Author Topic: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck  (Read 34080 times)

Kim

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #125 on: 13 June, 2018, 08:45:36 pm »
I recently learned that REM's New Test Leper wasn't actually written about the AIDS crisis.  But since Stipe has officially stated that his songs are about whatever you want them to be about, it doesn't really matter.  Anyway, that.

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #126 on: 13 June, 2018, 11:17:21 pm »
The first time I heard Janis Ian’s song ‘Jesse’, it was being sung by Eddi Reader in concert, and it reduced me to tears. Listening to the original now, it has the same effect: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Sg6kwpEfQ

Wowbagger

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #127 on: 20 July, 2018, 10:54:59 am »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jliWPm6hoU

Another recording of the Fauré referred to above. Wonderful performance. There is something about a small choir that a big one loses.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #128 on: 20 July, 2018, 10:59:34 am »
I will admit to getting something in my eye at the Hammy Odeon last month when Jack White was doing "We Are Going To Be Friends".
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #129 on: 20 July, 2018, 11:41:39 am »
Glancing through this thread, I notice that for almost every piece of music which makes someone cry, another person says the same music makes their heart soar. I don't think that's coincidental, in that music which is very moving, moves us but in different ways – or we have different ways of feeling the same emotion.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #130 on: 22 July, 2018, 02:37:02 pm »
“Johnny come lately” by Steve Earle, from his Copperhead Road album. It contrasts the experience of homecoming GI’s from WW2 - “Johnny come lately comes marching home, with a chestful of medals and a GI loan, they’ll be waiting at the station at San Antone” - with that of those returning from Vietnam - “Now I’m standing on a runway in San Diego, a couple Purple Hearts so I move a little slow, there’s nobody here, maybe nobody knows about a place called Vietnam”. Gets me every time.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #131 on: 22 July, 2018, 02:40:13 pm »
cf. Sam Stone by John Prine

ElyDave

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #132 on: 28 July, 2018, 09:02:32 pm »
there are several, but two that spring to mind

Moody Blues, I'll be Level With You - with a disabled son and an extremely intelligent daughter (who shares some of my personality traits, not the best ones) this is particularly touching

John Denver's travel songs - Goodbye Again in particular, 15 years on the road!

John Denver - I Guess He'd Rather Be in California, situational
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #133 on: 31 July, 2018, 08:37:41 pm »
John Denver - I Guess He'd Rather Be in California, situational
Are you sure it's not Colorado? At least, that's what You Tube is telling me!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #134 on: 01 August, 2018, 10:00:10 pm »
B.Gigli singing anything.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #135 on: 02 August, 2018, 08:36:36 pm »
October 20th 1977 I was at a Doctor Feelgood Concert, supported (IIRC) by the Max Hatcher Band

At the interval, both bands walked on stage and stood silently whilst Lee Brilleaux announced thatthey had just heard that there was breaking news that Lynnrd Skynnrd had been involved an air crash, and initial reports were that most (if not all) the band had been killed

Both bands stood in silence whilst Freebird was played ... there wasn't a dry eye in the house, and to this day the song takes me back to that night


Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #136 on: 02 August, 2018, 08:47:52 pm »
Slightly OT

Sometimes songs get a new meaning from exposure in a different setting that give them a greater meaning and emotion

I enjoyed the TV Series "Person of Interest" and two come to mind.

I DO NOT like Country and Western, or Johnny Cash. However this song in the context of teh programme changed that:


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8qvpMw8Vw&amp;frags=pl%2Cwn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8qvpMw8Vw&amp;frags=pl%2Cwn</a>

Later in the series they also used "Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" with equal effect

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJ04xE5UQ8&amp;frags=pl%2Cwn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJ04xE5UQ8&amp;frags=pl%2Cwn</a>


Wowbagger

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #137 on: 21 September, 2018, 11:05:09 pm »
A rare bit of auto-blubberation yesterday.

I have a very good friend from our college days, Enid. She and I were about the two best pianists in our music group and her signature tune, as it were, was Claire de Lune, by Monsieur Debussy. Out of a mark of respect I never learned it, because it was "hers". Sadly, although Enid, in her B. Ed. year at college, passed her grade 7 with a distinction, she never did grade 8. Her hands are so small she can barely reach an octave, and since the grade 8 syllabus demands scales played in octaves she gave up playing the piano.

Enid and her husband will be coming to visit us in December. I am absolutely certain that she is going to fall in love with my Blüthner so I have decided to learn Claire de Lune in her honour. It's not that hard, but it starts off with a con sordini command (with mutes). That means apply the "soft" pedal. In a grand piano, the whole mechanism and the keyboard are shifted a few millimetres to the right so that the hammer hit only one string instead of all three per note.

Very few pieces demand the soft pedal so I have hardly ever used it in almost a year of owning the piano. The tenderness of the sound produced just blew me away. Utterly wonderful.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #138 on: 01 May, 2019, 03:33:44 pm »
Another piece for me - Träumerei, by Robert Schumann. It's number 7 from his "Kinderszenen".

I largely neglected Schumann when learning the piano. He wrote a great book for advancing youngsters, "Album for the Young", and I learned a few of those when I was at primary school, but although aware of Kinderzenen, I'd just not bothered with any of the pieces, which was a big mistake. Curiously, Enid, mentioned in the previous post, recently told me that the pianists in the music group were supposed to learn them when we were in our final year. I have no recollection whatever of that requirement. Possibly explains why Enid got a B. Ed. degree and I had to make do with a mere Cert. Ed.

However, I digress. Jan and I went to a local concert a few months ago in which the great John Lill visited Southend (he comes here pretty much yearly to perform, which is a great honour for the town) and he played all 15 of the Kinderzenen as part of his recital. I bought the sheet music and have been learning them. They are not overly difficult, but are the sort of thing that top virtuosos use as encores - well-known pieces which let the audience go home satisfied.

We have a very lovely friend named Ruth (well, we have two very lovely friends names Ruth, but the one I'm referring to at the moment is not OTP) who has a birthday coming up on Friday. Ruth, who played the clarinet, was in the same music group that Enid and I were. I thought I'd record Träumerei for her - I know it's right up her street. I did a pretty basic recording using my Iphone and was reasonably satisfied. Then I thought I'd find a few Youtube videos of it. Yesterday I found Valentina Lisitsa's encore from some concert or other. Jan came in part way through me listening to it and I had tears streaming down my face.

Needless to say, I've scrapped my original recording and done it again, this time with Dez's decent camera and my Tascam stereo recorder. I'm pleased with the result, which is a lot better than my first attempt. I'll post it on Friday after Ruth has heard it.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #139 on: 03 May, 2019, 02:12:33 am »
OK, I don't think Ruth has seen it yet, but here's my rendition. I recorded it three or four times, and I think this was the best. Not perfect by any means, but I was very pleased with the closing bars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9nsVS6FBaQ

Here's Valentina Lisitsa playing it:

https://youtu.be/fHlfNYY1YIY
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

sprogs

  • from your big sister, Steve.
Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #140 on: 06 May, 2019, 06:25:38 pm »
Stainsby girls - Chris Rea. I used to know a girl called Claire.......
Ravel's Bolero - I was on an intercity 125 heading inexorably towards London, a place I cannot deal with. I had my earphones on and was dripping with tears. When I opened my eyes the two little old ladies opposite me were staring at me as if I had two heads.
I'm in Pittsburgh and it's raining - no idea who it's by. I was on my way home from a training course in London (see above) and I was sitting in my ageing Volvo in a two mile stretch of stationary traffic. My heater switch had recently demised and I had got round the problem by bypassing it, without thinking "This is a Swedish car made for Swedish winters and I now have it on full in the hottest summer on record". By the time the Angel, Islington was in view I was deranged. Both windows down and sweltering. This came on my radio and I was screaming along at the top of my voice when I looked up and saw the gent in the car next to me. He was in the last stages of death by laughter. I simply smiled, hoped to die and tried to look straight ahead. I still cry laughing when I think about it.
Firestarter - Prodigy. I was sitting at the lights in the rusting remains of my Fiesta. My dog, Tess, was sitting on the passenger seat next to me. Two young chaps in a chavmobile pulled up next to me. In true young chaps fashion they had the windows down and the volume up. Way up. Firestarter was playing. Tess and I looked at them. They looked at me and Tess. As the "Whhheeee, Whhheeee" bit started I put my hands behind Tess's ears and raised them in time to the music. She obediently opened her mouth and waggled her tongue in time to the music. I raised my eyebrows in time to the music.
As we pulled away from the lights they were still rolling around laughing to much to drive.
I still cry laughing at the memory.
Blubbering can be about fun as well.#
Liz.

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #141 on: 09 May, 2019, 08:43:30 am »
Shaney Boy by Kevin Johnson.

citoyen

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #142 on: 10 May, 2019, 12:22:29 pm »
Stainsby girls - Chris Rea.

Funny that. Chris Rea reduces me to tears as well - just maybe not for the same reasons... ;)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Wowbagger

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #143 on: 06 December, 2020, 09:52:38 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQjEqa8cGc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=IL-TV

My son, he of the Finnish partner, sent me this. Blew me away.

Oh, and Happy Finnish Independence Day!
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Marco Stefano

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #144 on: 07 December, 2020, 06:09:23 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQjEqa8cGc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=IL-TV

My son, he of the Finnish partner, sent me this. Blew me away.
Oh, and Happy Finnish Independence Day!

That's rather good. My kind of airport, too...

For me, something rather different, Waves of Fear by Maximo Park; defiant / triumphant, the harmonies at the end, gets me every time.

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #145 on: 07 December, 2020, 06:17:22 pm »
This, because it reminds me of my Dad.  He passed away as a result of cancer a few years ago:

https://youtu.be/-Bf85eWoUCY
Sunshine approaching from the South.

First time in 1,000 years.

Ruthie

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #146 on: 09 December, 2020, 07:37:15 pm »
I’ve known my friend Amanda since primary school. We’re in our 50s now, and she has metastatic ovarian cancer. She sent me this link the other day, and it broke me.

https://youtu.be/uTh4d4DFuVs
Milk please, no sugar.

slope

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Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #147 on: 10 December, 2020, 03:44:31 pm »
Personal list is endless and so varied. But this blew me away and changed everything, aged 14. Now it 'reduces' me to flooded cheek ecstacy, with arms a flailing for good measure . . .

Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower

https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY

Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #148 on: 11 December, 2020, 06:07:55 am »
Personal list is endless and so varied. But this blew me away and changed everything, aged 14. Now it 'reduces' me to flooded cheek ecstacy, with arms a flailing for good measure . . .

Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower

https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY

There's a regular busker in the Greenwich foot tunnel who delivers a more than half decent acoustic version of AATW.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Music that reduces you to a blubbering wreck
« Reply #149 on: 11 December, 2020, 06:25:09 am »
Personal list is endless and so varied. But this blew me away and changed everything, aged 14. Now it 'reduces' me to flooded cheek ecstacy, with arms a flailing for good measure . . .

Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower

https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY

There's a regular busker in the Greenwich foot tunnel who delivers a more than half decent acoustic version of AATW.

Better than Dylan?  ;D
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens