Volume 26, Track 11
“Four Horsemen/I’m Not Down/Revolution Rock” by The Clash (1979) [Notes... Total track length = 11:42, "I'm Not Down" starts at 2:57, "Revolution Rock" starts at 6:05] The troika of “Four Horsemen,” “I’m Not Down,” and “Revolution Rock” is what penultimately ends The Clash’s masterpiece London Calling (“Train In Vain” is the last track even though [...]
Volume 26, Track 10
“Supernova at the End of the Universe” by The Orb (1991) [Notes... Total track length = 11:56] The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is a double album that clocks in at almost one hour and ten minutes. In terms of electronic music, the de rigueur of the early ’90′s was defined by big, fast, and [...]
Volume 26, Track 9
“Trainspotting” by Primal Scream (1996) [Notes... Total track length = 10:34] “Trainspotting,” the 10+ minute instrumental song that first appeared on the soundtrack of the same name and then on Primal Scream’s 1997 album Vanishing Point, is an atmospheric song that works well as a standalone song or as a bridge in between two disparate [...]
Volume 26, Track 8
“Desolation Row” by Bob Dylan (1965) [Notes... Total track length = 11:23] “They’re selling postcards of the hanging/They’re painting the passports brown/The beauty parlor is filled with sailors/The circus is in town”—so begins “Desolation Row,” the final song on Bob Dylan’s masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited. One of the many reasons why Dylan’s work was praised [...]
Volume 26, Track 7
“The Gift” by The Velvet Underground (1993) [Notes... Total track length = 10:33] In its original vinyl incarnation on the 1968 album White Light/White Heat, “The Gift” was an experimental track that had its audio channels split in two. In one speaker, a kind of bass-heavy track with some quasi-distortion; in the other, John Cale [...]
Volume 26, Track 6
“Toad” by Cream (1968) [Notes... Total track length = 16:15] Is a live 10+ minute drum solo ever a necessary thing? Well no, probably not. But neither is a $500,000 watch, vodka sold in six liter bottles, or a television show based on a movie in which Michael J. Fox is a basketball-playing werewolf. The [...]
Volume 26, Track 5
“You Never Give Me Your Money/Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” by The Beatles (1969) [Notes... Total track length = 10:45, "Sun King" starts at 4:03, "Mean Mr. Mustard" starts at 6:29, "Polythene Pam" starts at 7:35, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window starts at 8:47] Side two of [...]
Volume 26, Track 4
“Airbag/Paranoid Android” by Radiohead (1997) [Notes... Total track length = 11:08, "Paranoid Android" starts at 4:45] This is the Radiohead I love. The Radiohead that swims in rock elements rather than the overly dreamy (read: sleep-inducing) soundscapes that have become their signature since the release of OK Computer. And while I understand the impetus of [...]
Volume 26, Track 3
“Djed” by Tortoise (1996) [Notes... Total track length = 20:57] From Wikipedia: “The Djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet (the ba of the lord of the Djedet).” Taken strictly at face value, a song [...]
Volume 26, Track 2
“St. Stephen/The Eleven/Turn On Your Love Light” by The Grateful Dead (1969) [Notes... Total track length = 30:55, "The Eleven" starts at 6:33, "Turn On Your Love Light" starts at 15:51] The Grateful Dead had two live versions of “St. Stephen” that they would perform: one version was simply a live version of the song [...]
Volume 26, Track 1
“Sister Ray” by The Velvet Underground (1968) [Notes... Total track length = 17:32] White Light/White Heat, the second album by The Velvet Underground, is one of the most frenetic and assaulting albums produced during the ’60′s. In its vinyl incarnation side one consisted of the title track (a great, succinct track that has a wonderfully [...]
Volume 26 Introduction
A song that exceeds the 10 minute mark is similar to a book that goes beyond the 1,000 page mark. Both are typically born out of a certain kind of grand ambition and wide scope, and both ask a lot of its audience compared to its typical mainstream thresholds (3-minute songs/300-page books). Songs that are [...]
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