Do you know what? I’m getting older and maturerer and this means that my original title of this post “Happy Endings” was dumped in favour of a more prosaic choice of words.
The other day I took a break from my never-ending quest for fresh and exciting new music from around and the world and decided to revert briefly to some of my favourite songs, namely:
Going Underground, The Jam
Isolation, Joy Division
She Loves You, The Beatles
Woke Up This Morning, Alabama 3
Never Let Me Down Again, Depeche Mode
What do they have in common? They don’t fade out, they don’t lose their way, they are not too long and they are not too short. They are not too quick, not too slow – telling the time for Trumpton. A major factor here is how the song ends. Each one could, in theory, fade out and would have been just fine if they did. Yet the ending in each one is perfect.
From the nice little double stitch of Going Underground’s 3 second bass guitar line to the false ending in Isolation, to the denouement of Woke up the Morning, where a moody maelstrom of misery builds up until the narrator snaps and then it sounds like he has been run over and then beaten up by a relentlessly ultraviolent R2D2, who hasn’t had his breakfast.
NLMDA soars and swoops high into the sky and ends on a mountain top with its arms akimbo, chin in the air and billowing cape as we reach the end. However, the album version has a hint that there’s plenty more where THAT came from with a tiny snatch (oh grow up) of When the Levee Breaks-esque drums. This was later released as a whole ‘nother version of the song.
So then, I trust I make myself clear. I’m looking for songs that don’t just fade to silence, or clock off like a stressed out speed chess player – I want songs that end brilliantly. They either represent a good, satisfying square meal or alternatively a song that whets the appetite for pudding.
2’26” of perfection
They were a great live band. One of the many times I had to take the milk train home in the 80s.
“Are” a great band! 40th anniversary tour starts soon.
Recommences soon you mean. They’ve been playing anniversary gigs since April. Shepherds Bush Empire was epic. Shanne Bradley played on Green Fields of France and Jon Odgers also guested on Rosettes, I think.
There’s still a big Cush shaped hole on stage but Tom Spencer is a good replacement and they are still fantastic live, both my kids and their partners, all in their 20s, had a ball.
A new album is in the pipeline, surely difficult to pull off after 40 years and 10 previous releases. Fingers crossed……
Just back from walking the dog and one of the songs played was Here Comes The Sun. Even now, after all these years, I marvelled at how all the other instruments suddenly drop out leaving the acoustic to wind down the last two or three seconds. Perfect ending.
I had a moment when the song appeared unexpectedly in the Bee Movie. As you say, even after all this time – a song of that quality can really hit you.
The Jam (part 2).
The single version of Down In The Tube Station At Midnight ends with a perfectly placed “Oi”. But the album version follows the Oi with the sound of a train pulling away and then a drum and guitar coda.
Which is better? For me, the definite “Oi”
I’m with you on that one.
Nooo one Of My favourite codas (thinks must do post on codas has been thinking about).
Jungleland. The anguished cries at the end )also ends the album).
New Order – Leave Me Alone
House Of Love – Destroy The Heart
The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night
David Bowie – The Jean Genie
– John, I’m Only Dancing (Original Version)
Destroy the Heart a good call. Similar, though even more extreme, was Dinosaur Jr’s cover of Just Like Heaven. Genius or terrible depending on point of view.
Genius for me.
See also Buzzcocks Love you more
I always smile at the ending to Dylan’s Man Gave Names To All The Animals as it purposely doesn’t end properly in that he doesn’t bother with the expected final line “Think I’ll call it a snake”.
Floyd’s Eclipse has a beautiful ending, not just to the song but to the whole album, tying it up musically and conceptually.
Stone Roses’ Waterfall has that fantastic guitar solo.
I’d rather never hear Bohemian Rhapsody again, but it does have a perfect ending.
The perfect ending of B R is the run out grooves on the single.
Am I stating the obvious, Virginia Plain.
Is there an echo in here?
It’s No Game Part 1 ends with the band coming to a formal stop except Fripp, who carries on his weird asymmetric riff with Bowie screaming SHUT UP!! at him until someone pulls the plug. Probably not what you mean by ‘ending well’ but always make me smile. Here’s the end bit:
That’s flipping spooky because that very song was nearly on my list. I love that ending.
The live version of Magazine’s “Feed the Enemy” has a cracking ending:
No room to move, no room for doubt
No room to move, no room for doubt
No room to move, no room for doubt
No room!
Reward by The Teardrop Explodes. Not only does it end well but it has one of the best opening lines of any song ever.
Amother dead stop – Stiff Little Fingers Suspect Device
“We’re gonna blow up in their face!” STOP
(The live version always followed by “Hanx!”)
Any song that ends with the drummer going d-lop, the two sticks a fraction apart. Simon Kirk was especially good at this,
Every song I cannot abide ends well.
@pencilsqueezer Oh very good!
Ian Hunter’s spoken outro, I won’t call it a rap, on ATYD.
Isn’t that fade IIRC?
Yeah, ends well though!
We’re all normal and we want our freedom. Freedom freedom freedom freedom. All of God’s children gotta have their freedom.
A spooky, memorable end to The Red,Telephone by Love.
Behind a Painted Smile by the Isley Brothers ends extremely well (I always have to find a surface to tap along with it when it comes on). Barbarism Begins at Home by the Smiths ends superbly as well, the layers stripped away until it’s just down to Andy Rourke’s brilliant bass line leading to the final chord.
And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps by the mighty Tull ends with a cough
I can’t believe no-one has mentioned A Day In The Life.
(To be fair, The Beatles have been mentioned a few times.)
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – it just stops.
Happy Ending? Possibly not, more an absolute ending
I can’t believe Won’t Get Fooled Again hasn’t been mentioned.
Does that actually end? It feels like it goes on for ever. Those synthesizers never stop.
It ends most emphatically.
I was just thinking the same as I scrolled down the thread.
I like the way Patrik Fitzgerald’s brilliant, underrated, better-than-anything-Bob-Dylan-ever-wrote modern classic Optimism/Reject ends so abruptly.
Musically or narratively?
Madness One Better Day is quite a dark tale
(there is much unrecognised darkness in The Nutty Boys oeuvre)
The end lyrics though smacks of acceptance and happiness with one’s lot, bolted to a pretty joyous musical backing
One of their finest moments IMO.
I was only remarking to Mrs. T the other day how I love the fact that this tour de force by Rory has a proper tight ending, even after mucho riffage.
How did Mrs. T respond?
Oh she likes a bit of Rory.
Television’s Marquee Moon – a moebius strip of a song that ends when the darkness doubles and begins anew when lightning strikes itself
Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You”. The last cymbal crash is at 7.11, and a few seconds later JPJ throws in a nifty, jazzy organ lick.
The Specials’ Too Much Too Young certainly has an ending that is emphatic: “Try wearing a cap!”
I’ve always dug the ending to Tommy Gun by ver Clash.
Any Country song played backwards tends to end well.
You stop drinking, your dog gets better, your wife comes back, and you keep your job.
And you’re no longer in jail, of course.
On the other hand, you never got to watch that man in Reno die.
Yebbut how cool do you look catching that bullet with your gun..?
I do like a big build to a finish, so The Look of Love (part one) with its pah! pah! pah! knockout combination, Love Is A Wonderful Colour with its post-climax step down and Unchained Melody with its nowhere else to go.
But I also like the “sum it up” ending, like The Power Is Yours by The Redskins, All You Need Is Me by M*******y (“You don’t like me but you love me – either way you’re wrong/ You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone) and, of more recent vintage, person of the moment Chappell Roan finishes Casual by summing up all the previous careful words with three: Go to hell!
Another one from the marvellous Roan, with a perfect beginning, middle 8 and end…
A recent good ending is Grace by Idles. The ending seems to pay a small homage to Baetles. band as well.
An alternative view is that a good fade out can leave you wanting more. Steely Dan’s Brooklyn Owes the Charmer has a beautiful fade and hints of what could have been had it gone on longer – ie it gets really interesting just as it fades to the ether. It never fails to have me reaching to play it again.
On These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ the horns get all excited and grab the spotlight just at the fade.
Blondie’s Rapture does that, but one of the 12” shows it better as it was.
Paul McCartney’s Take it Away has a wonderful horn led fade.
Talking horns, Branford Marsalis plays a fiery, assertive solo in the coda to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power (full length version). It’s also a track that comes to a satisfying conclusion, all the voices, samples and instruments falling away, leaving just the drum break.
Talking horns and, which we are not, talking beginnings cut off before the song starts, the Brecker brothers make the quite good 7” of Dire Straits ‘Your Latest Trick’ into 12” perfection.
Surprised nobody mentioned this: