Ponytail Picks #23 - Endings
Period. Full-stop. Roll the credits.
Dont worry: Ponytail Picks has not expired and gone to see its maker. This curatorial exercise is still pining for the fjords. But we’re not letting that stop us from exploring the endings of other things.
LISTEN
Songs About Death That Give Joel Life
One of the most notable endings that we as humans like to bandy about in our brains and then through our art is death. The most fascinating thing about this particular ending, of course, is that as much talk as there is about it being the end to end all ends, there is just as much talk about it not being so at all. I don’t just mean speculations about the afterlife, either—a thing like a decomposing dead tree becoming dirt for a new tree to take root in is a grounded example of how death, while perhaps being one end, is not the end. But I digress. Here are a few of my favourite songs about the mystery of mortality:
Tom Waits - “Dirt in the Ground”
This haunting track featuring delicate piano, unnerving woodwinds, and Waits’ trademark raspy howl, is the second track off his mesmerizing 1992 album Bone Machine, and it certainly makes no bones about it: afterlife or not, death comes for us all, and our bodies don’t stick around too long afterwards:
Along a river of flesh
Can these dry bones live?
Ask a king or a beggar
And the answer they'll give
Is we’re all gonna be
… just dirt in the ground
It’s a bleak track (“Hell is boiling over and heaven is full / We’re chained to the world and we all gotta pull”) that conveys a strong spirit/body dualism (“Your spirit don’t leave knowing your face or your name”). And while I like to think we’re more intricately and beautifully entwined with our earthly home than that, damn if it doesn’t get pretty difficult to hold onto that belief sometimes in this hard and heavy world.
Van Morrison - “Slim Slow Slider”
The seven minutes of heavenly heights on Astral Weeks’ titular opening track are bookended here by a shorter, more subdued song. As the warm upright bass present throughout the album takes center stage, rolling up and down Cyprus Avenue, Morrison sadly sings:
You’re gone for something
and I know you won’t be back
I know you’re dying, baby
and I know you know it too
Bruce Cockburn - “40 Years in the Wilderness”
Nearly 40 years after Cockburn’s mystical masterpiece “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” he offers us yet another instant spiritual-folk classic. The playfulness and exploration of the former is replaced here with a sort of weighty, apocalyptic wisdom that can only come from prolonged time spent in this world of ours, but Cockburn knows better than to put his feet up before his day is done:
Take up your load, run south to the road
Turn to the setting sun
Sun going down, got to cover some ground
before everything comes undone
Adrianne Lenker - “Terminal Paradise”
Combining, in a way, Waits’ morbid, earthy imagery with Cockburn’s more hopeful and expansive landscape visions, Lenker, at about half the average age of the two men at the times they released their respective songs, effortlessly plucks out of ancient air various striking images of both life (“Warm, so warm / Screaming in the field as I was born”) and life’s end, which is no less warm:
See my death become a trail
And the trail leads to a flower
I will blossom in your sail
Every dreamed and waking hour
-JB
WATCH
Ten of Joel’s Favourite Film Endings
There are plenty of good movie endings out there. I’m a sucker for the happy-ever-after ones, of course—relationships repaired, families bonded, love triumphing over evil, etc.—but it’s often the more ambiguous final scenes that stick with me longer: the ones where the movie has ended, but the story continues. Here are ten that came to mind for me (I’ll try and keep my descriptions as brief and vague as possible, but mild spoilers possibly ahead):
The Batman (2022)
The titular superhero rethinks his role (from “I’m vengeance” to something more) and the lovers’ ride into the sunset comes to a fork in the road.
The Dressmaker (2015)
The typical shoot-em-up climaxes of revenge thrillers can’t hold a candle to the excellent ending here, as the just desserts are served in fabulous flambé fashion with ingredients like hash brownies, red carpets, costumes, arson, Kate Winslet, and pools of blood.
Good Time (2017)
Begins and ends with tear-jerking scenes of calm, comfort, and innocence that stand in stark contrast to the grime and chaos in the middle.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
I’m cheating a bit here by talking not about the final happy ending scene but the remarkable climax before it—remarkable because it didn’t really feel like a climax at all: A battle was won but there was no joy in victory, only lingering suspicion and pain and further violence simmering beneath the surface. A satisfying conclusion to the dark dystopian tale told over four movies.
Inception (2010)
I think a quote from the end of the Harry Potter saga ties in quite nicely to the end of Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller:
“Is this all real? Or is it just happening inside my head?”
“Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry. Why should that mean that it's not real?”
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
A gut punch of an ending when contrasted with the lively Black-led number at the beginning.
Meek’s Cutoff (2010)
The journey just continues without end, just as it was without beginning.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Another excellent set of bookends, from the central sheriff’s reluctant “OK, I’ll be part of this world” to dreams of warmth and light in “all that dark and all that cold.”
Shutter Island (2010)
“Which would be worse - to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?”
The Thing (1982)
“Well, what do we do?”
“Why don’t we just... wait here for a little while... see what happens?
-JB
READ
A Substack Cataloging Album Enders
The Run Out Grooves
We love ourselves a full album at Ponytail Press, and it’s something we have in common with fellow Substack writer
, the guy behind . About twice a week, Stirling posts an indepth article on the last track of a record.Thanks to nearly two years covering the endings of Acclaim Music’s Top 100 Albums, the Substack leans heavy toward classics. ‘60s icons like Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Band all make multiple appearances.
But since crossing all 100 off his list in 2022, Stirling has extended his coverage to include more music from the last 15 years. In the last month, he’s offered posts focusing on Fleet Foxes’ “Oliver James,” LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You, but You’re Bringing Me Down,” and Deerhunter’s “He Would Have Laughed”—all mid- to late-’00s indie rock staples.
Indie and classic rock aren’t the only sounds in the mix. The self-inflicted Top 100 challenge also led to posts covering rap masterpieces (Kendrick Lamar’s “Mortal Man,” "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" by
), jazz greats (Miles Davis' "Flamenco Sketches," John Coltrane’s “Pt. 4 - Psalm”), and R&B legends (Otis Redding’s “You Didn’t Miss Your Water,” Aretha Franklin’s rendition of “A Change Is Going to Come,” “Purple Rain” by Prince).Basically, in the last two years, Sterling has created a treasure trove that any card-carrying music nerd could spend hours digging through. If you’re like me and need, for the sake of your bank account, to limit your visits to the local record store, reading
is the best replacement activity I can find. Go explore!-AK
That’s all for this week, folks! Check in next time, when we deliver media morsels that suckle their nutrience from the theme of
Great song choices, Joel. "Terminal Paradise" is a personal favourite.
Great bunch of songs! Thinking [singing] about death sometimes helps us to embrace life to the full.