Songs that seemingly never end

A staple of 70s AOR. Songs that drag on and on seemingly without end.

The one that gets to me is The Police’s Message In A bottle. “Sending out an SOS” is repeated 138 times before it mercifully fades out.

On a less mainstream note, the Pixies Gigantic drags on 20 measures too long also.

The final chord on “A Day in the Life” lasted for 40 seconds.

It’s heresy, but:

Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
Na na na nanana na, nanana na, hey juuude
(one more time!)
Na na na…

Freebird!

Ringo certainly thought so…

Oh yes. Olympic organizers were forced to cancel a couple events when McCartney could not find the end of the song.

“November Rain” by Guns 'N Roses ends sometime in mid-December.

Ain’t no Sunshine When She’s Gone. Bill Withers

26 "I Know"s in a row.
This link wants you to buy it as a ringtone. Just what I need – a ringtone that goes “I know…I know…I know…I know…I know…I know…I know…I know…”

Layla is the one that bugs me.

Not only that it’s too long, but that it’s that self-indulgent twaddle of a solo at the end that makes it too long.

I change the station every time that song gets to that point. It’s not a bad song otherwise.

I’ve liked the song enough to have played it on guitar, but even I can’t stand listening to it now. What were they thinking?

You’d think a song called “The End” would actually, you know, have one.

I think that really could be a pretty decent description of the common issue with all these cited examples.

“Man, that is some fiiiiiine weed! We sound amazing!”

"Now lets put on the extra loooooong version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida … " :smiley:

Speaking of which, folksinger Christine Lavin has a song entitled “What was I thinking”, one point of which is that the siong goes on forever after it’s supposed to be finished, and has no end. Her comments over the endlessly repeated chorus are hilarious, and if you turn up the volume as it fades out you can hear her say “What? Are you still listening? You have the hearing of a dog!”

Heresy. The outro is what makes the song.

A few additions of my own;

  • Feliz Navidad. There’s about 15 seconds worth of song, and it runs for about 20 minutes.
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Same deal.
  • Sympathy for the Devil. Goes on for about a minute and a half longer than it needs to.
  • Aerosmith’s version of “The Train Kept A-Rolling”. The song ends, and then it starts over again from the beginning.

And before anyone gets any ideas, I’d just like to mention a few songs that don’t overstay their welcome;

  • Macarthur Park. You can’t cut a single second of it without losing something.
  • I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). Ditto.

“Her Majesty” doesn’t seem to.

Sorry. Can’t stand that damn tag at the end that sounds like a completely different song grafted onto a great rocker. And I play piano/keyboards, so you’d think I like it. I just find it utterly boring and repetitive. But I’ll the same about the “Hey Jude” outro, too.