Top Ten Epic Songs

Let’s have a Top Ten list, shall we?

Okay!

How about, “Top Ten Epic Songs” …

Hey LE, what is an “epic song”?

Well, there are no hard and fast rules, but there are some general guidelines. Obviously, an epic song has to be long. Let’s set a minimum at six or seven minutes. It should also have several distinct sections to it, differentiated by different keys or time signatures or musical-slash-performance style. And it has to have an absolutely undefinable quality of “grandeur.” It has to have majesty and know it. That kind of an attitude.

Now that I’ve coalesced the elusive idea of an “epic song” from nebulous to sketchy, here is my top ten list, in a vague sort of ill-defined order:

10. “The End” by The Doors

I was very much into this song and the Doors my freshman year at college. I can’t tell you how much courage I had to summon to admit that. But the music is good, as is all the music of the Doors, with the exception of some over-played radio tunes.

9. “1984” by Jimi Hendrix

Truly a masterpiece! Runs chills up and down the arms, still. For ages I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a post out of this song. Could be the first science fiction-themed rock song. I don’t know, but I do know this song is jaw-droppingly epic.

8. “Drown” by the Smashing Pumpkins

Went through a huge Smashing Pumpkins phase in the early-to-mid 90s. This song is off that Singles soundtrack. It’s epic. There are also a couple of selections off of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness I could have included on this list (“Porcelina” for example) but could not, alas, due to space restriction.

7. “Prophet Song” by Queen

Betcha thought I’d say “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This is much, much better. You have Brian May slide-guitar, studio effects, end-of-the-world lyrics, and a Freddie Mercury a capella signature piece lasting two or three minutes that’s simply mind-blowing and deserves to be studied by mankind for millennia.

6. “And You and I” by Yes
5. “Starship Trooper” by Yes

Yes is an epic-song generating machine. And there are no better examples than these two masterpieces. Try this: buy these two songs and pipe them through a quality stereo system at about 110 decibels, making sure you are the sole occupant of the house. Listen to both these songs. If you are not reduced to a quivering pile of jelly by the sheer awesomeness of what you have just experienced, you are not human.

4. “2112” by Rush

Rush, too, is quite at home with epic songs (“Xanadu,” my favorite). But this 20-plus minute phenomenon, a whole album side for those of you who remember what an album was, is the best definition of “epic” so far on this list. It’s got it all – a half-dozen motifs, different keys, styles, tempos, and a romantic – in the 18th century definition of the term – theme about the little man and life! triumphing over the machine.

3. “Three Days” by Janes Addiction

Best epic song in terms of pure guitar crunch factor. A somewhat sleazy beginning followed by nonstop chugging throwback power chord acrobatics for five minutes, concluding with perhaps the most ethereal couplet of chords ever to grace mine ears.

2. “Terrapin Station” by the Grateful Dead

First heard this January 9, 1996. That’s right, I remember the date. Not a big Dead fan, but this song is not really typical Dead, at least what you might hear on the radio. My first thought: (exclamatory expletive) These guys can play guitar! Why wasn’t I informed?!? My second thought: This is one sublime sixteen-minute epic song.

1. “Dazed and Confused (live)” by Led Zeppelin

Just like you never forget your first girl, you never forget your first epic song. This was mine. Completely shocking to my fourteen-year-old ears. Such an eye-opening experience that I was never completely the same again. No – “Dazed and Confused”, the live version from The Song Remains the Same changed me. Never again would I see a violin bow and not envision Page playing an audience of 10,000 as he did that sunburst Les Paul. Songs-within-songs like an Escher painting. A twenty-six minute odyssey of, basically, the guitar of the 1970s. The wah-wah pedal. That fat bass. Bonham’s tinfoil crisp power drums. Still awes me to this very day.

Those are mine. What are yours?