10 Amazing Tracks That Are Longer Than 8 Minutes

1. Bruce Springsteen €“ "Jungleland"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR_0nbEzVdY It's entirely possible that this author has written more words about "Jungleland" in his life than any other song or subject. As the nine minute, 34 second finale to 1975's "Born to Run," "Jungleland" is significant for numerous reasons. For one thing, it provides a sufficiently epic conclusion to one of the richest and most vibrant records of all time, an album that takes us from the slamming screen door of "Thunder Road" to the boozy beach houses of "Backstreets," and from the title track's highways jammed with broken heroes to the disenfranchised wannabe criminals of "Meeting Across the River." "Born to Run" is the kind of album that NEEDS to go out on a high note, and it finds that high note by stretching the runtime of "Jungleland" to just shy of 10 minutes and pulling out all the stops. "Jungleland" is also significant for being one of the last times Springsteen would attempt this kind of long-form narrative song. Throughout his first two albums, the Boss let the track lengths run long on numerous occasions, drawing together characters like the Ragamuffin Gunner ("Lost in the Flood") and Spanish Johnny ("Incident on 57th Street") for rich, detailed stories not often seen outside of the world of Dylan. On "Jungleland" however, Springsteen mastered the long song format, and the result is the greatest track ever to surpass the eight-minute mark. Part of the reason for the success of "Jungleland" is the storytelling, which brings us fully into a world of romance, love, gang violence, and death. If "Born to Run" is an escapist anthem about reaching out for the American Dream, then "Jungleland" is the song where those dreams die, and it's an absolutely wrenching outcome. The other reason "Jungleland" succeeds is the E Street Band, which gives arguably its most definitive recorded performance on this track. Musically, "Jungleland" has everything, from Suki Lahav's expressive violin intro to pianist Roy Bittan's shimmering piano lines, Danny Federici's ringing, church-bound organ noise to Max Weinberg's torrential downpour of drums, and Springsteen's own incendiary guitar solo to Clarence Clemons' legendary saxophone solo. In my mind, the "Jungleland" sax solo €“ a-two-and-a-half minute burst of emotion and catharsis €“ is the greatest moment in the history of recorded music. Clemons expresses worlds of euphoric triumph and crushing defeat in the ringing swell of that solo, filling it will so much feeling that by the time it collapses back into the rest of the song, with a broken organ and the sound of Bruce's exhausted voice, it's taken you on a more complete journey than most full-length albums muster. The song's lyrical and emotional finish secures its place at the top of this list, thanks to a number of wonderful lines ("And the poets down here don't write nothing at all/They just stand back and let it all be"), powerful piano playing from Bittan, and a series of anguished wails from Bruce. With that said though, it's undoubtedly Clarence's saxophone solo that gives the song its heartbeat, and its no wonder that after the legendary sax man passed away in 2011 this song became his rallying cry.