10 Perfect Rock Songs That Are Ridiculously Long
5. Sister Ray - The Velvet Underground
No one can really trace back the origins of when punk rock first started. Though it didn't see its first mainstream success until the late '70s, you had people like Iggy and the Stooges stripping things down to a much more primal approach to rock years before the likes of the Ramones had turned up. If you want a good example of what the raw chaos of rock can be though, The Velvet Underground were already testing that back in the '60s.
Though White Light White Heat is by no means an easy record to listen to from cover to cover, Sister Ray is what it all builds to, spanning 17 minutes and blasting you with noise throughout. After around 5 minutes, Lou Reed almost doesn't sound like he's using his guitar as an instrument anymore, looking to squeeze out sounds of feedback that hadn't really been heard before on a record, all while John Cale's viola and Mo Tucker's drums create a cacophony of sound around your speakers.
At the time, this was just considered a bunch of noise though, being almost anti-pop music in its direction. This was never supposed to be at the top of the charts though. It was meant to take you on a journey and explore just how ferocious rock music could be at the time. The British Blues Boom may have already started to attempt hard rock, but Sister Ray is where we found out just how brutal the genre could be.