Albums Where the Same Phrase is Repeated in Two or More Songs for No Apparent Reason

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Two songs on Springsteen's Nebraska have characters with "debts that no honest man can pay." ("Atlantic City" and "Johnny 99"). And I could swear that roughly half the songs on The Chronic say something to the effect of "Gonna break off some..." (but maybe that doesn't count since that's like a concept album about weed.)

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 27 February 2003 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Jeff sings the line "I'm the man who loves you" at the very end of "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart". And then of course the line is also the chorus to the song "I'm the Man Who Loves You" which comes near the end of the disc. Does that count?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 February 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I think Ad-Rock uses the rhyme "kick it 'til the break of dawn" in about 75% of the B-Boys' songs. And somehow it never ever gets old.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 February 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

on Faithless' 'Reverence' Maxi Jazz refers to 'fundamental movement' on both 'Salva Mea' and 'Insomnia'...i guess its more common with MCs and dance music, the Audio Bullys and the Streets also spring to mind, repeating phrases throughout their albums

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 27 February 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It happens on a few Mountain Goats albums I think but the exact references are eluding me.

― Chris Davis (Chris Davis), Thursday, 27 February 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"young man's stride" on mercury rev's 'see you on the other side'

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 27 February 2003 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Cure, Seventeen Seconds: "In Your House" and "At Night" have both phrases in both songs, if I remember correctly. Ned?

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 27 February 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine,
Number nine......

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

this is anoth-ah Missy exclusive!

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

ODB Nigga Please has the "sexy, sexy, sexy" phrase on a couple songs. Notable because it's being said on one of the unxexiest albums ever.

― original bgm, Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Cure, Seventeen Seconds: "In Your House" and "At Night" have both phrases in both songs, if I remember correctly. Ned?

Er? By 'both phrases' meaning the titles appear in both?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Notable because it's being said on one of the unxexiest albums ever.

Pish posh!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Said Nickalicious Bosch.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

heh heh kinda related musical phrase repeat: the solo drumbeat that ends Don Caballero 2 is the same drumbeat that opens What Burns Never Returns.

― hstencil, Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"Gardens all wet with rain" - only this is FANTASTIC!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

More from Nebraska: "State Trooper" and "Open All Night" share a whole bunch of words:
--"radio's jammed up with talk show stations" / "radio's jammed up with gospel stations"
--"hey somebody out there, won't you hear my last prayer" / "hey mr d.j. won't you hear my last prayer"
--"hi-ho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere" / "hey-ho rock 'n' roll deliver me from nowhere"

― s woods, Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Ben Folds Five's The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner has two instances of the line "I thought about..." It would be kind of a stretch if they weren't sung the exact same way both times.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think the words are the same, but what about the Pixies "There Goes My Gun" and "Here Comes Your Man"?

― Alexis, Thursday, 27 February 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

flaming lips are pretty on top of the whole repeated-phrase thing. good example is:

"And though they were sad, they rescued everyone - they lifted up the sun" from A Spoonful Weighs A Ton, followed a few songs later by

"It's a good time for Superman to lift the sun into the sky" from Waiting for Superman. and then is this an echo on the next album...?

"You realize the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round."

There are lots of others - just wayne coyne's general clouds/sky/sun lyrical obssession i guess...

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 27 February 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Afghan Whigs do it on Gentlemen and Black Love. To mixed effect.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 27 February 2003 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

""State Trooper" and "Open All Night" share a whole bunch of words"

There's another song from the "Tracks" Box Set that was an outtake from "The River" that had several of the same phrases you mentioned. I forgot the title, but it was a crummy up-tempo song.

― Charles McCain, Thursday, 27 February 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"Dandelion" and "We Love You" by the Rolling Stones have slowed-down snippets of each other grafted on after the fades.

― Charles McCain, Thursday, 27 February 2003 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Swirlies has this obsession with the phrase "her life of artistic freedom". It appears in several song titles and song lyrics. And those goddamn ostriches on all the covers!

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 27 February 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello on Imperial Bedroom with "P.S. I Love You" and "P.P.S.I.L.O.V.E.Y.O.U."

Sting reprises the umbrella bit from "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" on one of his solo songs, and I think does the same with "I'll Be Watching You."

Caetano Veloso sings part of his 20-year-old "London, London" on "Doideca" on the Livro album.

L.L. Cool J has a song on every other album just made up of song titles from his other albums. Makes no sense to me.

― Neudonym, Thursday, 27 February 2003 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican Poncho or a Sears Poncho..."
"Heavy duty zircon-encrusted tweezers"
"The poodle bites - The poodle chews it."

--Zappa

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 27 February 2003 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Jon Spencer to thread!

― Ian Johnson, Thursday, 27 February 2003 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

Sigur Ros - ()

― man, Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Phil Collins must have used the phrase "waiting for so long" on a dozen different songs.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Happens in a few places on Spiritualized's "Let It Come Down." Damned if I care to remember where though...

― M Specktor (M Specktor), Saturday, 1 November 2003 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Sting sings that umbrella part in "O My God" and I also think in "Set Them Free."

― billstevejim, Saturday, 1 November 2003 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The phrase "urgency of now" appears in both "Tonight Tonight" and "1979", both on The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 1 November 2003 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Jon Spencer to thread!

THE BLUES IS NUMBER ONE

― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Sunday, 2 November 2003 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Cypress Hill's debut...in order to maintain continuity, a diff. phrase used in each particular song is repeated on the one that follows.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Sunday, 2 November 2003 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Two for Elliott Smith. On XO, he says "deaf and dumb and done" in "Sweet Adeline" and "Tomorrow, Tomorrow." It wouldn't be quite as noticeable if they weren't the first two songs... And on Figure 8, he uses the phrase "lonely leered" on "Son of Sam" and "In the Lost and Found." Also, I think both times it's rhymed with "disappeared."

― Prude (Prude), Sunday, 2 November 2003 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Daniel Johnston to thread

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 2 November 2003 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Wesley Willis owns this thread.

Rock over London,
Rock on Chicago.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Sunday, 2 November 2003 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

James Brown: "The long-hair hippies and the Afro blacks/All get together behind the tracks/And they party!" At least two or three songs around '74.

― Douglas (Douglas), Sunday, 2 November 2003 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

if Neil Halstead says "feel alive" (in at least a dozen songs and counting) one more time i'll wring his neck

― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 2 November 2003 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

How many George Clinton tracks do not namecheck "the funk"? :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 2 November 2003 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Two early Embrace b-sides both used the phrase "we'll never be crowbarred apart".

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 2 November 2003 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.