I think this is a thread that might have been run on the old forum.
As the thread title… what songs make you cry?
Now I don’t mean the lyrics… okay I understand that sometimes you can associate certain lyrics with a particular emotional moment in your life. But, in this instance I don’t mean the lyrics, I mean the song. So this could be the emotion of the music, or the shear genius of it, musicianship, whatever…
For example I was listening to Iron Butterfly this am, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Simply brilliant… no other way to describe it. Tears in my eyes by the end.
Other tracks that spring to mind:
Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells side one.
Led Zep, Stairway To Heaven,
Les Zep again, Whole Lotta Love
My precious child by Sinead O’Connor,
Also This time of year by Runrig, Think of when we used to drive up the A1 to the mother in laws in Edinburgh for new year before she died in 2000.
I think Christmas songs could be one of the exceptions for me. I mean once you’ve listened to the same track perhaps 50 times every Christmas for the last decade then some tracks can loose their charm. I was in Halfords at the weekend and the poor guy behind the counter was saying the Christmas ‘musak’ is on a 1 hour loop and it started at the end of November! He’s heard the same tracks perhaps 150 times so far.
I recognize that! A few years ago I walked into the Mediamarkt a few minutes before 10 - opening time. At exactly 10 the music was switched on and jinglebells all over the place. The faces of the personnel instantly turned sad
Instead of the usual christmas songs have a listen to the nightingale of barnsley Kate Rusby,s christmas ones.
They are the ones the clergy didn’t like and banned, from yorkshire and Cornwall.
It’s a great tradition in south Yorkshire in some pubs to get together and sing these christmas songs, the pubs are usually full.
I played it at home when my wife was in hospital recovering from a major operation. Bad mistake. I have never played it again, and she has never noticed that I skip the track every time we play what is one of our favourite albums.
Of more recent vintage several songs on Nick Cave’s ‘Ghosteen’ are profoundly moving if you know the back story. ‘Waiting For You’ is devastating, and beautiful.
The Unthank’s version of “The King of Rome”. Not sure whether it’s the vulnerability of Becky’s voice, the playing of the Brighouse and Rastrick band, or the story of one man’s triumph over adversity, but it does it every time for me.
In a completely different vein is Janet Baker singing Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in a classic recording. You could almost imagine that Purcell had Baker in mind when he wrote the piece. ( Actually, it was for a girls’ school!) The way she sings “remember me” must surely break the hardest of hearts.