Unusual Playing Times
LP records rarely exceeded 45 minutes per disc, with a limit in the early years of 52 minutes, due to mastering issues. Eventually, some records exceeded even the 52-minute limitation, with single albums going to as long as ninety minutes in the case of Arthur Fiedler's 1976 LP 90 Minutes with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, made by Radio Shack. However, such records had to be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves, which allowed for a much smaller amount of dynamic range on the records, and meant that playing the record with a worn needle could damage the record. It also resulted in a much quieter sound. (Other notably long albums included the UK version of The Rolling Stones' Aftermath, with both sides exceeding 26 minutes in length; Genesis' Duke, with both sides exceeding 27 minutes; Bob Dylan's 1976 album Desire, with side two being just shy of thirty minutes; Brian Eno's 1975 album Discreet Music, whose A-side exceeded 30 minutes; Miles Davis' 1972 album Get Up with It, totalling 124:15 over four sides; Todd Rundgren's 1975 album Initiation, totaling 67:32 over two sides, as well as his band Utopia's 1974 self-titled debut, totaling 59:17 over two sides, and his 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star, whose second side nearly reaches thirty minutes; and La Monte Young's Dream House 78' 17", whose two sides were each just under 40 minutes (the running time of the album is indeed 78:17).) Spoken word and comedy albums, not having a wide range of musical instrumentation to reproduce, can be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves; for example, The Comic Strip, released by Springtime Records in 1981, has a side A lasting 38:04 and a side B lasting 31:08, for a total of 69:12.
Read more about this topic: Unusual Types Of Gramophone Records
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