La fin de la Semaine Essay Question: Special "How Do You Say 'Hit the Road, Jackie the K' in Yiddish?" Edition

But before we begin, may I just respectfully ask, of all our readers, to make sure you've checked out the tribute to genius power-pop band Something Fierce that ran yesterday. I.e., if you haven't already seen it, scroll down to the post below today's post -- it's something kinda dear to my increasingly sclerotic heart, and I would take it as a personal favor.

And with that out of the way, let's move on to the business at hand. To wit:

...and your favorite fade-out at the end of a post-Elvis pop/rock/soul/folk/country/r&b record of all time is...???

My choice? Oh hell, it isn't even a contest.

From 1964, please enjoy The Rolling Stones and (beginning at approximately the 3:32 mark) the dimuendo-ing outro to their classic "It's All Over Now." (Presented here in genuine stereo, you're welcome very much.)

Oh. My. God. Those precisely repetitive chiming guitars disappearing slowly but inexorably into a wash of reverb...I gotta tell you, the first time I heard that over my AM car radio back in the day I thought it was the most incredibly haunting and hypnotic thing I'd ever experienced. And, if truth be told, I still do.

I should add that it was also the most astoundingly avant-garde thing anybody had ever encountered on a Top 40 station at that point in history; it is not an exaggeration to say that what you're hearing there is the first genuine artifact of the musical style now known as Minimalism. Which is to say the Stones got to it years before that annoying putz Phillip Glass misunderstandingly converted it into the major classical music irritant of the late 20th Century.

In any case, what would your choices be?

Discuss.

PS: In case you haven't heard it, and because I love you all more than food, here's the original version the Stones were covering.

The Valentinos hit (also from 1964) featured the song's co-writer, r-&-b great Bobby Womack on guitar and vocals, and production by Sam Cooke(!); as you can hear, their take on the song is almost jaunty/jolly, unlike the Stones remake, which positively drips menace.

I should also add that, according to Mick Jagger in (I believe) the first interview he did in Rolling Stone magazine, the band was turned onto it by none other than legendary deejay Murray the K(aufman); Jagger said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the Stones kinda thought Murray was a twat, but he did give them a great song so they were grateful.

Okay -- have a great rest of the weekend, everybody!!!