Monday, April 17, 2006

Vicarious

So the big news today is that the new Tool song Vicarious leaked on the Internet yesterday. Thanks Josh for the heads up. Of course, I downloaded it and have listened to all 7 minutes of it, instead of just the 30 second teaser.
Jeff mentioned in a comment on my earlier post that it's " 30 seconds of a 7 min song !!!", I am not sure if those exclamation points means that a 7 min. song is a good thing or a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. I tend to enjoy long, epic songs and long, epic movies for that matter. I know a lot of people have attention span problems when it comes to music. I blame MTV, American Idol, the radio and pop music for that. It seems that according to those outlets music has to fit a mold, and that mold doesn't exceed 3 minutes, if it does, it's edited. We now have an attention span problem because we aren't exposed to the entire songs being played. (Don't we need long songs to fill up our 40GB of space on our iPods?) Forget "Radio Friendly" music, does anyone even listen to the radio anymore? I know I don't, I hate it. Half the time MTV cuts the videos they air because they don't have time in between their reality shows to actually air music videos anymore.
I know that + 5 Min. songs can bore some, but the 7 Minutes of Vicarious was awesome and I enjoyed the whole thing. I just think that regardless of how long a song is that it's refreshing to hear something that is good. Not all good music has to be long, but I do think there is a place for it and it's a shame when it's edited. Seems that good music is rare these days and again I blame those mentioned above for "over producing" music and taking away the art of it.
Oh and by the way, if you do hear Vicarious on the radio, it will be edited for time to make it more radio friendly. Download it online for the full version. You know where to reach me if you need a link.
End Rant....(Well until next time)


Post in the comments some of your favorite long and short songs.
Here are just a couple of mine.

Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven 9:37
Tool: Pushit 9:55
Don Mclean: American Pie 8:32

The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 2:02
U2: Desire 2:58
Bob Marley: Three Little Birds 3:00

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'll be disappointed that I'm your wife after reading this, but I don't really have any favorite songs. If you wanted to talk about movies, I could definately go there, but as far as songs go, I don't have a lot of knowledge (or interest). I get bored if there is too much instrumental in a song, I definately like singing. That's my stress relief...to sing along to music in my car, while I'm cleaning or whatever else. If there are no words, I don't enjoy it. Maybe I have been affected by the "pop" culture of today, but that's what I was brought up in, so that tends to be what I like. Honestly, I can't even tell you the name of a favorite song...if I had to, it might be Dixie Chicks or something which you probably think is even worse than having no favorite song. So anyway, I hope you don't want to divorce me now :-)

Anonymous said...

Goood Question! Unlike Brooke, I love thinking about this stuff. "Stairway" is a gimme. But, when it comes to good long songs, you gotta go with Metallica's "...And Justice For All" album. It's my favorite Metallica album and it has one song that is just under 10 mins., "One" that is over 7 mins. and I bet at least two others over six. Epic.
Bob Dylan is also a master of good long songs. "Like a Rolling Stone" is considered the first great song that came in over 6 minutes. He also has another beautiful, poetic song called "Desolation Row" that tops 11 minutes, with only two short solos.
My favorite short song is "The Wind" by Cat Stevens from Almost Famous coming in at 1:30. I'm surprised you didn't get that one, Ty.

Unknown said...

Good call on "The Wind", that is a great song.
Metallica is an artist that I overlooked with this post. A lot of their stuff is very epic, what about "Fade To Black" at 6:59? Another good song.

Anonymous said...

Fav short song "walkaways" by the Counting Crows at 1:12

As far a long songs anything Long and by Pink Floyd is alright be me.

Money 6:29

Comfortably Numb 6:24

What about long movies ??? I thought that Kong was overkill but I could have watched a 10 hour Return of the the King. Lets get another post going.

Anonymous said...

I like Jeff's idea about a favorite long movies post. I could have a lot to say about that!

Unknown said...

Ok, I will try and get a Long Movies post up today, or tomorrow. Sounds like an interesting topic for me and it seems that a lot of people are interested in talking about it.

Anonymous said...

I'm very disappointed in all you music critics out there. No one has even mentioned the length of Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida, which lasted 20 minutes! Now don't tell me you haven't heard it. . .it's a classic, and was even parodied in "The Simpsons," as a hymn in church where they all sang "In The Garden of Eden Honey. . ." HA! HA! Good stuff!

Anonymous said...

I love long songs with BOTH singing AND instrumentals. That's why I love Elton John. He has lots of instrumental stuff in his work. . .whole symphonies for that matter. . .all while he plays the piano like he was born with it. My favorites by Elton are "Tiny Dancer" and "Levon." Plus all the rest :-)