“Overture” and “Underture”, which are both on the Tommy album by the Who, are two great examples. They’re best appreciated in the context of the album, which tells a story from beginning to end–the story begins in the end of Overture, and Overture introduces several leitmotifs that later weave throughout the album and are again summarized in Underture.
Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” has an extra instrumental track that’s fantastic.
They need to save time (for other hits) on best-of CDs, too. This is one of many reasons I don’t buy best-of CDs, ever, not ever.
There’s a chill-out/dream-pop/shoegazing/trip-hop/whatever group that did a great Modest Mouse cover album you’d probably like. The album’s title is from a line in one of the MM songs. Damnit, can’t remember the name of the record or the band…tonight I’ll try to remember to call in to the best radio show ever and request a song from it, and thusly relearn the names you’ll need.
BTW, the bizarre musical numbers are my favorite thing about Modest Mouse, hands-down.
Bluebird by Buffalo Springfield actually has a long instrumental section, cut out for the single and the album. The first Retrospective CD has the short version, I believe the long version came out on a later one. I have it from a WBCN rare tape night.
There are a ton of live Cream songs with long instrumental sections - Spoonful, Toad, Politician, Sweet Wine, etc. etc. None really radio fare, at least not these days.
One song that deserved the editing was “Get Ready” by Rare Earth.
I think their uncut version rambled on for 20 minutes. I could be mistaken but I believe it has never been played uncut on any radio station. (I could be wrong).
The edited version is quite an improvement.
Big Country’s “In a Big Country” begins with a great drum solo- but that solo is cut from the version I suaully heard on all but “classic rock” radio stations.
Genesis’ “Abacab” had a long instrumental section at the end, but that was removed from the single (and wasn’t included in the MTV video).
Another Zeppelin song with a long instrumental portion is “The Rain Song” off Houses of the Holy. The instrumental bit takes up about four minutes in the middle of a seven-minute song.
I’ve been playing it a lot on my iPod lately; the instrumental section features a pleasant orchestral arrangement and it (just) avoids the excess of their better-known songs.
It’s funny, growing up 100 miles away from NYC, I could hear their AM stations. WNBC would play “funky shit,” while WABC would play “funky kicks.” Perhaps it was vice-versa, but it was still kind of weird.
I got sooo tired of all of the sins listed above. Now, I hear “Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida” in all its glory(?) on the way to work. The edit that always bugged me the most was mentioned in the OP: “Light My Fire.”
Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick has a cut-down version that I’ve occasionally heard on Classic Rock stations, taking the 45+ minutes of the original and making it about 7-8 minutes.
OTOH, the Kink’s (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman had a long instrumental section added to the album cut.
The tail end of Paper Sun by Traffic was cut off the single. It was originally put on the album – but at the end of the record, where Paper Sun was the first song. Later versions of the song includes the coda.
Nitpick: That’s technically two songs. Every CD I’ve ever seen of both the American and London versions, as well as the score, list it as either “Bangkok/One Night in Bangkok” or “Golden Bangkok/One Night in Bangkok”.
Live version, though…right? I’d have to say that doesn’t count. There are many examples of songs that have 3:00 studio versions, but get padded out to 30 min in concert.
Ohhh, there’s plenty of Floyd songs that do this (besides SOYCD), Here’s the biggest “offenders”:
Echoes
The Narrow Way
SSoSFAGTiaCaGwaP
These songs also almost qualify:
Welcome to the Machine
Dogs
Us and Them / Any Colour you Like / Brain Damage (which I always think of as one song.)
Same thing with Speak to me/Breathe/On the Run, which always get played together on Classic Rock stations
On of these days… (which doesn’t really qualify as it only has one line)
