Short Songs you love (< 3 minutes long)
 

Which short songs (less than 3 minutes long) do you adore? What do you like most about them?

>>> Please make sure to type the names of the artists and songs in case videos disappear! Thank you. ~ Me <<<

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I realized recently that while most of my preferred songs are under five minutes long, quite a few of my favorite songs of all time are actually less than three minutes in length.

For example, below are three of my favorite songs. I love the emotion and beauty packed into these short pieces, which I feel are like exquisitely cut gems: small but brilliant.

Chopin - Etude Op. 10, no. 1 ("Waterfall")
Ashkenazy - piano

I love the contrast between power and delicacy in this etude, which is my favorite by Chopin. I am impressed that Chopin manages to condense so much strength into a piece that is just over 2 minutes long.


Ashkenazy plays Chopin Etude op.10-1 - YouTube

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Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) - "The Wind"

Ahhh. :love: I love that Yusuf sings this song with such conviction and honesty, revealing so much of himself in it. The tune is sweet, gentle, rich. Yusuf manages to encompass his whole life in this brief, contemplative song, which always sounds to me as if it offers some answer to the big questions about existence. The song makes me like to pretend there is a god and a soul...and maybe even hope a little.


The Wind - Cat Stevens - YouTube

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Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 - Prelude
Rostropovich - cello

I love the energy, excitement, and simplicity of this short piece and especially the long rise to its climactic end. I also love the fact that a single instrument engages my interest so thoroughly, stirring my emotions without needing fancy bells, whistles, drums, guitars, or even chords until the one that is at the crest of the final crescendo.


Rostropovich plays the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 - YouTube

10. I Will (No Man's Land) - YouTube

I often wish this song was longer, but at the same time, the shortness of this song is one of the things that make it so good. You're just left with a "whoah".

One of my favourites from U2. Has such painful emotion in the Edge's piano work, and although the lyric is sparse it manages to say exactly all it needs to say in a few short sentences. Truly classic.


Are instrumentals allowed? If so, Genesis's "Horizons" is one beautiful but short piece of guitar work from Steve Hackett.

I love the song "Drive-In Show" by Eddie Cochran who, like most of his contemporaries, specialized in tracks that were less than 3 minutes:

My absolute favourite short song is Away Goodbye by Change of Heart, they're another underrated Canadian alt-rock act from the 90s.

The song isn't even a minute long but it packs just as much punch and most full length pop tunes. I really like how it starts off with just an acoustic guitar and a voice before exploding with the full band without ever losing the feeling of intimacy or intensity. Unfortunately the individual song itself isn't available on youtube but surprisingly enough the entire album it happens to be on is, so here's a link cut to the right time

Change Of Heart - Tummysuckle (1995) Full Album - YouTube

The whole album is worth listening to as well but this track is its pinnacle to my ears.

My favorite short song is "No Man's Land". It's an amazing song and I like it so much.

It`s good to see that you`re posting again, VEGANGELICA. I missed you !
Though I`m not a big fan of Chopin, I had to admire the way Ashkenazy`s right hand is working that keyboard in your first clip.

And your thread has made me notice how many short songs there are; as Janszoon says, there was a time when almost every published song was about 3 mins long. Then I checked out Trout Mask Replica, which has 19 songs that come in under the bar - impossible for me to select which one of those is the best, so I`m choosing this song instead :-



Here Brian Wilson takes a deliberately undramatic topic and then packs the song with charming details:-
- the low-register pipes at 0:13
- the BB`s singing tab-e vege vege at 0:48
- that under-used percussive instrument, celery, coming in at 0:53
- the background chomp chomp chomp vocal at 1:23
- the beautiful 20-second adagio at 1:31
- and then the resounding, full-on Beach Boys fade out, which is also a mere 20 seconds long.
So we have an endearing, off-beat comment about love, diet and shopping and a song that glitters like a piece of jewelry with exquisite little gems of sound.

Always loved this one-two punch to start the album off.

Punk music in general is pretty short, snappy and to the point.

"While My Heart is Still Beating" (Roxy Music)

I haven't been able to think of anything other than "October."

Pixies—"Debaser"

Lots of excellent selections in this here thread! Here's a particular favorite of mine. :)

Ah, Ant, you never disappoint! Great track, great album. Here's another...

One of my favorite oldies. Los Bravos: Black is black (1966).

it had to be done :)

This is probably about the shortest thing on regular rotation in my collection that I would actually call a song and not a novelty interlude.

I think that The Gerogerigegege deserves a mention on here. They're album Yellow Trash Bazooka is a fantastic compilation of eighty five second songs, resulting in a 13 minute album. Here's forty of their songs:

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your favorite short songs!

So far our combined favorite short songs are these:

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"The Wind" by Yusuf Islam
Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude by Bach
"I Will (No man's Land)" by Radiohead
"Horizons" by Genesis -- Yes, instrumental short songs are perfect, Trollheart. I liked this lovely guitar solo very much.
"Drive-In Show" by Eddie Cochran
"Away Goodbye" by Change of Heart -- starting at 10:04 in their Tummysuckle album
"Vegetables - by The Beach Boys
"Whatever Happened to Pong" and "Thalassocracy" by Frank Black
"Debaser" by the Pixies -- I learned that Frank Black was their frontman. I thought the voice sounded similar!
"It's So Easy" - a peppy punk song by Jay Reatard
"While My Heart is Still Beating" by Roxy Music -- actually 3:27 minutes long, but that is still quite short.
"Mbanda Na Ngai" by Franco & L'O.K. Jazz
"October" by U2 -- a song that was preferred by two members.
"Eye in the Sky" and "Pyramania" by the Alan Parsons Project
"Black is Black" by Los Bravos
"Short Songs" by Dead Kennedys -- this song is definitely short!
"A Well-Respected Man" by The Kinks
Forty tiny songs by The Gerogerigegege -- I first heard about these songs due to MusicBanter last year. I'm guessing the other 40 songs on the compilation sound almost exactly the same! :)
"Memories of Tomorrow" by Suicidal Tendencies
"Your Mind is On Vacation" by Mose Allison Trio
and
"No Man's Land" -- but I see several songs by this name, so I'm not sure which one you meant, Sumonchy.
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I especially liked Thom Yorke's selection, which I had never heard before today:

"Thalassocracy" by Frank Black
This song struck me as quirky, energetic, and pretty at the same time:



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Thank you for welcoming me back and for sharing the kind thought, Lisnaholic.

"Vegetables" by The Beach Boys is definitely a unique, crunchy vegetable piece, and celery *is* an under-used percussive instrument! :laughing: I enjoyed hearing all the notable timepoints you mentioned in the song. I also liked your description of the song as glittering "like a piece of jewelry with exquisite little gems of sound." Poetry! :)

And yes, I agree that Ashkenazy's right hand is admirably dexterous in the way it works that keyboard in my favorite Chopin etude. Even though you don't care for Chopin, it was nice of you to appreciate the skill involved. Maybe that etude is so short to prevent hand strain! :p:

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The following very short song is one of my favorite songs of all time because of its peaceful sweetness and simplicity:

Bach - Prelude No. 1 in C Major
Hélène Grimaud - Piano
Most Bach pieces do not stir my emotions and instead feel very mechanical, but this song moves me.


Hélène Grimaud - Prelude in C Major - Bach - WTC Book 1 - YouTube

Short and sweet: Tea for the Tillerman from Cat Stevens.

Tom Waits - Trouble's Braids




Scratch Acid - Monsters




Josh Pyke - Chimney's Afire

This is what makes a good post great. Well done as usual Lisnaholic!

My immediate thoughts on short songs are John Zorn and friends in Naked City playing Speedfreaks, and the Minutemen (so known for their short songs).

Oh man, how could I forget Waits??? :confused:
Here's Johnsburg, Illinois: less than two minutes of perfect, perfect music.

One of my favorite Scratch Acid songs. Good call! :)

ummm Frankly Mr Shankly

Glad you enjoyed it. I definitely recommend checking out the Pixies, one of the best bands ever IMO. Most of their songs fit into the short song category as well.

Rush - Diadacts and Narpets

Part II of The Fountain Of Lamenth.

I tried posting a vid, but vBulletin didn't like the characters in the link for some reason. I tried a few times, a few different ways and got nada so I guess you'll have to copy/paste it into a Tube search if you wanna hear it.

It's because the random alpha-numeric code in the link contained the letters F-A-G in that order. We have a really dumb filter here.

I hadn't noticed that. But I'm usually pretty frantic about posting something and getting back to work, so I didn't look at the letters. Thanks.

Funniest/most ridiculous example of the nanny state ever! :laughing:
Stupid thing is, that word over here can also mean cigarette!

I agree on Debaser being awesome, loving me that fake German accent. I Will and Faust Arp by Radiohead are awesome as well.

Another fav o'mine is this one:



What a way to start an album.

Oh yeah, and Death Grips of course:

As a big fan of the band Psychofagist, let me tell you I've been made well aware of this issue every time I've tried to link to anything that uses their name, like album cover art. :laughing:

55 seconds of pure joy.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...9bBAkhSpYfiPuQ

I tried to link this, apparently i'm retarded.

Queen: We Will Rock You:

Been obsessed with this band lately

As for Classical music, I choose the famous guitar piece known as Romance, composed by an anonymous author in the 19th century. Simplicity and lyricism together.

Agreed!

Some of my favorite instrumental virtuosos release short, short songs that do the trick quick:

Mattias Eklundh "Disco Dabolique"


Farzad Golpayegani "87"

Now why am I surprised there was a Buckethead track in there? :rolleyes: :)