I finally broke down and bought a second copy of Quicksilver Messenger Service's "Happy Trails," on the theory that that's the only way I'll ever get the copy I have somewhere in storage to surface. :yes: Hearing the "Who Do You Love" side was pretty astonishing; I hadn't heard it in twenty-five years but I hadn't forgotten one note! It's still a remarkable example of jazz/blues/rock fusion and one of the best examples of 'the art of the fugue' in the Twentieth Century.

So, to my point: I vaguely recall that some other groups in the 'Acid Rock' era also recorded LPs like "Happy Trails," where one side could be considered a single, continuous work; what were some of the others? I wasn't heavily into Rock at the time and I suspect I missed out on some serious music.

Canned Heat, "Living the Blues", Refried Boogie, pt I & II, sides 3 & 4, basically one long live boogie jam. Dito "Whipping Post" and You Don't Love me" from the Allman Brothers "Live at the Fillmore". Actually, there was a ton of long live jams back then and whole sides for a cut were not all that uncommon at all; I could probably run off dozens and i;m sure others will have lots to add.

BTW, Yes's "Tales From Topographic Oceans" is 4 songs; 1/side.

That "Who Do You Love" was a bit of a creation that included live and studio mixes, IIRC. I loved the beginning, but when it slows down in the middle it loses me for awhile.

Emerson Lake & Palmer- 'Show that Never Ends, has Karn Evil 9 and Tarkus that took up one whole side of vinyl. I don't consider this rock but early electronic music. I can't think of any others besides In-a-godda-da-vida by Iron Butterfly.
There is Klaus Shultze 'X' that has two songs over 20 minutes, but this is also electronic music. Oh and then there LiveMiles,Stratosfear,Logos,West Berlin by Tangerine Dream. Also electronic music.
Hope this helps.

I remember an Album By David Allen Coe. If I recall right was titled Outlaw. It was set up where each song blended into the next with no breaks, outside of when you had to turn the record over. It had songs such as "If that Aint Coutry, I'll Kiss your ass." "Pumpkin Center Barn Dance," and "Willie Waylon and Me.

From a David Freiberg interview:

JB: Then Happy Trails eventually got recorded. How did that come about?
DF: That was all live…mostly. That was recorded during our second East Coast tour I think. After that everybody got their own houses, and things like that. Gary started shooting amphetamines. I knew he was DOING amphetamine...I REALLY didn’t realize he was SHOOTING the stuff. I didn’t realize that until after he left. Then I started putting two and two together. But when we got back from the second tour, just before we did the last gig at the Fillmore. Cause that [album] was recorded at The Fillmore East and The Fillmore West. Before we did the Fillmore West tour Gary said "Well I’ve been shooting methadone, and man I can’t do this anymore. I’m gonna have to leave...and me and Dino are gonna form a band and go back to New York." That’s kinda what I remembered. I tried to talk him out of it Actually I didn’t EVEN try to talk him out of it. I went over and tried to talk to him about it and he seemed so set on it. I didn’t even really try to talk him out of it. If that’s what he’s gonna do...that’s what he’s gonna do. It didn’t seem right to me, but he did it. I guess he had to. This is what he had to do, so... But he did one last studio thing. We were playing what turned out being "Calvary", but we’d been kinda playing it at the end of "Mona." There was this couple of instrumentals we’d go through…"Maiden Of The Cancer Moon"...and then we’d go into this "thing" every now and then. So we just took this "thing" he did every now and then. [That] is what we decided to record. Chopped up a bunch of Acid... I think I had two tabs of acid...and so I think we chopped it all up with a razor blade and we snorted it...if I remember correctly. Then all together we played the basic…you know with everybody playing. Then I think we brought ALL the families in. All the mothers and fathers. "Everybody had to BE there," Duncan said.
JB: Big farewell?
DF: Yeah, right and so we were there, and we did this "thing". Couple of takes. And the last take ended up being "the one". And [then] Duncan went to New York and left us there with this kinda "thing".
JB: A void?
DF: Well…yeah, and also this piece that couldn’t be released just as it was cause it wasn’t really finished. It was just us at the end of it. Everybody just...I believe we just had our guitars…feeding back and just set them down and went away and recorded whatever happened as long as the tape lasted. I think. [laughing] And also I had two mikes inside this piano, with the stool sitting on the sustain pedal, so all the feedback was going through the piano strings too. So all that’s on there...!
JB: Well, I LIKE the piece myself. I think it’s great.
DF: I do too! Actually if you ask me what the favorite thing we ever recorded was...that’s it. So Duncan was gone and we had to finish that, and we had to come up with an album for Capitol. So we had all this stuff we had recorded live, and so we just started listening to it...and figuring out what to do. Let’s see what did I do? I overdubbed piano and 12-string rhythm guitar on "Calvary". I think that’s all and while we were mixing…just before we mixed it at Capitol down in LA... we did some sound effects with whips and chains [laughs]…RRRRRRRR!
JB: I’m gonna have to re-listen to that now that you told me.
DF: There’s a little choral thing that happens in there too, which was just everybody getting in there and kinda moaning in tune. I think we even tried to get John Palladino…producing, to come in there and do it with us, but I don’t remember whether he would or not. And so then we just mixed it and put it together, and we had to edit a little bit out of "Who Do You Love", because...I think it was like thirty-five minutes long. We used the center part from a San Francisco gig cause the rest was from a New York gig. So the weird part in the middle though was when everybody was stoned on acid...and the audience was just as much a part of it with the clapping.
JB: Yes, I was gonna ask you if that was organized? Held up signs or something, cause it seems like...
DF: Just happened. Just happened. There was not a thing overdubbed on that record other than on "Calvary", everything else was in..."Happy Trails"! [laughs].
JB: The song "Happy Trails"?
DF: Yeah. Greg’s singing that.
JB: Yes… that’s what I heard.
DF: So anyway while we did that...while we were recording that "Calvary"...George Hunter came in with this album cover..."The Cowboy". He said "Well this should be your album cover." George heard Gary was leaving after this and he said, "Well, looks like happy trails to me". Or something like that! [laughs] that’s one of the stories. Could be true. So I said "Well, we’d better record Happy Trails!"


The whole interview here (http://www.penncen.com/quicksilver/freiberg/interview.html), it is a good read.


Carl

Not rock, but folk-rock-jazz:

Jack Orion
Pentangle
(side 2 of Cruel Sister)

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/8656/pb280002ff6.jpg

Echoes
from Meddle
Pink Floyd

I see the mention of the Allman Brothers but not Mountain Jam. It spanned two sides of a double LP. That is the longest I have.

In-na-god-da-da-vida is the other really long cut.