Reply Songs, or Sequel Songs

HungryJoe

I was just looking through my iPod, and I saw some songs that have replies, or sequels. The easiest examples are It's My Party and It's Judy's Turn to Cry, Peggy Sue and Peggy Sue Got Married, Lili Marlene and The Wedding of Lili Marlene, A Thousand Miles Away and Daddy's Home, and The Wild Side of Life and It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

Like movie sequels, most sequel songs suck; except for It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels. That song is much better than The Wild Side of Life.

Do you know any songs that have sequels or replies?

Funfetus

Only one I can think of is City Baby Attacked By Rats and City Baby's Revenge by the old British punk band GBH. I'd say the "sequel" is actually a better song, but we're talking about UK82 hardcore punk here, so it's all relative.

theknoxinator

I can really only think of a few sequel songs off the top of my head. An easy example would be Metallica's The Unforgiven, which has two sequels. And it's not really a song sequel, but Dream Theater's Metropolis Pt. II album is a sequel to Metropolis Pt. I, which is a song. The latter I'm not too sure if it's really a sequel in anything but name, since I don't listen to the original song much. Album though, one of my faves.

WindUpBird

Space Oddity and Ashes to Ashes. Both are equally awesome, just like David Bowie himself.

TheWhaleShark

What about songs that are continuations on a theme? Metallica's "Unforgiven" trilogy falls into that category. Dream Theater also has a series of songs about the 12 steps of rehab, which Mike Portnoy has referred to as "The 12-Step Suite." The songs are (in order) "The Glass Prison," "This Dying Soul," "The Root of All Evil," "Repentance," and "The Shattered Fortress."

Swallow the Sun - an absolutely fucking phenomenal melodic death/doom band that I cannot stop recommending - has a song suite called "Horror," so far comprised of 3 parts on 3 albums: "Swallow (Horror Pt. 1)," "Don't Fall Asleep (Horror Pt. II)," and "Lights on the Lake (Horror Pt. III)."

Personally, I'm a big fan of this sort of thing. It creates these meta-songs that are broken into movements, and I love that complexity and richness.

Sail

This sort of thing is increasingly more common with all the concept albums that come out these days. For a lot of the artists I listen to, it's almost a given that each album has its own unifying theme.

WindUpBird

For a lot of the artists I listen to, it's almost a given that each album has its own unifying theme.

Mastodon, I think, is the king of this.

TheWhaleShark

For a lot of the artists I listen to, it's almost a given that each album has its own unifying theme.

Mastodon, I think, is the king of this.

I believe I read an interview once where they flat-out said that they only write concept albums.

If a band pulls it off, more power to them. The concept album is a tricky thing, and the bands that do it very well are fucking stellar. The key is to make sure that every song can stand by itself but become something greater when put together. Iced Earth has been very hit-or-miss about this sort of thing; Something Wicked This Way Comes and Horror Show were great concept albums, but the two other Something Wicked albums were just weak.

WindUpBird

The Mars Volta is like that. I like allmost of their albums except for Amputecture, which is the only non-concept album they've done. I haven't listened to Octahedron, but it's not concept and I haven't heard good things, and The Bedlam in Goliath was the only concept album they turned out for which I can profess a dislike.

Sail

For a lot of the artists I listen to, it's almost a given that each album has its own unifying theme.

Mastodon, I think, is the king of this.

There's varying levels of concept, and Mastodon falls somewhere in the middle. There's albums like Loveless or [insert any Animal Collective album here] that aren't super-explicit about their theme, yet all the songs on the album convey a single, very distinct mood. Then there's stuff like The Residents, which is high concept. The music exists solely to fit the concept. Listen to a few seconds of Eskimo and you'll understand immediately. It's really a "theme existing to better serve the music" versus "music existing to better serve the theme" thing, and Mastodon walks that line in their concepts rather well.

WindUpBird

I think we can all agree, though, that the best concept album (or half-album, anyway) was FZ's seminal "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" suite.

Neito

Wasn't there a sequel to Devil Went Down to Georgia?

Andrew

Only one of the greatest band feuds in existence.

Sail

Only one of the greatest band feuds in existence.

I had to look this one up, so here's a link for others' convenience.

Starfox

Reply songs?

Apreche

"That Makes it" by Jayne Mansfield is a reply to Chantilly Lacy by The Big Bopper.

zombie a gogo

Iron Maiden's series of Charlotte the Harlot songs.

Churba

Wasn't there a sequel to Devil Went Down to Georgia?

Yep, called "The Devil Came back to Georgia"

WaterInThere

"Judy is a Punk" and "The Return of Jackie and Judy" by The Ramones are the only two I can think of that don't come off of a concept album or a rock opera.

Funfetus

Does it count is a band just re-records the same song, with different lyrics, about a different politician? Because, if so, California Über Alles and We've Got a Bigger Problem Now by the Dead Kennedys. But that probably doesn't count.

chaosof99

Iced Earth has Gettysburg (1863), three songs that portray the three days of the eponymous battle in the american civil war, though they released them all at the same time and on the same disc.

The german punk band "Die Ärzte" (the doctors) has a number of songs about a pair of lovers called Gabi and Uwe. These songs include such titles as "Gabi gibt 'ne Party" (Gabi throws a Party) and "Uwe sitzt im Knast" (Uwe's in jail). They also have a series of songs dealing with a girl named Claudia and her exploits into bestiality. Mostly that series came into being because their first song, "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" (Claudia's got a german shepherd dog) was, along with a few other songs, put on the german index and because of that could not be advertised and the albums featuring those songs could not be sold or displayed publicly. Both series are from the bands early days. Let's just say they matured a lot.

A lighter series of common lyrical threads is Millencolin. Their lead singer has mentioned his age at the time of the recording in the lyrics of each studio album they published.

Maybe I'll think of some others later.

ElJoe0

Does it count is a band just re-records the same song, with different lyrics, about a different politician? Because, if so,California Ãœber AllesandWe've Got a Bigger Problem Nowby the Dead Kennedys. But that probably doesn't count.

Thanks for reminding me about those kick ass songs!