Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When playing a song live that normally ends with a fade out, how do you guys end it without it seeming anticlimactic?

you come up with a different ending ...

Think, "I want You (She's So Heavy)" by The Beatles.

gradually fade individual instruments out....slow down tempo...use your volume knob



or follow Mr. Rath's advice.

We do a version of the Folsom Prison Blues that ends with a banjo and an acoustic. We do a fade-out and really play it up as we slow down and gradually fade-out. It's a crowd-pleaser and we have a great time with it. We invariably get comments like "I loved your fade-out on the Johnny Cash tune." Of course, we treat it more as a novelty thing.

Either that, or a cold ending at the end of the riff, esp. on "I Want You" might be good. We usually have to come up with endings, the "big rock ending" gets very cliche!

Morph it into the beginning of another song.

(You have to do it tastfully though)

I was really just curious about what you guys would do, because, as Steve said, it does get very cliche if you use a similar ending on everything. I thought that you guys seemed like a more creative bunch than most and would be able to give some enlightening tips.

I play a "G".

G - the universal note.

Alan: I too am a big fan of the "G". I don't play out anywhere, but if I've had too many cocktails, lots of my songs end in a "G". And sometimes I fall down while hanging onto that beloved "G". That's what I call a "Falling G".

You could also use "shave and a haircut." The ladies love a band that ends songs in "shave and a haircut."

Isaac...I think if the song in question is one which most are familiar with, including the fadeout, it's going to be more impressive if you pull off the fade live...something which can be accomplished with a bit of practice, perhaps with some help from a skilled soundman.

I'm reminded of the example of "Cinema Show", one of my favorite Genesis tunes which, after the fantastic 7/8 section (with superb soloing by T. Banks), moves into a quiet reiteration of the opening mood of the tune, and proceeds into a melancholy repetitive chord progression with Gabriel intoning over the top, eventually fading out into what is not only the end of the song, but the end of the album as well. Compare this with the live version on Seconds Out, which is a stellar rendition (featuring, if memory serves, Bill Bruford and Collins combining their considerable percussive talents), but which devolves immediately into some sort of goofball 'Ta-DAAA' Vegas-style ending...an unfortunate omission of a great bit of music having been replaced by something that belongs in a TV commercial. They might as well have used 'shave and a haircut'...

Speaking of which, I could swear I remember Carl Palmer on a live concert video (with Asia, perhaps?) in which he plays a thoroughly pedestrian and bombastic drum solo and ends it with a percussive version of 'shave and a haircut'.

"Tha-a-at's Entertainment..."