The seventies produced a lot of ambitious, talented bands that all dabbled in 'epic' songwriting: to keep from digressing into what constitutes an 'epic' we'll just say anything ten minutes or more. Doesn't have to be a 'rock' epic either, Roy Harper and Cymande are welcome. Just has to be from the seventies and 10 minutes +.

My votes in for Baker St. Muse by Jethro Tull. Their neglected meisterwork. 17 minutes, and it's perfect. Complicated but beautiful acoustic playing, the electric parts verging on full-KC freakout courtesy of Marty Barre, and lyrically it's a smoldering condemnation of pretty much...everything. Anderson at his darkest and angriest if I had to guess, but it's the drama and the way everything unfolds so naturally and builds to a really somber and moving book-end conclusion. Facking masterpiece.

Looking forward to hearing yours. So much good stuff from this decade.

One of my favorite prog songs, period. I love the emotion and build-up on this.

Amazing Choice! Perfection indeed!

I'm a huge fan of 70's music and the number of astounding epics it's huge..
My pick is a pretty obvious, if amazing one: Starless by King Crimson!
It starts soft, sorrowful, with Fripp playing a lead smooth as silk followed by Wetton's delicate vocals ..then suddently something changes, it keeps on building up and up becoming more and more dissonant and weird each bar .. and finally explodes in it's majestic, frantic jazz ending.
i feel the urge to do a standing ovation every time i reach the end!

..i miss that Jethro tull one, I have to listen it!

Wishbone Ash have a couple of these on their self titled debut.

Wishbone Ash - Handy. Very jammy, but goes through various moods. Full of guitar harmonies, and starts with slow, delicate electric guitars that are just sublime, and then builds up.

Wishbone Ash - Phoenix. This one is less jammy then Handy, but no less epic. Love the chorus in this one. And like pretty much every song on the album, full of great guitar harmonies.

I'm assuming everyone in this thread already knows this one, but just in case, Deep Purple - Child In Time. Fantastic build-up, that goes into the great bridge riff, then into the slow solo, then into the fast solo. And Ian Gillan's vocal acrobatics. One of my favorite songs of all time.

Pink Floyd - Echoes.


Everything about it is perfect. Even that neverending tripped out weird bit in the middle

"....and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us"

It's got to be "Eve of the war" from Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds. Ticks all the boxes as both a massive H.G Wells fan and Synth player. The whole album is really quite unique. I'm sure I cant be alone in saying it scared the living shit out of me as a kid.

Got to mention Salisbury by Uriah Heep. Maybe the "jam part" in the middle is a little boring, but otherwise I can't get enough of it. Especially the first few minutes with the orchestra and then the hammonds kicking in are godly. Rarely seen anybody talking about it.

Off the top of my head I have to give it to The Necromancer by Rush. Probably one of the shorter epics that will be mentioned here, but that's part of the charm. The gooftroop spoken word intros, some of their heaviest/wildest riffs ever, and the awesome D&D storyline all speak to my heart directly.

This song is a big part of the reason Caress of Steel is my favorite Rush album:

When I was a preteen, I listened to a lot of King Crimson. Larks Tongues In Aspic is highly underrated. Every blue moon I'll listen to the song, but it should be regarded as one of the best rock epics. Hendrix's Machine Gun is excellent too.

Being as how I'm partial to YES and Chris Squire, I would have to say "Starship Trooper" would be mine. Most of their 70's stuff was brilliant, and Squire was one of the best bassists ever to play rock music. Of course I love early Rush, too, and both "The Necromancer" and "2112" are outstanding epic works of music.

Just as I expected, every song mentioned here is excellent lol.

I hadn't heard Van Der Graaf Generator before that. Pretty whacky stuff. For the most part it's excellent but like a lot of early prog bands the vocals throw it for me a bit...but the buildups and chances are nice. Especially the keyboards.

Child In Time is on another level. So is Echoes.

As far as Crimson, I might agree with Morn of Solace on Starless, but someone mentioned Larks as well which is another great epic. I think I'll go with Lizard for my favorite KC epic though - it's a pretty sunny, feel-good affair especially for KC and has Jon Anderson on vocals.

Was never crazy about Rush, and didn't find much to like in Caress of Steel.

Tons of good songs in here. Im surprised nobodys mentioned Genesis yet.

Technically 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' is one song, split into four 'chapters' - having to turn over the record / change records does rather spoil the illusion, however. I'd got for that as a whole. It doesn't work soon well as individual parts.

I always listen to this.

Love Can's Aumgn from Tago Mago.

2112 is probably my favorite and Necromancer is alright, but Hemispheres is exceptional as well. Peart's drumming was always great, but the patterns there always stick with me more than most songs. ELP also put out some great epics in the form of Tarkus and Karn Evil 9. The former has some very catchy rhymes to go along with the great instrumental work. KE9 is split into four parts, but it flows pretty well together. There's a detached glee to the second that's funny and a bit weird at the same time.

Does this have to be rock? Because most of Klaus Schulze's discography in the 70s gets regular spins by me. Now that Spring is starting, I just like chilling out in my car with the window down eating lunch and listening to "Heinrich von Kleist", "Bayreuth Return", "Mindphaser" or "Velvet Voyage" with the breeze coming through the window.

I wanted to post Klaus Schulze, too, when the thread was started, but I wanted to include one of those neat little YouTube links, and nothing. So I forgot about posting.

Nah, doesn't have to be rock. I love Klaus too. Tip-Toe Through the Misty Mountains (or something like that) is a great epic, it's on Audentity.

does this count? this should totally count

Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider by Camel on the album Mirage. When it comes to epic, it’s tough to beat a song about Gandalf.



Lady Fantasy, from the same album, is worth checking out too. Just expect a few moments of ‘what the hell am I listening to this for?’. If you make it to the guitar and organ solos at the end, you’ll be glad you made the effort and it will somehow all make sense.