[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
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I adore Anna Russell. I really need to get my hands on her analysis of the cycle. I heard it on PBS radio years and years ago.
One of my favorite lines,
[QUOTE=Anna Russell]
Well this dreary lot of aunts, if they don’t tell this whole story right over again from the beginning. So actually you can miss out Parts 1, 2, and 3, and come in at the beginning of Göttedammerung, and you’ll be just as far ahead.
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[QUOTE=Ludovic]
Lots of early Pink Floyd does nothing for the albums they are on and some actively take away from the albums by disruption. Then again, I wouldn’t exactly call Interstellar Overdrive or Powr-toc-H indulgence exactly, but most of the instrumental pieces on Ummagumma are. (Of the originals on that album I only pretty much like The Narrow Way, and the last part with the lyrics from SSoSFAGTiaCaGwaP…the musical intro is pretty indulgent.)
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I didn’t know and had to look it up and will now share just in case there are others that don’t know.
SSoSFAGTiaCaGwaP = Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
I really need to get my hands on her analysis of the cycle.
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You’ve got mail.
I love Wilco, and their song “Less Than You Think” (off A Ghost Is Born) is an awfully nice 3-minute song. The problem is the track is 15:04 long, and the rest of the song consists of mostly an electronic hum. Jeff Tweedy’s explanation was that the listener can choose how much of it to listen to, and that he “finds it moving and cathartic” when he is in the mood to listen to the whole thing.
Love your work, man, but my choice is to leave it off my iPod as a result.
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
You’ve got mail.
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Have I mentioned that I may love you? 
:o
[QUOTE=Marley23]
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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I don’t think its bad, and have been known to play the whole thing in certain altered states, but come on- there’s like five different solos and a drum duel! Indulgent isn’t always synonomous with bad.
If they just kept it to one side of an LP, I’d have no problem at all, but when you are getting into it and have to get up and flip the record over, well that kind of spoils it.
[QUOTE=EsotericEnigma]
An awful lot by Dream Theater is annoyingly indulgent. Still love them though.
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Well if you’re gonna bring Dream Theater into the equation then you’ve got quite a few choices.
–A Change of Seasons is 23:09.
–Octavarium is 23:59
–A quick check appears to show 16 other songs of at least 10 minutes (not counting any live stuff)
–and the crown jewel of DT’s self indulgence must surely be the entire second disc of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence which runs a whopping 42 minutes or so (while they wisely chose to split it into separate tracks for the CD, it’s all one song).
[QUOTE=Marley23]
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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It does seem a bit odd to talk about long rock music tracks as “self-indulgent” when jazz musicians and classical composers routinely did tracks longer than most.
If “Mountain Jam” is self-indulgent because of its length, why isn’t Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? It’s much longer.
Miles Davis played “Bitches Brew” for 27 minutes. Is that self-indulgent?
However, I do agree the jams in All Things Must Pass are never better than mediocre. But they really weren’t intended to be part of the album. It’s the equivalent of digging up “bonus tracks” from an album to add to a CD – usually there is a good reason they were left off the record in the first place.
I always skip ahead on Mountain Jam to the end of the bass solo. That’s when it really starts to cook. Takes the whole thing down to about 6 minutes, too!