10 Perfect Hard Rock Songs That Are Ridiculously Long

Whenever you decide to make a longer rock song, you have a bit of an opportunity here. Since you don't have to confine your statement to just 3 or 4 minutes, you can use that time to give your fans something that they've never heard before, whether that means showing off your chops or extending your riffs out to something a little more ambitious. Led Zeppelin wanted to aim bigger, and Stairway to Heaven is one of the best examples of rock and roll taking you on a journey.

Starting off as just a simple acoustic guitar figure by Jimmy Page, the song is much more cinematic in scope than any other rock song, eventually morphing from the traditional folksy tune to including one of the most anthemic guitar solos ever created. Though it sounds subtle at the beginning, the middle section puts you right in the middle of action, as Robert Plant trades in his delicate tenor voice for his now signature wail and John Bonham emerging from behind his kit to deliver even more intensity towards the end of the track.

Just like the Tolkien stories of old that inspired Page and Plant in the early days, we wind up back where we started towards the end of the song, with the acoustic guitar capping things off and finally coming to a point of rest. We may have ended up in the same place, but the characters at the end of those 8 minutes are clearly changed men.