Country Coda

 Posted by
Aug 072011
 

I was listening to Jamey Johnson’s “Can’t Cash My Checks” inattentively. For those unfamiliar, he is reported to be the new country “outlaw” and he does seem to have a bit of Kris Kristofferson/Jeff Bridges-in-Crazy Heart kind of style. The song ended and a minute or so later I checked the iPod display to see what unfamiliar song had replaced it. It turned out to be the same track with an instrumental coda (right word?) inserted after the lyrics fade out.

[Check @ 4:12 if you don’t want to listen to a full-length current country track, I’ll understand.]

I guess the most well-known version of this is the lovely slide guitar and piano piece at the end of “Layla,” but I’m sure it happens in other places as well. It’s not very scientific, but I always figured the “Layla” piece added a bit of acceptance to the end of an anguished blues, plus, it was just too nice to throw away. Can anyone comment on what the coda adds to “Can’t Cash My Checks” or how it works in other songs with similar construction?

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  16 Responses to “Country Coda”

  1. I think one of the best uses of a coda is on Procol Harum’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” – the last song on A Salty Dog. While the song itself is a stately organ/piano piece that sounds more suited to a church than a rock concert, the band breaks into a very nice loping shuffle at 3:12 to close out the song and the album.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbIvXYeNUw

    By the way, I think Procol Harum is one of the great underrated groups. Everybody knows “Whiter Shade of Pale” and thinks of Procol as classical-rock. They often were, but what has been largely forgotten is that they were also a much-better-than-average blues and rock’n’roll group too. Their albums from 1967 to 1971 are at least worth a listen and I think A Salty Dog is one of the very best albums of the 1960s. It’s near the top of my desert-island list.

  2. You know what coda I hate? The long, acoustic folk-blues thing that takes up the last 6 minutes following the 2 brilliant rocking minutes of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well,” or whaever that song is called.

    This Jamey Johnson coda remids me more of something like what Lynyrd Skynyrd woud do to show the “classy,” set-closing side of the band before leaving they leave the stage and await the crowd’s call for an encore.

  3. cliff sovinsanity

    K. I really like that coda. You’re right that most codas seem like bits of a song too good to throw away but interesting enough to compliment another song. In the mid 70’s however too many groups were using coda for pure wankery in order to satisfy the egos of certain guitarists. See Supertramp and The Eagles. I’m sure there are better examples. In those cases the codas add absolutely nothing to their songs.
    I do like the ending of the Stones’ Can’t You Hear Me Knocking. I always stick around for that one because of the groove. It could be argued that the coda for Hey Jude is what made the song such a hit.

  4. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”. Maybe a better example than Layla. The Procol Harem was good as well, something I have heard but not recently. And “Oh Well” is a great 2 minute riff grafted to that mostly unrelated acoustic piece. For God’s sake, why?

  5. tonyola

    The Beatles also did the extended coda bit on “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”.

  6. BigSteve

    That coda on Procol Harum’s Pilgrim’s Progress is a good early example of what I think of as a Beach Boys trick (cf. John Cale’s Mr. Wilson). The coda at the end of Surf’s Up seems like the ultimate example. The idea is to have so may layers of sound that you can listen to it for a minute or two or three, picking out all the different parts. Spiritualized decided to make a whole album of this kind of thing (Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space), but they dispensed with the songs and just made tracks that are all ‘coda.’ The music doesn’t go anywhere; it’s static but deep The guitar solo coda is a different kettle of worms.

  7. 2000 Man

    Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ and Layla both don’t need those coda’s. Those are the reasons engineers can fade things out. They aren’t awful, but they don’t make anything better, just longer. Mick Taylor is so intertwined with that that he actually plays just that part of the song in some of his shows. Yawn.

    I can’t take Hey Jude, either. That’s like five minutes of “na na na” and that like 4:30 too much.

  8. tonyola

    But the “na na na” part of Hey Jude becomes a mantra – just listen to it and get swept along. It’s what turns a great song into a masterpiece. George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity” maybe doesn’t quite match “Hey Jude”, but it’s a fine song partly because of the mantra effect.

  9. ladymisskirroyale

    But “Ladies and Gentlemen…” is interconnected in ways (between the songs) and each song does have a (albeit a loose) structure, so I’m not sure I’m getting the “dispensed with the songs and just made tracks that were all coda” statement.

  10. There must have been an edit of “Oh Well” because I know the song but swear I heard the coda for the 1st time very recently. Maybe a single version, or they skipped it live, or bands that cover that song thinks the coda stinks too. They do come back to the rockin part eventually.

  11. Billy Joel’s Zanzabar has the jazz part at the end that has nothing to do with the rest of the song. They released a version where the jazz part goes on for a very long time (too long) but the band is pretty good at it.

    Layla and Knockin’ are on purpose codas, it’s not like they just started jamming the ending and forgot to stop the tape.

  12. k says “a great 2 minute riff grafted to that mostly unrelated acoustic piece”

    Funny, I’ve been thinking about a thread on “Songs That Have a Seemingly Random Part Frankensteined On To It”. The part doesn’t have to be at the end. The most obvious example is the lead guitar part for My Sharona. It really feels like they shoe-horned it in to the middle of the song so that they would have a nice musical bed for some lead guitar wankery.

  13. 2000 Man

    It doesn’t work for me. I don’t need a mantra. If you’re out of ideas, end the song and start a new one.

  14. I support the use of “frankenstein” as a verb.

  15. “Layla and Knockin’ are on purpose codas” indeed. That’s kind of where I was going. I can’t figure the coda in the Jamey Johnson number, it just seems to be there to extend the run time.

  16. HAHA! I remember that section from “Zanzabar.” Apparently the Powers That Be agreed with you because on my *8-track* they chose that horn solo to fade out and clip over to the next track and fade back in.

    I now return to “hiding in the darkness with my beer”

    aloha
    LD

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