I’m listening to Ozzy’s No More Tears right now - nice riff, great song IMO - then suddenly it sounds like a Sgt Pepper snippet. Totally destroys the flow of the song.
Another instance is David Gilmour’s Murder. I love this song, but I have to stop it at the end, when the song just goes off the rails. Pink Floyd also does this on a song on the Division Bell album, Lost for Words, I think.
Any others out there that have annoying interruptions?
The Beatles’ “Revolution”
The Decemberists “I was Meant for the Stage” is a beautiful song that ends with some bullshit noise that ruins it.
Is it just me, but do many of the songs from the “Who” have sucky endings?
“Impossible Germany” by Wilco… good song with a great guitar solo but the outro in the last minute ruins it.
Hey, it could be worse. How about “Less Than You Think” from the previous album – three minutes of a decent song followed by ten minutes of annoying electronic droning noise.
I always thought that Rapture by Blondie was a wonderful song (after all, how many songs can make effective use of the word ‘sacroilliac’?)…except for the rap part.
Though I’m not a fan, I thought that the single from the Killers’ last album was really great until suddenly there’s a Weird Al-quality joke falsetto backing vocal that comes in on the “talks like a gentleman” line that completely destroyed the mood of the song and turned it into a joke. A bagpipe, slide whistle and kazoo interlude would have been less disruptive.
That’s what I came in here to say. I’d be quite content if it just ended on a big old C major chord.
It’s almost sacreligious to say it, but the original “Layla.” Great wailing guitar work, screaming lyrics–then a gentle piano lead with a little quiet guitar behind the piano for the remaining three or four minutes. Each part is terrific, but neither seems to belong with the other in the same song.
I feel very strongly about this: I don’t understand the strange obsession with the saxophone in the 80’s. It seems like every single for years had out-of-the-blue saxophone riffing and solos. I could never understand this. (Notable offender: Billy Joel. There are, of course, many more.)
To each their own, I guess. I love the outro. I love the whole song.
I’ll throw in ‘Free Bird’ - great song for the first half, then it goes into an endless guitar solo that should have been about 1/3 as long as it is. And the song probably would have been better if it weren’t there at all.
I have a copy of Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” that fades out normally then comes back with Walsh saying “Uh oh, here comes a flock of wah wahs” followed by a minute of the band saying “wah wah”. It’s just stupid.
On the other hand, there’s a barely audible high tone at end of “A Day in the Life” right before the gibberish starts (from 5:07 to 5:10). The Beatles added it to get a reaction out of any dogs within earshot. To me, that’s pretty cool.
Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” I love the tune, but the end just goes on and on. Where do we go now? Where do we go? Where do we go now? Where do we go?
Just end the song, damn it!
Stone Temple Pilots’ Art School Girl starts off great but is then ruined by a jarring, repetitive, and downright unpleasant chorus. What is “I told you five or four times” supposed to mean anyway? It’s like they put it in as a placeholder and then forgot to go back and write some real lyrics.
I look at the song as a sort of metaphor for that part of the band’s career. They could have accomplished so much more if Scott Weiland had only stayed off the smack.
Do you mean musically or lyrically? As much as I love the Who I recognize their faults and weaknesses, but the endings never seemed that bad to me.
Emerson, Lak and Palmer’s Lucky Man - First part a sappy ballad, closes with a totally out of place Moog synthesizer solo.
It wasn’t very big on the charts, but I saw Squeeze play “Crying In My Sleep” on David Letterman. It was one of the very few songs I’ve heard post-1990 that made me want to buy the record. So I finally get the album, and there’s the song, just like they played it on TV, only better. Except it has this weird, dreamlike sequence in it that doesn’t belong there at all. They did leave that part out on TV, for good reason.
The version of “Let It Be” on the album of the same name has an ugly, distorted guitar solo overdubbed by George, that just wrecks the song. The single version is the same take, in a slightly different mix, with an elegant guitar-through-Leslie solo that’s like the icing on the cake.
“My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius is the best Beach Boys record not by The Beach Boys, although it has Bruce Johnston on it, plus Glen Campbell (Brian Wilson’s first road-stand-in) and Gary Usher (who wrote some songs with Wilson). It has a sound collage in the middle that doesn’t do anything for the song. I’m sure it was hip in 1967, but now it’s just bothersome.
I think I must be the only person on earth who likes the album version better, mostly because of the distorted guitar solo. I don’t know why – it just seems to have more heart to it. Or something. I was disappointed in the mix on the “Let It Be . . . Naked” version too.
One Beatles tune that loses its way at the end is “Lovely Rita.” In fact, it doesn’t so much end as just fall apart.
I’m as big a fan as anyone. Let’s not forget that Pete finished off “Quadrophenia” by just dumping Jimmy on a rock.