It has been a while since I've really geeked out on a music post. Since I use a link to this blog as my signature in posts on the über-music geek site dimeadozen.org, where I download all my live bootlegs, I figure I should write something about music every once in a while. The guys and girls over there are probably getting sick of clicking on my link and wondering why the hell I think they would be interested in my boring travel journal or what I think about Michelle Obama.
So anyway, I haven't been to a great show for a little while and don't really have a review to write or anything. (I do have a Pogues show next month with special guest Billy Bragg that has me drooling on the keyboard just writing about it. I expect nothing less than tears while I'm watching that one.)
But I was thinking about something last night while I was listening to one of my new Wilco shows from the Riviera Theatre in Chicago, where over five nights they performed the complete Wilco album catalogue plus some extras. They were performing a great version of "Dreamer In My Dreams" off of Being There and I thought, "This is really one of the best album-ending songs ever."
I'm not usually one for the "list of best ever (blank)" but I did start thinking about my favorite album-ending songs. I think mostly because great album endings are rarer than great openings. Even some of my favorite albums can kind of end on a low note for me. "Reservations" from Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a fine example of that.
So I offer up my list of favorite endings. I want to hear other people's as well. That's another goal for this post, to get more people commenting on my blog than usual. I don't always write things that are real conducive to commenting since I'm usually just ranting.
There are no rules to these lists except they have to be the last song on an album. You can throw five or ten or 20 at me, any era and any genre, in no real order. Mine has no order to it, just songs that come to me as some of the best songs to ever end a record.
"Song" - Album - Artist
"Dreamer In My Dreams" - Being There - Wilco
"Beyond Love" - Mind Bomb - The The
"Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards" - Workers Playtime - Billy Bragg
"40" - War - U2
"Things The Grandchildren Should Know" - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations - Eels
(Untitled) - Green - R.E.M.
"The Underneath" - A Star For Bram - Robyn Hitchcock
"Purple Rain" - Purple Rain - Prince
"MLK" - The Unforgettable Fire - U2
"Thank You For Hearing Me" - Universal Mother - Sinéad O'Connor
"Sometimes" - Diesel And Dust - Midnight Oil
"Fool's Gold" - The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
"Peace Train" - Teaser And The Firecat - Cat Stevens
"Both Sides, Now" - Clouds - Joni Mitchell
"The Home Front" - Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - Billy Bragg
"Keep Me In Your Heart" - The Wind - Warren Zevon
"Every Little Counts" - Brotherhood - New Order
"Better Be Home Soon" - Temple Of Low Men - Crowded House
I'm sure I could think of more, but this is pretty much my go to list of great endings to what I think are also great albums. Well, Brotherhood is just an OK album, but the way it ends is priceless.
What are your favorite last songs?
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13 comments:
Oh goody, something to obsess over. Will report soon.
Yea well, this has been a rousing success of an idea, eh?
I thought this was a good music topic, but I guess I'm the only person who finds it interesting...
Kiss Me, Son of God off of Lincoln by They Might Be Giants. Great ending.
Classic Girl - Jane's Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
Bali Eyes - Porno for Pyros, Good God's Urge
A Day In The Life - Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's
The Dancer - PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love
The Tourist - Radiohead, OK Computer
Quarter to Three - Sleater/Kinney, The Hot Rock
Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads, Little Animals
Fingertips Suite - TMBG, Apollo 18
Wear You Out - TV on the Radio, Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes
Have Mercy - Two Ton Boa, EP
The Wanderer - U2w/Johnny Cash, Zooropa
When You're Dead - Chris & Tad, Hand Me That Door
I Know Sometimes A Man Is Wrong - David Byrne, Rei Momo
Sing - Dresden Dolls, Yes, Virginia...
What Is This Note? - The Eels, Souljacker
Lyin' Ass Bitch - Fishbone, EP
The Last Time - Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Likely more to come.
Oh man, I can't believe I forgot about "A Day In the Life." That might be the best ever.
I was going to put "Sing" on my list but I wavered. I love the song a lot but I think sometimes it should have been an album opener.
I agree with "The Wanderer" but I hated pretty much everything else on Zooropa, so much that I gave the album away. But that was a great song and I should have kept it just for that.
"Classic Girl" is a good choice too, as is "Road To Nowhere."
I can't really offer opinions on the Radiohead or Sleater-Kinney choices since I hate both of those bands so much...
See, I love Zooropa and it works for me on many levels...I thought it was the album that Achtung Baby should've been. Granted, I'm also a fan of REM's Monster, so take it with a grain of salt.
I will always remember the first time I heard "Sing" off of that album...I had enjoyed everything leading up to it, but it felt so overwhelmingly "down" (in a good and cathartic way, but still), that the "keep fighting" message I took from the song just felt transcendent.
Between A Day In The Life, and the majority of Side B on Abbey Road, I think the Beatles refined the concept of album closer. I'd love to be refuted, though.
I can't say that I could really refute that.
Rather, I think maybe you don't give them enough credit. I'd say The Beatles "created" the whole idea of a rock n roll album, beginning, middle and end.
Before them, rock n roll records were just a collection of an artist's singles with some filler material. How many people even remember the names of albums by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis? You can rattle off a ton of great songs but I don't know anyone who could tell you the title of one of their "albums."
But almost everyone could name several Beatles albums off the top of their heads.
They were really the first ones to go with the idea of making an actual album of rock music.
Buddy Holly would have done it before them had he not died.
Ooh, I thought of another one I forgot: "Brothers In Arms" by Dire Straits.
I'd leave another comment, but I'm nowhere near the music geek you guys are. (not a compliment) Hugs!
I guess New Pornographers don't have a great album closer.
Not true.
Miss Teen Wordpower on Electric Version kicks ass, as does Stacked Crooked on Twin Cinema.
However, I don't have the songs cataloged in my brainpan, nor do I usually go through the hassle of looking such information up.
gotcha...I know it's sacrilege to mention it here, so I'll just say that the thing that rhymes with bipod helps out a lot.
Actually it's the opposite. The iPod is a brain cell killer. Makes you forget what order any songs are supposed to go in and so you can't remember which song is last on an album. Or what an album even is....
As I've said before, that's largely upon the user...but, you're right. The younger set, by and large, does not have the slightest idea about any of that. I think it comes down to music aficionados v. gadflies.
But, I meant that it helps, assuming you just dump whole albums on there like I do, to keep track of artist/album/song.
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