# Great fade-outs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519 "2005-02-05T14:12:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/1 "2005-02-05T14:12:19Z")
(Topic brought to mind by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=300196) thread.) Usually a fade-out is a nothing way of ending a song. Occasionally it is done to good effect. **Elvis Costello** ’s _I Don’t Want to go to Chelsea_ ends with two guitars playing up the scale, building and delaying playing the theme until the last second of the fade. In the context of the song, the ending suggests the _petit mort_. _Rock the Casbah_ by the **Clash** ends with a fade out “The Sharif don’t like it [_comment_] Rock the Casbah…” The last comment is a yelled “You know he really hates it”, just so as to stand out over the fade. Others? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/2 "2005-02-05T18:26:33Z")
**Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On?”** comes back from its fadeout as does **Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds”**. A different kind of fadeout don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr.Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Roboto)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/3 "2005-02-05T19:16:30Z")
“I had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”…Electric Prunes Best FADE-in ever! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/4 "2005-02-05T19:26:36Z")
I like “All the Young Dudes”: “I’ve wanted to do this for _years_.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr.Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Roboto)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/5 "2005-02-05T19:46:31Z")
Biffy…is that Motts version or Bowie’s? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/6 "2005-02-05T22:57:30Z")
**Mr Roboto** - Geez how could I have forgotten one of my all-time favorite songs ?- **“I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by the Electric Prunes.** :smack: Yes, a tremendous fade-in and a tremendous fade-out. They switch to “double-time” and the bacwards guitar which runs through the entire song, sounds incredibly eerie toward the end. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/7 "2005-02-05T23:02:10Z")
> [@Mr. Roboto](#): > > Biffy…is that Motts version or Bowie’s? It’s the Mott the Hoople version, with Ian Hunter expressing his desire for “You, with the glasses!” all through the long fade. ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/8 "2005-02-06T05:31:15Z")
I love the ending of “EZLA” by the Folk Implosion. The song fades out, and then someone says, “John always insists that I play drums, but I can’t actually play drums. I can do this, though,” and then there’s a really simple drum beat. I always put EZLA at the end of mix CD’s because it’s the perfect way to end them. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/9 "2005-02-06T06:43:08Z")
The first thing I thought of was _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, but this is clearly a music thread. Does the Beatles’ “Day in the Life” count? That one chord that just dies out really slowly… ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/10 "2005-02-06T07:06:55Z")
School’s Out - Alice Cooper - the way it sounds like someone just pulled the plug on the record player. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/11 "2005-02-06T16:05:27Z")
That would be _Rio_, by Duran Duran ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/12 "2005-02-06T16:53:20Z")
**Paper Sun** – the album version – has the longest fadeout in history (at least on the original US album version – it may not be the same on a CD). It opens the album and you keep hearing music from the song between cuts, and the final “We’re A Fade, You Missed This” finishes it. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/13 "2005-02-07T17:09:49Z")
I always liked Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum. The way that it fades out on the 3rd repat of the chorus makes it feel like if you were to wander into the studio, they’d still be singing that same song right now. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/14 "2005-02-07T17:22:09Z")
Christinde Lavin’s **What was I Thinking?** (studio version) has the weirdest fade-out I’ve heard. She keeps talking through the whole thing, and you have to crank up the volume to hear the whole thing. And what she’s talking about is – fade-outs! It goes something like this: “Oh my God! How am I going to end this song? I know – I’ll go to a fade-out! That’s what they always do when they don’t know how to end a song – they always go to a fade-out! You _thought_ it was an artistic choice, but it’s not! They just don’t know how to end it! Oh, except in Spanky and Our Gang’s “I’d Like to get to Know You”. _That_ was an artistic choice. But most of the time it’s because they don’t know how to end the song! What? Are you still here? Don’t you people have lives?” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-fade-outs/288519/15 "2005-02-07T17:39:34Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > The first thing I thought of was _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, but this is clearly a music thread. Does the Beatles’ “Day in the Life” count? That one chord that just dies out really slowly… The local classic rock station once did something clever on the Labor Day 500…The ending of _Day in the Life_ was overlapped by the beginning of Red Rider’s _Lunatic Fringe_. Same bass note.