Actually, I don't even care.
But anyways, the longer in the title refers to song length, in this case. Cross out whatever crude image you have of conga lines, and focus here.
The average song length of a song on the radio clocks in at around 3-5 minutes, with a few outliers here and there. While I can understand that 10 minutes could be a long time (it isn't), I can't help but get fed up anyone sees an eight-minute song and freaks out, saying "THAT'S A LONG SONG". Perhaps this tells of the increasingly-getting-shorter attention span the average teenagers has. With a three-minute song, hardly anything can be said or done; there's only enough time for a chorus and maybe two verses. This also shows the lack of actual content songs really have now.
I know of many long songs, and all it takes is an attentive ear to grind through it. Yes, it's possible to sit still for more than two minutes, but I'm not going to control you.
Stairway to Heaven stands as the most well-known long song to the public, defying radio standards at around nine minutes long. However, when one looks at the live version of the same song (1973 TSRTS), it's grown to around 11 or 12 minutes. the extra few minutes is filled with a salivating guitar solo, something quite absent from today's mainstream music. (Skill too :P)
Many of Rush's songs are also long, in order to properly tell a story. The songs are truly deserving of "epic" (literally here). In the song "Cygnus X-1", Geddy Lee describes the tale of an adventurer going into space in the Rocinante towards the black hole, Cygnus X-1. The story progresses from a happy, upbeat tone towards a harsher, screaming tone, as the black hole tears the adventurer apart. Rush does a wonderful job establishing a setting and the characters, which is usually what takes up a large portion of the song. Even though Cygnus X-1 is around 11 minutes long, the story is still continued in a follow-up, Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres. The second song in the series is even longer than the first, at around 15 minutes long. While the incredible length of the songs makes it hard to find the time to listen to them together, when they are listened to, it's the equivalent of watching a show on TV. The entertainment's there, you just have to take the effort to indulge in it (like a book).
Another song by Rush, 2112, is around 21 minutes long, comprising of (I think) seven separate parts; the song has some of the best lyrics I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, gaining enough fame to even be the entire main story of a Guitar Hero game. Here's an excerpt from part III, discovery:
What can this strange device be?
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound It's got wires that vibrate and give music What can this thing be that I found?
See how it sings like a sad heart And joyously screams out it's pain Sounds that build high like a mountain Or notes that fall gently like rain
I can't wait to share this new wonder The people will all see it's light Let them all make their own music The Priests praise my name on this night
(Rush, 1976)
This part of the song is where the protagonist discovers a guitar, hidden behind a waterfall; 100 years in the future, such a device has been completely outlawed in the communistic society in the future. The story goes on to describe his encounter with the Priests of the Temple of Syrinx (the leader-figures), and later his dream about the past society. You really have to listen to the song in order to fully grasp it, so I strongly advise listening to it, it's definitely a masterpiece.
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