Long songs can be tricky for an artist to deal with. They can't really be released as singles, but they also run the risk of ruining the flow of an otherwise great album. These artists got around this problem by placing their extremely long songs at the end of their album.
1. Frank Zappa/The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! (1966)
Most artists tend to wait a few years until they release a double album, but Frank Zappa burst right onto the scene with Freak Out!, one of the first double albums in rock history. The album mostly lampoons popular music, but closes with the freaky 12-minute avant-rock composition "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet."
2 & 3. The Doors - The Doors/Strange Days (1967/1967)
The Doors' first two albums follow pretty much the same template: a bunch of short, psychedelic rock songs with one huge, poetic, improvisatory track bringing it to a close: "The End" from The Doors, and "When The Music's Over" from Strange Days, both of which are among the best songs the Doors ever wrote.
4. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1968)
The Velvet Underground were pioneers of a few different rock subgenres, one of the most important being noise rock, which they experimented with on their 1968 album White Light/White Heat and its 17-minute closing jam "Sister Ray."
5. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
Neil Young included two epic guitar jams on his second album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere: "Down By The Water," and the 10-minute closing track "Cowgirl in the Sand."
6. Genesis - Foxtrot (1972)
Genesis had some pretty lengthy compositions during its early progressive rock days, but none came close to "Supper's Ready," a surreal 23-minute song suite that closes out the band's fourth album Foxtrot.
7. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1975)
Bruce Springsteen's early albums featured some pretty progressive compositions, such as the borderline-operatic "Jungleland," the nine-and-a-half minute closing track to his classic Born To Run album.
8. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
The longest song Iron Maiden ever wrote was "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a nearly 14-minute epic based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name, which the band used as the closer to their (arguably) best album Powerslave from 1984.
9. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)
Sonic Youth was always one of the most progressive and artistically inclined bands of '80s and '90s alt-rock, as can be heard on the 14-minute "Trilogy" from Daydream Nation, the album's huge, three-part closing track.
10. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)
The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique brought the golden age of hip-hop toward the more experimental, alternative styles of '90s, as heard on the 12-minute closer "B-Boy Bouillabaisse," which is basically the hip-hop equivalent of the Beatles' Abbey Road suite.
11. The Stone Roses -The Stone Roses (1989)
The Stone Roses' eponymous debut follows some classic rules of album sequencing: open the album with a slow-build ("I Wanna Be Adored") and end it with a lengthy, psychedelic freak-out ("I Am The Resurrection").
12. Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album) (1994)
Weezer is known for its tight pop songwriting, but the band gave itself some room to stretch out with "Only In Dreams," the slow-building, eight minute closer to the band's debut album.
13. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000)
Yo La Tengo has written quite a few lengthy songs, but the longest was the nearly 18-minute "Night Falls Over Hoboken," which closes out the band's excellent 2000 LP And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
14. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute (2005)
Though the CD version of the Mars Volta's second album Frances The Mute contains twelve tracks, all other versions contain just five, with tracks five through twelve combined into one, 32-minute song suite, "Cassandra Gemini," which is so long that it can't fit onto one side of a vinyl record.
What other albums close with their longest track? Let us know in the comments section!
