# The best LOOOONG songs of all time
**URL:** https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643
**Category:** General
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [June 6, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643 "2026-06-06T14:10:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/1 "2026-06-06T14:10:31Z")
For some reason Google News decided to throw this gem from a year and a half ago into my feed today:
[The Top 20 songs longer than 10 minutes](https://www.goldminemag.com/music-history/the-top-20-songs-longer-than-10-minutes/)
I’ve got over 50 years of some somewhat hazy research invested in this topic, so I was rather pleased and unsurprised to see “Close To The Edge” by Yes top the list. But I immediately thought, that’s great, but “The Gates of Delirium” is better. Now I had to see the entire 20. Predictably, there is some Pink Floyd and Zep present, and there’s some stuff in there I wouldn’t salvage from a clean dumpster.
Overall, I was pleased that “Telegraph Road” and the epic “Thick As A Brick” made the list. For me, the glaring omissions are “Cowgirl In The Sand” by Neil Young and (WTF?!?) “In A Gadda Da Vida” by Iron Butterfly. How would YOU alter the list?
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Lee](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Steve_Lee)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/2 "2026-06-06T14:14:05Z")
You should(nt) hear some of my drum recording rants . . . that I NEVER share . . . .
Your list is off to a good start!
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### Author:  [@ron\_e](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/ron_e)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/4 "2026-06-06T15:18:52Z")
How about some long form jazz. Jim Hall’s Concierto De Aranjuez features a who’s who of great musicians and clocks in at just under 20 minutes.
[![](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/uploads/default/original/2X/7/73c1ea82276406272dd2e8b74a6ddbee8f1989a7.jpeg "Jim Hall : "CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ" (Joaquin Rodrigo) (rec. 1975)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qd3dNQFKDE)
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### Author:  [@Ed\_Perkins](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Ed_Perkins)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/5 "2026-06-06T15:26:37Z")
Talk about clickbait! Here’s my top three:
1. Machine Gun, Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsys, 12:38
2. Voodoo Chile, Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland,14:50
3. Whipping Post, Allman Brother’s, Filmore East, 22:40
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### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 3:43pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/6 "2026-06-06T15:43:49Z")
Not gonna dis the Hendrix. I also felt the Allman void, but most of their great stuff only exceeded 10 minutes when played live. I think for this list you need to exclude live versions or “Stairway to Freebird” becomes number 1.
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### Author:  [@6thplanet](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/6thplanet)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/7 "2026-06-06T16:39:46Z")
Ehh, at least one of Maidens epics made the list, the most notable one.
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### Author:  [@Wolf](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Wolf)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/8 "2026-06-06T17:17:17Z")
I like Iron Butterfly! I actually own that CD.
Others…
Meshuggah - I
Nightwish - The Poet and the Pendulum
Dream Theater - 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Many songs by DT over 6 minutes.)
Obviously, Bohemian Rhapsody, Stairway to Heaven, etc should be there.
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### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 5:35pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/9 "2026-06-06T17:35:45Z")
The jam band table just submitted their own list of…50?!?
Seriously, if I were to go there, Quarters by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard contains 4 songs that chime in at 10:10 each. The River is by far the best.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oYVABtEQY)
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### Author:  [@Hobi](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Hobi)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 10:47pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/10 "2026-06-06T22:47:29Z")
List like that are great for starting discussions: personal taste has much to do with them of course, but how could a list of long songs have Rush and Led Zeppelin but not include Hendrix?!
Agree that ‘Machine Gun’ (Band of Gypsys album version) should be number one: I’ve listened to it at least twice a week for over 50 years and am always stunned by the guitar work and feeling. There are three other versions from those BoG shows - all are very different - but the original release reigns supreme. ‘Red House’ from San Diego 1969 and ‘Hear My Train a Comin’ from Berkeley 1970 are almost as brilliant as pure long blues numbers.
Is Thick as a Brick a ‘song’, or a connected series of pieces, like the Abbey Road medley? It’s certainly a single track. Great cover too, with a rather British naughty crossword.Tull tried it again with ‘A Passion Play’ but it didn’t quite work, IMHO.
Our ABC Classic FM is conducting a poll of the top 100 Classical music works this weekend: it’s highly likely that Beethoven’s 'Choral Symphony" #9 will come up tops again. However, am I alone in thinking that noble sentiment apart, the last movement is an awful din in places?
> **[ABC Classic 100: Greatest Of All Time - ABC Classic](https://www.abc.net.au/listen/classic/countdown/classic100)**
>
> What's the greatest piece of classical music of all time? Cast your vote to have your say, and then find out as ABC Classic count down the Classic 100 on June 6 and 7, 2026
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### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/11 "2026-06-06T23:01:26Z")
“Thick as a Brick” is certainly a song, with recurring themes and thoughts. If it were Classical it would likely be broken out into parts, I suppose.
This whole Top 20 premise really becomes pretty nuts when you realize that immediately a handful of people can rattle off dozens and dozens of nominees in pretty short order.
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### Author:  [@Hobi](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Hobi)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/12 "2026-06-06T23:25:34Z")
I really liked ‘Thick as a Brick’, although my LP copy got worn out from its being played on my crappy rim drive Garrard turntable too many times! Agreed that lists are nuts, but they can lead to discovering and enjoying new music.
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### Author:  [@Analogkid455](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Analogkid455)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2026, 1:18am UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/13 "2026-06-07T01:18:23Z")
Good to see Rush in there several times and Maiden. Up the Irons!🤘
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### Author:  [@Hobi](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Hobi)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/14 "2026-06-08T23:02:52Z")
Where’s Dylan’s “Desolation Row”?!
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### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 1:01am UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/15 "2026-06-09T01:01:03Z")
…and “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by Traffic, or “Disintegration Mirrors” by Buckethead, or “7empest” by Tool?
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### Author:  [@Hobi](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Hobi)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 5:32am UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/16 "2026-06-09T05:32:19Z")
Part of the problem with any list of any kind, whether it’s worst cars, best films, best pop/rock albums etc is balancing the subjective - respondents’ tastes - with what’s ‘good’ in an objective sense.
For example, some people might vote for McDonald’s as a ‘great’ food because they like it so much, but by almost any objective measure it’s not ‘good’ food, being high in salt, fat and sugar. I cannot stand heavy metal or English folk music, but would have to agree that there are songs and albums which objectively are pretty good. However, I wouldn’t nominate them in any poll.
I can’t stand Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony - it sounds too much like Dudley Moore’s Beethoven parody - but accept that it’s ‘great’ music. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazlqD4mLvw&list=RDGazlqD4mLvw&start\_radio=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazlqD4mLvw&list=RDGazlqD4mLvw&start_radio=1)
And so on..but I still think lists can be fun.
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### Author:  [@Turn2](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/u/Turn2)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://discourse.midwestaudio.club/t/the-best-loooong-songs-of-all-time/643/17 "2026-06-09T12:32:01Z")
Lists also demonstrate why many heads are better than one, and that doesn’t apply only to music.