Songs where you preferred the verses over the chorus

Cafe Society
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This is an intro/outro/bridge-free thread.:smiley: (Not sure how similar a refrain is to a chorus, tho):o
And none of those fucking codas or fugues!

“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” - I find the verse way more soulful. (And the chorus kinda overwrought and splashy, in comparison)

“Bloody Well Right” - I like the heaviness of the verses more than the Supertrumpiness of the chorus.

“Substitute”* - this is more of a case of I just can’t stand Townshend going “sub-sti-tute” in the chorus. Great “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth” lyric, tho, in a verse.

“Tangerine” - Zep

“King of the World” - Steely Dan - like the previous selection, not the biggest problem with their chorus, I just find the verses somehow resonate a lot more with me.

“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” - Ringo and the kids always bothered me, here. And hey - how can’t you love Yoko’s squeaky “not, when, he, looked, so, fierce”?

I’m sure there’s craploads more that’ll come to me.

    • huh - always thought it was “you BORE my mom”, which I thought was an excellent lyric, but it’s (substitute) “you FOR my mom”
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A LOT of Paul Simon’s work would qualify, methinks. In fact, I find the verse being more interesting is the norm in most songs. The chorus is the ‘hook’ that people always remember, and without it, songs don’t usually sell very well, while the verse is the meat.

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…at least I’ll get my washing done.

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We are Young by FUN. I like the sing songy verses but the chorus grates on me.

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I find I prefer the verses of many of Leonard Cohen’s songs. Especially Democracy, Everybody Knows and Closing Time. Nothing against the chorus, its great, but the verses are just fantastic.

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Hold Your Head Up by Argent

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“Born in the U.S.A.” has a pretty dull chorus, IMO.

8

I’m Blue by Eiffel 65.

Oh wait-- I hate the verses too. Just less than the chorus.

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But it’s the same as the verse.

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I think it would be more difficult to identify songs where I preferred the chorus over the verses. The verses are the main course of the song; the chorus is the garnish.

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I long ago recognized that I almost always prefer the verse over the chorus.

Which may be why I love Dylan’s work so much. Many of his songs are virtually all verse.
mmm

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Poetry put to music, more like.

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“Who Are You” is the first one that comes to mind.

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For the inverse of the OP, then (preferring the chorus over verses) -

“Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” - sure, the verses have a solid, classic, psychedelic feel, but when those three floor-tom hits come, and then boom, that chorus saunters in - that’s what blows me away. I remember as a wee one getting all goose-bumpy over the chorus, which somehow sounds (to me, anyway) heavy yet stately - one of my favourite powerhouse Beatles bits. (and yes I meant bits, not hits)

In “The Night Before”, I’m having a difficult time telling which is the flibbertyjibin verse and which is the chorus, so I’ll just say I prefer the part in minor (“on, the night be-for-orrrrrrr…”) The other part (I’ll call it) has a catchy bounciness to it, with Paul ending coolly with “cryyyyyyyyy!”, I’ll admit, but, naw, the part in minor with the nifty overlapping trade-off vocals gets the edge on this one.

The Band’s “The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down” - fantastic song, especially seeing it played in The Last Waltz, but manoman that chorus just plain drops the mic. The chorus gets a Sean Connery “asz gooood asz it getzsh”. If I could ever, ever, EVER somehow use the word “evangelical” in a positive context, it would be here. Dare I say baptismal.

While I was nowhere near as rabid over it as about 80% of the population seemed to be at the time, I did think the chorus totally eclipsed the verses in “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. (It must be said, though, Nirvana often did the quiet verse/loud chorus thing.)

“The Rapper” - Jaggerz - very pedestrian verses (“coffee…or tea…or me”), but the chorus has a total butt-kicking funky heaviness going on. Like night and day.

To switch back to a verse-over-chorus preference…

The chorus in Rufus’s “Tell Me Something Good” is pretty bad-ass cool, but those verses, though, with the descending melody line, and syncopation of Chaka’s vocals with the rest of the band - that was the heart of deepest, darkest Oakland (circa…'74?) for me.

And yeah the chorus in Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” has this pleasant bouncy vox organ thing going, but again, the verses were one of the very first things to hook me into the whole punk/new wave thing back in '77. Absolutely classic - the verses - how it kicks in with the reggae beat, with the sinister guitar/bass interplay, mysterioso Dick Dale-sounding riff leading into the timbale fill (heh then leading into the sinewy “Last night…”), and - that awesome (double-tracked?) “You think you’re alone until you realise…” spiel.

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Nine Simone’s version of ‘Don’t let me be misunderstood’. Beautiful, heart-rending verses; bombastic, tuneless chorus.

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Eddie, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is a perfect example of the OP, to me – the opposite of what you observed! Musically, in terms of chords (that arpeggio against a descending bass) and lyrical interest, it’s more complex and creative than the chorus. I can see why you’d get tired of John’s limited melodic vocal range style in the verses, though, and also why you’d enjoy the amped-up blast of the choruses.

R.E.M. were prone to this as well. I can’t think of a perfect example at the moment, but “Try Not to Breathe” would be on the list.

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“Stardust”:

*And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart;
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we’re apart.

You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die;
Love is now the stardust of yesterday,
The music of the years gone by.*

This verse is pure poetry, and sadly, is omitted in so many recordings, in favor of the chorus.

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In this song, the “middle eight”* is even less interesting than the chorus.

*A middle eight is a contrasting short section, found in some songs, usually just once or twice in the song – typically around eight measures long. E.g., “And when I touch you I feel happy…inside…”

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Case in point: The Boxer. Lie-lie-lie isn’t exactly deep.

Some of Dylan’s qualifies for this- I point to Lay Down Your Weary Tune and Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands as examples.

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“Sister Christian”, springs to mind, although there was something recently, and now I can’t remember on the spot.