We keep coming back to this. A couple of other things. Do you guys know how long the Beatles live shows were? About 20 minutes. That is it. They did that big walk across the field to the stadium while the girls went bananas, got on stage, while the girls went bananas, plugged up and played, (well at least we think they played,the girls were too busy going bananas.) the did about 6 songs and were off.

That was almost everything in those days. You would be on a show with ten other acts, come out, play your 15-20 minutes and be gone. Television shows, radio, everything was built around getting more songs in. Hence top 40 radio.

On the songs you mentioned that are long players. In almost every one of those, Hotel California being one of the most prevalant, The Eagles, were at least as known for their musical playing, primarily guitar playing, as they were for those big singable choruses and their incredible hooks.

Queen was known for theatrics. I saw them in 83' five feet from the stage, and they did Bohemian Rapsody. Only they didn't do Bohemian Rapsody. It was on tape. When it kicked into the rock part at the end, explosions went off, and the band kicked in, Freddie had done a costume change. The theatrics were what that was all about.

The late 60's and 70's basically expanded the FM format and songs got longer. So again, I maintain that was an abberation instead of the rule.

Mark, you have it exactly right. 95% of songs that are recorded in this day and age follow the formula of "verse, (Channel or lift or pre-chorus)Chorus with the hook line at the end. Then second verse, chorus, bridge on about 50% of the songs, no bridge on the rest.

Is it formula? Of course. The challenge is to keep the listener interested witin the formula. The great ones do that. That is the difference between writers.

Amateur writers say what they want to say.
Professional writers write what other people want to hear.
Great writers do both.

MAB