Last-Note Nightmare: Difference between revisions

*** George Harrison in particular seemed to like this a lot. ("One more time...")

** The final chord of "A Day in the Life" fades out so long you can almost (?) hear the air conditioner.

**** Actually, 15kHz is audible to nearly all children and most teens and younger 20-somethings. Humans with good hearing are born with the ability to hear up to 20kHz; they only ''begin'' to lose that upper range starting at age 8. The reason people who should know better (from having heard the album as a kid/teen) buy into this is because the note just sounds like high-pitched static, so it's easy to mistake for a simple pause in the recording.

**** It helps to know that this loop, played backwards, sounds remarkably like, "I'll fuck you like Superman! I'll fuck you like Superman! etc." Paul McCartney said in his autobiography ''Many Years from Now'' that he never knew this (they certainly didn't plan it) until someone played it backwards for him and he yelled, "Gaaaawwwwd!"

** The end of "I Am the Walrus," complete with buried ''[[King Lear]]''. This one helped fuel the "Paul Is Dead" rumors...

** Said last note appears at the beginning of "Her Majesty", which starts a full minute after "The End" and was unlisted on the original vinyl. This means that the first note of "Her Majesty" is a reverse example as well as being a [[Brick Joke]].

**** AND it has the creepy organ from "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite", AAAAND snippets of the vocals from "Helter Skelter". And creepy laughing, which seems to be a theme in love. PLUS after the infamous cutoff, there are weird swirly wind sounds. Then it cuts to "Help!" and [[Scare Chord|scares the piss out of you]].

*** ''The Beatles: [[Rock Band]]'' actually visualizes the nightmare by blacking out your TV just as the song ends.

* Would you believe "Wonderwall" by [[Oasis]]? After the vocals are done, the song segues into a beautiful lush strings-and-piano piece and ends with a few acoustic guitar chords with birds chirping in the background. But between these two pleasant interludes, the piano fades, leaving the violin and bass viol to hold one last note. And then even the bass stops, leaving a single violin note which gets less and less melodic until it finally climaxes with a hideous, almost voice-like "BLLLLLEEEEEAAAAAGGHHHH" sound. If you're not expecting it, it's a real Penultimate Note Nightmare.

* The nightmarish strings at the end of Supertramp's "If Everyone Was Listening", from ''Crime Of The Century''.

** The track "The Bed" from album ''Berlin'' is a dream-like song with a final moment of pure nightmare.

** What about "The Kids", also from Berlin, another quiet song that in this case ends with the voices of children hollering for their mother, sounding for all the world like they have just been told she is not coming home ... ever.

* The last chord in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgqm8g95wwI "Jordan Speaks"], Jordan Rudess's "thoughts" about Mike Portnoy leaving [[Dream Theater (Music)|Dream Theater]].

* "Abandoner" by Steven Wilson. A mellow (if not exactly cheerful) ballad ending in a series of dissonant chords.

* The progressive rock band Pain of Salvation has used this effect at least three times-twice on their second album, ''One Hour by the Concrete Lake'', and once on their first album, ''Entropia''. In the last song of ''One Hour'', "Inside Out," the song fades to an apparent end... but the song continues for a few minutes more, with various ambient noises. Then Daniel Gildenlow starts to sing about the various "machines" all around the world, accompanied by a slow-building, but frightening crescendo of chaotic instrument noise that slowly gets louder and louder before petering off. Two more minutes of silence, then a quick burst of chaotic noise, the sound of something deactivating, and an abrupt end. In ''Entropia'', the song "Winning a War" ends with quiet sounds of various city interactions, followed abruptly by a loud, volume-boosted "YO!" The note can be considered another example of First Note Nightmare, considering it segues into the next song, "People Passing By."

** The last song on Entropia has a bit of a Last Note Nightmare as well... in an otherwise upbeat song that encourages the listener to practice non-violence, act on their conscience, and overall be a good person, finishing with the line "if death is but a dream, then don't let me... fall asleep..." is pretty jarring, especially considering the fact that Daniel whispers the last two words in an almost fearful tone.

** On Kid A, 'In Limbo' ends with a horrifying, electronically-modified wail of Thom Yorke screaming 'come back' as it fades into nothingness, alongside jittery feedback.

** 'Morning Bell' also deserves a mention with Jonny Greenwood's shrieking, coin-generated guitar outro. You know what, all of Kid A probably invokes this at some point, barring Treefingers, maybe.

** 'Codex' starts with a *First* Note Nightmare, with just the beginning of...something being shouted, which immediately cuts off to a fairly slow and mournful tune.

** Climbing up the Walls is scary enough already. And then at the end most of the instruments fade out, leaving 16 violins playing notes separated by quarters. It can leave you thinking "Wait, how long were they there?!"

* The blood-curling scream that interrupts the fade-out coda of The Cure's "Subway Song".

* The weird ending to "when i was bed" from Christian Death.

* Inverted by Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "The Dead Flag Blues".

* [[Mk II]] by Madness. Throughout the song is a wonderful piano tune, at one point breaking into more of a rock song. But at the end of the song, after the vocals end, the piano starts up again, but this time is slower and ends with two notes out of place from the rest of the song. After that, we hear the distant sound of birds singing as it fades out.

** Similarly, halfway through "Wahnfried 1883", the tune slowly morphs into a cacophony of [[Drone of Dread|eerie distorted organ drones]], building up to a final climax with the wind and space sound effects.

* For a [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix]], "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs65S-1o-Os One-Winged Scout]". The start is what you'd expect, ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'''s Scout "bonking" over [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroth's (in)famous theme]], then after some time the Scout's [[Man On Fire]] soundbites start playing.

* "Encoder" by [[Pendulum]] fades out while the sound of Water splashing can be heard, and a man can be heard breathing heavily as if he just swam a long distance. Then a wham noise begins to fade , but before it does, the song abruptly cuts out. Bam, album over.

** Similar to it is the upbeat song "I'm Talking 'Bout Me" by Admiral Twin. The chorus is building up at the end and after the second to last word, cuts off abruptly.

*** The last couple notes are played much clearer, however, which adds to the atmosphere.

** ''The Fragile'' taken as a whole. Granted, it's not the happiest album, but it's energetic and has tones of working towards something great. Then comes "Ripe".

** "Twist" ends with someone who may be Trent screaming.

* "Laser Fear" by Laserdance, from ''Future Generation'', has both a first and last-note high-octane nightmare consisting of slowed-down [[Stock Sound Effects|baby cry samples]].

* The after the fade out of the relatively mellow And One track "Sometimes", suddenly a very loud noise that sounds like a UFO crashing or something explodes out of your speakers. It can definitely make you jump.

* Depeche Mode's "Somebody" ends with what sounds like the intro to a horror movie theme.

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni]]'' has lots of character songs that start out happy, then turn... disturbing. The best example of Last Note Nightmare is Keiichi's song, ''Cool ni Nare! ~Keep On Our Love~'', which is a [[Hot Blooded]] appeal to [[Screw Destiny]], the final line being {{spoiler|Keiichi abruptly saying "Oops, I screwed up" (and, since this is ''Higurashi'', presumably dying).}}

** Actually, the line before that is "Yes, Hinamizawa", which is a reference to ''another'' character song that featured Keiichi (and Mr. Delicious). So, it was probably more of an "Ah crap, wrong lyrics" thing.

**** At the very end, you can hear Keiichi over the phone saying very quietly {{spoiler|"Please, someone end this case", with the last word being cut off as soon as he says it. Then you hear a quiet scream. It's a goofy scream, but...}}

** The anime gives us its own soundtrack and the track "Oyashiro Sama". It's already creepy on it's own, but its creepiness has a musical pattern... and then the final note is not what you musically expect, it goes ''lower'' instead of higher and the percussion ''vanishes'' as if it wasn't even there in the first place. Absolutely nightmarish and fits the anime incredibly well.

* ''[[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]'': ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caZRiXmO5AU Kanashimi no Mukou e]'' is hardly a happy song; it's moody, depressive, almost heartbreaking. But when it's almost over, a very ominous and slightly out-of-place drum music starts playing... and you suddenly get the feeling that something has gone [[Break the Cutie|very]], [[Murder the Hypotenuse|very]] wrong.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VbCm3iTHbU&feature=channel_video_title This song] is inspired by [[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]. I mean, the song is entitled "Nice Boat." Watch till the ending and be spooked.

* Every episode of [[Ghost Hunt (Manga)|Ghost Hunt]] ends with a last note nightmare. After the slow, eerie ending song, a sudden burst of maniacal piano starts playing, then a voiceover Mai warns us about the next episode.

 

== Software ==

* The [[Vocaloid]] song "Alice Human Sacrifice" is a rather creepy parody of carnival music - which ends with the music getting slower and slower, and then just one note that is creepily off key. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgUhO-V__A See what I mean?]

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LciylndQPu8 DYE] by AVTechNO! is at its loudest and busiest near the end, and then the song [[Nothing Is Scarier|ends abruptly]]. It's not as bad in this upload because of the ending credits, but on the version that can be found on ''[DYE] -synthesis-'', the sudden stop is the last thing you hear on the track.

 

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUDSG8L5Jw Goodbye.]* tsssssssss[[Nothing Is Scarier|sssssssssssssh* ]]

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OK3qDWxAjQ&feature=related#movie_player Can we make a] [[Incredibly Lame Pun|lame pun]] without mentioning [[Metallica (Music)|"Fade To Black"]] here?

* Used humorously in the theme song for [[Married With Children]]. Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage" plays until it's abruptly cut off by a loud ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAKaJE4gjYg bang]''

** [[Clumsy Copyright Censorship|The]] [[The Jimmy Hart Version|DVD]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xad-StH-7BY version], however, ends normally, followed by a less startling clang.

[[Category:Music Tropes]]

[[Category:Last Note Nightmare]]