It's my favourite song of all time so option 1 for me.

So you're with me in thinking that it's the best, or do you prefer Tarkus?

I personally prefer 10 other songs to Tarkus, including ELP's very own Karn Evil 9. I see the points you're making though, nice choices 

Care to justify or offer your pick? You don't have to of course, but it helps move things forward 

A single 19 minute composition? Well...

I'm aware of tellings of the album's composition and recording process that say that the four main sections of the eventual suite were all being worked on independent of one another. Bruford has gone on record mentioning something about it being assembled in sections of oh-so-many bars, ten, twelve, sixteen. But the main thing is that the band was stuck in a rut, and I'm told that Offord managed to break their compositional block by encouraging them to assemble those ideas into a single side long suite - "Close To The Edge". Listening to the differences between the intro, the first verse section, and "I Get Up...", this makes sense to me.

So the suite's greatness seems to lie not in it being a single composition, but a series of five vignettes that they managed to stitch together to make it seem like it was a single composition from the start - something like if Doctor Frankenstein had fashioned himself an Adonis, with the stitches practically invisible.

And that's probably a greater feat than just fashioning a true single composition.

Well said, and I should add there's not an absolute best prog song, or classical piece, jazz, blues, etc. Personally you might prefer one over the others, and that's fine, but absolute is a very radical term, and hardly one that everybody will agree upon.

Thing is, sometimes you just listen to a song and realize that you DO, in fact, like it more than all the other songs you know. Other times you think to yourself "I don't think anyone could come up with something that affects me this deeply/ appeals to me this much/ is as beautiful as this". 

I used to obsess over listing things and putting things above one another. Then I realized that you can't ever be totally satisfied with that kind of practice, as there will always something you left out or put too low on the list. Not only that, but I realized that there is no point whatsoever. Not being able to put a song on your list shouldn't take away from your listening experience and making these countdowns and the sort is only a burden on that front.

With your "favourite song" or "the song you consider the best", that's not the case. There is no extra effort spent on trying to fit it into one position, and you don't think of it as "putting all the other ones below"; you've simply been touched by a song in places never before touched, and after a while you start taking note of these sensations before you ultimately decide that this is your favourite song. 

That's been my experience anyway, and that's what makes it all the more entertaining for me. Close to the Edge, to me, is the best song of all time, and that's just fine.

 

 

We constantly see this sort of approach in the modern day.  We have lost sight of the fact that such lists in the past were merely means of promotion.  I watched a run-down of the top musical screams on MTV many years ago when they were still showing music videos.  The late comic Sam Kinneson won.  His parody song was on rotation at the time, as were most of those in contention.  No Child in Time or Won't Get Fooled Again.  Ancient history.  The problem is that now we too often take such an approach as legitimate.  To an extent, I am just about as guilty as anyone for I frequently view lists.  I rarely take them seriously, but I do like to see who places where in the listing.  Favorites are one thing, but, as is implied, objectively the best?  Even with clear criteria, that is debatable.  Still, CTTE is a great song.

Not sure what my favorite 'epic' is but for repeated listening on a desert island I wouldn't choose CTTE.