Top 15 Long Songs

So I really am trying to post more, but I have been busy as hell! One of the things I have been busy with is preparing for a conference in Puerto Rico, and I will be leaving for said conference very very early Thursday morning. This is actually one of the busiest conferences I’ve ever had (of course that happens when its in PR!), but rest assured I will find some time to enjoy the weather, area, and the country. But, nonetheless, I owe all of you a good post, and I’ve been working on this post of the best 15 long songs for awhile. I am qualifying long as being at least 7:25 long, as the iTunes flies, and should not have a shorter, more popular version available. Enjoy! J

15. Cartel – A (9:45): From Cartel’s amazing CD, “Chroma”. It is kind of mash-up of all the songs on the album, so if you don’t want to listen to the whole album (which you should!), you could just listen to this.

14. Crazy Game of Poker – O.A.R. (8:43): A pretty good and entertaining song, that has special meaning because O.A.R. is from Ohio, and they were just getting known locally when I was a freshman in college. This song was also a popular party song in Bowling Green, leading to my friends and I to laugh and look down on the underclassmen when were seniors, “Look at them, they think this song just came out!”

13. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird (9:11): Besides being an incredible song that is both critically and popularly loved, it is played during a pivotal scene in “Forrest Gump”, definitely a top 50 movie.

12. Don McLean – American Pie (8:32): Not even necessarily one of my favorite song, and definitely not my favorite Don McLean song. But it has great lyrics, and who hear hasn’t sung this song while drunk with like 15 other people.

11. Oasis – D’you Know What I Mean (7:43): A very underappreciated song by Oasis because it was on the album after “What’s the Story, Morning Glory?”. Nonetheless, great song, and not a second wasted throughout the 7+ minutes.

10. Tool – Lateralus (9:24): There were less Tool songs to choose from than I thought (my favorites tended to be in the 5-6 minutes range). That doesn’t make this song any less deserving, as it is one of their best will never cease to pump me up and mess with my head (as do most Tool songs)

9. Metallica – One (7:25): A classic, and the shortest song on the list. Thought about getting rid of it just to make the requirement higher, but just couldn’t do it. Too classic, too awesome, and has probably one of the best guitar solos ever (which was the bane of my existence when I played Guitar Hero!)

8. Something Corporate – Konstantine (9:36): Great lyrics for the entire 9+ minutes; it reads more like a poem than a song. “This is because I can spell confusion with a ‘k’ and I can like it.” “And I was thinkin’, what I was thinkin’, we’ve been drinking and it doesn’t get me anywhere.”

7. Bob Dylan – Hurricane (8:32): I love songs that tell a story, and special bonus for telling the story of one of the great racial injustices of our time.

6. Oasis – Champagne Supernova (7:28): I didn’t realize how long Oasis’s songs were until I did this! What can say about Champagne Supernova except that it is an absolute classic…especially for us 90’s brats. So where were you while we getting high?

5. Guns N’ Roses – November Rain (8:57): Should it not make the list because its really two great songs in one, or should it be more exalted for having two separate but both amazing intertwined sections. I go with the latter, and not much gets as excited musically then when that rhythms switches to the 2^nd half.

4. Pink Floyd – Us & Them (7:50): Again, surprised to not find more Pink Floyd songs on the list, but I think it just seems that all their songs are long because their albums all flow into one coherent song. This is one of my favorites, off a nostalgic album for me (Dark Side of the Moon), which always brings back great memories and one funny but bad one.

3. Green Day – Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned (9:08): A testament to the fact that not only is the rock opera not dead, but that Green Day can do it as well as anyone! “I read the graffiti in the bathroom stalls, like the holy scripture of the shopping malls.”

2. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven (8:02): Really not a whole lot I can say here, simply one of the best songs of all-time, and is slowly chipping away at “Going to California” as my favorite Led Zeppelin song. Pretty sure I could listen to song on loop for a few hours and enjoy every minute of it.

1. Relient K - Deathbed (11:05): I have already extolled the virtues of this song. Somehow, it is fun, depressing, profound, and nonsensical, all at the same time. And if you are into Christianity, its got the extra bonus of being about God! In this song, it’s even a nice touch for us heathens. I could put up all the lyrics, its that good, but I’ll use this gem: “By ‘47, I was 14. I developed a taste for liquor and nicotine. I smoked until I threw up, yet I still l lit them up for 30 more years, like a machine. So right there you have it, that one filthy habit, is what got me where I am today.”