Alice's Restaurant and Other Side-Long Epics on Thanksgiving

Thick as a brick: Tull

You can play both sides as it has only one song on the entire album

 

Grateful Dead- Terrapin Station

 

In Held 'Twas In I : Procal Harum

Get Ready: Rare Earth

 

All great ones! "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" is the longest piece of music ever to be squeezed onto one side of a vinyl LP (36:00), but the longest side-long epic in my collection is "Doctrine of Signatures" by Glen Velez (45:49). I don't think it was ever released on vinyl, but it fills one side of a cassette album.

 

I thought for sure Side 2 of The Rare Earth album was the long version of Get Ready at 21:30.
Of course, to continue the previous post about John and Yoko, there is of course, "John and Yoko" from the Wedding Album.

 

The first 8:39(1st Impression Part 1) of Karn Evil 9 is on Side 1 of Brain Salad Surgery. The rest of it is on Side 2 (!st Impression-Part 2 and the 2nd and 3rd Impressions), so that one doesn't qualify, but the live versions or "Scheherazade" (28:50) and "Ashes Are Burning" (23:50) have both appeared on many 1-song side shows.

 

"A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers?" I've never heard that one, but I love the title. I'll seek it out.

 

Sleep "Dopesmoker" aka "Jerusalem" cd. one track, roughly 63 minutes long. The "Jerusalem" version is broken down into 6 tracks, but it was always intended to be one track.

 

It's the first one in the rock idiom, but there were some folk and jazz pieces that filled whole album sides as far back as the '50s. Jimmy Smith's "The Sermon" (20:15) from 1958, Sandy Bull's "Blend" (21:51) from 1963 and a few others.

 

I can't imagine Thanksgiving without it.

 

You're right. "Whipping Post" (22:40) and "You Don't Love Me" (19:06) make frequent appearances.

 

I like that one. It opened the 1-song side show a couple of years ago, but don't fall asleep while listening to it. It WILL give you nightmares. I speak from experience.

 

Mind's a blank, can't think of any but love the idea. Can I come over to your's for dinner tomorrow?

 

I have the 21:30 version of Get Ready" and it's been on the 1-song sideshow more than once. There's also a 23:38 version on their double live album that I don't have. Only reason I haven't played "John and Yoko" is that I'm not sure it qualifies as music.

 

Certainly.

 

Doesn't fall under the OP's rules. That album is one song, part 1 and part 2, as dictated by LP length.

 

Ok, well it's cheating a bit because it's really a 12" single, but it appears as a standalone track on at least one compilation album I own, is a monster track, and just happened to birth a whole genre of music - Phuture: Acid Tracks (12:14)

 

John Sebastian - The Four Of Us

Side two is the title track (actually a suite of four parts about a road trip)

 

Yo La Tengo, "Night Falls on Hoboken"

 

Love Chonicles by Al Stewart?

 

That's a fair assessment, IMO. How about Donna Summer - MacArthur Park Suite from Live and More?

 

Kraftwerk has "Autobahn", "Tone Float" and I believe "Kling Klang."

Side 1 of "Radio-Activity" is a continuous suite, though without one banner title.

 

A less-common Allman Brothers track, a side-long version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" from Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas. No, it's not At Fillmore East, but I can't imagine anyone who likes Brothers and Sisters not liking this track in particular. No kidding, check it out. A nicely jazzy feel that's perfect for the holidays.



Another live side-long live track I enjoy a lot from a line-up that some people don't care as much for as the one that first recorded it is the version of "Supper's Ready" from Seconds Out. And seriously, with a song name and an album name like that, how can you not have that for Thanksgiving?

 

On repeat

 

Yes, that's a good one. It's a medley but has a collective title. I even played "John and Yoko" this morning. Since it's backed by a rhythmic heartbeat and the vocals have a wide variety of dynamic range, I'm going to call it a form of music.