The 5 Longest Led Zeppelin Songs
What Led Zeppelin might have lacked in song title originality (they had five songs with “song” in the title) they made up for with their musical diversity. They created hard-edged blues tunes and wrote songs that proved they had a soft side. Led Zeppelin wrote lengthy epics and short, punchy tunes that didn’t labor the point. Let’s look at the five longest Led Zeppelin songs.
Note: We’re using only studio albums for our countdown. So you won’t see any sitcom-length versions of “Moby Dick” or half-hour takes of “No Quarter” on the list.
5. ‘In the Light’
- Run time: 8:47
The Physical Graffiti classic “Kashmir,” which closed out Side 2 of the 1975 double-vinyl album, just missed the cut with its 8:37 running time. Side 3 opener “In the Light” edged it out. We could say we’re substituting one verified classic for one of Led Zeppelin’s most underrated songs.
“In the Light” pulled out all the stops. Jimmy Page whipped out his violin bow and scraped it across his acoustic guitar strings to produce an eerie drone. John Paul Jones layered deftly-played, reverb-soaked synths on top, and Robert Plant sang lyrics that were at once inspirational and mystic. It was Led Zeppelin at their most ambitious, at least to that point in their career.
4. ‘Tea for One’
- Run time: 9:28
Presence might have been Led Zeppelin’s most challenging album. The 1976 record sidelined the atmospheric and acoustic elements that defined earlier releases for a harrowing all-electric album. Plant called the whole thing a cry from the depths, and “Tea for One” might be the most desperate scream on the record.
The slow blues tune pulled a trick on the listener. Page opened with a jaunty riff but then switched gears to a quiet, slow blues. Meanwhile, Plant frankly sang about desperate loneliness consuming him/his protagonist (“Oh twenty-four hours / Baby sometimes seem to slip into days / When a minute seems like a lifetime / Oh baby when I feel this way”).
3. ‘Achilles Last Stand’
- Run time: 10:31
At the other end of Presence was another one of Led Zeppelin’s longest songs, but this one was a full-throttle epic that galloped well past the 10-minute mark.
John Bonham’s inhuman drumming provides a highlight, and the sustained chug of Jones’ bass is worth hearing. Page layered guitar part after guitar part to the point where it became next to impossible to play it live. His first guitar solo has at least two guitar tracks behind it (and likely more buried in the mix). Page constructed a guitar orchestra that takes over the song starting at the 5:44 mark. By that point, listeners were only about halfway through the epic “Achilles Last Stand,” which somehow wasn’t particularly close to being the longest song the band ever recorded.
2. ‘Carouselambra’
- Run time: 10:34
Jones returned with a vengeance after seeing his synth playing put on the shelf for Presence. He crafted several songs on 1979’s In Through the Out Door. The synth-forward, prog rock-leaning “Carouselambra” was one of them.
The keyboards took center stage, but Page added biting guitar chords, and Bonham tossed in several thunderous fills. “Carouselambra” was a three-part operatic epic, and it had the runtime to prove it. The reverb-soaked middle section gave listeners a break from Jones’ synth lines that defined not just the song but much of Led Zeppelin’s last album.
1. ‘In My Time of Dying’
- Run time: 11:08
Tunes such as “Kashmir,” “How Many More Times,” and “Stairway to Heaven” clocked in at more than eight minutes, and they didn’t come close to being Led Zeppelin’s longest song. “In My Time of Dying” topped the list, and it did so impressively.
The band recorded the Physical Graffiti song live in one take. That included two of Page’s best guitar solos that showcased him at the height of his powers. Bonham performed several subtly impressive beats, including the bass drum work around 4:05 that preceded Page’s first solo and the steady shuffle-like beat during it.
The five longest Led Zeppelin songs added up to 50:28, longer than many albums by other bands. That quintet of tunes came in the back half of their career, but they showed that Led Zeppelin still had plenty of creativity in the tank.
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