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Coffee Break

9:30 Coffee Break: Unspoken Titles

by Jill Riley and Sean McPherson

April 07, 2015

Coffee Break_Old
What songs do you want to hear for today's coffee break?
MPR Graphic / Tracy Kompelien

Just after 7 o'clock this morning, we spun the track "Take Me to the River" by the Talking Heads. That song is an example of a tune in which there is no mistake as to its title; in the chorus, David Byrne explicitly sings, "Take me to the river …"

One doesn't have to look far for other examples of songs that do that. Just looking at the catalogues of some of our Rock the Garden 2015 artists, Lucius have "Turn It Around", Belle and Sebastian have "The Party Line" and JD McPherson has "Let the Good Times Roll." In each of these, the titles are a critical part of the song lyrics. There's nothing wrong with songs like that. It's a common songwriting approach.

But there are also a bunch of songs out there where the words in the title are never uttered in the song — they're not sung in a chorus or even slyly mentioned in a verse.

So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, we're wondering: What songs would you like to hear with titles that are not part of the lyrics? Send us your requests.

Songs Played


The Beatles - "A Day in the Life"
Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"
Bob Dylan - "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
The Flying Burrito Brothers - "Hot Burrito #1"
Nirvana - "Lithium"
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Do you deserve a Coffee Break? We at The Current's Morning Show think you do, and we want to bring treats from Black: Coffee and Waffle Bar to your workplace. Let us know why you'd like a Coffee Break.