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Long LP sides

Nigel

Nigel

pfm Member
Inspired by the latest Miles Davis thread, I was listening to his album, "Water Babies" on CD.
Reading the wiki page on the recording, I was surprised to see the running time for side 2 of the original LP was 31 minutes 20 seconds! Surely one of the longest LP sides?
 
Todd Rundgren's 36-minute "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire" from 1975 album 'Initiation' is probably the longest rock album side. Some classical stuff is longer.

Edit: Marchbanks beat me to it...
 
Must sound terrible unless there a lot of very quiet passages?

I will have to have a quick listen if it's on YouTube. It sounds completely mad.
 
Prefab Sprout's Jordan: The Comeback is over an hour on a single disc and doesn't sound too bad, but not as weighty as the recent double reissue.
 
Nigel said:
Must sound terrible unless there a lot of very quiet passages?
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I really like the first half of ‘Treatise on Cosmic Fire’ (synths) but the second half (guitars at war with sequencers) is pretty grim. There isn’t a whole lot of dynamic range as you might expect. Side one of the album is also over 30 minutes long but sounds pretty good. Note Todd’s sleeve note comments from the Wikipedia link above regarding overall level. I’d love to know how many people have listened to side two in its entirety more than once.
 
Nigel said:
Inspired by the latest Miles Davis thread, I was listening to his album, "Water Babies" on CD.
Reading the wiki page on the recording, I was surprised to see the running time for side 2 of the original LP was 31 minutes 20 seconds! Surely one of the longest LP sides?
Click to expand...

'Get Up With' It is about 2 hours over 4 sides. It's far from ideal, and obviously limits the sound, but does manage to sound better than I'd expect.
 
IIRC anything over about 18-20 minutes a side drops the maximum cut level by 1 db per extra minute. It makes for overly quiet and undynamic records IME. Obviously ones containing Miles Davis are still amazing, but there is a point beyond which I tend to prefer CD/SACD. The reason those early Blue Note, Riverside, Impulse etc records sounded so amazing because they only play for about 35 minutes in total, i.e. 16-17 minutes a side. Pretty much 12” single level of dynamics.
 
I see Genesis "Duke" is 27 mins per side. Always sounded crap. Well, it's a poor album anyway.
 
Deepest Purple, The Best of Deep Purple was 63 minutes on a single album and Klaus Schultz Timewind is close to an hour. I think Def Leppard's Hysteria is over an hour long.
 
Elvis Costello's album 'Get Happy' had long running times and sq suffered as a consequence.

The sleeve notes said this would not be the case.
 
Marchbanks said:
Initiation is the one I always think of. I’m sure there are a number of longer ones in the classical field.
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'A Wizard, A True Star' was also a very long LP - Todd did give you value for money. The opposite of Pearls Before Swine whose 2nd LP only just goes over 30 minutes if I remember correctly.
 
The original release of one of my favourite albums, "Script of the Bridge" by The Chameleons, is around an hour long on a single disk.

The 2012 remastered version is sooo much better spread out over 2 LPs with around 15 minutes per side.
 
Nigel said:
It sounds completely mad.
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I remember Ian MacDonald describing side 2 of the album in the NME as sounding something like ‘a million ice-cream vans meeting at Armageddon.’ He meant in a bad way. Naturally, I bought it.
Snufkin said:
'A Wizard, A True Star' was also a very long LP - Todd did give you value for money.
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I always thought AWATS sounded pretty weedy. For a highly regarded producer, Todd seemed to have rather cavalier attitudes towards factors governing SQ on his records.
 
At the other extreme, Dylan, Blonde On Blonde side 4. 11:23!

Must have a massive run out groove. Be a good record for testing the Soundsmith anti skating technique.
 
The fourth side of "The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color" double LP by Rahsaan Roland Kirk is very short;)
 
Marchbanks said:
I remember Ian MacDonald describing side 2 of the album in the NME as sounding something like ‘a million ice-cream vans meeting at Armageddon.’ He meant in a bad way. Naturally, I bought it.

I always thought AWATS sounded pretty weedy. For a highly regarded producer, Todd seemed to have rather cavalier attitudes towards factors governing SQ on his records.
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As much as I love Todd, no-one would look to any of his production work for audiophile quality recordings. He's no Don and Walt that's for sure.
 
DavidS said:
Elvis Costello's album 'Get Happy' had long running times and sq suffered as a consequence.

The sleeve notes said this would not be the case.
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You beat me to it, this was the first one that came to mind for me too.
Must admit never noticed any problems with the sound as I only had a Pioneer rack system in those days and was less discerning about the sound quality suffering....One of the best albums of that year though, great record.

Wasn't it Nick Lowe that wrote the sound quality thing on he the rear??
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