Best Closing Tracks, Pt. 5

#10: “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

This is the song that slammed the door on Dylan’s folkie roots, both on record and in person. It’s lilting melody is the last sound you hear on his half-electric/half-acoustic transitional Bringing It All Back Home, but it was also the song Dylan played at the Newport Folk Festival to placate an audience who booed him for playing electric material. I hope the irony wasn’t lost on everyone in attendance.

#9: “Man Ray”
The Futureheads
The Futureheads (2004)

For every great, slow, somber closing number, there’s an equally excellent blast of speed-crazed fury that closes an album. “Man Ray” is one of these and an extraordinary one at that. Paying the vaguest homage to Man Ray, the famous photographer, the song is more an excuse for the four members of the Futureheads to play so fast and so furiously that the oh-so-catchy chaos can only be ended by a desperate, screamed “STOP!!!”

#8: “Last Dance”
Neil Young
Time Fades Away (1973)

Time Fades Away is a live album Neil Young has never released on CD. As such, it can be a bit difficult for modern listeners to track down. However, those who are willing to spend the time are rewarded by a shambling, decaying masterpiece. Recorded at the very beginning of Neil’s dark, mid-70s period, Time Fades Away captures the ragged state Neil and his band were in at the time. “Last Dance” is a fitting finale, with all the musicians involved sounding desperate to be anywhere else. Their weariness and exhaustion and depression shines right through the recording, creating a startling document of a very specific moment in time, culminating in Neil’s soft, almost whimpering cry of “No, no, no…”

#7: “I Shall Be Released”
The Band
Music From Big Pink (1968)

In the long, often irritating history of Bob Dylan covers, few stand as high as the Band’s plaintive take on “I Shall Be Released”, a song they first recorded with Dylan on the much-acclaimed Basement Tapes sessions. However, with Richard Manuel’s shattered, heart-wrenching falsetto leading the charge, the song loses Dylan’s grating lyrical edge and becomes an emotional, simple ballad that could be about almost any kind of release or escape. It serves as a perfect encapsulation of the sadness and tragedy that so often lurked on the edges of the Band’s music and personal lives.

#6: “King Of The World”
Steely Dan
Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)

If I could only have one song with which to wage my ongoing war against the world’s Steely Dan haters, it would be “King Of The World”, an apocalyptic saga that even the Dan’s typically bright production can’t cover up. Donald Fagen spins one of his most barbed and deft lyrical webs, telling the tale of the last survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Fagen’s flat, matter-of-fact vocal delivery underscores all the boredom and foreboding that such a dire situation would dredge up. The best line is saved for last: “If I stay inside…I might live ‘til Saturday.”

#5: “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Radiohead
Kid A (2000)

Kid A is an album made almost exclusively of tracks that would be closers on other, more cheerful albums. Perhaps this is why it’s my favorite record of all time. However, this does present a problem: how do you appropriately end one of the most downcast, depressive albums in history? “Motion Picture Soundtrack” rises to this challenge admirably by not dwelling on sadness, focusing more on creating an atmosphere of cloudy, funereal finality. The result is a dirge, but one of the most beautiful and touching dirges ever committed to tape.

#4: “Reservations”
Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

People tell me that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot makes them feel good, but I can’t help but wonder when I hear that, since YHF is, just like Kid A, a heavy, depressive album trying to grapple with reality when everything seems to be breaking down. Few songs capture this as effectively as “Reservations”, with Jeff Tweedy’s shaky voice soaring out over a beautiful chorus: “I’ve got reservations, about so many things but not about you.” It’s the perfect ending to a terrifying, but undeniably romantic masterpiece.

#3: “Would?”
Alice In Chains
Dirt (1992)

Leave it to the band with the hopeless drug addict of a frontman to create the best hard rock closing song in history. The strangest thing about “Would?”, however, is that the late Layne Staley didn’t write it, leaving that responsibility in the hands of his decidedly not-addicted-to drugs bandmate, Jerry Cantrell. You can’t tell from the recorded song, though. Staley turns in the performance of his life, making the crushed lyrics incredibly personal. The song’s odd arrangement finally culminates in Staley’s bellowing final words, creating one of the most powerful and attention-grabbing closers ever.

#2: “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”
Radiohead
The Bends (1995)

Without a doubt the golden standard of wonderfully depressive, soul-crushing closers, “Street Spirit” is one of the few songs I’ve ever heard that sounds purely sad, without currents of anger or betrayal or romanticism hiding underneath. It sounds sad because of nothing more specific than the world at large. This dark, hypnotic track is the soundtrack to every moment of tragedy conceivable. Somehow, Radiohead managed to capture that within a four-minute-long burst. It’s truly a monumental accomplishment.

#1: “Decades”
Joy Division
Closer (1980)

Closer was released on July 18, 1980, exactly two months after the self-inflicted death of Joy Division’s frontman, Ian Curtis. As such, those who listened to this new album were greeted by a voice that was coming to them from beyond the grave. Even today, almost thirty years after the fact, it’s impossible to forget this when you listen to Closer. “Decades” marks the last sounds Curtis gave the world before he decided to leave it all behind. It’s truly terrifying how appropriate this song sounds. “Decades” is actually one of the few Joy Division tracks that doesn’t sound like its being crushed by the weight of mortal existence. Instead, it sounds like someone looking back on events that have already passed, watching them with a removed, vaguely sad and nostalgic state of mind. Which, presumably, was exactly what was going through Curtis’ mind when he recorded it. There’s no way I can support a claim that Curtis had already resolved to kill himself at that time, but damn if the song doesn’t sound that way. “Decades” sounds so final, so all-encompassing that it leaves no room for any songs to come after it. No other closing track in history can compare.