in DC that, on Thanksgiving, would play literally ANY FCC-approved song if you called in and made a donation to charity.  And if they got enough people to pledge enough money towards it, they would play Alice's Restaurant.

I also recall at one point sometime after early 2004, 94.7-FM in DC did a thing called "Classic Rock A to Z" over several weeks in which they played their entire song library in alphabetical order, including long stuff (I recall they did "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vita" but I don't recall either way as to "Alice's Restaurant"). It had to be after early 2004 because someone called in to ask whether they'd play "Star Star" and the DJ's response was incredulous that someone would even suggest it in view of the FCC's stricter attitude after the infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

[abefroman329]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

There used to be a classic rock station in DC that, on Thanksgiving, would play literally ANY FCC-approved song if you called in and made a donation to charity.  And if they got enough people to pledge enough money towards it, they would play Alice's Restaurant.

I also recall at one point sometime after early 2004, 94.7-FM in DC did a thing called "Classic Rock A to Z" over several weeks in which they played their entire song library in alphabetical order, including long stuff (I recall they did "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vita" but I don't recall either way as to "Alice's Restaurant"). It had to be after early 2004 because someone called in to ask whether they'd play "Star Star" and the DJ's response was incredulous that someone would even suggest it in view of the FCC's stricter attitude after the infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

It was also 94.7 that did the charity event I mentioned above, and the station got incredibly puritanical post-Nipplegate.  At one point they were gonna play a game widely known as Slot Machine In Your Pants, and they flat-out refused to describe it on the air; you had to call in and have them describe it to you over the phone.  Never mind that a station in Chicago had described it on the air a decade before that without any issues.

[jp the roadgeek]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

There used to be a classic rock station in DC that, on Thanksgiving, would play literally ANY FCC-approved song if you called in and made a donation to charity.  And if they got enough people to pledge enough money towards it, they would play Alice's Restaurant.

I also recall at one point sometime after early 2004, 94.7-FM in DC did a thing called "Classic Rock A to Z" over several weeks in which they played their entire song library in alphabetical order, including long stuff (I recall they did "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vita" but I don't recall either way as to "Alice's Restaurant"). It had to be after early 2004 because someone called in to ask whether they'd play "Star Star" and the DJ's response was incredulous that someone would even suggest it in view of the FCC's stricter attitude after the infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

It was also 94.7 that did the charity event I mentioned above, and the station got incredibly puritanical post-Nipplegate.  At one point they were gonna play a game widely known as Slot Machine In Your Pants, and they flat-out refused to describe it on the air; you had to call in and have them describe it to you over the phone.  Never mind that a station in Chicago had described it on the air a decade before that without any issues.

Rock 102 (WAQY) in Springfield, and I'm pretty sure i95 (WRKI) in Danbury, CT did the A-Z thing.  WHCN in Hartford before it went soft used to have the Thanks for Listening Countdown every Thanksgiving weekend with the top 1006 rock songs of all-time.  Stairway to Heaven was almost always #1. 


Many stations play Alice's Restaurant at noon on Thanksgiving Day.  All three stations (even WHCN) I mentioned above do it, along with WPLR in New Haven.  It's interesting to switch between stations and see what point of the song each one is at. 

[Mark68]

"Love Is Like Oxygen" by Sweet

The single version (which seems to be the only one that ever gets played...including on the band's various greatest hits compilations) comes in at 3:46.

The album version (on Level Headed) comes in at 6:57 and IMO is SOOO much better.

[hotdogPi]

Many stations play Alice's Restaurant at noon on Thanksgiving Day.  All three stations (even WHCN) I mentioned above do it, along with WPLR in New Haven.  It's interesting to switch between stations and see what point of the song each one is at.

Same here for one particular station that I know of. Maybe it has to do with proximity to the actual location in western Massachusetts?

[US71]

Alice's Restaurant

Holy cow, that whole song on the radio??

Only about once a week, usually around 3am

[hbelkins]

Having been a journalism major in college, I had a lot of classes with folks who were majoring in broadcasting. A number of them had part-time jobs as DJs back when they played real records. We weren't that many years removed from the fame of "Frampton Comes Alive" so it was perfectly acceptable to still play songs from that album. The album version of "Do You Feel Like We Do" was the song of choice when the DJ had to go to the restroom for a bowel movement.

As for album lengths, Van Halen was notorious for putting out short albums. Most of their pre-Hagar releases were not long at all.

In terms of fitting music on CDs or albums, Metallica could have fit "And Justice For All" onto a single vinyl album, but they said they decided to put it on two records instead of one because the sound quality of the compressed grooves would have been worse. It wasn't uncommon for albums of that length to go on just one record, but they decided to use two instead of just one.

[Scott5114]

"Green Grass and High Tides" by The Outlaws is 9:49 of pure Southern Rock bliss.  It doesn't seem that long.  In fact, I am listening to it now on YouTube.

That one will always seem long to me, because my introduction to it was in the video game Rock Band. By far the hardest song in the game, and I would usually fail about 7-8 minutes into it on expert. Never managed to do it without cheating. Great song though.

For me, I never realized War Pigs by Black Sabbath was so long. It's 7:58, but it always felt like an average 4-5 minute song to me until I specifically looked at its length.

Rock Band definitely gives you an appreciation for some songs that you would never get otherwise. One time when I had some friends over and it was my turn to pick the song, I casually chose "Roundabout" by Yes, simply because I liked the song.

Yeah, liking a song and inflicting it on your friends in Rock Band are two entirely separate things. None of us were happy (it seems like "Roundabout" has at least one section designed to torture each instrument).