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Music That Makes Me Cry
There are certain musical pieces that automatically bring a tear to my eye.* Usually it’s not a sad or depressing song; I have a different reaction to those. This song by Neko Case is an exception. It is an almost perfect female country song with unrelenting heartbreak from beginning to end. I’ve included the YouTube version with the intro to the next song on purpose. She absolutely rips your heart out for two minutes, then moves on to the next one like it’s no big thing. I know exactly how Roberta Flack felt.**
But what usually gets to me is a turn of music so sublime or exquisite*** that I’m in awe. Sometimes it’s an explosive guitar solo after a long buildup:
It can be unexpected, like the guitar solo after the first stanza of All Mixed Up by The Cars, or the soaring choral conclusion of Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy.**** Or the awesome banjo solo***** providing a perverse note of grace in the bridge of this macabre masterpiece:
The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi seems to be de rigueur for every classical music artist. There are several hundred versions out there, and most of them are mediocre. Some artists race through each concerto like they’re late for a dinner date. Others make even the most sprightly of the concerti seem dull and lugubrious. There’s a version where the solo instrument is an accordion.****** Then there’s Itzhak Perlman. Every time I hear his version of the Allegro non molto******* movement from the Winter concerto, the rain starts to fall:
Then there’s my favorite piece of classical music. This little dance tune brings me to tears just due to the sheer genius of the composer:******** It perfectly represents the excess and preening of a grotesque soiree, contrasted with quiet beauty of the female lead. Every player has the same theme played on a different instrument. Brilliant!
I think the first time I heard the next one was when I was about twelve years old and saw Dr. Strangelove.********* At that time, it meant nothing to me. Then I learned a little history and realized the courage, sacrifice, and incredible pain that it represents. Now I can’t help getting teary-eyed when I hear it:
That’s enough now. I need to sit down and have a consultation with a Bourbon.
- * You gotta problem with that, buddy?
- ** And no, I don’t cry for that one, pardner. Whataya think I am, a wimp?
- *** They’re not the same. Look it up, comrade!
- **** No, not by Bad Company, amigo, the one by The Kinks!!
- ***** That’s right, a banjo solo. You wanna make something of it, pal?
- ****** Somehow, my friend, I doubt that version is either sublime or exquisite.
- ******* No, I don’t know what that means. Do I look Italian, compadre?
- ******** Yeah, it’s from a ballet. You got anything to say about that, champ?
- ********* I know “. . . or: How I Learned blah blah blah and etc.” Don’t be so pedantic, brother. Everyone knows what I mean.
You need to learn how to do footnotes as @andrewmiller does.
Nah. I like that, but my goal is to eventually have enough footnotes to have an entire line of asterisks.
Nah. I like that, but my goal is to eventually have enough footnotes to have an entire line of asterisks.
A comment so nice I posted it twice.
The opening bars of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” do it for me. So does “Taps”. Every. Single. Time. And the “Abgrund der Liebe” verse of “Jesus ist kommen” by J.L.K. Allendorf.
I have always found part of James McMurtry’s “Levelland” to be moving, if not exactly bringing me to tears. At 3:30 in the video. And then it mentions the high school band playing “Smoke on the Water” and “Joy to the World”, as perfect a word picture of Texas Friday night high school football as could be. If you listen to Neko Case I’ll bet you listen to McMurtry. To those who don’t listen to alt country, he is author Larry McMurtry’s son.
One of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard–
Since Susan Quinn brought her up, I’ll add the Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson duet version of “Dimming of the Day” which I find better than the recording he did with Linda (he said, expecting fans to pillory him). And I will add the Neil Young/ Emmy Lou Harris cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Sweet Old World” for personal reasons.
I know a few of these (who doesn’t know Mark Knopfler and all his works?) But I watched them all, with your descriptions in mind. The Prokofiev and Vivaldi are well known to me, but I listened with new ears. Thanks – a beautiful bunch.
Sad songs are meant, created, to evoke tears, so no surprise.
But nobility, truth, sacrifice, and heroism. Especially when the person doesn’t know if it is worth it, if it’s going to make a difference, but he does it anyway.
There are lots of examples, but I always think of this performance. And I am a mess at the end, every time.
This:
And this, too. I usually start about 30 seconds in (the tears, not the song; start it from the beginning):
Not to hog, but one last.
There’s lots of stuff that hits me right in the sternum, but if there’s one piece that unstrings my bow every time, it’s a John Barry composition from “Peggy Sue Got Married,” of all things. If you know the movie, it’s about a grown woman who inexplicably finds herself back in her childhood self, in the last year of high school, with full knowledge of how her life would turn out. The scene depicts her returning to her family home in a dazed state, unable to process what has happened, overwhelmed by seeing everything as it was.
Barry, at this point in his career, attenuated every idea he had, almost like he was putting his meolodies on the rack, but when he hits the main theme, man, it’s so damned bittersweet it does it every time.