What is the longest pause ever?

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Inspired by the "What is the longest song ever" and "What is the best pause" threads. What's the longest a band has paused in a song?

I can only think of lame examples (e.g. Cop Shoot Cop's "Shine On Elizabeth"), help me out here...

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

some uncredited 'hidden' track

― login name (fandango), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

Tyrannosaurus Rex?

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

(That was a very lame 'paws' joke BTW)

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

I can only think of lame examples (e.g. Cop Shoot Cop's "Shine On Elizabeth"), help me out here...

Where is there a pause in "Shine On, Elizabeth"?

Better example: Peter Murphy's cover of Pere Ubu's "Final Solution". I played it as the last song one of my shifts as a college radio d.j. while the next guy was cueing his his first record (some Allman Brothers bullshit....fuck you, Southern Rock!), and he mistook the pause (right after "Nuclear Destruction" and before "Seems I'm a victim of natural selection..") for the end of the song....like the whistle-headed, tobacco-chewing, date-rapin' jackass he was and probably still is.

Anyway, it's a long-ass pause.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

It's been a while, but isn't there a massive pause in Buzzcocks "Moving Away From The Pulsebeat"? (At least on the vinyl version?)

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

hidden tracks - janet jackson, pet shop boys , stone roses.

― retroboy, Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Ah yes, there's a pause in "Shine On, Elizabeth" at exactly 01:52, but it barely lasts a second. That can't count.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

a four-second pause in the Beach Boys' 1965 single "The Little Girl I Once Knew"--kept the song off of the radio because DJays were weirded-out by it, and the first BB single to bomb since 1963's "Ten Little Indians"--a forshadowing of many bombs to come.

The pause happens twice. Dead air.

― Jonathan DD, Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

How long is tha pause in perennial frat-rock fave "Shout" ? Seems like there's a long one in there, but I haven't heard that song since I was a college freshman.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

Beach Boys: The Little Girl I Once Knew. Dead air for a good eight beats. Twice.

xpost: Damn that's what he just said!!

― harvey.w (harvey.w), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

It's not what you might call a "live" pause, but Strawberry Fields Forever: about 7 seconds (just timed it).

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

Alex, have you ever liked ANY band that hails from south of the Mason-Dixon Line? (Or Battery Park, for that matter?)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

i can think of two quite long ones: stone roses 'i am the resurection' and that cockney rebel song

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Off the top of my head, bands from the South that measure up:

Nashville Pussy, Pylon, R.E.M, Guadalcanal Diary, (Georgia)
Corrosion of Conformity, Let's Active, Superchunk, Flat Duo Jets, Mojo Nixon (North Carolina)
Dead Horse, MDC, Skatenigs, Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, ZZ Top (Texas)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

For shame, Alex, leaving out Scratch Acid!

Unless you don't like them, I mean.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

I saw INXS when I was, like, eleven or something. When they did "Never Tear Us Apart," they broke for intermission during the pause in the song - half hour later, those cellos came in and they finsihed the song to raucous applause. Say what you will about INXS, but that was pretty fuckin' cool...

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

One of my least favourites is in Manfred Mann's Up The Junction - just after the first verse, leading into the chorus - as it sounds like a new song beginning.

Also, I've got an analoge CD recorder which automatically starts a new track after a 2-second pause, grrrr. Consequently, if you're copying from old vinyl and there is any crackling between tracks, it's picked up as noise, so a gap isn't detected and you end up with a whole side as a single track.

Actually, the longest pause I've heard is tagged onto the end of the penultimate track on the first Gene album - about 20 minutes I think - before a hidden track comes in.

― Jez (Jez), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

sigur ros are on tour now and they do a 45 second pause in "Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa"

― brokenfuses (brokenfuses), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

Wolf Eyes have some long pauses in their songs.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Oh God, "I Don't Like Mondays" at Live Aid. Sorry to bring that up.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

Also, The Blackbyrds "Rock Creek Park" live, about 4 years ago. The band left the stage with everyone chanting "Doing it in the park, doing it after dark, oh yeah..." etc, and clapping along. The chanting and clapping continued, beat perfect, for 3 or 4 minutes, then the band strolled back on one by one, picking up the rhythm again.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

For shame, Alex, leaving out Scratch Acid!

Unless you don't like them, I mean

oh, whoops. I always associate them with Chicago (via Jesus Lizard)

But I did forget Squirrel Bait (Kentucky)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Four minutes, eleven seconds

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

Four minutes, thirty-three seconds.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

sigur ros are on tour now and they do a 45 second pause in "Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa"

i do believe it depends on their faith in the audience, in amsterdam it only lasted 20 seconds, max. but yeah, that's an intense pause

― Rizz (Rizz), Thursday, 20 October 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

xpost D'oh! I was substracting the page-turning.

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Thursday, 20 October 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Ah yes, there's a pause in "Shine On, Elizabeth" at exactly 01:52, but it barely lasts a second. That can't count.
-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), October 20th, 2005.

...which is what makes my example so lame!

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 20 October 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Who would've thought INXS would be an extreme contender in this arena?

By the way, hidden tracks don't count - pause has to happen *during* a song, not between tracks...

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 20 October 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

The Rezillos' "Bad Guy Reaction" has an almost-ten-second pause in it.

― sleeve (sleeve), Thursday, 20 October 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

How about this?
20 second pause - Sylvian "Orpheus"

― glarbage, Thursday, 20 October 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

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