Emotional Musical Moments

[Tsquared]

I was listening to Jackson Brown's "Late for the Sky" on the way to work this morning.  About half way into David Lindley's perfectly poignant guitar solo, I found myself fighting back tears.  Wow! There are just some pieces that always evoke an emotional response from me.  And I find that wonderful and amazing, as it should be.

To this day, I can't keep a dry eye when I hear Sandy Denny's "Who knows where the time goes", either Sandy's or Judy Collins' version where Steven Stills and company fade in on the second verse.   There are just so many beautiful pieces that can just tear me up.

Anyone care to share a piece that elicits a primal response for you?

Tod

[Dave]

Dickie Lee "patches"

Dave

[Tsquared]

Dickie Lee "patches"

Dave

Oh man! I can see that. That opens up a whole other can of worms for me.  My dad left when I was 4, and I saw him only a handful of times after that. I get choked up when I hear "The Living Years" by Mike and the Mechanics. 
Christ... abandonment issues, old girlfriends, tragic death... A good song can just open up that vein and make you bleed! It can collapse time and put you in a moment that happened 50 years ago.  Music and memory are inseparable in my book.

Tod

[Fresh_Start]

Unfortunately, I've had to return to "Death Don't Have No Mercy" off of the first Live Dead album again very recently.  That tune brings back bad memories but, somehow, is kind of comforting at the same time.  At least you know someone else felt the same way and turned it into music.

Chip

[Ritchie200]

This came out around the time I lost both of my parents.  It just kills me when I hear it.
Jim

Alter Bridge - In Loving Memory (With Lyrics)

[Frankenamp]

Got a couple almost going in opposite directions:
Keith Green's 'I Only Want to See You There' gets you where you live- and I walked away from organized religion decades ago.

 When I was going through a particularly nasty divorce (ex didn't want nuttin' to do with the kids until a social worker whispered in her ear that he'd get her free everything- just say this___ and this___, sign here...)  Warren Zevon's 'Lawyers, Guns & Money' took on a whole new meaning.

[G._Hoffman]

Well, they happen to me all the time, but the most powerful one was watching the great Osmo Vänskä conduct the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra playing Rite of Spring.  Typically it runs about 32 minutes, so when they finished the whole thing in 10 minutes, I asked my niece where the other 22 went.  She then informed me that it had been 32.  I didn't believe her.  I was so caught up in the piece, I could not find the other 20+minutes.  From the opening bassoon line, to the final cadence, I was lost to the music, completely.  That was also the day I figured out that Otis Redding was ALSO talking about classical music when he said, "you know it's done when you can't stop moving your shoulders."  Apparently, I was dancing in my seat.  Fortunately, my mom and my niece (with whom I go to the orchestra frequently) find my inability to sit still while listening entertaining.  Actually, most nights it is just my face that is motive, but when they REALLY hook me, I dance (sitting down, mind you).  Not that I notice it - my eyes are closed, and I'm just listening, but apparently, my body moves on it's own.


Gabriel

[G._Hoffman]

Oooh, or there was the piece during this years New Composers Institute concert, called Manchester, by a kid named Adrian Knight.  It had an E-Bow guitar and a synth with the orchestra, was very much a gradual evolution kind of piece, and was EXTREMELY quite throughout.  That had me about that close to tears.  Amazing piece of music for such a young kid.  

Huh, I just found a recording of it online.  (Different performance, sadly, and mastered too loud, but still good.)


Gabriel

[simonallaway]

It happens to me all the time too, with all kinds of music. But some tunes are guaranteed to induce ocular leakage. One of them being 'Comfortably Numb'. In the context of the story of The Wall, the two solos represent the extremes of emotion we all feel in life.  It's as if the first solo is nothing but optimism...hope. But then 'he' finally gives in to despair and we take the dive into the second solo. Sometimes when that comes on the radio it'll destroy me.

Also, last night I was watching some of the Queens jubilee celebrations. There was a moment where I saw thousands of flags waving, people smiling and getting all excited about seeing the Queen...then one of the military bands started playing Land of Hope and Glory. The long forgotten Brit inside of me started crying. No one was more surprised than me ;)

[Tsquared]

Gabriel,

If you have a classical freak on, listen to "Hymn to Him" on Mahavishnu's Apocalypse.  The orchestration by Michael Gibbs is otherworldly.  It just rises and rises into one magnificent climactic resolution after another. That whole album is sublime, and features some of the best playing from McLaughlin himself, and also Jon Luc Ponty, and the most incredible bass lines of Ralph Armstong, the british player who should be a lot more familiar to American audiences.

On more than one occasion listening to this I've been wrapped in a feeling so overwhelming, I found myself laughing and crying at the same time, while uttering the phrase "This is so fucking beautiful!"  Try it! If you're not familiar with this album, I gladly introduce you to it.  If you do know it, then I'm sure you've experienced much the same feeling.

Tod

[Dave]

It happens to me all the time too, with all kinds of music. But some tunes are guaranteed to induce ocular leakage. One of them being 'Comfortably Numb'. In the context of the story of The Wall, the two solos represent the extremes of emotion we all feel in life.

That's an interesting song for this thread. I am embarassed, at times, that someone might notice that I can listen to "Comfortably Numb" back to back to back several times before forcing myself to moving on. It has not, however, made me cry. If anything..... it makes me have less-than-pure thoughts about women who have scorned me.

Dave