Hidden Treasures - Album Closers

Last weeks look at openers gives way to the obvious next playlist topic, and thats Closers! Often times, at least in the days of vinyl, the album closer was epic! Almost always a great representatin of the band, and certainly not often a radio hit. Nowadays the last track on a disc an be classified and mostly filler, and sounds ilke an afterthought. So, heres a call to all bands to made their albums great from Opener to CLoser, no more filler for the sake of filling up a disc, or to get those few great tracks out on the market. In other words, be excellent always! That sounds strangely familiar...

Heres 5 of the best ever (IMO) ...

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who (Who's Next)
Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
Cygnus X-1 - Rush (A Farewell To Kings)
Whole Lotta Rosie - ACDC (Let There Be Rock)
Under Pressure - Queen (Hot Space)

Anyway, Ive culled 5 great album closers from depths of my collection in the hopes that a) we get great discussion going, b) to hear great classic rock blasting from your speakers! And then its your turn - Listen, Comment, Share, and keep it going...

PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/avcmym9n

	Jackson Browne The Pretender 1976 1 - The Pretender The man who had delved so deeply into life's abyss on his earlier albums was in search of escape this time around, whether by crying ("Here Come Those Tears Again"), sleeping ("Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate"), or making peace with estranged love ones ("The Only Child," "Daddy's Tune"). However, and when Browne came to the final track -- traditionally the place on his albums where he summed up his current philosophical stance -- he delivered "The Pretender," a cynical, sarcastic treatise on moneygrubbing and the shallow life of the suburbs. Primarily inner-directed, the song's defeatist tone demands rejection, but it is also a quintessential statement of its time, the post-Watergate '70s; dire as that might be, you had to admire that kind of honesty, even as it made you wince.
	Loverboy Get Lucky 1981 2 - Take Me To The Top The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 album chart, remaining on the chart for over two years, and has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. It featured the hit singles, "Working for the Weekend," "When It's Over," "Lucky Ones," "Gangs In the Street," and "Take Me to the Top." According to Scott Smith's notes on the Greatest Hits album "Big Ones," the song "Take Me to the Top" is actually the demo version "complete with out of tune bass" because the band couldn't quite capture the sound in the studio.
	Cheap Trick Dream Police 1979 3 - Need Your Love Perversely -- and most things Cheap Trick have done are somehow perverse -- the band decided not to continue with the direct, stripped-down sound of At Budokan, which would have been a return to their debut. Instead, the group went for their biggest, most elaborate production to date, taking the synthesized flourishes of Heaven Tonight to extremes. While it kept the group in the charts, it lessened the impact of the music. Underneath the gloss, there are a number of songs that rank among Cheap Trick's finest, particularly the paranoid title track, the epic rocker "Gonna Raise Hell," the tough "I Know What I Want," the simple pop of "Voices," and the closer, "Need Your Love."
	REO Speedwagon Nine Lives 1979 4 - Back On The Road Again REO Speedwagon gets slagged regularly, but they always deliver in concert and the freewheelin' Nine Lives, their (natch) ninth, sports one cool sleeve: tight leather, suspenders, fishnets, and cat chicks. The black circle inside rocks mightily also. Bassman Bruce Hall steps up to the plate with "Back on the Road Again," a stadium stage staple that kept these Illinois boys makin' noise on the radio. The Caribbean vibe in the hard luck "Easy Money" can't touch the Scorpions' 1979 foray into reggae ("Is There Anybody There?"), but old reliable axeman Gary Richrath keeps the number burning. The obligatory ballad, "I Need You Tonight," is one of REO's best cuts ever with priceless piano from Neal Doughty, the most unsung keyboardist alive. The whole quintet cooks on the stony nugget "Meet Me on the Mountain," the Led orgasm "Heavy on Your Love," barroom showoff "Drop It," and unheard single "Only the Strong Survive." REO's next record sparked a phenomenon, and the band never kicked out a set as rocking and carefree as Nine Lives again.
	Supertramp Breakfast In America 1979 5 - Child Of Vision "Child of Vision" is the closing track. Much like "The Logical Song", it uses a Wurlitzer electric piano as the main instrument. After the lyrical part, the song goes into a long grand piano solo alongside the original Wurlitzer electric piano melody. The track fades out with a short saxophone solo by John Helliwell. Roger Hodgson has said that the song was written to be an equivalent to "Gone Hollywood", looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with USA culture at the time of writing. He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics. Since all of Supertramp's songs are contractually credited to both Davies and Hodgson, it is difficult to determine who wrote what. Roger Hodgson's management has described "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Take the Long Way Home", "Lord Is It Mine" and "Child of Vision" as "Roger's songs"; however, this apparently does not mean he necessarily wrote them by himself, as Hodgson has credited Davies with writing the vocal harmony on "The Logical Song". Davies has referred to "The five songs that I did on Breakfast", but does not specify which ones, though presumably he means the five not described by Hodgson's management as being "Roger's".

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Permalink Reply by Jon on September 29, 2014 at 8:28pm

So, you think you came up with something new? Think you're special?

Think again!

Why don't you take a look at THIS and then THIS.

Not so special now, are you?

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Permalink Reply by Scott on September 30, 2014 at 7:57am

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on September 29, 2014 at 9:18pm

I'll just say that the Loverboy track is awesome. My favorite.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on September 30, 2014 at 8:05am

As I kind of listen to this (since it's been done before), I was wondering why there hasn't been an all Bruce Hall SHT. You could run with that for a few weeks. Plus it will be a new idea for you, not something that's been done before. Of course it wouldn't be YOUR idea since I just came up with it, but you could rest peacefully knowing you did something new. Just an idea, just because I'm here to help.

A few months ago I got on a Jackson Browne kick. Picked up a few albums, this wasn't one of them. I got off my JB kick, but this isn't a bad song, really.

The Loverboy track is pretty good, I like it and that's all that matters.

I guess the last three songs are ok. I guess.

4 albums/songs.

With the second run thru, the songs are starting to skip to the next song without finishing. It's like someone is trying to edit the player. Hmmmm.....