The Spirit of Radio by Rush
What I Got, by Sublime (“No, we’re done, man”)
Actually, Ajax Laundry Detergent.
Then there are the songs that are the polar opposite: The Song That Never Ends.
Yeah, the vast majority of the bands I listen to have songs that end and don’t fade away. It’s not exactly a rare thing. But if I should pick one, I dunno. Let’s go with the ending on “Cherub Rock” by the Smashing Pumpkins for fun.
Billy Joel, “Still Rock & Roll To Me”. Ends in that yelp after the instruments stop.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Saturday Night Special ends with the line “And that’s the end of this song…”
I’ve found out that a few AC/DC songs have actual endings in their original form, but were faded out for the American version. “Go Down” now plays to the end on the remastered CD, and the Australian version of the song “Hight Voltage” ends with a sustained guitar note and snare hit on the right channel. If you isolate and amplify the left channel during the sustained note, you can hear a count-in and the rest of the band starting the song again.
Although I always like The Eagles, I never much liked Hotel California, as a song, until they did it on their [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuQedC7MBawHell Freezes Over* album, and then I thought it was one of the all time greats. And what a beautiful ending!!!
*That might not have been the actual HFO version, but similar
I am not sure I see the significance, but I’ll play. Van Halen’s first album was loaded with songs that famously end with Eddie dive-bombing his whammy bar and then letting it return the strings to pitch and hitting the last chord with Alex and Michael in sync. Bow-wowwwwwwwwwww…Bam!
There’s a lot, right? My personal favourite is Revolt Into Style by Bill Nelson’s Red Noise
I have that blue vinyl 7"MiM
Prior to the invention of the record, all songs had endings. Most symphonies end with a chord. Here’s one of the best.
For modern popular music, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has a great ending (especially on an LP, where silence ensues). “I’ve Had Enough” by the Who also has a definite end – with a scream (which is later paralleled by the end of “Love Reigh O’er Me”
Here’s also a graph that shows how the fade-out has become unpopular in pop music over the last few years. Interesting to see that in 2011 and 2012 there were no songs that finished on the year-end top 10 list with a fade out, and only one song each in 2009, 2010, and 2013. On the flip side, I’m shocked at how popular the fade out was in Top 40. One year, looks like 1985, had all 10 year-ending top 10 songs end with a fade-out.