It’s well-documented that our attention spans are getting shorter, and as it turns out, so are our songs. The average length of pop songs is on the wane, and that’s bad news for those of us who like our music to take its time to develop. It’s always special when we come across a song that has an epic scope, and those may become increasingly scarce.
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What makes a song feel “epic?” It needs to be long enough so that it has time to build up, but being longer than a typical hit song isn’t enough on its own. It needs to encompass a variety of tempos and feels in the service of creating dramatic tension. This definition would exclude songs with extended jams, like Oasis’ “Slide Away” or Sleater-Kinney’s “Let’s Call It Love,” as well as songs like Blondie’s “Rapture” or Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” which use their length to keep a groove going more than for heightening drama.
On the other hand, songs like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Don McLean’s “American Pie,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” not to mention numerous songs by progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Genesis, absolutely qualify as epic. However, these songs have become a defining part of their artists’ respective legacies. But there are plenty of songs like these made by rock artists who are much better known for straightforward compositions. Each of the five songs featured here show that being a hitmaker doesn’t mean you can’t create something truly epic.
1. Elton John, “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding”
With songs like “Levon” and “Burn Down the Mission,” John established early in his recording career that he could write songs that felt grand and monumental. However, prior to the 1973 release of the double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, he had yet to create anything that had the sweeping scope of “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.”
Just the “Funeral for a Friend” instrumental alone has a cinematic quality, and it’s hardly surprising, given that John was writing music he would have wanted at his own funeral. To get from “Funeral”’s haunting feel to the angry guitar-led charge of “Love Lies Bleeding,” John takes his listeners through different tempos and styles, making this 11-minute track a true emotional journey.
2. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Ramble Tamble”
CCR is best-known for their compact swamp-rock ditties and extended jams, like the ones on their covers of “Suzie Q” and “Heard It Through the Grapevine.” For those who are only familiar with the band’s most popular songs, hearing “Ramble Tamble” for the first time is a revelation.
Its first minute-and-a-half holds no surprises, sounding like a typical CCR song. Then it slows down and evolves into a Cream-like jam, which eventually serves as the backdrop for a soaring, melodic John Fogerty guitar solo that slowly builds in intensity. Then for the final minute-and-a-half, the band returns to the song’s original melody. “Ramble Tamble” shows a different side to a band that we all thought we knew well. It’s such a departure that it will profoundly change the way you think about them.
3. Pearl Jam, “Black”
Part of what can make a song feel epic is if it can build to a dramatic climax that you never saw coming. That’s what Pearl Jam achieves with this song from their debut album, Ten. “Black” is hardly the only song on Ten that builds to an anthemic conclusion; ”Jeremy” and “Garden” achieve this as well.
But on “Black,” Pearl Jam keeps shifting into higher gears during their final buildup, just when you think there isn’t another gear left. You’d think there’s no way for the band to create more emotional tension than Eddie Vedder does when he sings, I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life / I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky, but he and Pearl Jam are just getting started here. The 100 seconds of outro that follow just keeps building and building, creating an impact that is unlike anything found in Pearl Jam’s other hits.
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4. Weezer, “Only in Dreams”
The song’s mellow 50-second intro provides the setup for this slow-building closer to Weezer’s Blue Album. Their transitions from quiet verses to loud, crunchy choruses is hardly unique for a Weezer song, but when the song goes quiet again after it feels like it’s about to end four-and-a-half minutes in, the listener is in for something different.
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“Only in Dreams” actually hits its quietest point at the beginning of this extended instrumental section, but because the song starts off slowly, this pacing doesn’t feel the slightest bit awkward. Still, Weezer isn’t done with the song at this point, as it heats up for one more climax before winding down for the final time. It finishes with only the bass left playing.
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5. Foo Fighters, “The Teacher”
The Foo Fighters have made some longer, sprawling songs, and with the title track from their 2017 album, Concrete and Gold, Dave Grohl was consciously going for a bigger-than-life sound. By and large, though, the Foos’ best-known works are their four-minute radio-friendly rockers. On their 2023 album, But Here We Are, they released their most dynamic and moving song to date, the 10-minute opus “The Teacher.”
Dedicated to Grohl’s mother, who died in 2022, the song rocks hard for most of its first five-plus minutes, which includes two false endings. Then the sound starts anew, quietly and with a more melancholy melody, before moving into its fiery finale, in which Grohl’s screams of “goodbye” are eventually overtaken by guitar distortion. This raw and moving tribute is the highlight of an album that is notable for Grohl’s nuanced processing of grief for both his mother and his longtime bandmate, drummer Taylor Hawkins, who also died in 2022.
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