10 Perfect Rock Songs That Are Ridiculously Long

Ever since having to let go of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd seemed to be unsure of where to go in his absence. As much as they wanted to keep the band going, Syd's unique brand of psychedelic rock wasn't going to work if the main songwriter and spirit of the band wasn't there to lead the way. How do you continue on without someone like that steering the wheel? Well the answer is...you kind of don't. You just make something else instead.

After a few years of working out the bugs of their sound, Echoes is the moment where the Pink Floyd that we know today was born, taking us on a musical journey through sound. While albums like Atom Heart Mother had different suites to work through, this is where we truly get to see the strengths of every member of the band, taking 23 minutes to immerse yourself in the sounds of the song.

Shaking off the skin of the psychedelic side of their sound, most of this song contains bits and pieces of what we would hear later down the line in Floyd's catalog, from the ominous piano sounds setting up the tone of Wish You Were Here to the rock parts harkening back to their roots to the middle section of sound design foreshadowing what Roger Waters would be doing later on the Wall. After this one song, the playing field was wide open for Floyd to explore, and they would spend the rest of the decade expanding their musical vision even further.