# Most Indulgent Long Tracks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 7, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476 "2008-05-07T20:25:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/21 "2008-05-08T04:17:50Z")
The king of the indulgent studio long tracks is, of course, Jethro Tull’s album length “Thick as a Brick.” It is utterly brilliant, but both musically and lyrically (and the album cover as well) utterly indulgent.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9” is also up there.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/22 "2008-05-08T04:21:36Z")
My whole life to date has been an excercise in the mastery of the science of self-indulgence, and can really appriaciate the work thusly mentioned. (Man, I really like _Topographic Oceans_!)
I had a perfect nomination for this (aside from Floyd’s _Several Small Species…_), but have forgotten it just now. :dubious:
Forgive the obvious shortcomings of this post, as I am self-indulging in homebrew at the moment…
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### Author:  [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/23 "2008-05-08T04:24:07Z")
> [@neutron star](#):
>
> I pretty much wore out my dad’s ancient LP of that one…[-snip-]
> …The times I had in high school with just that song on repeat and several hits of acid, I, uh, I’d better shut up now.
Heheh…I should probably mention that although I wasn’t around when “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” came out, from what I’ve heard, it was basically created BY people on acid, FOR people on acid. Which at least lends it a bit of purpose, I guess, but it still doesn’t do it for me.
My general take on extended, instrumental-heavy “jam session” - type songs is that they would all probably sound a whole lot better live, in person, than from a recording. So if someone told me about how they once went to a 'Dead concert and the band did a 35-minute song and it just blew their mind, I could understand that, but I would think that a large contributor to that mind-blowing would be the concert atmosphere itself.
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### Author:  [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/24 "2008-05-08T04:27:00Z")
Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light”, which takes a scatterbrained snapshot of life in the clubs and tries to turn it into something heavy (and throws in “Chopsticks” for good measure.)
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### Author:  [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/25 "2008-05-08T04:43:39Z")
[QUOTE=HongKongFooey]
They’re rank amateurs compared to Mars Volta though, they’ve mastered self-indulgent music (in a good way IMO).
[/QUOTE]
I went to a concert and Mars Volta opened. I wasn’t familiar with their music. To me, it sounded like an hour set of one song. I could not, for the life of me, figure out where one song ended and another began. Hell, for all I know it was all the same song.
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/26 "2008-05-08T14:05:45Z")
Chicago’s “Beginnings” tends to get a little tedious after awhile.
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### Author:  [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/27 "2008-05-08T14:19:47Z")
Allmans “Mountain Jam”- you can’t get more indulgent than a song that takes up more than one side of an LP.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/28 "2008-05-08T14:24:29Z")
Any song with a bass solo or a drum solo that lasts more than 1:30.
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/29 "2008-05-08T14:27:18Z")
John Cage - “4:33”
4:32 too long.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/30 "2008-05-08T14:27:30Z")
[QUOTE=ianzin]
_Tales From Topographic Oceans_ by Yes.
[/QUOTE]
This was the first thing that came to my mind, but of course I’m late to the thread.
It is described as one song, in four parts, over a double album.
Time to free up some room on my iPod for _Nous Sommes de Soleil_.
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/31 "2008-05-08T14:35:05Z")
Many years ago I went to a Santana concert, and they did a version of _Soul Sacrifice_ that went on for what seemed like hours and hours of pure self-indulgent drum orgying … and I loved it. 😃
Of course my appreciation for the passing of time was … somewhat affected, shall we say, by the amount of LSD I had taken.
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### Author:  [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/32 "2008-05-08T15:03:50Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
Almost forgot…Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort from Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. (Also called Brunnhilde’s Immolation scene) 20 damn minutes, for one freaking aria.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but considering ‘Das Rheingold’ starts with the basses playing an Eb for about 45 seconds, joined by the bassons with a Bb that goes on for another minute, I think we were made aware from the first that Wagner was in no kind of hurry.
Still a cool set of operas, though.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/33 "2008-05-08T15:20:31Z")
[QUOTE=Le Ministre de l’au-delà]
Yes, but considering ‘Das Rheingold’ starts with the basses playing an Eb for about 45 seconds, joined by the bassons with a Bb that goes on for another minute, I think we were made aware from the first that Wagner was in no kind of hurry.
Still a cool set of operas, though.
[/QUOTE]
Oh certainly. I would have added the entire cycle, but the Immolation scene was the easiest single piece to pick out.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/34 "2008-05-08T16:01:02Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Overall, though I like when musicians do long versions of songs. It gives them a chance to show their musicianship. The Allman Brothers doing the “Mountain Jam” for 30 minutes works just fine, for instance.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Allmans “Mountain Jam”- you can’t get more indulgent than a song that takes up more than one side of an LP.
[/QUOTE]
I’m with Chuck. Long is not the same as self-indulgent, and I think Mountain Jam is a great piece of music (even if it’s often hard to find enough time to sit there and really listen to it) and maybe the most uniquely Allman Brothers song there is.
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### Author:  [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/35 "2008-05-08T21:14:07Z")
[The Rascals’ Peaceful World (title track)](http://www.amazon.com/Peaceful-World-Rascals/dp/B00000I55Y) is another one of those entire album side extended jam sessions, but I have always loved it. Still have it on vinyl, still listen to it.
The entire album was quite a departure from their blue-eyed soul stuff,there is a jazz feel, but also a harp and a chick singing (I’m talking Hubie Laws, Alice Coltrane).
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/36 "2008-05-08T22:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara]
Cream’s 16 minute version of _Toad_ from _Wheels of Fire_ with its 13 minute drum solo.
[/QUOTE]
And every second a gem. I might be the only person in the world who was disappointed that the extended version on the box set had a longer intro, not a longer solo.
In-a-Gadda-da-Vita at the other hand demonstrates at length that the drummer of Iron Butterfly had very little talent. Did anyone over 18 buy that album - I think pretty much everyone under 18 did, given the sales. (And I was under 18 at the time.)
I think Hideaway (actually Stepping Out) on Live Cream vol, 2 is far more self indulgent, much as I love Eric.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/37 "2008-05-08T22:43:17Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
Almost forgot…Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort from Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. (Also called Brunnhilde’s Immolation scene) 20 damn minutes, for one freaking aria.
[/QUOTE]
That explains a problem I’ve been having. I’ve taken out the other three operas from the library, but can’t find this one. Probably because anyone listening to it threw the CD against the wall or something at this point.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/38 "2008-05-08T22:56:06Z")
“Apple Jam,” anyone?
“All Things Must Pass” is often referred to as a triple album. I prefer to think of it as a double album plus a bonus disc of self-indulgent instrumental noodling that I am free to skip.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/39 "2008-05-08T23:10:25Z")
[QUOTE=Le Ministre de l’au-delà]
Yes, but considering ‘Das Rheingold’ starts with the basses playing an Eb for about 45 seconds, joined by the bassons with a Bb that goes on for another minute, I think we were made aware from the first that Wagner was in no kind of hurry.
Still a cool set of operas, though.
[/QUOTE]
🙂
> [@Anna Russell](#):
>
> At the beginning of _Das Rheingold_, the orchestra play the chord of E-flat major for about a six minutes. There’s not too much I need tell you about this. If you know the chord of E-flat major, you know the prelude to _Rheingold_.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-indulgent-long-tracks/448476/40 "2008-05-08T23:12:16Z")
[QUOTE=cornflakes]
Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light”, which takes a scatterbrained snapshot of life in the clubs and tries to turn it into something heavy (and throws in “Chopsticks” for good measure.)
[/QUOTE]
The indulgence is taking Bruce Springsteen’s song and messing with it.
Did Manfred Mann actually write anything?
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