10 Amazing Songs That Don't Have A Chorus
Going Off the Grid.
The old saying of ‘don’t bore us get to the chorus’ is more than just industry talk most of the time. The chorus should be the one part of the song that ties everything together, hooking the listener in and being the main thing that they’ll be singing to themselves for the rest of the day after they hear your song. Not every hit song is built with that song structure in mind though.
Throughout every era of rock and roll, bands have always wanted to explore the perimeters of what constitutes a rock song, and every one of these tunes don’t have the verse-chorus structure that you would typically find in your average Top 40. Outside of just the weird sounds of these records, it’s hard to even keep track of what they’re doing half the time, going on long tangents or having guitar solos that go on in random parts of the track.
So much about these songs should not work, and yet they have all become some of the cornerstone tracks of their genre. Even with their strange construction, these are the tracks that have become modern classics, not fitting in the traditional rock mold but still rocking harder than most traditional rock bands could on their best day. You might not know where these songs are going, but you’re going to definitely be along for the ride regardless.
10. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
For the first few years of his career, Bruce Springsteen made it his personal mission to run as far away from the Bob Dylan connections as he could. Much like Mr. Zimmerman, The Boss was known for making songs that were into telling a story, taking the old tropes of rock and roll and blending it with the down and out losers that he saw in the streets of New Jersey. Though these underdogs may have the odds stacked against them, Thunder Road was proof that escape wasn't impossible.
Starting off with the sound of a screen door slamming and the harmonica setting things up, the structure of this song almost seems more like a rock and roll stage production playing out, with Bruce starting off playing over a piano as he talks about him and Mary finding out what life has in store for them past the state line. While this is the kind of spirit that would blow the doors down on Born to Run, this is the start of the story where you're going out on the town and seeing what life has in store, as the whole song builds to a climax going through every single verse.
By the time you reach the real hooks of the song, Bruce still has so much more to say, with the real chorus of the song being the final guitar melody that plays everything out, trading between the sounds of his Telecaster and Clarence blowing the hell out of his saxophone. Rock and roll may have been full of losers, but The Boss had his eyes on something bigger and was willing to move the Earth if it meant getting his hands on it.