Sequel Song

When a band releases a song that could be considered a direct or spiritual sequel to a previous song of theirs. The song is usually in the same key as the original, and may borrow lyrics or music from it.

Examples of Sequel Song include:

• In what may be the most triumphant example, Metallica followed up The Unforgiven with The Unforgiven II six years later. And then came The Unforgiven III, eleven years after II. The original and II share some lyrics, and a horn intro at the beginning. III has neither, but it's still easy to see the connection.
• Slipknot did this with Vermilion and Vermilion Part 2. The first is typical Slipknot fare, while the sequel is a mellow acoustic ballad. Interestingly, both songs are on the same album.
• Dream Theater has Metropolis, Pt. I: The Miracle and the Sleeper, and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. The second song is notable for lasting a whole album which is separated into twelve tracks, 9 "scenes," and two acts.
• Axel Rudi Pell are have done this with their album The Crest, which features a track called Dark Waves of the Sea (Oceans of Time Pt. II: The Dark Side), which is a sequel to their 1998 track, Oceans of Time. It has a similar, but more guitar-heavy chorus, and a similar solo section to the first song.
  • "World of Confusion (The Masquerade Ball Pt. II)" is the same for "The Masquerade Ball".
  • ARP often unintentionally does this as well. Seeing as how Axel writes all the band's music, riffs and solos are bound to crop up again occasionally. There's an insanely catchy riff that appears (with slight variations) on the tracks Wild Cat, Pay the Price, and Buried Alive. All these songs are years apart.
• Helloween are very fond of this. Halloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys and King for a Thousand Years found on the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt.1, Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt.2 and Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy respectively are all considered sequels. While Halloween doesn't share a plot with the other two songs, it's still considered part of the band's "Keeper Trilogy", being a 10+ minute long multi-part Epic. An orchestral medley of all three songs was made for the band's 2010 compilation album Unarmed. It's an interesting case in that King for a Thousand Years was released 17 years after Keeper.
  • The song Occasion Avenue could also be related to the "Keeper Trilogy". It doesn't share any lyrical themes or music, but it's a long, multi-part song that contains samples of the Trilogy.
• Meat Loaf's album Bat Out of Hell had two sequels, though only Bat Out of Hell II was written entirely by original Bat songwriter Jim Steinman.
• Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II.
• The Beatles' "Glass Onion" could be seen as a sequel to "Strawberry Fields" and "I Am the Walrus"... or just a Mind Screw. It also references "Fool on the Hill," "Lady Madonna," "Fixing a Hole," "There's a Place," "I'm Looking Through You," and "Within You and Without You."
• Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" is an unofficial remake of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", to which the official sequel would be "Ashes to Ashes".
• Buddy Holly, "Peggy Sue Got Married". Which was released posthumously, yet.
• "Judy's Turn to Cry" by Lesley Gore is a sequel to the same singer's "It's My Party".
• There was a sequel to "The Devel Went Down to Georgia" called "The Devil Came Back to Georgia"
• Britney Spears' "Stronger" contains the line "My loneliness ain't killing me no more", a reference to Baby One More Time.
• Eminem's "Kim" was a prequel to "97 Bonnie and Clyde".
• An Orthodox Jewish band called Journeys had a song called "The Ninth Man" on their debut album in the '80s. Almost 20 years later, on Journeys IV, they had a sequel called "The Ninth Man II", which was from the point of view of the same characters... 20 years later.
• "Bad Day" by REM is a sequel to their previous song, "It's the End of the World as We Know It".
• "The Mirror" is seen as a prequel to the Twelve-Step Suite, and in Systematic Chaos you have "In The Presence of Enemies" I and II.
• George Formby did an entire series of songs about a Mr. Wu, which apparently started with "Chinese Laundry Blues" and included "Mr. Wu's a Window Washer Now", "Mr. Wu's an Air Raid Warden Now" and "Mr. Wu's In the Air Force." (Listening to these all in a row is not recommended.)
• Harry Chapin wrote the aptly-titled "Sequel" as one of these to "Taxi."
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Dani California" to "Californication".
• Linkara's History of Power Rangers videos mentioned that the Power Rangers Zeo theme is, appropriately enough, a sequel song to the theme of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which includes some parts of the original.
• Napoleon XIV: "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha, Haa!" and "They're Coming to Get Me Again"
• Kansas's "Icarus: Borne On Wings Of Steel" was followed up years later by "Icarus II".
• Rush ended their album "A Farewell To Kings" with the song "Cygnus X-I Part I" and ended their next album, "Hemispheres" with the followup "Cygnus X-I Part II".
  • Rush also has Fear parts I, II, III and IV, spread out over decades of albums.
• Tommy and Gina from Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer" made a return appearance in "It's My Life". As well as the introduction.
• Elton John recorded "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" in 1972, and "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters, Part 2" in 1988.
• Jethro Tull followed "Christmas Song" in 1970 and "Another Christmas Song" in 1989.
• The Ramones have "The Return of Jackie and Judy", a sequel to "Judy Is a Punk", and "This Ain't Havana", a sequel to "Havana Affair". And arguably "Cretin Family" also qualifies as a sequel/inversion of "We're a Happy Family" (that references the title of "Cretin Hop").
• Ben Folds has "Fred Jones, Part 2", a sequel to "Cigarette" (which also had Fred Jones as a main character).
• Mr. Bungle had "Sleep (Part II): Carry Stress in the Jaw" and "Sleep (Part III): Phlegmatics" on Disco Volante, leading fans to wonder where the hell "Sleep (Part I)" was: It turns out Trevor Dunn, who had written both songs, had retroactively decided that the earlier song "Slowly Growing Deaf" was part one. The three aren't directly connected, but share the theme of an illness affecting a specific body part.
• Bobby "Boris" Pickett recorded several sequels to the novelty hit "Monster Mash", including "Monster Swim", "Sinister Stomp", and even "Monster's Holiday."
• Ice T's "Midnight" has a spoken intro that more or less sets it up as a sequel to his earlier song "6 'N The Mornin'". The very last line reveals that it's more of a prequel song though, since "6 'N The Mornin'" begins with police at the door at 6 A.M. and "Midnight" ends with the exact same situation.
• Everything Else's "Fool" is the sequel to "If You Loved Her", which makes "If You Loved Her" a more depressing song.
• Rihanna recorded "Love the Way You Lie Part 2" for her album "Loud". It's a sequel to Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie", which Rihanna sang the chorus of.
• The Vines had "Autumn Shade" then "Autumn Shade II" followed by both "A.S. III" and "A.S.4 (Autumn Shade 4)" all on separate albums.
• French Singer Renaud has a song called "Les aventures de Gérard Lambert" (Gerard Lambert's adventures). It also has a later song, called "Le retour de Gérard Lambert" (Gérard Lambert returns). Of course, both songs share the main character (in the first, he is trying to fix his bike, and in the second he is driving to meet a girl, only to find a travestite. He ends both songs by hitting people)
  • Same singer also has two songs, "Où c'est qu'j'ai mis mon flingue" (Where did I put my gun) and "J'ai retrouvé mon flingue" (I found my gun again) where he rants about various things and more various things in the sequel.
• Rap group Atmosphere has a few:
  • The song "Mille Fell Off The Fire Escape" is a direct sequel to the song "Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa" by De La Soul. The former pays homage to the latter by using the same backing music as a sample.
  • The song "Hair", in which rapper Slug details the story of a fan trying to seduce him at a bar. The song progresses through the night as Slug and the girl go back and forth, with the fan's advances eventually winning over Slug. They get into her car, and as they're driving to her place, the song abruptly ends with the following:

Lindale Avenue on the way to her place
Her drunk ass turns to look at me and she says
"You're so beautiful, from the hair to the soul
I can't believe that I never met you before
It feels like I've been waiting for you my whole life"
She missed the red light, we hit a pick-up truck and we both died

• • This is followed up on a later album by a song called, appropriately enough, "Scalp". The narrator is asked by a shady friend to pick up a mysterious package at a warehouse and drop it off at another location. He gets into his car but has an internal struggle as to whether or not he should do such an obviously morally dubious thing. Deciding against his better judgement, he starts driving to the warehouse...

I started talking to the image in the mirror
I said, "You should go back in and explain
Sonny will understand, everything will be fine
Sean, calm down, get a grip, you're trippin"
I shook myself and put the key in the ignition
"Stop being a bitch now, man up"
Rollin' down 26 with thoughts of handcuffs
Pulled out on Lindale, killed by a couple of drunks, broadside of my pick up truck"

• Rapper and singer Dessa had a song called "Mineshaft" that was about a painful breakup. On a later album, she released a song called "Mineshaft 2", set sometime afterwards as the ex-boyfriend calls her in an attempt to get back together.
  • "Mineshaft"

I've been here before, and I know where it goes
It goes down...

• • "Mineshaft 2"

You've already been here before
You already know where it goes
You chose this, you know its supposed to be over

• Rapper Sage Francis has a series of songs detailing the aftermath of a painful breakup. Each song features the same lyrical structure, but the individual words changed to reflect the mod. The first, called "The Write", finds Sage sad and heartbroke. The second song, called "Rewrite", show Sage angry at the ex-girlfriend, calling her a bitch, with the mood of the track scornful and defiant. The final and third song, fittingly called "Threewrite", is much more peaceful, with Sage finally coming to terms with what happened and finally moving on.
• After "Minnie the Moocher" became his Signature Song, Cab Calloway wrote a series of songs about Minnie and her boyfriend Smokey Joe.
• A-ha's "The Sun Always Shines on TV" video is a sequel to the "Take on Me" video, and begins with Morten Harkett's character leaving the love interest and returning to animated comic form.
• Funker Vogt's "Tragic Hero" had two sequels, "Fallen Hero" and "Arising Hero".
• Future Perfect: "Solitary Star" is the follow-on to "Queen of the Dance Floor", as evident by the callbacks in the lyrics.
• Ayla - "Ayla Part II" (there isn't a part 3, that's a Misattributed Song)
• Erasure's "Always", to "Sometimes".