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Curse you, John Wilkins!

I’m all bleary-eyed this morning because late last night, Wilkins linked to this article on Pink Floyd and incidentally sent me off on a late night music jag. He is truly a horrible person.

Pink Floyd was the soundtrack of my youth, from adolescence through grad school and starting a family. I have all their albums, and have listened to every one multiple times — I know (or at least, used to know) the lyrics to “The Gnome”, even, that’s how bad it was. So it was very triggering of Wilkins to remind me, and I had to play a bunch of them very loudly on the home stereo and wallow in the sound.

Don’t worry, Mary was away, so it was just me, alone in a big empty house with most of the lights out, listening to “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” after midnight. I felt like a lonely anomie-laden teenager again. It was great! I’m just paying the price this morning…this morning when I have to bunker down in my office and grade papers.

So now I have to inflict some of it on you. Here’s one of my favorites, “One of These Days”, from Meddle.

Oh, man, there were good memories in there. When my kids were little, we had a tradition of sleeping in on Sunday and then making pancakes (if they’d been very good, chocolate chip pancakes), and sometimes I’d put on Atom Heart Mother while I was puttering in the kitchen, just because “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” was the perfect accompaniment. Now I can’t hear it without an overlay of maudlin sentimentality and memories of happy kids.

Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

OK, now must go grade.

What is your state’s highest paid public employee? » « A great mystery

Comments

  1. bcmystery says

    Ooooo, now I want to watch my Live at Pompeii DVD while trying (but failing) to work.

  4. crocodoc says

    5:00 in the ‘one of these days’ video is hilarious. Nick just plays on as if nothing had happened.

  7. says

    The “Dark Side of the Moon” album title always bugged me (for the obvious reason). Nice cover, though.

  9. ChasCPeterson says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    You just have to check out the right bands.
    I like Umphrey’s McGee (obvious Floydheads, plus some Zappa, some metal, some Phish, some fusion, some serious electric guitar playing) and Railroad Earth (more in the Grateful Dead tradition; mostly acoustic, can and do play bluegrass, rock out, or jam most excellently plus great songwriting).

  10. ChasCPeterson says

    Us (us us us us us us)
    and
    Them (them them them them them them them)
    …)

  13. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    Despite my punk credentials (ha), I have a soft spot for the Floyd (at least pre-Wall Floyd) and a special soft spot for Syd Barrett, without whom I probably never would have picked up a guitar. My last band (which sadly was *cough* 13 years ago) used to play a couple minutes of “Echoes” at the end of our set, forming out of the chaos that was our closing number, the unfortunately named “Mambo #6” (hey, it was 2000!).

  14. stevem says

    re Dark Side:

    title of “Dark Side of the Moon” annoyed you? Didn’t you listen to the whole album? It ends with my favorite line, ever, “There is no dark side of the Moon, As a matter of fact, it’s ALL dark”. Gotcha! A piece of SCIENCE in a psychedelic rock album. Who wooda thunk?

  15. Kimpatsu says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?
    Bohemian Rhapsody. Anything by Meatloaf. and, of course, this:

  17. arensb says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Something like Tones on Tails’ Rain, you mean? At the three-minute mark, it’s still establishing the mood.

    Someone at Daylight Atheism pointed me in the direction of the Protomen. One of the things that I like about them is that they harken back to the Golden Age of Prog, with concept albums and, yes, six-, seven-, eight-minute songs (I don’t see any longer than that, though).

    (I guess I’m just a kid, since I prefer Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here over albums like Meddle and Obscured by Clouds.)

  18. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    On the topic of Dark Side, mostly forgotten British folk/blues combo Medicine Head released an album with the same title a year before Floyd’s. Roger Waters was worried that he was going to have to change the title to Eclipse, but when Medicine Head’s album bombed, they kept the name.

    A little bit of pointless rock trivia for your Friday.

  19. says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Not fondly. ;-P

    Am I the only person who does not see the appeal of Pink Floyd at all?

  22. Lars says

    @tajparis: I’m not a fan, but I have to admit that they made some damn good music. About the same feeling I have for the Dead Kennedys … but I have the impression that the punk scene seems to really have an inverted snobbery problem. You don’t often hear Pink Floyd fans dissing Dead Kennedys. The other way around, OTOH … ;P

  23. thumper1990 says

    Ugh, prog rock. One of These Days was alright, but didn’t really kick off ’til four minutes in. Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast was awful!

    @Baldyslaphead

    I quite like that Porcupine Tree song you posted :) I’ve never really listened to them before. It’s a bit depressing though, had to listen to some New Town Kings to cheer myself up :) Ska, the happiest music on the planet.

    @tajparis

    No, I’m with you. I like Another Brick in the Wall, but who doesn’t? Other than that I can’t think of any song of theirs I like.

  24. says

    You don’t often hear Pink Floyd fans dissing Dead Kennedys.

    We must know some very different Floyd fans. ;-P

    On the reverse snobbery in punk, though, you are quite right. It is a major problem and part of the reason I can’t stand going to punk shows anymore.

    Why do assholes have to ruin everydamnthing!

  25. ChasCPeterson says

    Bohemian Rhapsody. Anything by Meatloaf. and, of course, this

    *gags*

    this is what I’m talkin about.

  26. chigau (違う) says

    What?
    Who are you people?
    Not like Pink Floyd?
    Isn’t that a bannable offence?
    jeeeez

  27. bbgunn says

    Pink Floyd and Yes made up nearly half of my album library in high school during the ’70s. I then discovered Camel’s “Snow Goose” album freshman year in college and used that instrumental prog rock album as white noise for studying and drowning out all the dorm noises (as well as for the infrequent inhalation therapy sessions.)

  29. says

    Yeah, I like music to do something more than state a theme, repeat it a couple of times, and then fade away. And I like a band that do more than one thing. Hence I still have a considerable fondness for Pink Floyd (I just went through everything of theirs I own last month). Sure, they can do the ordinary pop thing reasonably well, but longer compositions don’t faze them either. (Think “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party,” “Atom Heart Mother,” or “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.”)

    One of the first CDs I ever bought was some kind of Pink Floyd compilation disk. The guy at the record store said it was the only thing of theirs available on CD, and offered his opinion that the old albums (Atom Heart Mother was the one I was really looking for) would never come out in digital form, because what would be the point? The old analog stuff would always sound like shit in the new format. But my brother’s kids used to ask me to play what they called “The Wizards’ Duel” (“One of These Days”) whenever they came over.

  30. says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Three minute songs were started when records were first made. The 12″ 78 rpm records could hold about three minutes of audio. It wasn’t until 33 1/3 RPM long play records came along that recordings lasing more than three minutes came around. But by then three minute songs were ingrained so deeply that it still happens even with CDs and MP3s to this day.

  31. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    As Chas has noted, yes. Pretty much everything I listen to is by musicians who put out pieces longer than 3 mins.

    And coincidentally I was listing to Pink Floyd’s Animals this morning.

  32. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I like Umphrey’s McGee (obvious Floydheads, plus some Zappa, some metal, some Phish, some fusion, some serious electric guitar playing)

    On of the members of Umphrey’s just moved to Charleston and frequents this bar I live at go to. Haven’t met him but my friend who owns the place says he’s a good dude.

  33. sundiver says

    As a FloydNoyd who transmogrified into a (now slightly reconstructed) DeadHead this is appreciated. I thought David Gilmour one of the underappreciated guitarists of the ’70s, along with Martin Barre of Jethro Tull. Funny, as I’ve gotten older, my musical horizons have broadened to include reggae, punk, a little hip-hop and so on and so forth. I recall the late, lamented Ron Cuzner, Milwaukee’s premier jazz DJ commenting on who was the “better”sax player. He mentioned Trane, Rollins, Bird, Shorter and then announced a track by Michael Brecker, saying “this is one of MY favorite sax players. For when you get to this level, there is no “better”. It is all a matter of taste”. I like to dredge up my old Little Feat and Allman Bros (talk about a band disinclined to compose three minute songs) discs just to annoy my neighbors.

  34. sundiver says

    David Wilford, I thought “Saucer Full of Secrets” was Floyd’s first album w/o Syd Barrett. “More” is a good album, though.

  35. says

    Oh man, Syd Barrett was my spirit animal in high school, and later in film school I based all my student projects around Floyd’s early music (their way of building a song through ever expanding flights of dizzying noise built around a repeated note translates really well into abstract film structure).

    Regarding the Punk v Pink antagonism (i’m a huge fan of both), it’s worth noting that both the Sex Pistols (keeping in mind that Johnny Rotten got picked for the band after being spotted wearing an “I Hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt) and the Damned made serious attempts at tracking down Syd Barrett to get him to produce their albums (The Damned eventually settled for Nick Mason).

    As for bands following in their footsteps:

    Camper Van Beethoven – Interstellar Overdrive
    Jesus & Mary Chain – Vegetable Man
    REM – Dark Globe
    The Damned – Arnold Layne
    The Mock Turtles – No Good Trying
    Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin – Take Up Thy Stethyscope and Walk
    Fit & Limo – Long Cold Look
    The Flaming Lips covered The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.
    And of course, absolutely anything by Robyn Hitchcock, and pretty much anybody from the Athens, GA Elephant 6 collective.

    As for bands who still do lengthy psychedelic freakouts, you can’t beat Acid Mothers Temple

  36. David Wilford says

    sundiver, “Saucerfull of Secrets” had one Syd Barrett song on it, “Jugband Blues”. But Barrett wasn’t really involved with the album otherwise.

  37. Ulysses says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Steeleye Span’s “Jack Hall” with an excellent guitar solo by Bob Johnson.

  38. moarscienceplz says

    I lurve the Floyd! I’ve never heard this one before and I mostly like it, although I’m afraid the sound of someone eating with their mouth open is worse to me than fingernails on a blackboard. (And now I’ve just revealed that I’m an old fart. Who the hell uses blackboards anymore?) (And why won’t those damned kids stay off my lawn?)

  39. says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    R Kelly – Stuck in a Closet.
    Just sayin’… Some old dogs can learn new tricks.

  40. Johnny Vector says

    On non-snobbery: Okay, I know Primus isn’t punk, but it still made me laugh a little and smile a lot watching the extras on Mike Gordon’s “Rising Low” DVD. Les Claypool was sitting outside chatting with the cameraman, someone mentioned that Chris Squire was in the studio rehearsing, and Claypool got all fanboy. “OMG, Chris Squire! Squee!” (or something like that) I mean, I can sorta see the link from Yes to Primus, but it was still amusing.

  42. mnb0 says

    Deep Purple, Made in Japan, Space Truckin’ 20 minutes.
    ELP, Welcome back my Friends, Tarkus, 26 minutes.
    Led Zep, The Song Remains the Same, Dazed and Confused, 27 minutes (very, very few have a long enough attention span to notice Bonham’s excellent drum solo at the end).
    Pink Floyd? Peanuts. Except Animals of course.

  44. says

    Long songs live on in the Doom, Stoner and Drone circles:

    Stoned Jesus – Black Woods (11:47)

    Humanfly – Heavy Black Snow (17:10)

    Warchief – For Heavy Damage (20:00)

    The Wandering Midget – Temples In The Sky (20:13)

    Reverend Bizarre – Cirith Ungol (21:11)

    Sleep – Dopesmoker (1:03:30)

    Boris – Absolutego

    Bongripper – The Great Barrier Reefer (1:19:24)

    I could go on, but you get the idea :P

    Also, I hope this comments shows up okay, because the preview looks horribly broken…

  47. mobius says

    It was, IIRC, Dark Side of the Moon that first brought Pink Floyd to my attention, but it was The Wall that really formed a long abiding love of the group.

    Thanx for the trip down memory lane.

  49. tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says

    Ah yes; Floyd, Oldfield, Queen, SuperTramp – the soundtrack of a well spent youth. A lot of Abney Park & Filk now I’m old and crumbly.

    moarscienceplz –

    (And why won’t those damned kids stay off my lawn?)

    Hell, you think you have problems? I got me some of that newfangled GM grass and now I can’t keep the damned lawn offa my kids!

  50. TonyJ says

    bcmystery: Ooooo, now I want to watch my Live at Pompeii DVD while trying (but failing) to work.

    I think I’m going to have to get a copy. Do you have the one with the interviews and the making of Dark Side of the Moon features? I had it on VHS a long time ago.

  51. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    sundiver, “Saucerfull of Secrets” had one Syd Barrett song on it, “Jugband Blues”. But Barrett wasn’t really involved with the album otherwise.

    I think he did some noodling in the background of “Set the Controls…” as well, although Waters may have mixed all of that stuff out on the final version.

  53. hotshoe, now with more boltcutters says

    When I first heard Setting the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (on a church youth-group camping trip!) is when I first knew that psychedelic drugs were in my immediate future.

    Good decision, good results. Thanks, Pink!

  55. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    (Rev, when you meet him, tell him you know a trumpet/bongos/melodica/pennywhistle player who works cheap.)

    The pennywhistle is your in for sure

  57. Rey Fox says

    And as another kinda sorta rebuttal, I’d suggest that you might not want to bring back the grunge and post-grunge era where nearly every song was stretched out to 5+ minutes*, whether it deserved it or not.

    * All the better to fill that new 80-minute CD format

  59. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    I’d suggest that you might not want to bring back the grunge and post-grunge era where nearly every song was stretched out to 5+ minutes*, whether it deserved it or not.

    Never mind the length, can we agree not to bring back the grunge and post-grunge era just because it was awful? ;)

  60. imthegenieicandoanything says

    “Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?”

    That’s sure a stylish onion you’re wearing in your belt! D-boner!

    Ah, the ignorance and selective memory, due to a weakening brain capacity, of the old! Being old myself, I remember just as well, and even better what a fucking nightmare “Prog Rock” was (“Tarkus” anyone? Those Yes albums that went on and on and on?) and how it, with its evil ally Disco, kept the best music off the radio for years – 1977 was one of the greatest years in young people music history, and the radio never let anyone know.

    But I like this Abe Simpson act. ‘ts funny!

  61. zmidponk says

    Chronos:

    I’d be remiss if I didn’t point people at the Scissor Sisters cover of Comfortably Numb.

    IMO, you’d be remiss by doing so. I hate that cover. Far inferior to the original in every way imaginable. The Gregorian cover, however, is pretty decent:

  63. Louis says

    I’ve heard it said here that some people believe every word of Genesis.

    I don’t even think Phil Collins was a good drummer.

    Louis

    P.S. Okay a) I stole that joke, and b) this was my one opportunity to make it with even vague relevance.

  64. Louis says

    Also, Wilkins is evil. This has been established. I’ve seen him kick puppies.*

    Louis

    * Actual puppy kicking may not have occurred. He also likes the wrong sort of chocolate and is possibly Australian. So at least there is some chance at redemption.

  65. Rip Steakface says

    Modern music is perfectly capable of being experimental and lengthy.

    Even with a degree of variation.

    I don’t appreciate it when people of any age rag on modern music for the sake of nostalgia. As a musician, I don’t like it when people assume the current period is devoid of creativity, because they’re effectively saying that I’m devoid of creativity.

    By the way, heavy metal has kept the twenty-minute-plus epic alive for the past thirty years, passing the torch from Yes to Dream Theater, then Opeth and Edge of Sanity (the last wrote an album that was one forty minute song – one of the best works of progressive death metal ever). You’re welcome.

  66. Rip Steakface says

    Modern music is perfectly capable of being experimental and lengthy.

    Even with a degree of variation.

    I don’t appreciate it when people of any age rag on modern music for the sake of nostalgia. As a musician, I don’t like it when people assume the current period is devoid of creativity, because they’re effectively saying that I’m devoid of creativity.

    By the way, heavy metal has kept the twenty-minute-plus epic alive for the past thirty years, passing the torch from Yes to Dream Theater, then Opeth and Edge of Sanity (the last wrote an album that was just one forty minute song entitled Crimson – one of the best works of progressive death metal ever). You’re welcome.

  68. daemon23 says

    Heh, funnily Floyd was the soundtrack of my adolescence as well, by way of my dad’s record collection, and I still have their entire discography. Now, though, my musical tastes have mutated completely out of control and I’m listening to bizarre mixes of spastic electronica, death metal, baroque classical, swing, jazz, hip hop, gypsy folk… I suppose the experimentalism of Floyd is what stuck..

  69. obscure1 says

    Ever since I was introduced to this blog in 2004 I’ve wondered what type of music biologists listed to. Do you have music in the lab? I first heard the Floyd while defending my country by going to Vietnam in 1970. I lived in a little building made out of ammo cases and tin with the other company clerk and no kidding, Floyd the cook. No plumbing (only officers deserved their own toilets) but we did have electricity. We also had fairly high end stereo equipment. One evening in early March of ’71, I laid down on the bunk with a head full of every drug available, headphones on and listened to ummagumma. It was my first encounter with those rather unusual sounds and because of the environment and situation I found myself in, it was an unforgettable experience. And a very pleasant one at that. At this moment Henry Flyntt is half way through playing his 1981 composition ‘You Are My Everlovin’. This version of the song is slightly over 42 minutes. This unique, different music is not as startling as Mr. Flynt’s views on evolution. Yikes. Keep up the fine work P.Z.

  70. zbeeblebrox says

    I am fortunate enough to have seen them 3 times: Winterland in ’70; Carnegie Hall in “72 (they opened with the entire Dark Side of the Moon, which hadn’t come out yet); and Saratoga Performing Arts center in ’73. At Carnegie Hall, they played Careful With That Axe, Eugene and when Waters screamed he also hit a foot pedal that caused the entire stage to blow up, finishing the song in slowly disappearing smoke. That’s as close to a religious experience as I’ll ever have.

  71. ragdish says

    PZ

    As your doling out final grades after an exhaustive semester, does your head explode with dark forebodings too?

    Pretty awesome that you’re a Floyd fan.

  76. roro80 says

    Shine On You Crazy Diamond always gets me. We’ve got a local PF cover band called “House of Floyd” that can play the whole repotoire, takes requests on email before the show, and really does it very well. I go see them whenever I can, because even if it’s not real Pink Floyd, it’s all Pink Floyd stuff, and it’s live, and it’s lovely.

  78. cm's changeable moniker (quaint, if not charming) says

    Well, if this thread isn’t the thread to mention

    http://www.furia.com/misc/genremaps/engenremap.html

    I don’t know which thread will be.

    This is an algorithmically-generated map of the musical genre-space. Genres and artists are positioned by code and data, adjusted for legibility, but the underlying vectors are less interesting than the juxtapositions and clusters that they produce, so the axes have been deliberately left unlabeled and uncalibrated. You are invited to imagine your own qualities and magnitudes that the geometry might be expressing.

    Click anything to hear an example of what it sounds like.

    Click the » on a genre to see a map of its artists.

    Enjoy!

    (Count me in as a fan of WYWH and DSotM; The Wall, not so much except for Nobody Home: the most depressing song every written in a major! key (the F to Fm doesn’t count))

  80. hotshoe, now with more boltcutters says

    Choctaw BingoSomething light-hearted. Folks from around there know that every place McMurtry mentions in the song is a real place.

    “…stopped off in Tushka at that “Pop’s Knife and Gun” place
    Bought a SKS rifle and a couple a full cases of that steel core ammo
    With the berdan primers from some East bloc nation that no longer needs ’em
    And a Desert Eagle that’s one great big ol’ pistol
    I mean .50 caliber made by badass Hebrews
    And some surplus tracers for that old BAR of Slayton’s
    Soon as it gets dark we’re gonna have us a time
    We’re gonna have us a time

    Ruth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
    That’s one hell raisin’ town way up in Southeastern Kansas
    Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
    That’s got them Rolling Stones lips up there in bright pink neon
    And they’re right down town where everyone can see ’em
    And they burn all night you know they burn all night you know they burn all night
    Ruth Ann and Lynn they wear them cut off britches and those skinny little halters
    And they’re second cousins to me
    Man I don’t care I want to get between ’em
    With a great big ol’ hard on like a old bois d’ arc fence post
    You could hang a pipe rail gate from
    Do some sister twisters ’til the cows come home
    And we’d have us a time …”

  81. says

    It is a very fine day when one’s favorite blogger gets off on one’s favorite band.
    What a co-inky dink !!!!
    Didn’t bother reading the comments above so don’t know if this might have been mentioned, but if you still want a live fix of Floyd I highly recommend “Australian Pink Floyd” for the very best cover. Pigs = absolutely best voice box work I have ever heard.
    I have been going to concerts since the Beatles at Shea Stadium, seen a few….
    Caught Water’s Wall this winter which was great too. But for full Floyd treatment, watch for them Aussies.
    Ranting on,
    David

  82. tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says

    Damn I love the Floyd. When I was 12 put my brother’s copy of Dark Side (a ’73 original pressing) on the record player and lay down between the speakers. That was in 1988. I still have the LP.

    Yes, but do you still have your hearing?

    I said – do you still have your hearing?

  84. drewl, Mental Toss Flycoon says

    Rev. BDC… which Umphrey’s guy moved there? I’ve met Joel, Stasik and Jake (and Jake’s mom!) and they all seem to be good people.

    Chas @41… my favorite UM Floyd cover was from a show at Urbana (I think), where in the motel before the concert, the only good thing on TV was a Liverpool v. Chelsea (?) match. You could hear the crowd sing the Liverpool song, and we were all thinking ‘Fearless’. Sure enough, halfway through first set they pulled it out. Fun show. I’ve seen them almost as many times as I saw Jerry. Nice ‘Bird Song’ by the way. One of my favorites.

  85. rogerfirth says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, The Who

    Speaking of which: I just saw Yes last month. Never bothered to buy a ticket when they went on sale several months before. Just showed up 10 minutes before show time, was in the process of buying a nosebleed, when a ticket fifth row center “became available”. Sold! Close to the Edge and The Yes Album straight through from front to back, encored with Roundabout. One $7 beer the whole concert and no sweet smell of faraway places. My, how times have changed. And Jon Davison did a laudable job on the vocals.

  86. says

    Pink Floyd is one of the loves I get to share with my 18 yo daughter. Her favourite piece? “Several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict” of course.

  88. ChasCPeterson says

    DanDare, thank you for the morning smile.

    drewl, I am somewhat envious. I’ve only seen UM maybe 5 or 6 times, but always got my face pretty much melted.
    And all I play in the car anymore is the 2006 tour w/ Joshua Redman.
    (are you really from Montana?)

  89. Ant (@antallan) says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Um… 2012?

    The longest pieces of music in my iTunes Library that were released last year:

    • We drift like worried fire : 20:07 : Allelujah! Don’t bend! Ascend! : Godspeed You! Black Emperor
    • Mladic : 20:00 : Allelujah! Don’t bend! Ascend! : Godspeed You! Black Emperor
    • CK ‣ (a) 242 hurtz | (b) Vorspiel : 18:44 : Not bleeding red : Nothing But Noise
    • Mass : 18:22 : Not bleeding red : Nothing But Noise
    • Gaza : 17:26 : Prog P7 – Cod bluff : Marillion
    • And I will kiss : 17:15 : Isles of wonder : music for the opening ceremony of t… : Underworld ƒ Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Pandem…
    • Shuteye wanderer : 16:31 : Coma ghosts : Effloresce
    • Satori in elegance, part III : 15:16 : The satori in elegance of the majestic stonegazer : Sendelica
    • The case of Charles Dexter Ward : 14:46 : The stories of H. P. Lovecraft : a syNphonic collection : The Samurai of Prog
    • Sleepers 2012 : 14:08 : Battle scars : Galahad
    • The thief : 13:43 : Trouble with machines : District 97
    • This green and pleasant land : 13:16 : Prog P2 – Stormwatch : Pendragon
    • Gravity : 13:14 : Not bleeding red : Nothing But Noise
    • A multiplicity of doors : 13:04 : Angels of darkness, demons of light II : Earth
    • Dream-quest to the unknown Kadath : 12:51 : The stories of H. P. Lovecraft : a syNphonic collection : Kate
    • Provocatism : 12:48 : RareNoiseRecords (promo CD) : Animation
    • Mountains of madness : 12:37 : The stories of H. P. Lovecraft : a syNphonic collection : Aether
    • Perception : 12:16 : Random Friday : Solar Fields
    • Yes medley ‣ And you and I | Awaken | Close to the e… : 12:11 : Covered mirror, vol 1 : smooth as silk : Unitopia
    • Idea spiral (Ozora Festival 2011 live edit) : 12:05 : Greenosophy : cell
    • Sulfur giants : 12:02 : Jess and the Ancient Ones : Jess and the Ancient Ones
    • The hunting of Johnny Eue : 12:01 : Prog P1 – A new day yesterday : Citizen Cain

    There are another 32 that are longer than 10 mins, and altogether 918 (out of 1016) that are longer than 3 mins.

    Enjoy!

    /@

  91. kaleberg says

    There’s plenty of new music longer than 3 minutes long. The real question is when was the last time a piece longer than 3 minutes was played on the air by the radio monopoly. I first heard Careful With That Axe Eugene on FM radio. Maybe they can do some kind of frequency swap and put music radio out of its misery once and for all.

  92. zathras says

    I loooove Pink Floyd. My ‘Dark Side of the Moon 40th Anniversary’ t-shirts should show up in the mail in a few days.

  93. says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    Oh! That would have been the time when people listened to the radio and wore onions on their belts, sometimes simultaneously.

  94. drewl, Mental Toss Flycoon says

    Chas @88… close, less than 100 miles. Moving back there in August, actually. Just me and my pygmy pony…

  95. Crudely Wrott says

    Grantchester Meadows from UmmaGumma.

    There is a certain spot on a certain river in northwest Wyoming. If you pause there on the north bank on a summer’s eve as the sun sets, the river will play the melody of the song’s refrain for you as it splashes over the rocks.

    And Shamus from Meddle. Proof that even dogs can sing the blues.

  96. John Phillips, FCD says

    yay Floyd. Shine on you crazy diamond is my personal sound track. I also have really big soft spot for Money, but covered by Elkie Brooks, even better than Floyd’s version.

  97. Ragutis says

    Anyone else remember when bands would put out music that was more than three minutes long?

    As someone whose favorite bands since pre-pubescence have been Rush and Iron Maiden, yes. Speaking of Yes, coming back from my beer run tonight, I drove around the block 5 or 6 times to hear “Heart of the Sunrise” through to the end.

    Anyway, to add to the recommendations of bands that are still doing this type of thing today:

    Beardfish, Roulette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrzt9YFBW8Y

    Marillion, Ocean Cloud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx5dzaYrcoQ

    Transatlantic, All of the Above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-G2WZ1Skvs

    Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen, Isis and Osiris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPDWJ1l-LI

    Opeth. Windowpane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCeXmWKr4SU

    Storm Corrosion, Drag Ropes (Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree mentioned upthread): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=manW5v-AR7U worth it for the video alone