View Full Version : "Second verse, same as the first!"
Is there a name for the sort of song that consists pretty much of nothing more than repeating one verse over and over again, often either louder or softer than the previous sing-through? OTTOMH I'm thinking of songs like John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Henery the Eighth, etc.
Thudlow Boink
08-04-2005, 11:12 AM
"annoying"?
Robot Arm
08-04-2005, 11:21 AM
...Henery the Eighth,...Odd you would mention that song right now. This Sunday is the 40th anniversary of it reaching #1 on the Billboard chart in the U.S.
MovieMogul
08-04-2005, 11:31 AM
At a slower pace, there's the Beatles' I Want You/She's So Heavy.
ouryL
08-04-2005, 11:49 AM
"annoying"?
ditto ;j
robardin
08-04-2005, 02:41 PM
"I'm So Glad", Eric Clapton
"Na-na-na-na (Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye)", Steam
and of course, the children's song, "The Song That Never Ends".
This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on, my friend
We started singing it not knowing what it was
and we'll go on singing it
Forever, just because --
this is the song that never ends,...
pulykamell
08-04-2005, 02:54 PM
"Na-na-na-na (Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye)", Steam[/i]
That doesn't qualify. "Kiss Him Goodbye" has two verses ("He'll never love you, the way that I loved you..." and ("He's never near you, to comfort and cheer you...") and a chorus ("Na Na Na Na...") Pretty typical pop structure.
OK, examples are good, but is there a name for the genre?
Ellen Cherry
08-04-2005, 03:43 PM
No matter how young a prune may be
He's always full of wrinkles.
A baby prune is like his dad
But he's not wrinkled quite so bad.
We have wrinkles on our face--
A prune has wrinkles everyplace!
No matter how young a prune may be
He's always full of wrinkles.
A baby prune .....
Nope, I don't know if there's a name. Kids' songs, I've always assumed. My kids laughed so hard when I came out with the prune one.
I've got a million goofy songs from going to camp every year as a kid.
robardin
08-04-2005, 03:43 PM
OK, examples are good, but is there a name for the genre?
A "round"? Like Row, Row Row Your Boat, which just goes 'round and 'round?
I thought about rounds, but doesn't a round involve the staggered start?
seosamh
08-04-2005, 04:39 PM
Not quite in the same league as some of the above, but the atrocious "Hey Jude" by some hairy, drugged-up Scousers goes on rather too long for my liking.
I immediately thought "Judy is a Punk" by the Ramones (http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/6100/ramones1.htm#Blitzkrieg%20Bop) would fit this category. (It even has the "second verse, same as the first" line.) However, that song has a "third verse, different from the first" so it doesn't qualify. So, I'll name "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" instead.
asterion
08-04-2005, 05:19 PM
This thread made me think of what I saw on Craig Ferguson a couple nights ago. Apparently, someone bought the original lyrics to "All You Need Is Love" and Craig was amazed that you would even have to write the lyrics down. "'All you need is love/all you need is love/all you need is love/love is all you need' It's like forgetting the chorus of 'Hey Jude'."
Torgo
08-05-2005, 08:42 PM
Monty Python's I Like Traffic Lights. (http://www.serve.com/bonzai/monty/songs/ILikeTrafficLights)
Julius Henry
08-05-2005, 10:39 PM
In the case of "Henery the Eighth" the term would be poorly researched. Harry Champion's song (http://207.44.240.63/~lyricsp/alpha/songs/i/imhenerytheeight.shtml) consisted of three verses, none sung by Herman's Hermits, and the chorus, which we all know.
Marley23
08-05-2005, 10:50 PM
"I'm So Glad", Eric Clapton
You skipped Skip James. ;)
Hilarity N. Suze
08-05-2005, 11:19 PM
Is there a name for the sort of song that consists pretty much of nothing more than repeating one verse over and over again, often either louder or softer than the previous sing-through? OTTOMH I'm thinking of songs like John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Henery the Eighth, etc.
"camp bus songs"
"drive-the-counselors-crazy songs"
(Just guesses. Name that genre!)
MovieMogul
08-06-2005, 12:31 PM
From a recent Simpsons rerun:
One two, tie your shoe
Three four, pick up the floor
Five six, don't play tricks
Seven eight, clean your plate
Nine ten, start over again!
Damn that Ruffi!
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way.
(Isn't there a rule about quoting entire lyrics in Cafe Society?)
lhovis73
08-06-2005, 05:12 PM
You skipped Skip James. ;)
This (extremely cool) song isn't an example of a song that repeats exactly the same material over and over again...read the lyrics, it's got a few different verses...
I lack the requisite music knowledge to make this claim, but isn't the idea of a chorus that's set apart from the verses foreign to the blues in general? By its very nature, old-school blues is always the same thing over and over again (at least musically, it's always the same sequence of chords, over and over again, with no variation, right?).
lhovis73
08-06-2005, 05:28 PM
The following song is burnt into my memory from grade-school music class:
Let's play a rondo
How does it go?
A-B-A-C-A-D-A
R-O-N-D-O
and on and on, with different groups of kids chiming in at different moments of the song, like "Row Row Row Your Boat" is often sung...
Now that I'm looking at the lyrics, the song seems to spell out rules for a rondo (an A-B-A-C-A-D-A structure) that we violated by singing it in this fashion...
Biffy the Elephant Shrew
08-06-2005, 08:28 PM
This thread made me think of what I saw on Craig Ferguson a couple nights ago. Apparently, someone bought the original lyrics to "All You Need Is Love" and Craig was amazed that you would even have to write the lyrics down. "'All you need is love/all you need is love/all you need is love/love is all you need'
There are rather a lot more lyrics (http://www.songteksten.org/index.php?page=print&id=2577) to "All You Need Is Love" than just that refrain.
Biffy the Elephant Shrew
08-06-2005, 08:42 PM
I lack the requisite music knowledge to make this claim, but isn't the idea of a chorus that's set apart from the verses foreign to the blues in general? By its very nature, old-school blues is always the same thing over and over again (at least musically, it's always the same sequence of chords, over and over again, with no variation, right?).
Not necessarily. Consider a construction like "Born Under a Bad Sign," which follows 12-bar blues form musically. Lyrically, each stanza begins with a unique couplet, with the four lines that follow (beginning with the title phrase) acting as the repeating chorus. (Pre-emptive nitpick: this particular song starts with the "chorus" alone, so that first stanza is only eight bars.)
I don't know what this is called either.
However I think a 'round' is where one person sings the song, while a second starts exactly one line later, then a third one further line later...
An example of this is 'Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream ... ', which I remember Kirk, Bones and Spock singing in one of the Star trek films.
Malacandra
08-07-2005, 03:56 AM
Lloyd George knew my father; Father knew Lloyd George;
Lloyd George knew my father; Father knew Lloyd George...
asterion
08-07-2005, 08:05 AM
There are rather a lot more lyrics (http://www.songteksten.org/index.php?page=print&id=2577) to "All You Need Is Love" than just that refrain.
Yeah, I know. It was still funny, though.
Yllaria
08-07-2005, 11:24 AM
If there isn't a name for these songs, there ought to be. Perhaps we should take nominations and vote to choose one.
Anyone else familiar with the variant link:
Second verse, same as the first
Maybe little louder, maybe little worse?
or that archaic classic: Oh, the cow kicked Nellie in the belly in the barn . . . ?
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