Way too many Bright Eyes songs dissolve into dissonance, ambient noise, or random plunking on the piano. I don’t even know if this can be considered part of the song, and I guess it’s more authentic or something but still it really chaps my ass.
Dylan’s “Memphis Blues”. Just when you’ve had enough, it keeps going. After you’ve had too much, the second half begins. As suicide beckons, the last quarter starts and on and on and on and on and on and on…
Same with “The Hurricane” but with terrible fiddle involved.
In fact, most Dylan and Springsteen songs could lose about 3/4 at least.
The full version of Purple Rain. In fact, come to think of it, you could do a post on just the Prince songs that go on too long!
I counted the "I’m getting closer to my home"s once. I think it was 26.
About half of the Where It All Begins CD from the Allman Brothers. Good Lord that one can be a snoozer. It’s like musical valium.
Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon” is a great song that needs to be about a minute shorter. You think it’s fading out, and it just keeps going and going. I don’t think I’ve ever hit “repeat” on that song because I’m so sick of it when it’s over.
Also, I always considered “I Want You/She’s So Heavy” to be the one weak spot on the Beatles’ *Abbey Road * (yes, I actually do like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”). Talk about too damn long! It sounds really cool, but there’s not enough there to carry it through 5 or 6 minutes.
And I guess I’ll throw in the pretentious, unlistenable “Revolution Number 9,” even though it’s not technically a song at all.
Basically, if you’ve got 2 minutes worth of ideas, make a 2-minute song out of it.
The hard part is recognizing that you have only 2 minutes worth of ideas.
I came into this thread to mention “Freebird” but I figured someone would beat me to the punch. Ditto for “Hey Jude” and the CCR version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. Here are my additions:
[ul]
[li]“Paradise City” by Guns n’ Roses. The ending phrase repeating over and over gets old fast.[/li][li] “Alive” by Pearl Jam suffers from the same problem.[/li][/ul]
I love progressive rock because of the long tracks that vary in melody and usually don’t repeat the same few measures over and over at the end. It isn’t the length that bothers me about long songs, it’s the damn repitition that gets stale on me.
“An Innocent Man” by Billy Joel. I started out liking the song. By the time it was over I’d had way too much of it.
My default radio station then went on to make it the Song of the Week for about a month so I heard it another 1,057 times. Way too much.
For me there’s a huge difference between songs that just take too long to fade out (can’t stand them) and those that are long to make room for improvisation or musicial expression.
Agree: Innocent Man, Layla, Hey Jude, Freebird
Disagree: ELP, IHITT Grapevine, Hotel California
Bonus points to Tabula Rasa for getting that ‘you spin me round’ lyric stuck in my head…
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG, wrong, wrong.
I’m with Asimovian here. “Ain’t No Sunshine” in its entirety is only 2:04 minutes long. And, as I love the song, and have no life 
, I just timed the “I knows.” Exactly 15 seconds and they’re all over, folks.
Most of the repertoire of the Grateful Dead. In concert, anyway.
Kicking ass and taking names? The out of the blue shift works for me.
Some days I really dig the end of Hey Jude; some I cut it off. More the former than the latter though.
Bingo. I came in here to nominate that one.
Most of Elton John’s 1970’s stuff that he wrote with Bernie Taupin. He’ll do a quite nice little song - then repeat the whole darn thing for no discernible reason. Even their more memorable efforts - “Your Song” “Tiny Dancer” “Levon” “Daniel” - suffered from this.
another Eagles’: “Lying Eyes”. This one, as well as an earlier one called “Witchy Woman” seemed to go on and on pointlessly forever.
It’s the TARDIS song – the most annoying part is only 15 seconds long, but feels so much longer.
But I’d hate it even without the repepepepepepepepepepepepepepepetition. Just the way he sings it is even dreaerier than the lyrics. I hit the radio button long before he gets to the “I know” part.
I like Lying Eyes a lot, it’s a story song and I can identify with the story. People probably do get tired of hearing the chorus though.
Yeah, Witchy Woman starts off good but goes on way too long.
You’re all completely overlooking the most obvious choice.
Jose Feliciano: I only have three things I want to say in my christmas song, but I need to fill three minutes of airtime. Maybe if I repeat “Felize Navidad” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, no one will notice. Imagine all the royalty money I can make.
I’ve got a different one by Meatloaf, since I haven’t seen gigi in here yet. “Heaven Can Wait” is a nice, romantic song, but it’s got a few seconds of tinkly, fairy-like piano solo which should *not * be in there. Tinkly, fairy-like piano soloa (or tinkly, fairy-like anything else) and large, powerful tenors are a truly bad combination! :eek: