Songs that are sequels to an artist's previous song

I'm thinking specifically of Bowie's song sequence Space Oddity/Ashes to Ashes/Hallo Spaceboy/Blackstar as an example. And I'm talking about revisiting a storyline over their career span - not within a single album. When else has an artist revisited a storyline/persona more than once in a similar way? Other examples?

Sorry - meant to put this on ILM

Peter Hammill's "Easy to Slip Away" picks up the story where Van der Graaf Generator's "Refugees" left off.

Springsteen has a recurring character called Mary

The Hold Steady did this with a bunch of characters in their early albums

Peter Hammill's "Lost and Found" picks up the story where Van der Graaf Generator's "La Rossa" left off.

I assume you're talking about songs that aren't on the same album?

OK, you said that.

yeah, that was more thinking of multi-album song connections

Early Mountain Goats does this a lot with the "Alpha Couple" songs, which span many albums

https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Alpha_Couple

Ray Davies has done this a few times:

Lola in "Lola" and "Destroyer"
Johnny Thunder in "Johnny Thunder" and "One of the Survivors"
Mr. Flash on the albums Preservation Act 1 and 2, and then the prequel Schoolboys in Disgrace
I think he mentions Terry and Julie from "Waterloo Sunset" somewhere else too

I haven't scrutinized the lyrics, but would Metallica's Unforgivens count?

Still working in the lab, late these nights
My eyes grown used to eerie sights
I've created a monster who can dance and walk
But I couldn't teach him how to talk

My faithful assistant, that hunchback fool
Who wastes his time in DJ school
Said, "Master, get hip! Don't be a sap!
Teach the creature to Monster Rap!"

You gotta- shock the body
Shock the body body
Shock the body
Shock the body body
Shock the body
Shock the body body
Shock... RRRRRR!

The dance referred to in "The Twist" by Chubby Checker makes an appearance in a number of his other singles

Left reminds us of the little-heard sequel to "Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel.

I was down a Pearl Jam wormhole on Wikipedia the other day (after noticing the solo on 'Alive' by Pearl Jam is basically the solo to 'Five to One' by The Doors) and came across this pertinent fact:

"The song is the first piece in a trilogy of songs in what Vedder later described as a "mini-opera" entitled Mamasan, which is composed of the songs "Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps""

Btw, turns out Pearl Jam nicked the solo from 'She' by Kiss, who nicked it from the Doors.

the weakerthans - plea from a cat named virtute, virtute the cat explains her departure

haven't thought about these songs for years

Springsteen also wrote "The Promise" as a sort-of sequel to "Thunder Road," though he didn't release it until long after he wrote it.

I guess "Stronger" by Britney Spears is a sequel to "Baby One More Time," in that she goes from "my loneliness is killing me" to "my loneliness ain't killing me no more."

My Dying Bride have 3,738,545 "Sear Me"s

The James Gang put "Funk #48" on their first album and "Funk #49" on their second.

Rush had the Fear Trilogy, three songs on different albums, but the links are thematic rather than narrative. Dream Theater had something similar with a multi-part piece about 12-step therapy.

There was a part 4 on Vapor Trails!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCAiBmA_bK8

The Tangent have a song called "Where Are They Now?", a 20-minute epic that's an update on the characters from their other 20 minute epics

The Hold Steady did this with a bunch of characters in their early albums

Extending back into the LFTRPLLR years too

Also the Muldoons from the UP of Michigan did this a ton, assuming anyone not from there has heard of them.

I'm not actually sure whether there's a direct link between the song "Frank's Wild Years" on Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones and the album Franks Wild Years from four years later. He may just have re-used the title.

"A Moving Story" from the Squeeze album Domino is about the girl from "Up the Junction."

“Dogs Part 2” is the sequel to the Who’s “Dogs.” The link is more thematic than lyrical, though.

Grandaddy have four songs about Jed (a robot who drinks himself to death) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jed_the_Humanoid

Pulp twice in the early 90s

Stacks - Inside Susan - 59 Lyndhurst Gro e - The Babysitter

Babies - Your Sister's Clothes

Lots of P-Funk stuff.

Peter Schilling's Major Tom (Coming Home) is also a cheeky unofficial sequel to Space Oddity, somewhat bafflingly given that it came out three years after Ashes to Ashes - that spaceship has sailed, brother! And it ain't yours!

I heard a cover version of "Coming Home", and hmmmm....

Because, I always thought it was awful, and missing the point of "Space Od", let alone "Ashes", but divorced of the Bowie connect, it's... OK.

(Unless the cover managed to excise the cringe, and the original is still, um, bad.)

Judy is a Punk
The Return of Jackie and Judy

Johnny B. Goode
Bye Bye Johnny

Today, this morning, I realised that Devo "Come Back Jonee" is a third sequel to Johnny b goode

Chuck sings "go Johnny go"
Devo sings "no, come back"

Moody Blues followed "Wildest Dreams" with "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" two years later

Thread bump reminded me that Clinic sort of did this early on.
"C.Q.", "T.K." and "The Return of Evil Bill" on their first album followed early b-sides "D.P." And "Evil Bill"
It's hard to identify a narrative consistency since the lyrics are mostly gibberish and "Evil Bill" is instrumental.

Peggy Sue Got Married

King Diamond loves this.

I don't know if it's really a sequel, but Stephin Merritt's callback in Meaningless to 100,000 Fireflies ("Meaningless, like when two fireflies flouresce") always gets me.

Paul Simon's Kathy appears in both "Kathy's Song" and "America."

Harry Chapin- Sequel
the Jane songs by EPMD
the Supaman Luva songs by Redman

Meek Mill had "Tony Story" and then a follow-up on Dreams and Nightmares.

the original was better tho

Various Jimmy Webb songs have Susan, an old girlfriend of his, in them.

what about sequels written by different artists?

Eamon/Frankie to thread

what about sequels written by different artists?

Songs that are or could be considered as sequels to songs they didn't write!
SEQUEL SONGS: Info needed for new rock book!

'new rock book'

also thx

Occasionally I try to mash up the following:

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
Have You Ever Seen the Rain
Who'll Stop the Rain
Here Comes the Rain Again

It's not going well.