The Piano TV show returns next week and I’m reminded of Lucy’s showstopping performance of Chopin’s Opus Number Nine. I find the piano is the instrument I emotionally connect with the most. I was in pieces within seconds.
Is there anything that has a similar effect on you?
Tiggerlion says
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Wow!
fentonsteve says
It’s dusty in here.
Max the Dog says
My word. That is beatiful and humbling…
moseleymoles says
Cello for me. Did I read somewhere it is the closest instrument to the human voice. As well as the Du Pre recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto there’s this:
Tiggerlion says
Goodness. That feels as if it has all the troubles of the world weighing on its shoulders.
Chrisf says
Cello for me too and a good excuse to post this (again) – one of my all time favourite pieces of music full stop – Yo Yo Ma doing Morricone’s Ecstasy Of Gold….
The original is a superb piece of music, but for me the addition of Yo Yo Ma’s cello really takes it to the next level.
Rigid Digit says
Stripped back acoustic minor key works with me
Warren Zevon – Back In The High Life Again
Everygoodboydeservesfruita says
This is awesome. Thanks.
Rigid Digit says
He then manages it again by adding poignancy to Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door … cos he was
Tiggerlion says
Yes. Warren often does it for me, too.
Jaygee says
Mutineer and Let’s Not Us Get Sick are two other wonderful
Warren songs that bring a tear to the proverbial.
Amazing to think it’s a kick in the pants away from 20 years
since his death
Rigid Digit says
Enjoy every sandwich …
Kaisfatdad says
Lucy is quite extraordinary.
Just watching the way that she becomes one with the music leaves me lost for words.
I feel sorry for the other contestants. How could you compete with that performance?
(As such a special talent, does she really belong in a talent contest? I presume they’ve thought it through very carefully..)
An instrument that mesmerises me?
In the hands of Toumani Diabate: the kora.
Tiggerlion says
It’s a magnificent instrument, no doubt about it. No wonder Diabate always looks so happy.
Blue Boy says
Schubert has a sadness behind so much of his piano and vocal music that gets me every time – and none more so than the Impromptu no 3 in G flat Major
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks @Blue Boy. That is exquisite. I must listen to some more Schubert piano pieces.
Tiggerlion says
Wonderful! Schubert endured a hard life but did achieve fame and fortune in his later years. Typhoid took him aged just 31. He’d barely got started.
retropath2 says
Pipes do it for me, whether uillean, highland or northumbrian. But it is mainly the first two that carry the greater heft. Try Davy Spillane on this, guesting with Traffic:
fitterstoke says
This’ll do it for me, every time.
Twang says
I’m no Royalist but hot tears flowed when the piper led the procession.
fitterstoke says
Then there was this – piper starts at about 30s in…
Twang says
Yes, terrific stuff.
fentonsteve says
The Menin gate is on my BIL’s patch (he works for the CWGC and lives just the other side of Lille). I was watching out for him in the crowd, but he must have been behind the camera. Well, not behind the camera exactly, but on that side of the gate.
fitterstoke says
Pipes notwithstanding: I find it’s less an issue of specific instruments rather than specific pieces of music which have resonance to cause an emotional reaction. For example, this will do it –
Tiggerlion says
What incredible fingers she has! Amazing touch.
fitterstoke says
I thought she was an amazing player before I learned about her illness. Now that I know, it adds an extra layer of emotion to a piece like this – her reaction at the end speaks volumes, there’s a lot being poured into this performance.
Tiggerlion says
I could never dream of being able to move my fingers with such speed, precision and delicacy of touch and yet there she is, one of nature’s wonders, surely.
fitterstoke says
Her recording debut, at age 20, was the Liszt Transcendental Etudes…
fitterstoke says
See also…
H.P. Saucecraft says
For me, Piero Umiliani’s virtually wordless composition from Luigi Scattini’s “Sweden Heaven & Hell” (1969) is always an emotionally draining listen. The chromatic darkness of the melody line, with its insistent downward repetition, seems to offer no hope, no resolution, yet paradoxically the effect is nothing short of cathartic.
fitterstoke says
Figures…
Kaisfatdad says
Now there’s a piece of music with a life of its own.
Thanks to Benny Hill and the Muppets it is universally known
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah_N%C3%A0_Mah_N%C3%A0
But I certainly didn’t know that it was first written for a Swedish ladies sauna scene in an 1968 Italian mockumentary.
One amusing YT comment:
“Jim Henson walks out of a porno ”but did you hear that song?””
Gary says
Not sure a song could ever make me actually cry, for I have a heart made of stone, but I’ll nominate something from the excellent Young@Heart documentary. Their take on Fix You is very moving, Forever Young, performed in front of prisoners at Hampshire County Jail even more so.
Tiggerlion says
Beautiful.
I was trying to think of a Dylan song that moved me and couldn’t come up with one.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Eh? Worrabaht I Shall Be Released?
Tiggerlion says
I find myself dozing off at the point every man needs protection. 😶
H.P. Saucecraft says
You, sir, have a heart of stone. Of STONE I say.
Tiggerlion says
That man is drunk! He can barely pronounce the words.
MC Escher says
Good one. As KFD would say – “hilarious!”
mikethep says
The older I get, the more likely beautiful music is to make me cry, I find. Choral music especially – and this is a pinnacle. Hearing it is wonderful, but to sing in it, as I have, is transcendent.
Tiggerlion says
I once visited York cathedral. Off to the right, I found myself underneath a small chapel. A choir gathered and started to rehearse above me. It was transcendent. As Dante said in This Town, God has the best sound.
Max the Dog says
I love his Laudate Dominum from Vespers. I’ve shed the occasional tear.
retropath2 says
Someone has said voice. This is a voice:
jazzjet says
This always moves me to tears, so much so that it’s on my funeral playlist. This version is from BBC’s Jazz 625.
Tiggerlion says
I inherited my love of Bill from my father. Unlike the ladies above, watching him play used to make think I could do that but it’s impossible. It’s all in the phrasing, like Ella but slower and piano not singing.
It’s my dad’s anniversary tomorrow. Fats Waller was one of his favourites. This song is jaunty and a very pretty tune, but Fats can’t hide the heartbreak for long. I’ve been known to sob great gutteral gulps when I hear it.
Sitheref2409 says
Peace Piece.
If I’m doing anything, I have to stop to concentrate.
Twang says
This always gets me going. I am not mad about the production now, but the song is great
Tiggerlion says
Yet another whose relationship with his father involved much sorrow.
fitterstoke says
Can’t see it – what was it, Twang? Ta.
Gary says
Springsteen’s Walk Like A Man
I find Springsteen’s story about his father on the live box set very moving. It was, I think, supposed to be paired with Independence Day but for timing purposes it was shoved alongside The River thereby losing some of its emotional clout, imho. It’s a story in which the last words redeem all that has gone before.
Here’s the story:
When I was growing up, me and my dad used to go at it all the time over almost anything. But I used to have really long hair, way down past my shoulders. I was 17 or 18, oh man, he used to hate it. And we got to where we’d fight so much that I’d, that I’d spend a lot of time out of the house; and in the summertime it wasn’t so bad, ‘cause it was warm and my friends were out, but in the winter, I remember standing downtown where it’d get so cold and, when the wind would blow, I had this phone booth that I used to stand in. And I used to call my girl, like, for hours at a time, just talking to her all night long. And finally I’d get my nerve up to go home. And I’d stand there in the driveway and he’d be waiting for me in the kitchen and I’d tuck my hair down on my collar and I’d walk in and he’d call me back to sit down with him. And the first thing he’d always ask me was what did I think I was doing with myself. And the worst part about it was I could never explain to him.
I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once and I was laid up in bed and he had a barber come in and cut my hair and, man, I can remember telling him that I hated him and that I would never ever forget it. And he used to tell me: “Man, I can’t wait till the army gets you. When the army gets you they’re gonna make a man out of you. They’re gonna cut all that hair off and they’ll make a man out of you.”
And this was, I guess, ’68 when there was a lot of guys from the neighbourhood going to Vietnam. I remember the drummer in my first band coming over to my house with his marine uniform on, saying that he was going and that he didn’t know where it was. And a lot of guys went, and a lot of guys didn’t come back. And the lot that came back weren’t the same anymore. I remember the day I got my draft notice. I hid it from my folks and three days before my physical me and my friends went out and we stayed up all night and we got on the bus to go that morning and man we were all so scared… And I went, and I failed. I came home [audience cheers], it’s nothing to applaud about… but I remember coming home after I’d been gone for three days and walking in the kitchen and my mother and father were sitting there and my dad said: “Where you been?” and I said, uh, “I went to take my physical.” He said “What happened?” I said “They didn’t take me.”
And he said: “That’s good.”
Gary says
And here’s him telling it:
Tiggerlion says
He served during the second world war. He knew what it was like. Perhaps, that’s where he got his preference for short hair.
Twang says
Yeah always gets me. In fact it’s dusty right now. Dad stuff always triggers me.
Blue Boy says
Randy Newman has form in that department
Blue Boy says
And, dear God, this…
Tiggerlion says
Oh my word. I can’t speak.
Jaygee says
Two other achingly beautiful Randy tracks
Bonnie Raitt’s gorgeous reading of Feels like Home from 1995’s Faust
Sarah McLachlan’s achingly bittersweet take on When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2
Tiggerlion says
When I took my offspring to see Toy Story 2, “Why are you crying, dad?”
Sitheref2409 says
I will never watch Field of Dreams with my kid.
He grew up with his mother, 6 hours at least from me (by legal speed limits) so the whole playing catch with Dad thing just destroys me.
I’m in tears writing that,
mikethep says
Talking of Bonnie Raitt…
Twang says
I dare not listen.
Twang says
Let’s go all in. Slightly more optimistic.
Jaygee says
Love that song to bits – especially when David L’s slide comes in and the song kicks into high gear.
JB’s first five albums is a run as good as almost any other in the consistently excellent stakes
Twang says
Absolutely.
Max the Dog says
Yeah, I was playing that one day when it was released and my mother was in the next room. He agreed with Bruce’s dad about the hair but it went very quiet when the Vietnam stuff came up. I think she was moved but tried to hide it.
Blue Boy says
Springsteen has such talent for tugging the heartstrings. So many songs do it – one that gets me every time is the magnificent Wreck on the Highway.
‘Sometimes I sit up in the darkness
And I watch my baby as she sleeps
Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight
I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking ’bout the wreck on the highway’.
Jesus.
H.P. Saucecraft says
He is a truly great lyricist. Western Stars has slewage, some too bitter for tears:
I woke up this morning with stones in my mouth
Said those were only the lies you’ve told me
Those are only the lies you’ve told me
I pulled my collar to the wind and spit them on the ground
You said those are only the lies you’ve told me
Those are only the lies you’ve told me
Sat on the edge of our bed in the sun
I felt them gather on my tongue
The dirt-brown winter field
A thousand black crows cover the ground
You say those are only the lies you’ve told me
Those are only the lies you’ve told me
The autumn wind blows through the trees
As the dark leaves come tumbling down
You say those are only the lies you’ve told me
Those are only the lies you’ve told me
I walk a highway washed in sun
I feel weight gather on my tongue
Said those were only the lies you’ve told me
Those are only the lies you’ve told me
(Took a couple of listens before I realised, Dumb Old Me, that the lies are his own. Ooff.)
Tiggerlion says
Racing In The Street is awesome, telling the tale of a boastful, eternal adolescent, who wins a girl in triumph but breaks her heart by failing to grow up, remains obsessed by his “baby”, the car.
I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from LA
I blew that Camaro off my back
And drove that little girl away
But now there’s wrinkles around my baby’s eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home, the house is dark
She sighs, “Baby, did you make it alright?”
She sits on the porch of her daddy’s house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born
For all the shut-down strangers and hot rod angels
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight, my baby and me, we’re gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands
Bruce is never afraid to put himself in the bad guy role.
Twang says
Superb.
Twang says
Yes! Two more favourites;
“At night on them banks I’d lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take”
And
“Well, I saw you last night down on the avenue
Your face was in the shadows, but I knew that it was you
You were standing in the doorway out of the rain
You didn’t answer when I called out your name
You just turned, and then you looked away
Like just another stranger waiting to get blown away”
Twang says
Actually all of “Point Blank” is brilliant.
“We were standing at the bar and it was hard to hear
The band was playing loud and you were shouting something in my ear
You pulled my jacket off and as the drummer counted four
You grabbed my hand and pulled me out on the floor”
fitterstoke says
And that produces a manly tear?
Apologies: in matters Broooce, those who know me well would agree that I am, at heart, a churl.
Twang says
More a tremble.
Mike_H says
Flute.
Tiggerlion says
You’ll be enjoying Shabaka Hutching’s latest, then.
Mike_H says
Only heard one track so far but I’m interested.
Mike_H says
Marimba.
Tiggerlion says
Frank Zappa’s music brings tears to my eyes, too, but probably for different reasons. 😄
sarah says
This one for me. Every time.
fitterstoke says
Yes, indeed…
Jaygee says
I lost a little bit of respect for Tom Waits when he
Took part in trying to cover/recreate Jesus Blood.
If ever a record was sacred, the original jBNFMY is it
Mike_H says
Yes. Tom hobnailed all over it in his version.
Stupid idea.
Kaisfatdad says
Brilliant choice @Sarah!
A wonderfully overwhelming, powerful piece of music.
Matt Hooper says
Tiggerlion says
What is a pedal steel doing in there?!
Bamber says
When I was away in that London for 12 years it was always Uileann pipes that got to me. I remember the first time I saw Riverdance it had my eyes leaking and, however cheesy some may regard it, it still gets me now – the music rather than Flatley and Co. This was the track I’d avoid much as I love listening to it now…
Tiggerlion says
Are you and retro related, by any chance?
Bamber says
…oh PS the Blue Nile can trigger my tear ducts too. I avoid them too.
Gatz says
You are Taylor Swift and I claim my five pounds.
H.P. Saucecraft says
OBSESSED!
H.P. Saucecraft says
The best song she ever sang, and the best song he ever took credit for:
Tiggerlion says
You are very lovely when you play nice. 😘
Gatz says
And on the anniversary of Sandy’s far too early death as well.
Max the Dog says
If we are talking about lyrics, I saw Mick Hanly live a couple of weeks ago and he sang this recent song about childhood cruelty. It was in Limerick where he grew up and when he spoke beforehand about the song and why he wrote it, some of the audience knew the poor unfortunate man he was talking about – remembered him from their childhoods. Mick said that Seanie Jackson was long dead now, but he’d be meeting him soon enough and he wanted to get his apology in early. It’s very honest…
Jaygee says
There is a Seanie Jackson in almost every small community in Ireland. Where I live it is a man called Pat Dillon who almost every day for years made the 15 kms journey from his Lecarrow home to Roscommon to save a few cents on daily essentials like milk and bread. If I seem him hitching by the side of the road and have the time and space (he is not a fan of my two dogs who take up the back seat), I’ll give him a lift all or part of the way there and back)
A few months back, Pat apparentlyy fell and broke his hip. Out of hospital on leaning on a zlmmer frame, he continues to make that walk several times a week.
A lot of visitors seem to think Pat is a bit – for want of a better word – “simple”.
He’s actually a lot sharper than people think and for many years used to attend wedding receptions so he could enjoy a good feed. With the bride’s side thinking he was with the groom and the groom’s side thinking he was with the bride, his tactic proved very effective until the banqueting manager of the town’s biggest hotel rumbled him
Sometimes
hubert rawlinson says
At Cropredy one year they had a lone piper play “Flowers of the Forest” to commemorate Sandy Denny’s death (46 years ago today) which had been played at her funeral. The tears flowed.
Jaygee says
The song that’s making me cry right now is the Coventry city version of the Eton Boating song. Currently being roared out by 35,000 Sky Blues fans after the team came back from 3 -0 down with 20 minutes to go against Man U at in today’s FA Cup semi final at Wembley.
It’s going to be a nail-biting 30 minutes of extra time
dai says
The whole of Coventry are crying now after that VAR intervention. They deserved to win
Jaygee says
Cheers, D
After 25 years of awful owners and the loss of their ground,
Mark Robins has worked miracles. Hope Man U don’t offer
him Ten Hag’s job
Tiggerlion says
I don’t think so. United fancy themselves as a global club worthy of a Klopp or Guardiola, not someone from the lower English leagues.
Coventry were superb after half time, deserving better. Lucky penalty, though. A similar one wasn’t given at Goodison. And, tough as it was, VAR was correct.
Jaygee says
Not going to moan about the decision as it’s all academic now.
VAR as it stands has got to go though.
Rather than being solely used to clear up especially contentious issues, it’s now adjudicating on absurdly minute gaps and sucking the life out of the game by doing so.
The delays…the players throwing up their arms* in the hope of getting a video review…The officials’ and players’ endless post-match whining…
Before VAR, that offside goal would have stood because the ref would have deemed it too close to call and given the attacking side the benefit of the doubt. And everybody would be discussing what an extraordinary match they’d just seen instead of grousing about VAR’s awfulness.
* marginally better than Making TV gestures with their fingers. I’ll grant you
Tiggerlion says
Quite right. Back in the day, MOTD would have drawn those lines hours after the match was over, proving he was offside. United fans would have been outraged and how we would laugh.
Jaygee says
I was going to add to your previous post by saying the other reason Man U wouldn’t hire MR is that he is an incredibly capable manager who is good at spotting and nurturing talent, building teams and then developing better teams when selling on the stars whose careers
he launched
mikethep says
One of the most fantastic matches I’ve ever seen. The son-in-law and his parents (Cov) were in the crowd – they must be basket cases now.
Jaygee says
Lovely piece on how it feels to be a Sly Blues fan tonight – and indeed many other nights – in the Graun
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/21/torps-torment-the-greatest-ever-fa-cup-moment-that-wasnt
Milkybarnick says
This, recently. Magnificent.
Tiggerlion says
And, hopefully, more so in August.
MC Escher says
Have to ration my plays of this, but Simon Armitage’s reading of the lyrics makes me cry, because mum, Alzheimer’s, lockdown:
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks a lot M C Escher. Simon’s reading is very moving.
Tiggerlion says
That’s a very tough listen
Milkybarnick says
Oh, and this too.
Bigshot says
If this doesn’t make you cry, you’re dead!