Have you ever ben moved to tears by a piece of music?

Paul_D · 03-24-2002, 01:26 PM

I know it sounds corny, but the performance of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack at last years Oscars moved me to tears. Generally I don't listen to deliberately melancholic or depressing music, but I absolutely love music that can draw out emotion like that. Anyone else ever moved to tears by music?

Mark H · 03-24-2002, 05:39 PM

"Ariadne" by Lisa Gerrard/Dead Can Dance - used it at my wedding recently. Always get the emotions running. "Sanvean" by Lisa Gerrard is another good one. Paul, don't feel corny, thats what music is all about, to move people. I agree with you, that performance of CTHD was really special.

Tim Hoover · 03-24-2002, 07:09 PM

When I was at the U2 concert last year, my eyes started welling up at the end during "Walk On" because that song said everything that U2 fans wanted to hear with regard to the band's music (or lack of any good music in the last few years). The line "and I know it aches, and your heart it breaks, 'cause you can only take so much" seemed to be the breaking point for many in the audience.

Also, after a particularly bad girlfriend breakup a few years back, I couldn't listen to Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad" album for about three months. That album's themes of doomed love and desperation were too much.

Greg_Y · 03-24-2002, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Also, after a particularly bad girlfriend breakup a few years back, I couldn't listen to Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad" album for about three months. That album's themes of doomed love and desperation were too much.

Interesting. Because that's the album I would have picked. 'The Line' has to be the saddest song I've ever heard. I've welled up during that song a few times. It's kind of silly, but I won't listen to that album or an album like that if I'm not in a specific mindset. If I'm happy and jovial, it's not that I'm worried about the songs bringing me down; I don't feel like I can invest myself in the music enough to appreciate it.

Jagan Seshadri · 03-24-2002, 08:02 PM

Eleanor Rigby.

-JNS

**HTF Ads**

Colin Jacobson · 03-24-2002, 08:28 PM

Quote:

When I was at the U2 concert last year, my eyes started welling up at the end during "Walk On" because that song said everything that U2 fans wanted to hear with regard to the band's music (or lack of any good music in the last few years). The line "and I know it aches, and your heart it breaks, 'cause you can only take so much" seemed to be the breaking point for many in the audience.

Ya stole mine - ya bastard!!!

The only caveat: I'd pick the America: Tribute to Heroes version. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out. Absolutely stunning version that still moves me after many viewings/listenings. Maybe the best single performance I've ever seen from U2...

Kirk Gunn · 03-24-2002, 08:45 PM

There are quite a few Jimmy Buffett songs that are heart-felt. The guy is not just "Margaritaville"....

"He Went to Paris" - story of a young European traveller that falls in love, then has a son, only to lose both to the war. He escapes to solitary retirement in the Carribean. - "Some of it's magic and some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way."

"Death of an Unpopular Poet" - Based on a tombstone he ran across in a Key West Cemetary, the song is about a starving poet that passed away unknown. Upon his death, his writings are published by his brother and become world-famous. The poet's dog ends up "living old on steak and bacon, with a dog-house ten feet around". "And everybody wonders.. did he really lose his mind ? No, he was just a poet, who lived before his time."

"False Echoes" - Written for his father who has Alzheimers. A haunting duet with James Taylor.

"Captain and the Kid" - Written for his Grandfather who was a sailing ship captain in the late 1800's-early 1900's (and passed the tradition down wisely).

"He died about a month ago,
wild winter filled the air.
and though I cried, I was so proud,
to have loved a man so rare.

He's somewhere on the ocean now,
a place we ought to be.
With one hand on the starboard rail,
he's waving back at me"

"The world was just a day away
for the Captain and his kid"

These are the songs that made me realize early Buffett was a lot more than just "Margaritaville". I bought an acoustic gee-tar just to learn them, but can never play to an audience for the tears that well up... And my wife doesn't think I'm a sensitive guy !

Ted Lee · 03-24-2002, 10:41 PM

marh h -

excellent call on dead can dance. their stuff is often very melancholy and usually affects (or is effects?) me...especially if i'm kind of in a depressed mood.

i also put this mortal coil WAY up on my list.

Stacey · 03-24-2002, 10:52 PM

On The Akira Soundtrack, the first half of "Illusion" just kills me every time ... I start sobbing like a baby

Dan Joy · 03-24-2002, 11:41 PM

Natalie Merchant " Beloved Wife ". A song she wrote about her grandfather losing her wife. Listen to it loud and alone and you will either feel inspired or depressed!

Paul D Young · 03-24-2002, 11:50 PM

Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels) by Jim Croce,
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones,
The End by The Beatles - Everytime they go into that "The love you take is the love you make" stuff. Maybe I'm crazy, though.

The tears come to the eyes but never come out. Does that count?