Placing a lengthy jam session or free improv in the middle of an album can often ruin its flow, but these artists realized that these loose, free-flowing tracks would be most effective when placed at the end of an album. Here are eight albums that end with jam sessions.
1 & 2. The Velvet Underground — The Velvet Underground & Nico/White Light/White Heat (1967/1968)
Although Lou Reed knew how to write an excellent pop song, the Velvet Underground's live performances often had a freewheeling sense of improvisation to them. The band would capture this spirit in the final tracks to their first two albums: "European Son" from The Velvet Underground & Nico, and "Sister Ray" from White Light/White Heat, the latter of which was a first take that stretched over 17 minutes, and was so cacophonous that the recording engineer reportedly walked out of the studio.
3. Neil Young — Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
For his second album (and first classic) Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Neil Young actually closed out both sides of the album with extended guitar jams: "Down By The River" on Side A, and "Cowgirl in the Sand" on Side B. Though both songs are over nine minutes long ("Cowgirl in the Sand" goes past 10), their stripped down acoustic versions are only around 4 minutes.
4. George Harrison — All Things Must Pass (1970)
Nearly the entire third disc of George Harrison's opus All Things Must Pass is made up of instrumental jam sessions, closing out with "Thanks for the Pepperoni," which features Harrison's close friend Eric Clapton and future Derek & The Dominoes drummer Jim Gordon.
5. The Stooges — Fun House (1970)
The improvisatory nature of free jazz was just as important to the Stooges' sound as the blues and rock 'n' roll were, as evidenced by the frenzied and chaotic "L.A. Blues," which closes out their 1970 album Fun House in a fit of manic fury.
6. Nirvana — Nevermind (1991)
Though the listed closing track to Nirvana's classic second album Nevermind is the somber acoustic song "Something in the Way," some pressings included a bizarre hidden track called "Endless, Nameless," a highly dissonant and freeform song that emphasized the band's more experimental noise rock influences such as Sonic Youth.
7. Neutral Milk Hotel — On Avery Island (1996)
Though Jeff Mangum was the only official member of Neutral Milk Hotel for the recording of On Avery Island, he brought in a number of friends to record the album's final track "Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye," a nearly 14-minute free improv piece performed on Indonesian instruments.
8. Yo La Tengo — And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000)
One of Yo La Tengo's trademarks are their lengthy psychedelic jams, and perhaps their best is the 18-minute dream pop track "Night Falls On Hoboken," which closes out the band's excellent 2000 album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out.
What other albums end with jam sessions? Let us know down in the comments section below!
