If you happened to miss last night’s Sopranos finale, then you’re out of luck: The series’ resolution is front-page news for the New York Times, and it’s popping up seemingly every few seconds on certain cable-news networks. But just in case you were watching the Tony Awards–or, in the case of some our readers, winning Tony Awards–we’ll save our discussion for after the click-through.
In terms of the music, we can only imagine that Steve Perry was smirking into his bathroom mirror all night: Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” was the series’ closing number, beating out that Dylan guy, whose 1965 “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” served as the prelude for an SUV meltdown. The show’s music supervisors have always gone for a mix of high-brow and low-brow, and anchoring the episode with both a thoughtful anti-war song and an over-pumped ode to “streetlight people” felt just about right.
But what did it all mean? As for that diner-scene song choice, you can view it is a pint-size version of the same American-dream story David Chase had slowly constructed and debunked over the past eight years, or you can dig around in the lyrics, looking for far-fetched clues as to what would have happened next (“Meadow would have gone back to be a pediatrician, and of those babies, some are born to sing the blues!!!“). Or you can accept the fact that Tony–who always loved his classic rock–probably would have just put that song on anyway. But it’s a safe bet that one of the reasons Chase chose the song in part because of its running time: Those last four minutes, in which every opening-door jingle was met with a stone-faced look of anticipation, were unbearably tense, as if he wanted us to experience the same impending sense of dread his protagonist had faced for the past few years. The most common complaint among viewers this morning is that there was no closure, no tidiness, but The Sopranos has rarely provided them, and one of the great appeals of the show was that there was always the possibility that the Russian could come back from the woods with his scalp hanging off and a gun in his hand. In life, there are no spoiler warnings.
Bob Dylan – It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) [MP3, link expired]
at least he didn’t pick “anyway you want it” or “magic man.”
i suppose this is the last “tv show played a song last night” post relating to the sopranos, at least until the box set starts to proliferate?
I was literally sitting there, biting my knuckles, going, “Don’t kill him; don’t kill him!”– i totally thought beige jacket was going to shoot him in the head.
I sense something is upsetting you, RepentTokyo.
I still think there has to be something going on with Meadow being so tense she couldn’t parallel park her car in that huge space and the way she ran into the diner.
In true dork fashion I would also like to point out The OC character Ryan Atwood was a Journey fan, as well. WTF is up with all the Journey!?!?
I was hoping Chase might bookend the series by ending with one of the other songs off of A3′s Exile on Coldharbour Lane, the album me got Woke Up This Morning from. There a several good choices, depending on the mood he was going for – Converted, The Night We Nearly Got Busted, Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, or even Peace in the Valley.
or he could have ended with A3′s great acoustic version of Woke Up This Morning they released a few years ago.
But then again, what the Hell do I know.
I don’t watch the Sopranos, but I heard that Little Feat’s “All That You Dream” was in last night’s episode too, that’s the song you should really be posting. Weirdly enough, I just had it stuck in my head the other day.
The final sequence is posted here:
http://tinyurl.com/3cnhm5
if you want to watch and chime in with your own interpretations.
Clever. And all your Tony belong to us.
I’m hopeful that someone will compile all the music from the last episode in the “Made in America” wiki entry.
@Catbirdseat: I’m so glad that still exists in some corner of the interwebs. Heaven IS a funky moose!
I was diggin’ on the Vanilla Fudge version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” which is one of Carmine Appice’s finest drumfreakout moments.
@blackmailismylife: HBO has actually provided such a service for fans of the show.
http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/music/episode86.shtml
Click on “Music.” Voila!
they actually used the vanilla fudge tune in 2 different parts of the show – once when tony was driving up to somewhere and the second when phil got his head popped!
I’ll pray for you RepentTokyo.
hahaha they should of played the Pretty Much Amazing Indie-Dance Mixtape. I wonder how soprano fans would react to that!
they actually used the vanilla fudge tune in 3 different parts of the show – once when tony wakes up at the show’s beginning, once when tony was driving up to somewhere and the third when phil got his head popped!