Entertainment For Lively Minds
Songs That End With a Bang
What I'm looking for - indeed, what I've always loved - are great songs that have a proper, punchy ending, rather than that wishy-washy cop out from hell, the gradual fade out. Here's three to get you started.
1. Our Lips are Sealed by the Go-Go's: not only ends on a beautiful harmony but it's actually the best bit of a brilliant song.
2. A Day in the Life by the Beatles: everyone knows this one. Possibly the most famous long piano chord in history. Unfathomably deep.
3. Teenage Kicks from the Undertones. You've heard it a million times, but it's the triumphant finish that make this two minutes of heaven extra special. Mr. Peel had a point.
Any others you'd like to recommend? (PS live versions don't count, as it's very difficult to fade out effectively in this situation...)
- More from felton.
- Login or register to post comments
-
This ends
with several wonderful bangs. Bucklers finest moment
The Jam "Funeral Pyre"
The Jam
had many many marvellous endings to songs, even the fade outs are great (Beat Surrender for instance). My favourite endings apart from Funeral Pyre, are Going Underground and Strange Town. The bass note that ends Going Underground blew up my speakers of a cheap stereo back in 1982.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
A Date With The Night ends with a pleasingly breathy exclamation from Karen O:)
This might be of interest...
...related thread I started some time ago - slightly different angle, though.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/not-fade-away-0#comments
Looking forward to seeing what gets posted.
'Love You More'
by the Buzzcocks - gallops along for just under 2 minutes, then the final line "until the razor cuts". Perfection....
PS nice shirt, Pete Shelley out of the Buzzcocks...
Pretty much every song ever recorded by Iron Maiden
ends with some sort of crescendo.
A pedant writes
You can't finish with a crescendo. A climax, yes, but not a crescendo (sorry, woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, I think)
I´ll just say I fell asleep on the wrong side. Are we even?
Or is this an antiklimax?
Ha, we're even :)
Sorry, it's just one of my bugbears... or maybe I mean bedbugs... hence the getting out of the wrong side...
Why can't you finish on a crescendo?
A crescendo's only an upward gradient in volume, after all. Jungle Boogie by Kool And The Gang, I would argue, ends on one: "whoooooooooaargh-argh-THUNK", I believe it goes. If the song stops dead at the peak of the crescendo, that's "ending on a crescendo", isn't it?
Isn't it a question of semantics?
To me, crescendo means "getting louder" rather than a section where the volume rises. Thus, if you were to finish at the end point, that would be the climax of said crescendo, as obviously you were no longer getting louder. You can't finish at a "getting louder", hence you finish at the end of the "getting louder" i.e. the loudest bit of the crescendo - the climax.
If you understood any of that, it's purely by accident. Brevity never has been my strong point. Anyway, idiotbear, aren't you supposed to be a teacher? ;)
Yes.
But I'm a senior teacher, which means I actually spend most of my time behind a desk, hence - [sings] WORD TIME!
And I suspect this discussion wasn't really worth your time or mine. ;)
I was looking for a desk job
and then I found a desk job, and Heaven knows I'm in the Massive now...
Does that mean you teach seniors? I don't understand, a job as a teacher where you get to sit at a desk NOT teaching (presumably)? You'll be telling me REM are good next...
I seem to have missed the point of this thread; I'll nominate Reward by The Teardrop Explodes - that's a corker.
Pyotr Ilyich got there first
Here's how to end with a flourish. If you don't want to listen to it all, start at 6:53.
Babylon's Burning
no-nonsense, bang, out
and WITH ANXIETY!
Yep
That's the one! Magic.
I like the way Pretty Vacant...
... ends on that power chord.
The absence of bang
That power chord was clearly stolen from the end of "Holidays In The Sun", the song which has my favourite Sex Pistols (non) ending.
Which reminds me, has anyone mentioned "I Want You (She's So Heavy) yet?
Not just a bang
but a clap of thunder!
It's a sin - Pet Shop Boys
Two that spring to mind are...
Hots On For Nowhere by Led Zeppelin and The Rhythm of the Heat by Peter Gabriel.
Love, Reign o'er Me
...ends with Moon trashing his drumkit.
Won't get fooled again...
The ending that launched a thousand endings.
Song for the Dead.
Queens of the Stone Age springs to mind.
Bowie
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.
She Loves You
The three(?)-part harmony on the final, drawn-out 'Yeaaah'.
Pop perfection.
'Thunderball'
So climactic, Tom Jones fainted after singing the final note.
Tick tick tick tick BOOM!!!!!!
Tick Tick Boom by The Hives.
Brilliant
I really like the endings to...
"A Modern Way Of Letting Go" by Idlewild. Cor.
"Punka" by Kenickie. Slow down and...AAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
"Suck You Dry" by Mudhoney. Clatter.
"Go" by Pearl Jam. Bash.
"Down By The Water" by PJ Harvey. Gah. Terrifying.
Money, money, money by ABBA
It's got Timpani and everything. Just look at Anna-Frid's pout. Phwoarrr.
I always liked this ending
As usu..SHUT UP!
It's No Game
Motorhead
Ooh, just remembered. 'Ace of Spades'. Briliant!
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Lost Weekend - ends beautifully!
Literally
John Lennon- 'Remember'
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds- 'Babe, You Turn Me On'
"Love Song" by The Damned
"Love Song" by The Damned has the best sign-off for my money. "It's okay!!"
Classic final note:
One for all those terminally tedious Lennon-fans
and while on the topic of "Neil Innes's great endings"
Reward by Teardrop Explodes
Pah-Pah-Pah-PAH!!!
Love
'Seven and Seven Is' really does end with a huge bang, which makes up for the short fade out afterwards...
HUGE Finish
Before the Pantomime Horse
you get a Brett climax on Moving.
Lovely
Also, not a bang but you have to love the quizical ending on HJH's For No One.
Sweet Gene Vincent
And we'll also recommend this. It has a very satisfactory ending:
You can't beat this
Or this
And perhaps my favourite: