Stuttering Rock

A lot of pop music has stuttering in it, particularly rock ‘n’ roll. It sounds good with some songs, particularly if there’s some pressure or tension-and-release thing going on. A partial list is below.

The Who, “My Generation”
Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer”
David Bowie, “Changes”
BTO, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet”
Huey Lewis, “Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll”
George Thorogood “Bad to the Bone”
John Lee Hooker, “Stuttering Blues”
Guns ‘n’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”
Elton John, “Benny and the Jets”
Beatles, “Back in the USSR” and “Birthday”
Eurythmics, “Ball and Chain”

I found other lists online but they were clearly incomplete and/or had stuff in them that was not stuttering at all.

More suggestions?

16 thoughts on “Stuttering Rock

  1. For some reason, the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of “songs with stuttering” was “Movin’ Out” by Billy Joel. I can’t even remember the last time I heard or thought of that song. Odd.
    Anyhow, also XTC’s “All Along the Watchtower” and “Battery Brides”.

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  2. Does Huey Lewis & The News really deserve to be on this list?
    (I’m sorry, I think they scarred me for life. They are the soundtrack to my high school years, in the same way that kids of the early 90s have Hootie & The Blowfish, and I have always connected those 2 bands in my head as equivalents…)
    I would like to add “Big Yellow Taxi”.

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  3. violent femmes kiss off just played in my car and i thought of you/this. i mean it’s one line but it’ there.
    also i really like cocteau twins and people give me shit about that probably more than anything else that i listen to.

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  4. There is some really ridiculous stuttering in Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out.” He stutters at the end of sentences, which is a slightly different spin on the stutter thing.

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