Codas that make the song better

"I Am The Resurrection" then...

Main Entry: co·da
Pronunciation: 'kO-d&
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian, literally, tail, from Latin cauda
1 a : a concluding musical section that is formally distinct from the main structure

X FUCKING POST.

I've seen this happen in other people's lives
And now it's happening in mine.....

I spun this one backward to hear the "secret message". Scared the shit out of eleven-year-old me.

The guitar bit at the very end of "There's No OTher Way" by Blur and the final bit of "Beyond Belief" by Elvis Costello

I Saw Her Again by the Mamas and the Papas

Crimson and Clover by Tommy James, just gorgeous

so true!

"as it is when it was" by new order (a coda later lifted wholesale by the lightning seeds for "pure").

The only thing I ever liked by Bauhaus is the coda of that one song where they chant "We love our audience!" for like half an hour.

there's also a bunch of sebadoh that suddenly lurch off into screaming...or some odd bit..

and most of blur's 13 (im thinking "bugman" esp) have something like a coda tacked on that jumps off entirely from the song itself to briliant effect and completely recontextualize what you just heard

SLUDGEFEAST!

1. Not sure if it qualifies as "formally" different but that faded in bit at the end of "Video Killed The Radio Star" is most evocative.

2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I am the Walrus" (Lennon was the Coda-King, eh? I could probably list a half dozen more e.g. "Glass Onion")

3. Interrupting noise/synth end of "Dead Finks Don't Talk" by Eno.

That was George Martin and was his way of fixing an otherwise dull song.

Roxy Music- In Every Dream Home...

Not sure if it qualifies as "formally" different but that faded in bit at the end of "Video Killed The Radio Star" is most evocative.

It's funny you should mention that one as well. I remember the Wondermints liking it so much they stole the entire thing for the coda to Puppet Girls R Go (I think it was that song).

At least 12 other Supergrass songs as well.

Also, "I Was Never Young" by Of Montreal.

It's never been a favorite off the album (but considering all the other songs...) but it's been on repeat for the past half-hour. Bryan McClean's religious revelation and the song's gorgeous, gorgeous coda, "Fine old man, nice old man now...". Heavenly.

"She Gets Down on Her Knees" - Yoko Ono

(is that a coda, technically?)

Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe

Goes from being one of their heavist riffs to some deep balearic jam.

Gordons "Spik and Span"

"WATCH OUT, WATCH OOOUUUUUUUUUUT!"

Anyway, speed metal kinda pwns the whole best codas in the world thing

"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," though the song would be good even without it.

Pure Prairie League - Amie

I keep falling in and out of love with you
Falling in and out of love with you
Don't know what I'm gonna do
I keep falling in and out of love with you, ooh

Does the "No Future" bit at the end of God Save The Queen count as a coda?

Anyway, best coda ever is the single version of The Monkees' "The Porpoise Song". I got the greatest hits just so I could have this version of "The Porpoise Song".

decoration day - drive-by truckers

'Pinball Wizard'

Underworld - Cups
Portishead - Machine Gun
Massive Attack - One Love

I love the bit at the end of 'King George Street' by Squeeze where the child's lullaby/music box tune fades into the music from a pub fruit machine, so grim.

Oh, and I love the accordion fade-out at the end of Bjork's Bachelorette.

The bit at the end of 'Strange Pursuit' by Devo and the bit at the end of 'Battery Brides' by XTC- what other songs do that? I guess 'When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty' by XTC is kind of similar as well

The "love is strange"-part of Gn'R's Locomotive.

'Alec Eiffel' by the Pixies

I love the bit at the end of 'King George Street' by Squeeze where the child's lullaby/music box tune fades into the music from a pub fruit machine, so grim.

― im 12 and i hav all the films and series' im proud i luv oon the buses (bends), Sunday, October 20, 2013 2:31 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My favourite thing about that song is how many damn chords it has in it!

Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair

It's one of their best songs anyway, in my opinion (Top 3 for me alongside 'Slow Life' and 'Some Things Come From Nothing'), but that little drum fill followed by "now that you're here, tell me you're non-believer", before the trademark SFA 'space-synths' pile on top of it, is such a fine moment and shifts the song up another gear.

i like the end of new slaves a lot

I hear what sounds like a quote from Then He Kissed Me right at the end of Love Will Tear Us Apart which i think adds to the poignancy and was conspicuous by its absence on the Swans cover.

Also love the ending of Deep In The Woods by the Birthday Party. Not sure how much of that is Coda but
the bit from Love Is For Fools up to the Cave proclamation of the word End including the feedback breaking through the song is all rather delicious.

I don't know if something that takes up half the running time of the song properly counts as a coda, but the last 4 minutes of "Matty Groves" by Fairport Convention is astounding and I can listen to it over and over. The first half, with Sandy Denny singing, is also excellent. But the total meltdown led by Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick is just volcanic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK_7AqH1VGQ

Very similar concept to the one on Optimistic but;

Radiohead - I might be wrong

The Wrens - 13 months in 6 minutes
Smashing Pumpkins - Thru the Eyes of Ruby

XP FC’s “Matty Groves” absolutely rules in spite of that back half of the song. That song falls under the same category as Miles Davis’s “Go Ahead John”

"Matty Groves" is great. Vaguely reminds me of Captain Beefheart's Kandy Korn in its dimensions and density. (Though on re-listening, that's probably 70% of the track's length, lol.)

Lots of GN’R songs, including some obvious ones not mentioned in the thread already – Sweet Child o’ Mine, Patience, November Rain...

Pixies - No 13 Baby

There's even a fan edit that extends the coda by a few mins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8sptpHZGs

The High Llamas are (among other things in my estimation and enjoyment of Sean O'Hagan's music) the kings of wonderful repetitive codas that make the already wow songs soar to an ever higher level. See: "The Hot Revivalist" from "Hawaii" (1996), "The Sun Beats Down" from "Cold and Bouncy" (1998), "Bach Ze" from "Snowbug" (1999), "Jackie" from "Here Come the Rattling Trees" (2016) et al.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2FKlK06IpQ

David Sylvian's band Japan used the elongated, repetitive coda to great effect, too - see the title track for "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" (1980).

NIN have some great long codas - Closer, We're In This Together...

The best part of Games Without Frontiers is the demonic Kraftwerk coda:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95SWMqzM_Sg

Velvets' "Rock And Roll"

Surprised no-one has mentioned "Stand" by Sly and the Family Stone.
Not surprised that no-one has mentioned "Vieilles courroies" by Harmonium.

Gene Clarke's Lady of the North.

I love this thread! I'll add a few more:

Led Zeppelin's "Carouselambra" ends with this awesome disco/mechanized synthy-bass motorik that is unlike anything they'd ever done. In an alternate universe, just that section of the song would have been an amazing lead single for In Through The Out Door (imagine the reactions of the rock literati!). I'm not sure if we're allowed to count the final section of a proggy 10-minute track as a "coda", but it's doubtful the Zeppelin viewed the song as some Tales From Topographic Oceans-style suite (Also, JPJ was too busy holding down the low end to pull a Wakeman and have a full dinner delivered to his Yamaha GX-1 during the slow, trippy middle section).

Franz Ferdinand's "What She Came For" has this rowdy '60s-garage meets thrash-metal coda that would be the perfect closer for every live performance, whether the band on stage is Franz Ferdinand, or, hell, anyone else.

Self Esteem's "You Wife" goes from percussive intro to "Faith"-intro church organ to mid-'90s hyper-melodic "Alternative Nation" breeziness, ending with a goth-adjacent left turn that answers the question, "What if Enya was asked to score a horror movie?".

Muna's "Never" begins like a modern recasting of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me", then follows Dramatic Pause #1 with a heavy 4-on-the-floor beat & ascending 16-note synth pattern, before Dramatic Pause #2, which leads to the appropriate synth-guitar tradeoff theatrics, like the best moments of Rush's "Power Windows" all rolled into one glorious minute.