Music Moments

Springsteen once said he had a friend who'd made a tape of all the moments in songs that he loved. Based on something that just came up on the radio, I'll start with Merry Clayton hitting the "Rape, murder" chorus in "Gimme Shelter."

 

Keeping with the Stones motif:

The opening riff to "Rocks Off". A rollicking start to a great album, and those few notes almost serve as the prelude to what's ahead.

Eddie Van Halen's opening guitar riff on "You Really Got Me". Never had heard the guitar quite like that.

 

I'll nominate the opening of Sam Cooke's "Bring it on Home to Me." Always makes the hair on my arms stand up.

 

The opening to "Hell's Bells". Gives me the chills.

Lupe Fiasco's second verse in "Dumb it Down". I just replay it over and over again.

 

1. The last chorus in Whiskeytown's "Bar Lights" when Ryan and Caitlin sing "I got FIVE MORE DOLLARS that won't make you mine!" before they both start laughing.

2. The strings in Wilco's "She's A Jar", which come right after the third verse that ends "and face gets stuck, like a question, unposed." Also, the harmonica in that song.

3. In Wilco's "Poor Places", the part where the piano comes and Jeff says "It makes no diff-rence to me."

4. The 'plink-plink-da-plink-plink' of the piano key in the opening to Shimmy Shimmy (Ya!) by ODB.

5. In Iron & Wine's "The Trapeze Swinger", the "na-na-naaaaa!" part right after the last verse "all around the frightened trapeze swinger now."

6. The opening to "Billy Jean," but also, after all the verses are over and the chorus keeps repeating itself, when goes ba-da-dup-Ba-daaa (Woo!).

7. The harmonizing on "God Only Knows."

8. The very last verse of Fiona Apple's "Never Is A Promise" when she sings really high and soft, "I don't know what to believe in; you don't know who I am."

9. The guitar strumming at the beginning of Steve Earle's "I Feel Alright" and the verse that goes "Betrayal and conspiracy; sacrilege and heresy."

10. When the strings, horns and piano all combine at the end of REM's "Nightswimming."

11. Every single note of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" but especially the "foghorn." (I think it's a sax.)

 

1. The closing part of Great Gig in the Sky (after the woman stops screaming).

2. The opening to Wish You Were Here

3. All of Take Five

4. The entire Porgy & Bess album by Gil Evans and Miles Davis

5. The end chord to Springsteen's Spirit in the Night

 

The opening riff to "All Along the Watchtower."

The opening and first verse of "Fortunate Son."

 

The Stones opened with "Shattered" at my campus concert in 1994. I made a silent wish that afternoon, when I put that tab on my tongue, that it would start that way, and did it ever.

 

Lately, I've really been digging the beginning of Paint It Black.

 

77 punk dept: opening riff of Complete Control by The Clash

 

The spoken part of 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene'
The spoken intro to 'Soft Parade'
The way Lennon sings the verse on 'I, ah I I, ah I I, dig a pony'
The slide whistle at the start of 'Highway 61'
The blistering fast guitar solo in 'Terrapin Station'
The opening guitar notes, played through an envelope filter, on 'Estimated Prophet'
The guitar solo on 'What I Am Is What I Am'
The opening guitar riff and mid-song solo on 'Finish What You Started'
And many, many more ...

 

-- The opening to the last chorus of Johnny Cash's version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down." By themselves, the strings and bells sound so happy, almost glorious. And yet Johnny's voice is full of such undeniable pain. And that contrast is what the song is all about.

-- There are a bunch of Wilco examples (The "says I haven't gone too far" climax of "Via Chicago," the "You don't see me now" bridge of "Outtasite"), but my favorite is probably the middle of "Jesus, etc.," when the pedal steel guitar comes in at the "Voices whine" line. Bliss.

-- The "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life" buildup in Pearl Jam's "Black."

-- The "Rain falls down" buildup in Counting Crows' "Anna Begins."

-- The first moment in any song, by just about any artist, when Emmylou Harris' voice begins harmonizing. She's particularly good with Ryan Adams.

-- The kick-ass guitar solo at the end of Drive-By Truckers' "Decoration Day," after you think the song is already over.

-- The orchestra (and description thereof) in Dan Bern's "Thanksgiving Day Parade."

-- The part in The National's "Slow Show" where they change key and go into the "You know I dreamed about you" outro.

-- Near the end of Tom Petty's "Wake Up Time," the last time he sings, "a long way from ho-o-o-o-me," there are strings and cymbals and pianos in addition to the guitar, and when Tom tells us it's time to open up our eyes and rise and shine, we do.