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Thread: Best Swan Songs

  1. #1

    Best Swan Songs

    Hard to top this one:

    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  2. #2
    Someday We Will Be Together - Supremes and Temptations

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    Unfortunately, most artists/bands refuse to go out when they should, otherwise there would be more examples.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Led Zeppelin's label put out lots of good records.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wikipedia
    Artists that released material on the Swan Song label during its existence included Led Zeppelin itself (including later solo releases by band members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant); Bad Company; The Pretty Things; Dave Edmunds; Mirabai; Maggie Bell (and the short-lived band she fronted, Midnight Flyer); Detective; and Sad Café. In addition to these artists, two other noted recording acts (though not signed to the label) were credited artists on Swan Song singles, both of which were UK hits in 1981: B. A. Robertson duetted on with Maggie Bell on the single "Hold Me", and The Stray Cats backed Dave Edmunds on his 1981 single "The Race Is On".

    Swan Song ceased active operations in 1983, and now exists only to reissue previously released material.
    The label's numbering scheme was pretty much incomprehensible though.

  5. #5
    I was waiting for that. So predictable.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    The end of “Abbey Road” is indeed about as good as it gets.

    I would also possibly nominate Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”. It is basically Freddie Mercury’s final statement as a dying man. Powerful stuff.

    Steve Sly

  7. #7
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    I was waiting for that. So predictable.
    Wouldn't want to disappoint you.

    How about the end of This Heat's first album, that went into an endless leadout groove with "Testcard" repeating forever?

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    When I saw this thread, I thought of this. The closing track on the last Genesis album to feature Phil Collins. This song brought me to tears when I heard in a montage on The Genesis Songbook DVD when the band is discussing their breakup after Calling Stations.

  9. #9
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Queen's "The Show Must Go On" from Innuendo.

  10. #10
    My first thought was that I have never listened to a swan sing. They are probably pretty good!

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    A great closing song from a great album by a criminally underrated guitarist. Not the end of the band, but the last song on the recording, so close enough.

    "The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    Hard to top this one:

    What about "Free as a Bird" though?

  13. #13
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

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    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    REM - We All Go Back to Where We Belong

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    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake started out as a swan song...it had a disastrous premier.
    "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama

  16. #16
    Roxy Music - Tara. Very humorous, Mr Ferry.
    Pink Floyd - High Hopes

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    What about "Free as a Bird" though?
    What about it? It was one of John's demos that they overdubbed after his death. Don't forget "Real Love," which came later and was still a John demo.

    Doesn't count.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasKDye View Post
    Queen's "The Show Must Go On" from Innuendo.
    There's a few Queen songs that seem to be about Freddie acknowledging his impending doom. I suppose whatever one was the most recently written would qualify as the "swan song," but I'm not sure which that would be, as a couple of them are on "Made in Heaven," the album that was completed after Freddie passed on (and of course was released after Innuendo). But whatever the actual swan song is, I always think of it is being this one, which came out before either of those albums:


  19. #19
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    There's a few Queen songs that seem to be about Freddie acknowledging his impending doom.
    Agreed...there are a handful there to choose from...but these are "self-epitaphs"....Im not sure if Freddie knew that the band would elect not to continue on without him

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    Quote Originally Posted by klothos View Post
    Agreed...there are a handful there to choose from...but these are "self-epitaphs"....Im not sure if Freddie knew that the band would elect not to continue on without him
    Fair enough. Of course, they DID continue on without him, at least for one unfortunate album with Paul Rogers, a great singer who's style had nothing in common with Queen's.

  21. #21
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Fair enough. Of course, they DID continue on without him, at least for one unfortunate album with Paul Rogers, a great singer who's style had nothing in common with Queen's.
    George Michael was the obvious choice, to me (for talent reasons - not anything else).....Did they ever record new material with him?

  22. #22
    Wolfgang Riechmann - Wunderbar
    The whole album sounds like a swansong, but the albums closer 'Traumzeit', really closes the coffin

  23. #23
    Led Zeppelin - "I'm Gonna Crawl"

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by klothos View Post
    George Michael was the obvious choice, to me (for talent reasons - not anything else).....Did they ever record new material with him?
    Not that I know of. And having seen a video his live performance with them, I agree; should've been him!

    Back on topic: I think Dave Stewart's "Land's End" which was the final track on Bruford's final album made a good swan song for them, despite the fact that he lifted a section of it from one of his earlier compositions for National Health.


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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    There's a few Queen songs that seem to be about Freddie acknowledging his impending doom. I suppose whatever one was the most recently written would qualify as the "swan song," but I'm not sure which that would be, as a couple of them are on "Made in Heaven," the album that was completed after Freddie passed on (and of course was released after Innuendo). But whatever the actual swan song is, I always think of it is being this one, which came out before either of those albums:

    Freddie did not have AIDS at this time. This song relates to the plot of Highlander.

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