Verse-??????????-Verse January 21, 2009 3:06 AM Subscribe
What are the best rock songs without a chorus? posted by holdkris99 to media & arts (20 comments total)
Stairway to Heaven? posted by bystander at 3:15 AM on January 21
Changed The Locks - Lucinda Williams.
There are thousands of rock songs without a chorus, by the way. And I think "best" is going to be subjective. posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:17 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]
Bohemian Rhapsody? posted by minifigs at 3:18 AM on January 21
A lot of Bruce Springsteen: "Born to Run," "Thunder Road," "Jungleland." In fact, I can't think of a song on the Born to Run album that has a chorus at the moment, and it's one of the best rock albums ever.
Much of Pink Floyd's work.
The Beatles: Norwegian Wood, A Day in the Life, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. (That's off the top of my head. I'm sure there's many more.)
Paul Simon: American Tune
Billy Joel: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:37 AM on January 21
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. posted by DWRoelands at 4:45 AM on January 21
If you're asking for rock, rather than, say, the easy listening you've gotten so far (I do like most of it, but it's pretty far from rock, especially Gordon Lightfoot), try anything by the Lawrence Arms. They rarely have anything like a chorus, which can be a little infuriating, because I'm so used to the verse chorus verse thing, then the song just ends, suddenly.
Try March of the Elephants. It's on Youtube, but the quality is so low, it doesn't do justice to the song. Absolute, balls towards wall rock. posted by Ghidorah at 5:06 AM on January 21
Paranoid Android - Radiohead posted by saladin at 5:50 AM on January 21
Squeeze - Up The Junction
Not what you wanted, but I always thought it was cool: Squeeze's "Piccadilly" basically saves up its choruses for the end of the song. posted by kimota at 7:03 AM on January 21
lots of stuff by The Fall posted by KenManiac at 7:28 AM on January 21
Quite a number of songs on Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville" are not conventional verse/chorus/verse structures. posted by Chrysostom at 7:56 AM on January 21
Elvis Costello's "Beyond Belief" kind of has a chorus, but it's all the way out at the end; you could just stop the song early if you didn't want to hear it. posted by bink at 8:06 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]
Seconding Bohemian Rhapsody... posted by chrisinseoul at 9:12 AM on January 21
Pink Floyd's The Nile Song.
Fraulein by Devo.
7-11 by They Might Be Giants. posted by Bernt Pancreas at 10:00 AM on January 21
A lot of Dylan comes to mind, specifically "Desolation Row." posted by drjimmy11 at 11:00 AM on January 21
It depends on what you mean by "a chorus"... In a typical song there's some passage that is repeated several times in different places (same lyrics and melody each time, or nearly so); let's call this a true chorus. This passage usually contains the main lyrical point of the song and also the most interesting melodic content. But, sometimes you might have what looks like a chorus on paper, with lines that get repeated in different places, but with a different melody each time; let's call this a lyrical chorus. You might also have a song where a bit of melody gets repeated in places where you'd expect a chorus, but the lyrics change every time; let's call this a musical chorus. "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Norwegian Wood", and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" are examples of songs with what I'm calling a musical chorus. I'd say that "A Day in the Life" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" might be both thought of as several songs stuck together, each with its own chorus. Also, as far as I can tell "Drive", "Stairway to Heaven", and "Paranoid Android" have true choruses.
In any case, the only examples of rock songs (rather than instrumentals, say) that I can think of, which have no chorus at all - true, lyrical, or melodic - are the Beatles's "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" and Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan". posted by epimorph at 11:03 AM on January 21
The Trees by Rush. It's a great song but I fucking hate it when it shows up on rock band. posted by spec80 at 11:15 AM on January 21
Subscribe
posted by bystander at 3:15 AM on January 21