Great closing lines of songs/tracks
Ok so I’m talking about songs where there is a payoff or a punchline rather than the standard chorus-repeat-to-fade. You know what I mean, proper closing lyrics that surprise and/or delight.
A couple of examples of what I’m talking about....
If you’re feeling sinister by Belle & Sebastian
essentially a bleak song exploring small town melancholy, religious angst and teenage suicide, all of which culminates with the conclusion ‘so if you are feeling sinister go off and see a minister, the chances are you’ll probably feel better if you stay and play with yourself’.
OR
“Something for the weekend” by The Divine Comedy
‘when he woke she was gone with his car and all of his money’, didn’t see that one coming.
Your turn.......
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Weird Al Yankovic - Living With A Hernia. No, wait...
His parody of James Brown's "Living In America". After the final staccato horns bring the song to an end, he says "I Feel Bad!". I laughed like an idiot when I first heard him say that, because as I was listening to it I knew he HAD to say that - & when he DID, I don't know, it was hilarious. You had to be there. Ahem.
And then one day it happened...
...she cut her hair and I stopped loving her.
This the last song I will ever sing (cheers)
No, I've changed my mind again (groans)
Goodnight, and thank you
Morrissey - Disappointed
You've caught me at a bad time
So why don't you piss off
New Order - Your Silent Face
ALL OF WHICH ARE AMERICAN DREAMS
Shit, I said
I was never a breast man anyway
Tindersticks - Chocolate
'and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make'
Would've been a fine end, if they hadn't put her majesty on the end.
The opportunity was there to release Abbey Road as the last album and have that as the last line of their recorded career which wouldn've been great.
'The fact that you are married only proves you're my best friend.
But it's truly, truly a sin.' Pale Blue Eyes - Velvet Underground
He does repeat the 'linger on' bit, but this line turns the whole song on its head. Great thread.
Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind
The way the last lines turn the whole song around, from being spiteful into being full of regret.
Aren't you glad to live in America?
WE'RE ALL FUCKING CRAZY!!
(Stnnng - New National Anthem)
Deerhunter - He Would Have Laughed
the way bradford sneers "shut the hell...shut your mouth" gets me every time
Up The Junction
Barry Adamson's 'Still I Rise' Is a fine example
of this. Finishes with:
"...the man with the Golden hip bone connected to the… devil's fucking plaything".
If you spend 2mins and 25 secs of you day listening to this you won't regret it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6dMgnvpDSg
Trust me.
Tom Waits Martha
It's great anyway, but if you interpret that last line as being sung by martha, and not by tom frost, it's even better.
bands..
those funny little plans that never work quite right.
-"holes"
mercury rev
Elliot Smith - I Didn't Understand
You once talked to me about love and you painted pictures of
A never-neverland and I could of gone to that place
But I didn't understand
I didn't understand
I didn't understand
gets me everytime :(
Glassjaw - Tip you bartender
Fashion.
Buy it.
Load it.
Shoot it.
Glassjaw - Babe
It's a field trip to Hollywood Babylon but
I'm
Not
Coming
No
The Unicorns - Ready To Die
i've seen the world, kissed all the pretty girls
i've said my goodbyes and now (cough) i'm ready to die. (cough)
It's a great ending to the album as well as the song, just sums up their attitude really.
Mad Skillz "Ghostwriter"
You favorite rappers' songs? I put the flames in it.
Y'all keep fucking around, I'm a put this back out with your names in it.
http://youtu.be/CTOCHnYsv4Q
WOOAAAAAAAH there's a live version where he actually did!!! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny_g_UipmDA
They're pretty much all rappers who you'd expect to/openly use ghostwriters though
Puff Daddy, Jermain Dupri, Will Smith, Mase...
Probably more of a burn left censored.
yeah, i was just kind of surprised/happy to hear it uncensored after all these years
I assumed it was nonspecific/fictionalised. :)
Half Man Half Biscuit - Evil gazebo
Suspected murderer of Tupac murder suspect
Nothing to do with the rest of the song at all.
My favourite HMHB closing line
'Might as well be in Ely or St Ives' from What is Chateris?
Doesn't really mean anything without the rest of the song though.
...If I'd have known they were comin' I'd have slashed me wrists.
Wild Beasts - All the King's Men
"Number my babies and my broken body"
Never sure whether this is a bloke ruing has bygone days of sexual conquest or what, but he's certainly not cocksure at the end.
Jim O' Rourke's Get A Room is also great:
"And your skin's getting colder"
A great tune where the protagonist is dying next to his partner and can't reach her or do anything. Creepy.
...and i'm too sexy for this song
neatly resolved
The Magnetic Fields - Papa Was a Rodeo
What a coincidence... your papa was a rodeo too!
Sincerely, L Cohen
''Then I put the letter back in the place where it was found
In the pocket of a jacket on a train in town
Sent to her from heaven
Sally Cinnamon, you're her world''
Nice turnaround
Hold Steady, I forget the song name:
"I know it's unlikely that she'll ever be mine,
so I mostly just pray she don't die"
Beautifully pathetic.