It was Pink Floyd's Meddle that blew my world apart. I was 15. I'd heard someone say that the album had a song that went for the entire side. I'd never heard of this before and I was intrigued, so I bought the album. Listening to it that night changed my life forever.

"Tales From Topographic Oceans" by Yes is a double album containing 4 songs. Each song is 20+ minutes. Definitely the longest songs I've ever listened to.

A Plague Of The Lighthouse Keeper, VDGG.

Your discussion is interesting but you failed to mention Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother & Echoes. Both of these side long pieces helped to develop the band's sound and paved the way for every work that came after them.

Don't forget about The Mars Volta, Cassandra Gemini is 32 minutes (The funny thing is that it only takes up a THIRD of the full version of Frances the Mute)

Jethro Tull followed up this thick as a brick with the album long song, passion play which was more akin to an opera feeling and it had an intermission too since a dead guy is seeing his life on stage as the song states. This album had a similar story and concept as genesis' the lamb rests down on broadstreet, which also has some long epics.

Close to the Edge which I did not see even mentioned

A quick list of my favorite epics (I'm using Epics as any song longer than 10 minutes) Turn of a friendly card Lady Fantasy Child in Time Tarkus Karn Evil 9 Supper's ready Musical Box Driving the Last Spike Thick as a Brick Song for America Starless Larks Tongue and Aspic Court of the Crimson King Lizards I'd do anything for Love Shine on you Crazy Diamond Echoes Atom Heart Mother Pigs Song of Scherizade 2112 Xanadu Camera Eye Fools Overture Low Psark of High Heeled Boys Close to the Edge Giants Under the Sun At the Gates of Delirium And You and I Heart of the Sunrise Awaken (And I guess Terrapin Station also counts)

Close to the Edge is a long prog Piece, structured like a symphony. Supper’s Ready are more a suite of songs. Both are masterpieces but totally different.

Some modern prog epics: The Whirlwind by Transatlantic The Ocean by Galleon Sacrilegium by Devil Doll Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation Great video btw, it's always a treat to look for an album and the find a meaty-looking track that entails much anticipation to whether it'll stack up to one of the greats or drone on for a while. Nevertheless, the sheer effort it took to create something so potentially substantial is nothing short of amazing!

Dopesmoker by sleep is a great example of a long song. It clocks in at around 63 minutes. There is definitely some droning but I found it to be pretty engaging.

Brian Eno released "Neroli" specifically to take advantage of the features of the then-new CD format. Long quiet parts, and a single 57-ish minute track. It's quite good, mellow and introspective and moody. Although I prefer his slightly longer "Thursday Afternoon", which is beautiful and wafty and meditative. Incredible!

No mention of YES Close to the Edge or YES Tales From topographic oceans or YES Relayer.

Though it's psychedelic rather than prog, you can't go without mentioning 7 Skies H3 by the Flaming Lips. It's a 24 hour long song and it's not a gimmick, it's one of the greatest piece I've ever heard.

A plague of lighthouse keepers (Van der Graaf Generator), though I do prefer Man-Erg from that particular album

Nine feet underground - Caravan Midnight Mushrumps - Gryphon Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson

ELP - Tarkus, Karn Evil 9 Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, Dogs Genesis - Suppers Ready Rush - 2112 Yes - Close To The Edge, You and I Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson King The Beatles - The Long One (Comprising of ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, ’Sun King’/’Mean Mr. Mustard/'Polythene Pam'/'She Came In Through The Bathroom Window'/'Golden Slumbers'/Carry That Weight'/'The End')

A funeral doom act called Bell Witch released an 81-minute long epic called Mirror Reaper. It received massive critical success, and I've listened to all 4 sides of it on vinyl many times over. Not prog, but thoroughly recommended!

Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd would be first than Lizard, since the album was issued on March and Lizard on December.

Interesting video. The song 'Revelation' by Love from their 1966 LP, Da Capo, clocks in at 18:57 and takes up the whole second side of the album, and it pre-dates the Rare Earth example by three years. There's also 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands', from Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album earlier the same year, which is 'only' 11:23, but is given an entire side of the double LP to itself, and I think it might be the first 'pop record' to do that...and unlike 'Get Ready' or 'Revelation' it's an actual long composition rather than an extended jam track... As others have mentioned, the early Pink Floyd stuff also needs a mention, as probably the biggest influence on 70s progressive rock - 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' and 'Interstellar Overdrive' are surely the most obvious archetypes... I'd also want to mention Hendrix, especially '1983' from Electric Ladyland as an obvious touchstone... And I think you've also got acknowledge the influence of jazz, as well as classical music, on most the pioneering prog musicians. That's where much of the language that they're using comes from - ways to expand and extrapolate upon a musical idea... There's also a thread that you can trace from gospel music, through people like Isaac Hayes, of stretching out on a song to maximise drama, tension and release, etc...that's in there too...

The Whirlwind-Transatlantic Jam up Jelly Tight-Man are 2 of my favorites! But The Allman Brothers Live at the Filmore East: You Don't Love Me, (19.41)Whipping Post(22:02), Mountain Jam(33.17)-even though they are country rock-The Allman Brothers were progressive too!

Green Carnations's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" while not necessarily my favorite, is almost unfathomable being 1 hour, and yet it does not feel nearly that long when you listen to it.

You forgot to mention Nektar, with their album-spanning songs "Remenber the future" and "Recycled" both well over half an hour long. Utopia's "The Ikon" is also a solid thirty minutes. One hour long "Amarok" by Mike oldfield might also be worth mentioning.

Thanks for including Passion Play. I've heard bits, now I'll give it a full listen.👍

The greatest "long song" is undeniably Close to the Edge.

On the whole I enjoyed this video; it seemed reasonably well researched, but I'm disappointed that Tales From Topographic Oceans wasn't even mentioned in passing. It was noteworthy at the time as I think it was the first time a commercially successful rock band released a double album of 4 side-long songs, each clocking in at around 20 min.

Going Home (1966) - The Rolling Stones Up In Her Room (1966) - The Seeds Revelation - Love (1966) All over 10 minutes of proto-punk greatness

You missed the idea that an Album was originally a pile of '78s, packaged like a book. Also Pentangle's Jack Orion (1970) was an important transition between the long folk song and the prog epic. Fans of Gentle Giant will be surprised by this music, fully 4 years before Octopus.

People tend to forget Halo of Flies by Alice Cooper. Not too long, but still long and epic. Song of the Marching Children by Earth and Fire another less known epic.

I reckon The Iliad by Homer was a great long song but I preferred his Odyssey as it got down and dirty. Especially enjoyed those years long sojourn with Calypso, really dreamy. That guy with the lyre could really shred. Pity about what happened to him when he got messed up with those groupies. Plus Achilles was a bit of a heel as a hero.

Pink Floyd: Dogs and Echoes Elton John: Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding Emerson, Lake & palmer: Take A Pebble and Pirates Loggins & Messina: Vahevala Iron Butterfly: In A Gadda Da Vida

This is pretty damn good! Greetings from Illinois!

Two great side-long songs that are often overlooked ( I refuse to use the "U" word!) are both called "Flight". first by Rare Bird from "As Your Mind Flies By", second by Peter Hammill from "A Black Box". Both amazing multi faceted songs.

there are long songs in many genres. Like Post Rcok, The early Elecronic (Vangelis, Terry Riley, Tangerine Dream and many others) and many folk songs. Sure the Progressive Rcokers are inspayerd many of them, but they wasn't the only one and wasnt the first ones.

Wasn't it Evelyn Waugh who wrote "I went to see a Wagner opera. After 3 hours I looked my watch and 5 minutes had passed". Or words to that effect. But I love good music, be it Killer Queen or Rush's Xanadu. Or Mahler's 6th Symphony which ends with a 30 minute long movement. Thanks for this great video.

In a Held Twas In I from Procol Harum’s Shine on Brightly was probably the 1st prog suite ever and is very overlooked

Wasnt atom heart mother the first prog side long song

When I was a teen with no real music preference other than the typical music magazine top 100s rock songs but I thought Guns n Roses Estranged and November Rain were the best songs ever and loved how long they were and how they were so good they'd feel like a 2 minute song. Then went on a magical discovering starting with things like Dream Theatre, Tool and even the classics from the 70s and now consider myself as someone who loves prog Do agree that a prog doesn't necessarily need to be a long song but surely do love them "Epics". Thanks for making these super fun videos. Keep up the great work 😉🤘

I recommend listening to Pink Floyd's "Echoes" and "Atom Heart Mother", followed by Uriah Heep's "Salisbury" and finshing off with Colosseum's "Valentyne Suite".

One of my favorite long songs is Queen's "The Prophet's Song", even though eight minutes is short for prog.

Hey, cool video indeed! I have a "rotten peach" soft spot in my heart for long prog epics. I see that you didn't mention Atom Heart Mother as an influential piece, and, as far as I'm aware, it's the first prog (and maybe even rock) song to take the length of a full side. And it's also my favorite song of all time, so I was expecting to see it here, but it's honestly negligible. I totally subbed though, this channel is fantastic! I am looking forward to creating these types of videos in the future.

Up In Her Room from the album Web Of Sound by The Seeds released in Oct. 1966 clocks in at 14 and a half minutes and Revelation on the Da Capo album by Love released Nov. 1966 at just shy of 19 minutes. These are garage/psych tunes.

And before all of these, The Chambers Brothers - Time has Come Today - 1967 One of the first heavy social comment.

My favorites are: Child in Time When The Music's Over Sister Ray 1983 (a merman I shall turn out to be) Echoes Heroin The Solid Time of Change Kashmir Starless Thank You For Talkin' To Me Africa Maggot Brain

Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch... clocks in a little under an hour and a half. 83 minutes of haunting progressive doom metal brilliance.

Moon in June-Soft Machine Halleluwah-Can Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh-Magma Living in the Heart of the Beast-Henry Cow Paprika Plains-Joni Mitchell

Ah, long songs, sidelong suites, whatever you call them, I love them so. Here's some of my loves: -The Portrait of A Boy: Suite in 3 Movements by Horizont -Memento z Banalnym Tryptykiem by SBB -Fand (1st and 2nd movements, 1977 version) by The Enid -Follies by Dice -The Nile For A While by Mr. Sirius -Birds by Trace -Halloween by Pulsar -Song For Witches by Duncan Mackay -Elohim's Voyage by Weidorje -Animale Senza Respiro by Osanna

wow way to good for just 3k subs holy moly!

Beardfish-Sleeping In Traffic clocks in at 35:44. It is amazing. Another very good one also from a Swedish band is A Dangerous Journey by Ritual. It lasts 26:33 and is an epic piece of prog rock. Enjoy.

Your videos are so underrated

Spock’s Beard’s The Great Nothing (27 mins)/ Transatlantic’s The Whirlwind (77 mins). Neal Morse is the current king of the long epic song.

I think people tend to get long prog songs confused with long "jam band" songs. The reason why the Grateful Dead can't be considered prog is that there was no "structure" to their 30-miunute jams. Prog songs are structured often in a "suite" fashion, with little mini songs leading into other songs, and finishing with a grande finale to wrap it up. And when you play them live, there's little room for improvisation as they all have to follow the exact journey where it is taking you

Swans ought to get a mention. Some of the most significant long tracks on record.

1985 Brian Eno’s Thursday Afternoon’s 60 min 1 song album, I understand is the first digital long song album.

Macho City by The Steve Miller Band is often overlooked from their 1981 album Circle Of Love. It spans all of side 2.

For those who can appreciate less-conventional music (particularly drone elements) for the experimentation of length itself, as mentioned about Pipe Choir - a group called Bull Of Heaven have released countless drone tracks digitally which in some cases exceed millions of years in length. I’d at least recommend reading their Wikipedia page; it’s quite fun seeing the track listings increase to absurd lengths as they progressed.

This video weighing in at only 15 mins is a pop single sell out put next to other prog documentaries that can go on for a more uncommercial 2 hours!!!!

No mention of Yes? Well, eff me.

The first long song I heard and liked was back in 1968, Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile about 15 mins long.

The very first long song I've ever heard is GnR November Rain and Estranged when I was 8 y o, then goes to The Prophet's Song (I know it's not that long, still under 10 minute) but then I listen to Pink Floyd, Yes, Van der Graaf Generator, Rush, Mike Oldfield, name the few, and I could say boy oh boy, it's fascinating, oh but let's not talk about that Longplay 1000

As much as I have always loved the side long epics, once a ''song'' made it across to side 2 (of the vinyl), the argument of whether or not it is still the same song seems to be purely academic. Take Tales From Topographic Oceans for example. The only thing that makes it a four side epic is the decision by the band to define it as such. It is clearly a bunch of different songs, awkwardly trimmed and/or expanded in order to be shoehorned into the double album format, because it isn't really four side-long epics, either. I love so much of it, but I have to agree somewhat with Rick Wakeman. They didn't have enough music for four sides, or enough self discipline to edit what they had down to two sides. When I was 13, I would happily tell people it was my favourite Yes album. Now I'm 55, I have long thought that the albums which book-end it, Close to the Edge and Relayer, are far superior. Topographic has a weird combination of both a lot of fat that needed trimming, and creative voids which needed filling. Awaken is the perfect Prog song. Going for the One might be the perfect Yes album. It's as if the four albums which preceded it (from Fragile forward) had been part of a process of refinement and distillation, culminating in a masterpiece, just in time to catch the end of the Golden Age of Prog and thereby avoiding the retro-prog ''please still like us'' vibe of Tormato and the ''battle reenactment society'' shite that was just around the corner, namely Neo Prog. In the early 80s, Prog By Numbers bands like Marillion (That's right! I said it!) added little to what had been written in the previous decade and were the very opposite of 'progressive' in the dictionary definition of the word. I tried to like it. I really did! Grendel is the ultimate example of a band writing to a formula, and even my teenaged prog fanboyism of the time would not allow me to hear it as anything other than a parody of the real thing. I saw them live, with Fish, in 1983, the height of the Neo Prog era. It sucked. I found myself wondering ''Is this what all Prog sounds like to people not into Prog?'' Twelfth Night, IQ, Pallas etc, left me with an uncomfortable sympathy for those who had always hated Prog. It was at that point that I discovered weed and Gong... the latter being a love affair which has never even come close to ending.

Surprised you didn’t talk about the flaming lips 6 hour and 24 hour song. Both are pretty solid.

Very epic

Cool video, love me some epic songs! I think the longest one I’ve heard is “Light of Day, Day of Darkness” by Green Carnation (1 hour, 6 seconds).

Achilles: Agony and Ecstasy by Manowar it's also a Great long Song.

Yes: Close To The Edge, the Yessongs version.👍🍄🌌❤

No mention of Close to the Edge?

I guess it’s a good idea to namedrop my favourites …. But first, a good song can be even better if it is long, but in the sense it is not repeating itself (too much). I think of Renaissance’s Rajah Khan, Ashes Ate Burning, Song For All Seasons or Marillion’s Invisible Man. There are long intros and long outros, and just watch Angelo Branduardi performing La Giostra live - that final takes ages and is SO ♥️♥️♥️♥️ If a band or artist can deliver a 20-40 minute long song, I’m OK with it, but some stuff I love other makes me sick. So here are a few more of my favs: Banco - La conquista della posizione eretta and Nudo, Klaatu - 2nd side of the Hope album, Red Sand - Human Trafficking, McDonal&Giles - Birdman. From Japan, Ars Nova with conceptual albums like Android Domina and Biogenesis. From Moscovia - Little Tragedies with New Faust and finally Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden (10 minutes).

Todd Rundgren's Utopia: The Ikon

A few songs always stick out to me as the best long songs, Lizard is fantastic, Cassandra Gemini is my favorite long Mars Volta song, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard has a god tier long song in their live version of Head On/Pill from the Live in Adelaide album

Somebody recreated the entire Lord of the rings movie soundtrack and put it all into one song and it was 200 oh yeah and it's metal.

If you allow solos it is easy to do a long song; a piece that is through composed is much more difficult. But then Anthony Burgess, writing about composing a symphony, said that is easier to write a long piece than a short one.

it is definetly a short long song by merely being 10 mins long but I love Neptune by foals

You didn’t mention the band Love which made a 19 minute side long song called Revelation which came out in 1966

Personally, Pink Floyd’s long songs are my favorites, such as Echoes and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. SYD in particular is my favorite song of all time, combined with the other three tracks on WYWH.

No mention of Topograghic Oceans

My favorite long song is The Ikon by Utopia

Pink Floyd echoes and Yes Close to the edge

Shout out for the 11-minute "Goin' Home" from the Stones' Aftermath album of 1966.. Definitely not prog.

Mike Oldfield's Amarok is ~59 min. His Incantations is difficult to measure. It's a two CD set (dunno how many vinyl records), but each "side" is named Part {1,2,3,4}. So is it four "side long" songs or 1 4 "side long" song?

The longest song I have ever heard was Dopesmoker by Sleep

Chubulah . . . Bells!

you left out bob dylans "like a rolling stone" which was a hit rock song that broke the 6 minute barrier in 1965. The album that featured that song, "Highway 61 revisited", also contains the song "Desolation Row", which is over 11 minutes. 1 year later in 1966, he released the song "sad eyed lady of the lowlands" which was also over 11 minutes. Like in many other innovations of 60s rock music, it turns out that Bob was the there first.

To put it simply, just because it's long doesn't necessarily make it prog. Alternately, a prog song doesn't have to be long, although prog is generally better when the song has the room to really stretch musical ideas out. 3:05 Just a nitpick, no big deal, but I think you meant when LPs, i.e. long-playing records, became the norm. "Albums" predate the LP, as they were actual album books with several 78s and later 45s in the album book. The term "album" stuck and continued to be used when LPs started coming out. It's still a collection of songs, but on one long disk instead of several shorter discs.

TARKUS

Speaking of long songs, would you consider some of the recent releases of the band Swans as Prog?

used to love long prog rock songs, but i can't really stand them anymore. i still love both of egg's 20 minute pieces. Long song no. 2 is great. But honestly, bitches brew by miles davis and all of his other 20 minute songs are where it's at for me today. those experimental jazz fusion epics stand the test of time for me. but don't get me wrong, i have put it some serious hours on lizard and tales from topographic oceans.

1971 Uriah Heep Salisbury 16:20

What about Everywhere at the end of time? It's gone viral recently and its total runtime is 6 and a half hours.

Sleep by Max Richter - eight hours, and at live performances the audience is given beds instead of chairs.

Focus's Eruption and Anonymous Two Soft Machine's Third album Van der Graaf Generator's A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers and Meurglys III, The Songwriter's Guild Chicago's Liberation, Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon and It Better End Soon Egg's Symphony No. 2 Hatfield and the North's Mumps Gnidrolog's I Could Never Be a Soldier

You forgetting funeral doom!

God, even 1 minute is too long to spend on Ayn Rand.

Also interesting to note: punk-rock long epic sound : NOFX The Decline

Napalm death - You suffer

Yankee Doodle dating back to the 1500's? Impossible! What's your source?

phemonial period..for prog.. Lets not forget gentle Giant one of the fewt Great prog bansd...It was all greatin my view.!..Just down read to much into the negativity from jerks of the time like rolllng stone mag & lester bangs & jerks like that that we really dont miss,!,..if they wont the Ramones & blondie ,Pistols they got em! ...Which I like as well!!

Am I the only fan of Om Mani Padme Hum by Mandalaband?

This video is shorter than Long Rock Songs. What's up with that?

It’s not necessary progressive because it’s long. Blues oriented rock with guitarists jerking up and down the blues scales for 20 minutes are not prog rock.