songs where the singer gets tired of singing?
March 20, 2019 6:08 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for examples of songs where the singer at some point goes "la la la" or hums the tune or just sort of mumbles the words, as if they've forgotten the words or just lost interest in them. Specifically, as a way of expressing the mood of the song - not novelty songs that do it to be funny.
This is the only example I know of: Didn't Judy Garland do that in concerts sometimes? I have a memory of hearing a recording of her singing and all of a suddenly she goes " la la la la, I forgot the god damned words, la la la la".
Of course I can't find it. Sorry.
posted by james33 at 6:26 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Of course I can't find it. Sorry.
posted by james33 at 6:26 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising has one line, repeated over and over, that gradually gets replaced by wordless screaming to the same melody. I'd definitely say it expresses a mood.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:26 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:26 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
I feel like a lot of early Tom Waits devolves into mumbling here and there. Try The Piano Has Been Drinking.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:29 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:29 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
That old Sesame Street chestnut, "What's the Name of that Song?" might qualify?
posted by gauche at 6:30 AM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by gauche at 6:30 AM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
Mr. Jones by Counting Crows has a few uh huhs, yeahs and la la las.
posted by prewar lemonade at 6:37 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by prewar lemonade at 6:37 AM on March 20, 2019
Here is Johnny Rotten's last public words as a Sex Pistol, at the end of a song
posted by TheRaven at 6:40 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by TheRaven at 6:40 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Pavement's cover of The Killing Moon -- at the end he starts singing "cucumber cabbage"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:41 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:41 AM on March 20, 2019
someday at christmas by the jackson five infuriates me with this in the last verse with the humming.
Someday at Christmas, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
But someday at Christmas time
Someday at Christmas time!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:07 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Someday at Christmas, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
But someday at Christmas time
Someday at Christmas time!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:07 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Boxer does the lie la lie thing at points in the song where the singer seems especially worn down.
posted by selfmedicating at 7:14 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by selfmedicating at 7:14 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
TVTropes has a couple of pages about this, which reminds me of perhaps the Ur-Example: Louie Louie
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:17 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:17 AM on March 20, 2019
Heehee, I was just listening to my Dubliners playlist, and this happens on "The Glendalough Saint," where he sings "...and he threw her right into the lake, mumble mumble mumble." (On the live version, anyway.)
posted by Melismata at 7:18 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by Melismata at 7:18 AM on March 20, 2019
It may not be specifically la-la-la, but Via Con Me by Paolo Conte does feel like he's just tossing random sounds in to keep the song going. It does contribute to the overall feel of the song IMO.
posted by Crystal Fox at 7:24 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by Crystal Fox at 7:24 AM on March 20, 2019
Freddie Mercury's half of "Under Pressure" is largely just scatted placeholder syllables that they wound up liking and keeping.
In Iggy's "Success," he opens an outro by sing-speaking a bunch of things he's going to do ("I'm gonna hop like a frog"), with his rhythm section singing it back to him. Then he runs out of things to say, settling on "Oh shit." Which the rhythm section sings back to him.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:36 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
In Iggy's "Success," he opens an outro by sing-speaking a bunch of things he's going to do ("I'm gonna hop like a frog"), with his rhythm section singing it back to him. Then he runs out of things to say, settling on "Oh shit." Which the rhythm section sings back to him.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:36 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
One of my favorite parts of Daft Punk's "Instant Crush" in Random Access Memories goes "take it... I don't want to sing anymore" at the end of the second verse.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:41 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:41 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Suzanne Vega's "Private Goes Public" (the bonus track on 99.9Fº) has some of that going on in how it trails off into la-las.
posted by holgate at 7:45 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by holgate at 7:45 AM on March 20, 2019
Dan Bejar of Destroyer often employs "la la la," especially on the title track of Rubies.
posted by torridly at 7:46 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by torridly at 7:46 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
There’s a version of Grey Ghost by M. Doughty where he announces that the second verse will use made-up words. It’s very fun but wouldn’t be filed under “apathetic”
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:56 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:56 AM on March 20, 2019
She definitely doesn't get tired of singing, but Ella Fitzgerald forgets the words to Mack the Knife in this live performance and just gamely makes some new ones up. It's pretty great.
posted by aka burlap at 7:57 AM on March 20, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by aka burlap at 7:57 AM on March 20, 2019 [8 favorites]
Rave on, John Donne / Rave on, Pt. 2 (Live) - Van briefly loses interest about the 1:30 mark.
posted by Kiwi at 7:59 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by Kiwi at 7:59 AM on March 20, 2019
Didn't Judy Garland do that in concerts sometimes?
James33, she does that during You Go to My Head on the album Judy Garland Live at Carnegie Hall (1961). It's around the 0:55 second mark and she sings "and I forgot the gol-darned words," sings a bit of nonsense while staying in tune, and then picks up the lyrics again.
posted by castlebravo at 8:14 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
James33, she does that during You Go to My Head on the album Judy Garland Live at Carnegie Hall (1961). It's around the 0:55 second mark and she sings "and I forgot the gol-darned words," sings a bit of nonsense while staying in tune, and then picks up the lyrics again.
posted by castlebravo at 8:14 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
There's a live version of "Mack the Knife" by Ella Fitzgerald that's famous for this.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:21 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by kevinbelt at 8:21 AM on March 20, 2019
Response by poster: I'm particularly interested in songs where this mumbling/forgetting/getting tired is done on purpose, even written into the song, in order to set a mood of cynicism or indifference or fatigue, etc.
But I'm having fun listening to every single suggestion - thank you!
posted by moonmilk at 8:26 AM on March 20, 2019
But I'm having fun listening to every single suggestion - thank you!
posted by moonmilk at 8:26 AM on March 20, 2019
Ella Fitzgerald often did scat vocals on purpose, as did Louis Armstrong and many other jazz vocalists. Most of it is upbeat and probably wouldn't fit your cynicism/indifference/fatigue criteria, but you might find recordings (not necessarily these ones) of some of Louis' slower songs that would maybe sort of get there, e.g. Sleepy Time Down South, Rocking Chair, or St. James Infirmary.
posted by clawsoon at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by clawsoon at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2019
Matt Berninger of The National is generally a pretty mumbly guy in my estimation (especially in their earlier stuff) - he does some "la la la"s in Apartment Story for instance.
posted by btfreek at 8:47 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by btfreek at 8:47 AM on March 20, 2019
Rufus Wainwright at the end of Complainte de la Butte on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack
posted by runincircles at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by runincircles at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2019
also Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose
posted by runincircles at 9:12 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by runincircles at 9:12 AM on March 20, 2019
Earth Wind and Fire's September.
"We are going to change 'ba-dee-ya' to real words, right?"
posted by evilmomlady at 9:24 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
"We are going to change 'ba-dee-ya' to real words, right?"
posted by evilmomlady at 9:24 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
I think Elis Regina's part in Águas de Março kinda does this. She and Tom Jobim are playing with the last syllables of the lines of the song and then she just starts 'zazza zeza' like she's had enough of 'pau' and 'pedra'. Clearly intentional, but it sort of plays out like she's tired of the syllable game, from about 3'00" in the video. It could also be described as scat, I suppose.
posted by sagwalla at 9:28 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by sagwalla at 9:28 AM on March 20, 2019
Maybe 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana?
Or the Weird Al version (Smells Like Nirvana):
And I forgot the next verse
Oh well, I guess it pays to rehearse
The lyric sheet's so hard to find
What are the words, oh nevermind
Don't know, don't know, don't know, I don't know!
Don't know, don't know, don't know...
posted by Gortuk at 9:34 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Or the Weird Al version (Smells Like Nirvana):
And I forgot the next verse
Oh well, I guess it pays to rehearse
The lyric sheet's so hard to find
What are the words, oh nevermind
Don't know, don't know, don't know, I don't know!
Don't know, don't know, don't know...
posted by Gortuk at 9:34 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Kiss Off by the Violent Femmes? (“Eight, eight, I forget what eight was for”)
posted by phoenixy at 9:43 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by phoenixy at 9:43 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
"Killing Me Softly" strikes me as a good example of this with the final verse.
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 9:47 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 9:47 AM on March 20, 2019
"Sha la la la, man... Why'n't you just slip away?"
(The character in the 2nd act of Lou Reed's Street Hassle, in his jaded cynicism, makes fun of the 'sha la la las' sung in the first act. The second act starts roughly at the 4 minute mark. Not for the faint of heart.)
Neil Young's Tonight's the Night, the whole album, pretty much, sounds like he's too stoned to really bother with the whole singing thing.
posted by Bron at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
(The character in the 2nd act of Lou Reed's Street Hassle, in his jaded cynicism, makes fun of the 'sha la la las' sung in the first act. The second act starts roughly at the 4 minute mark. Not for the faint of heart.)
Neil Young's Tonight's the Night, the whole album, pretty much, sounds like he's too stoned to really bother with the whole singing thing.
posted by Bron at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
"Coast to Coast" by Elliott Smith has a bit where he is just singing "na na" where another verse would fit but given how he died during the making of the album I am not sure if that was a placeholder for when he could finish the song or if that is how it was supposed to be.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:00 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:00 AM on March 20, 2019
"#1 Hit Song" by The Minutemen (the part where D Boon starts going "twinkle twinkle... blah blah blah... e t c")
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:12 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:12 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
There's a Morrissey song where he does this too, as part of his whole bored schtick, but I can't remember which one offhand...
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:14 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:14 AM on March 20, 2019
In Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”:
Well, we got no class
And we got no principals
We ain't got no intelligence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes
In Ministry’s “Jesus Built My Hotrod” (feat. Gibby Hayes of Butthole Surfers):
All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
In Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On)The Dock Of The Bay”, the whistled melody was a placeholder for lyrics. But Redding died in a plane crash before the song was completed and the demo version with the whistling intact became the song we know and love.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:19 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Well, we got no class
And we got no principals
We ain't got no intelligence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes
In Ministry’s “Jesus Built My Hotrod” (feat. Gibby Hayes of Butthole Surfers):
All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
In Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On)The Dock Of The Bay”, the whistled melody was a placeholder for lyrics. But Redding died in a plane crash before the song was completed and the demo version with the whistling intact became the song we know and love.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:19 AM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
"Ripple" and "Brokedown Palace" by the Grateful Dead spring to mind.
posted by vitout at 10:58 AM on March 20, 2019
posted by vitout at 10:58 AM on March 20, 2019
In "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N Roses, the bit where Axl sings "Where do we go now?" is because he is out of lyrics.
posted by w0mbat at 11:11 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by w0mbat at 11:11 AM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
"I'm Not There (1956)" by Bob Dylan absolutely fits the bill. It's pretty hard to find a version online of him singing it, but it's in 'The Basement Tapes Complete' bootleg series. Here's some more about the song.
About the song, Greil Marcus (in very Greil Marcus mode), said:
“a trance, a waking dream, a whirlpool… Words are floated together in a dyslexia that is music itself — a dyslexia that seems meant to prove the claims of music over words, to see just how little words can do… In the last lines of the song, the most plainly sung, the most painful, so bereft that after the song’s five minutes, five minutes that seem like no measurable time, you no longer believe that anything so strong can be said in words.”
posted by maupuia at 12:02 PM on March 20, 2019
About the song, Greil Marcus (in very Greil Marcus mode), said:
“a trance, a waking dream, a whirlpool… Words are floated together in a dyslexia that is music itself — a dyslexia that seems meant to prove the claims of music over words, to see just how little words can do… In the last lines of the song, the most plainly sung, the most painful, so bereft that after the song’s five minutes, five minutes that seem like no measurable time, you no longer believe that anything so strong can be said in words.”
posted by maupuia at 12:02 PM on March 20, 2019
Combining torridly's suggestion of Destroyer / Dan Bejar (who probably has dozens of examples of "la la la"-type syllable usage in his discography) with Bron's mention of Street Hassle's sha-la-la-la's brings me to:
this section of Destroyer - Bay of Pigs (~4:05 - 4:55 is what I was thinking)
The narrator has jaded cynicism ("I've seen it all..."), and off-handedly refers to one of many "apocalypses", but this one in particular he's talking about is "pretty good", "Sha-la-la -- wouldn't you say?"
posted by mean square error at 1:21 PM on March 20, 2019
this section of Destroyer - Bay of Pigs (~4:05 - 4:55 is what I was thinking)
The narrator has jaded cynicism ("I've seen it all..."), and off-handedly refers to one of many "apocalypses", but this one in particular he's talking about is "pretty good", "Sha-la-la -- wouldn't you say?"
posted by mean square error at 1:21 PM on March 20, 2019
Nthing Tonight's The Night: Tired Eyes is the tiredest spoken song, the title song you can hear him fall off the stool while singing and slurring his words. He's in the zone. The Twilight Zone.
posted by effluvia at 1:24 PM on March 20, 2019
posted by effluvia at 1:24 PM on March 20, 2019
According to drummer Ron Bushy, organist/vocalist Doug Ingle wrote the song one evening while drinking an entire gallon of Red Mountain wine. When the inebriated Ingle then played the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics for him, he was slurring his words so badly that what was supposed to be "in the Garden of Eden" was interpreted by Bushy as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:41 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:41 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Two partial hits:
posted by ubiquity at 2:44 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
- In "Bilbao Song" (from Brecht and Weill's Happy End), the singer la-la-la's through the refrain the first two times because he "can't remember the words." He remembers them for the final refrain.
- Israel Kamakawiwoʻole confuses verses and gets words wrong in his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "It's a Wonderful World," though I don't believe he ever resorts to la-la-la. Apparently it was an unexpected single-take thing. It was after 3 AM, so being tired probably had something to do with it.
posted by ubiquity at 2:44 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Mike Patton descends into making noises quite a lot- the live version of War Pigs from Faith No More’s live album comes to mind. Also on a split he did with Dillinger Escape Plan, I think the track “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things”.
posted by Jobst at 4:42 PM on March 20, 2019
posted by Jobst at 4:42 PM on March 20, 2019
Sarah Vaughan, How High the Moon
"... I don't know the words to this song, but I'm gonna sing it anyway ..."
posted by wps98 at 7:36 PM on March 20, 2019
"... I don't know the words to this song, but I'm gonna sing it anyway ..."
posted by wps98 at 7:36 PM on March 20, 2019
I immediately thought of that song by the Crash Test Dummies, and indeed, according to Wikipedia: “Brad Roberts had decided to hum, rather than actually sing, the refrain of ‘Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm’ because humming the refrain sounded more resigned to him, and that he never wrote lyrics for it.”
posted by ocherdraco at 8:11 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ocherdraco at 8:11 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
There's a Morrissey song where he does this too, as part of his whole bored schtick, but I can't remember which one offhand...While they're Smiths songs and not Morrissey solo, "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" and "Ask".
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 11:04 PM on March 20, 2019
Primus has a few songs whose lyrics use a similar theme, though in these examples the lyrics in question about getting tired of writing the song in stead of singing.
'Spegetti Western' - (lyrics, video):
last line: "Guess I'm still writin'"
'Mr Knowitall' - (lyrics, video):
"They call me Mr. Knowitall / I am so eloquent / Perfection is my middle name / And whatever rhymes with eloquent"
There is a King Crimson song along that theme as well:
'Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With' - (lyrics):
"Yes, I'm gonna have to write a chorus / I’m gonna need to have a chorus / And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face"
posted by alikins at 10:58 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
'Spegetti Western' - (lyrics, video):
last line: "Guess I'm still writin'"
'Mr Knowitall' - (lyrics, video):
"They call me Mr. Knowitall / I am so eloquent / Perfection is my middle name / And whatever rhymes with eloquent"
There is a King Crimson song along that theme as well:
'Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With' - (lyrics):
"Yes, I'm gonna have to write a chorus / I’m gonna need to have a chorus / And this would seem to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face"
posted by alikins at 10:58 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by strangely stunted trees at 6:12 AM on March 20, 2019