What Do You Consider A "Long" Song?

[Cosmic Harmony]

The average song is between three and half and four and half minutes long but what constitutes a song being "long" in your opinion?

For me personally I a song is generally a long song once it hits the 12+ minute mark.

 

[aeroplane]

I'd say around the 8-minute mark.

 

[Minz]

I would say over 6 or 7 minutes, Echos - Pink Floyd is a good example, that must be 20 minutes long.

 

[Flower]

"Stairway to Heaven" it goes on and on and on and on and on .....

 

[Mr. Shadow]

Back in the days of vinyl a song per side was long. On CD's it can extend to over forty minutes. The real question is what radio thought of as a long song. The formula is 31/2 to 4 minutes, but with songs like "Free Bird" and "Stairway to Heaven" the industry had to be more flexible. youtube seems to break up songs around the 10 minute mark. Your not likely to hear the Allman Brother's 41 minute version of "Mountain Jam" any time soon on the radio. Many Classic Rock stations waited until the evening hours to open thins up a bit and some would play entire albums.

 

[aeroplane]

When I was still doing radio, the longest songs I remember playing were:

-Yes: Endless Dream (all three parts, from the album Talk)
-Judas Priest: Loch Ness
-Iron Butterfly: Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida
-Numerous live tracks that were over 10 minutes

I'm sure there were others. My only issue was screening them ahead of time for cuss words and that was mostly during the between-song stage raps with the live stuff.

 

[Groovy Man]

I'd say around the 8-minute mark.

That what I was thinking.

 

[Fever]

Around 8 or 9 minutes

 

[Magic]

Depends on the song....too hear the same loop and hook over and over becomes long after a minute or so, but if the song is building and layering sounds then comes to a crescendo then begins the same trek downhill, the downhill becomes too long.

I am a prog fan and prog songs do tend to be quite lengthy. As long as a song can hold my interest, length isn't the issue.


If I have to choose a number for the sake of the thread, I would say cap a song at 6 minutes max. That gives plenty of time for a killer intro, solo, and outro.

 

[troggy]

For me personally I a song is generally a long song once it hits the 12+ minute mark.

Way shorter than that, for me.