The Longest Songs In Classic Rock History Are Even Cooler Today

Even looking back from the 21st century, there's a unique sub-set of music that no genre could pull off better, or with more frequency, than classic rock: extremely long songs. The 1970s were a time of extremes, both stylistically and length-wise. While the shortest No. 1 hits of the '70s were generally punchy, crunchy, and had broad appeal among the spectrum of taste, rock bands of the era challenged listeners by presenting dense material exploring in depth topics like psychology, spirituality, and folklore, and in single tracks that might play on for 10, 15, or even 20 minutes. Sometimes they went on for even longer.

It should come as little surprise that a list of the longest songs ever committed to vinyl (often half of a standard LP) is heavy on contributions by progressive rock acts and jam bands. For these '70s musical phenomena, taking rock to strange new places or getting caught in a free-form artistic odyssey meant refusing to adhere to the strict guidelines of pop music, particularly the notion that a song ought to be around three or four minutes. Their songs were audacious, cool, and of course, extremely lengthy. These are five of the longest (and still charming) songs from classic rock.

In 1972, British folky prog-rockers Jethro Tull unleashed "Thick as a Brick," a concept album that was really a concept song. It's a satire allegedly written by the fictional character Gerald Bostock, an 8-year-old boy, and as the song unfolds, it's critical of a number of societal institutions.

Originally split in two only because of the limitations of physical media in 1972, "Thick as a Brick" is one song that originally took up both sides of an entire LP of the same name. That presentation was maintained when issued on CD for the first time in 1985, separated into two digital tracks, and kept that way on streaming platforms, too. However, "Thick as a Brick" is one cohesive whole, running for a grand total of 43 minutes and 55 seconds — longer than some albums and easily claiming the title of longest song in the classic rock canon. Jethro Tull did attempt to work with the musical mainstream, releasing a three-minute cut of "Thick as a Brick" to radio, but it flopped in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Based on Donovan's "There is a Mountain," the Allman Brothers Band's "Mountain Jam" is almost exactly what it says — an initially improvised jam session that was an outgrowth of and a response to the trippy 1967 Donovan hit "There is a Mountain." "He just started playing it one day," Greg Allman wrote in his memoir "My Cross to Bear" about his deceased brother Duane's inspiration. "It's not that he had a thing for Donovan — it's just a happy little melody, and it makes for a really nice jam. You hear a song, and you can just tell if you can jam on it or not." 

"Mountain Jam" debuted on vinyl on the Allman Brothers Band's 1972 album "Eat a Peach," captured live during a concert staged the previous year. Split into two, one part spans around 19 minutes, 19 minutes and seven seconds, and the album ender goes on for about 15 minutes. Put together, it's an epic 33-minute and 43-second master work.

The artsy and cerebral progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer was a dizzying, dazzling trio that was never not far-reaching, and 1973's "Brain Salad Surgery" was perhaps its most ambitious work, highlighted by "Karn Evil 9." Composed and intended as one long song with multiple sections, or "impressions," it stretches over two sides of one vinyl LP in its original form, with "1st Impression – Part 1" finishing out the A side, and continuing on the other with "1st Impression – Part 2," "2nd Impression," and "3rd Impression."

One portion of the song, the side-two-starting "1st Impression, Part 2," garnered rock radio airplay because it's relatively accessible and jaunty, beginning with Greg Lake evoking a barker as he calls out "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends." It clocks in at just under five minutes, a sliver of the total "Karn Evil 9" running time of 29 minutes and 35 seconds.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" dominates the 1975 album "Wish You Were Here," an emotional gamut-running and introspective treatise written in part as a reflection on how original member Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd in 1968 due to mental illness and substance abuse issues. "I remember feeling very sad about Syd," Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter Roger Waters told Classic Rock. "And there was guilt there, too," he added, on account of how Pink Floyd had since become one of the most successful bands on the planet. As the group worked on the song, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" became about more than just missing Barrett and hoping for his re-emergence, but many kinds of profound loss, like how two Pink Floyd musicians were coping with failing marriages.

Artistically split into two large chunks in order to bookend the LP, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" consists of nine distinct parts, with the first running as one continuous piece at the top of the record, and parts six through nine completing the album. That makes for a running time of 25 minutes and 33 seconds.

Genesis began their 1971 album "Nursery Crime," with "The Musical Box," a 10-and-a-half-minute story song about two proper, upper-crust children whose game of croquet turns violent and supernatural. On their next album, 1972's "Foxtrot," Genesis decided to get even bigger and weirder with another musical tale, and they cobbled together "Supper's Ready." It's about a couple who journey to weird and distant lands, only to return home for the world's end, inspired by singer Peter Gabriel's wife's rumored supernatural possession and subsequent exorcism.

"Supper's Ready" takes up the whole B-side (or second half) of "Foxtrot," and it's more of a suite than a song, broken down into seven sections: "Lover's Leap," "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man," "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry-Men," "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?," "Willow Farm," "Apocalypse in 9/8," and "As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)." It's essentially a compact, miniature concept album tacked onto an unrelated bunch of songs. "Supper's Ready" is also about the length of a supper, measuring up at nearly 23 minutes.