Single-Stanza Song: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

''a 26-second song.''|'''[[Shel Silverstein]]''', ''26 Second Song'' }}

* The Pixies' "Stormy Weather" from ''Bossanova''. "It is time, oh oh, it is time for stormy weather." Over and over. Not even a stanza, just a line.

** From the same album there's "Ana", which does have a whole stanza - it's one six line verse repeated a few times:

Ride a wave }}

** The reason for this is that it's an acrostic - If you put the first letter of every line together, it spells "surfer".

* "Little Tiny Song" by [[Barenaked Ladies]]/The Brothers Creeggan:

Hey watch me now, I'm on your plate }}

* "New Day Rising" by Hüsker Dü repeats its title all throughout the song, in various styles, shouting being the most prominent

== Dance ==

* "Don't Let the Man" by [[Fatboy Slim]]:

** The line is said twenty times in roughly four minutes.

** And pretty much any other lyrical song by him. "Right about know, the funk soul brother / Check it out now, the funk soul brother"

* The [[Daft Punk]] song "Around the World", as recited in [http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/1766 this] [[Diesel Sweeties]] strip.

** "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is pretty much just various permutations of:

Our work is never over }}

* "Old Piano" by [[Frou Frou]]:

But I'm safe inside me here, oh well... oh well... oh well... }}

* "Five Ways To Run" by [[The Crystalline Effect]]:

You can inspire }}

* The lyrics of Eric Prydz's "Call on Me" consist entirely of a [[Looped Lyrics|looped lyric]] [[Sampled Up]] from Steve Winwood's "Valerie".

== Grunge ==

* "Stain" by [[Nirvana]]:

I'm a stain, I'm a stain, I'm a stain, I'm a stain }}

** "Shout to the Lord" is practically a novel compared to some of the songs of the [http://www.taize.fr/en Taizé Community]. Check out "Jesus Remember Me" on [http://www.taize.fr/en_article681.html this page], for example. As meditation music, they're supposed to be repetitive and somewhat hypnotic to focus the worshipper on prayer.

* "Down to the River to Pray" is a weird example of this, it's almost like a single multiple choice stanza song. The words are

Down in the river to pray }}

== National Anthems ==

== Punk Rock ==

* The Living End's 34-second song "Ready" features the lyrics:

Before you're ready, ready, ready }}

* [[The Ramones]]:

I don't wanna walk around with you! }}

** They've got a few more:

*** "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"

All the kids want somethin' to do }}

*** "It's A Long Way Back"

It's a long way back to Germany }}

* The Ramones were ''kings'' of this trope. The best thing is that the songs are so good that you don't notice the lack of lyrics.

* "Guide Vocal" by [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]], off their somewhat lackluster "Duke" album, is just over a minute long, and is one of the nastiest breakup songs ever (with the exception of the outright [[Ax Crazy]] "Vow" by Garbage).

* "Fourteen Black Paintings" is a track from the album ''Us'' by [[Peter Gabriel]]. The entirety of the lyrics are as follows:

from this power comes the change. }}

* The [[Looped Lyrics|''only'' lyrics]] of Roky Erickson's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcGb24n9hvM "I walked with a zombie"] are "I walked with a zombie last night" - that's verse, chorus, everything. Unless you count the backing vocals ("He walked with a zombie").

* "Passive Manipulation" by [[The White Stripes]] is Meg singing:

You need to know the difference between a father and a lover }}

** Looped for thirty seconds.

* [[Bob Dylan]]'s "All The Tired Horses" consists of the chorus girls singing the lines "All the tired horses in the sun/How'm I supposed to get any ridin' done?/Hmmm." This hasn't stopped [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|dylanologists]] from examining and interpreting them at length.

* "Colour My World" by Chicago starts with a piano solo and ends with a flute solo, and has this verse in the middle:

Colour my world with hope of loving you }}

* "T-Bone" by [[Neil Young]] has 2 lines and various permutations of it

Ain't Got No T-Bone }}

** Even the lyric book itself tells you to repeat the line in order to save space.

* [[Steely Dan]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71gvV9n9Cs "The Fez"]" has one stanza repeated three times:

I wanna be your holy man }}

* [[Frank Zappa]]'s "Willie The Pimp" consists of one stanza, followed by a nine-minute jam.

* The title song of ''[[The Pajama Game]]''.

* "Wintergreen for President" from ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]'' has two lines of lyrics, not counting repetitions of the title or wordless snatches of other campaign songs:

Loves the Irish and the Jews. }}

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The lyrics to the ''[[Beatmania]] IIDX'' song "thunder" are composed of two whole sentences (albeit stretched out over eight measures each), both of which are identical save for two words, and are repeated twice in the 2 1/4-minute game version and even more in the extended 5:43 version:

I'm drifting through the mists of love to find the place my heart belongs }}

* The credits song for ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' has only one verse and one chorus.

* "Here's To You" from ''Sacco e Vanzetti'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]''.

That agony is your triumph }}