That 16th-century rock star William Shakespeare was right on it when he told us that all’s well that ends well. He clearly was looking into the future, to a world where classic rock albums would need picture-perfect closing songs before they could truly be considered masterpieces. After all, you can’t bring the thunder for the first nine tracks or so and then leave us with an anticlimactic closer, at least not if you want to be in the mix with the finest LPs of that particular genre. Let’s look at five times when classic rock groups seriously stuck the landing.
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1. ”The Last Resort” by the Eagles (from the album Hotel California, 1976)
For most of Hotel California, the Eagles sing about the wild excess of the West Coast scene, along with the inevitable toll such behavior takes on those who live through it. On the album’s final track, Don Henley decides to flip it around and look at the damage people have done to the picturesque California environment.
Like many great closing songs, “The Last Resort” goes the epic route, clocking in at nearly seven and a half minutes and featuring a dreamy musical interlude that separates the different portions of the story. That story focuses on how mankind can’t help but destroy what’s beautiful out of pure greed and self-interest. The final moments feature some of the most breathtaking harmonies the band ever produced as they soar around Henley while he adds the coup de grace: You call some place paradise / Kiss it goodbye.
2. “Jungleland” by Bruce Springsteen (from the album Born to Run, 1975)
Springsteen soared in popularity with his third album, in large part because he reined in some of his more ambitious musical tendencies in favor of a more-focused rock approach. But for the final track on Born to Run, he decided he needed some of that old epic flavor. “Jungleland,” and all its unforgettable denizens, spills out before us over the course of 11 stunning minutes.
On its surface, it’s about the Magic Rat and the barefoot girl, who try to enjoy “a stab at romance” whenever they can fit it in between the Rat’s street fights. They might as well be stand-ins for all the characters Springsteen had created up to that point, all hopelessly romantic and hopelessly doomed, either to death or small-town boredom (Bruce lets us decide which is worse). “Jungleland” also benefits from a brilliant, elongated sax solo by Clarence Clemons, which acts as a benevolent blanket thrown over Springsteen’s rich tableau.
3. “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd (from the album The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
It was understandable that Pink Floyd would eventually write about madness, considering their original creative visionary, Syd Barrett, burned out not long after the group first broke big due in part to mental issues. Dark Side of the Moon explored all the different reasons one might indeed lose it, from money problems, to fears of war, to simple human isolation.
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For the final track, Roger Waters belts out laundry-list lyrics that pile on top of one another while Rick Wright’s organ swirls wildly and Nick Mason beats the devil out of his drums. It’s as if they’re trying to exorcise life’s demons through the force of the music they’re creating. But Waters’ final summation is in no way optimistic: And everything under the sun is in tune / But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
4. “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin (from their fourth album, 1971)
Led Zeppelin put it all together on their untitled 1971 album (you know, the one with the rune-like symbols for a title). The ever-expanding musical palette of Jimmy Page helped them push the boundaries of the hard rock genre, which they helped create in the first place, to thrilling new territories.
Yet, for the album’s closing track they went back to the blues, albeit a more cacophonous blues than most purists might have expected. The drum sound on “When the Levee Breaks,” a byproduct of some recording cleverness (microphones hanging from cavernous stairwells) and John Bonham’s pure power, sets the tone for the grit of the record, which was accentuated by John Paul Jones’ thudding bass, Page’s furious licks, and Robert Plant’s otherworldly vocal squeals. After seven minutes worth of this, you can do nothing else but bow down to Zeppelin…and then collapse under its weight.
5. “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles (from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)
Throughout much of Sgt. Pepper’s, The Beatles used the glorious ingenuity of their music to elevate ordinary tales about first dates, circuses, and teenage runaways. For the final track, John Lennon attempts to imbue the randomness of the routine with some meaning. I’d love to turn you on, he moans. The auto-accident death of an acquaintance, a boring movie, Paul McCartney’s late-for-work interlude, and a pointless newspaper item about potholes: where is the magic there? Well, it’s in the aching tenderness of Lennon’s vocal, McCartney’s melodic brilliance, Ringo Starr’s touch on the toms, the crazy-quilt orchestral crescendo, and the final, simple, decisive, and seemingly everlasting piano chord. Thanks to the feverish imagination of its creators, “A Day in the Life” manages to transcend life itself.
Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
