Songs that MOVE you.

Poststructural Pub
1

I mean really move you to the point of tears or to the point of uncontrollably, beaming joy.

In the Time traveller thread I mentioned ‘Grace’ as sung by Jim McCann, formerly of The Dubliners. It’s not just the song, it’s the context.

When doing the song live, Jim used to tell the story of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford. Joseph was one of the men executed after the 1916 Easter Rising. He and Grace were married in Kilmainham Gaol just hours before he was killed, so they were married for so very little time.

Jim used to tell the story to a silent audience and then do the song. It’s a real killer, and still makes me cry. On the MP3 I have in my car, which is ripped from the ‘Dubliners Live at the Gaiety’ DVD, I have left the story on there. The story and song together are incredibly powerful.

My other nomination is Eric Bogle’s ‘Green Fields of France’ AKA ‘No Man’s Land’. I’m not a fan of Bogle’s singing, but the man writes the most heart-rending anti war songs (‘Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ was also one of his), and done by the right people they are devastating. The Pogues and The Dubs have both done great versions of ‘Matilda’.

Last year I saw Finbar Furey play ‘Green Fields of France’. It’s a song about a guy stopping to rest by a war grave. He reads the name and age of the young soldier and has a conversation with him. There are minor variations in Finbar’s version, but the last verse goes:

And I can’t help but wonder, young Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did they really believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain…
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again

The last two lines, “For Willie McBride, it all happened again, And again, and again, and again, and again”, just sum up the total, wasteful, bullsh*t tragedy of it, and the stupidity that stops us learning the lessons that cost us so much.

Finbar puts everything he’s got into performing that song, and means every word of it. His voice cracks up at the end and he struggles to get the words out.

Not a dry eye in the house.

We play that song at my local sing-along session. I’m glad I have to concentrate on the mandolin, because if I had to sing it there’s no way I’d make it to the end of that last line.

2

The Month of January as performed by Sarah Makem, who also added a couple of the verses. Powerful music, and I have adapted the air for Uilleann Pipes.

3

Joni Mitchells “Amelia” and “A case of you” usually do the trick here.

Luke Kellys version of “Song for Ireland” was the last song he ever recorded and although the great voice has faded, the passion and poignancy are still there.

Sandy Dennys “Who knows where the time goes” is another one which usually brings on tears.

Sometimes it’s hard to cope with such beauty :wink:

Slan,
D.

4

I’m not sure of the title of the song, but some friends of ours, “Small Potatoes” have a song that talks about a older American woman (who’s husband was killed in WWII in the South Pacific) is taken care of by a nurse who is Japanese and survived, as a young girl, the bombing of Hiroshima. I believe the title is “A Thousand Cranes, A Thousand Candles”. No matter how many times I hear Jacquie sing it, I break down in tears.

http://www.smallpotatoesmusic.com/

5

Great song. I never realised that was Luke’s last. I guess the voice must have faded from how it had been when he was in sound health, but you’d never know it. My wife loves that recording.

The knowledge that Luke was taken so young just adds to the experience of hearing him wring every last morsel of potential from what he sang.

Jesus, if only I could make my time count for as much.

6

I kind of hoped there might be a download on the site… :frowning:


BTW, if anyone nominates ‘Deck of Cards’ or ‘Seasons in the Sun’ then I’m out of here…

7

they haven’t recorded it yet, they just do it “in concert”.

8

That’d explain it, missy :wink: Shame, sounds intriguing.

9

Some friends of mine covered “I See A Darkness” by Bonnie “Prince” Billy at a wedding last week. The groom and many of our friends had a tear in the eye after that. Great performance.

10

Too many to mention them all. I can be moved by a great instrumental as much as a song. I absolutely love the playing and the timbre they achieved in the guitar solos on Racing the Sun by Heartsfield. Echoes by Pink Floyd. Lots of stuff, really.

djm

11

That’s one of my all time favs, that one is. I really like Diana Krall’s version.
Faithfully by Journey as well, but for good reason; it’s my wife’s and my song. Also by Journey, Still They Ride.
Give My Love to Rose by Johnny Cash, if I’m in the right mood, can make me choke up when he sings the line “…tell my boy that daddy’s so proud of him…”
If Tomorrow Never Comes by Garth Brooks
This one may sound real corny, but I might as well admit to it, but Fade to Black by Metallica; It was one of those comfort songs way back when I was in high school and trying to overcome a plethora of addictions and depression. Today it’s a reminder to me of everything I’ve overcome to be where I am.
Another corny one; Call and Answer by the Barenaked Ladies, but it never really did it for me before my daughter was born.
Also, the title theme to Braveheart really stirs my insides.

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“Tea for Two” – Whenever I hear it, I just want to pound on the table and cry like a baby.

13

how about “Stay with Me Awhile”???

(you knew I was gonna join in if you started talking Journey!)

14

A’course!! :smiley:

15

Wow. That’s asking a lot. I may just be too much of a stoic to be able to participate here. You are safe though, in that I won’t nominate Seasons in the Sun.

The best response I can come up with does risk breaching the hokey barrier, though…and that would be that I’m often moved by swelling instrumentals, such as movie themes such as some compositions of John Williams. The Jurassic Park theme comes to mind.

I would so love to be able to name something meaningful, edgy and cool, but I’m afraid I’m a bit too dopey. :slight_smile:

16

Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

It’s not so much the song as the associations it has with my eldest brother, who has passed on.

–James

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Nothin hokey about movie themes, emm, nothin at all!
What about the theme from Dragon:The Bruce Lee Story, Braveheart or Schindler’s List? Movie themes are powerful (the well composed ones anyways) and rightly so. They’re designed to bring about an emotional response to accompany what the viewer sees on screen. Personally, I feel the most moved by movie themes from filmss that deal with emotionally charged content.

18

It’s really good vocal harmony that gets me to shiver, especially if I’m lucky enough to be one of the singers. I can’t think of a specific song or tune (of any genre) that brings me to tears, though the first time I heard Kilkelly came close. (By the 10th time, it was losing its punch. But I was cruel enough to perform it for a small audience who’d never heard it. Had at least half of 'em wiping tears from their eyes. :smiling_imp: )

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I line up with Emmline. I can’t think of a song that brings tears to my eyes. Plenty to send shivers down my spine. The one that comes closest is probably “Golden Slumbers” by the Beatles. It’s just so hokey it presses nearly all the right buttons.
Maybe… maybe Planxty playing “As I roved out”.

Instrumentals come closer.
Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”.
Khachaturian’s Berceuse from the Gayaneh Ballet Suite.
The Theme from “Exodus”.

It doesn’t have to be GOOD. It just has to be hokey.

20

Here’s a few of my favourites in this category (or close)

Billy Holiday — Strange Fruit
Richard and Linda Thompson — Withered and Died
Fairport Convention (with Sandy Denny) — Matty Groves
Just about everything on Tragic Songs of Life by the Louvin Brothers but especially ‘Knoxville Girl’.
Delia Gartrell — Can’t You See What You Done Done
Muddy Waters — Louisiana Blues
Hank Williams — My Son Calls Another Man Daddy
Mac-Talla — Grioghol Cridhe
Doc Boggs — Pretty Polly
June Tabor — The King of Rome
Doris Allen — Shell of a Woman
Robert Johnson — Hellhound On My Trail