PeaceBang

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1. These aren’t pieces I can’t listen to or sing, but they may be hard to get through depending on my emotional state at the time.

   In church:

   Sleep, My Child (or All Through the Night)
   How Can I Keep from Singing
   There is More Love Somewhere

   Others:

   Lark Ascending
   Home by Bonnie Raitt (my dad and I danced to it at my wedding, and when I’m missing him it makes me bawl like a baby)
   Alison Krauss singing Carolina on my Mind on the PBS tribute to James Taylor
   and as of this last Sunday, the Peter Gabriel song at the end of Wall-E, called Down to Earth, that just wrecked me

   Comment by Jess — July 17, 2008 #

2. There are several songs that will cause me to tear up. Sometimes I won’t know what they are until the music starts. I started to cry at God Bless America once.

   Reliably I will cry when I hear All I Have to Do is Dream sung by the Everly Brothers. That song is still being played 50+ years after it was a hit. I had just lost my Fiance and this song came on the juke box at the soda shop and I lost it because it isn’t true.
   In the 70’s I was in the vet’s office writing the check for having our cat put down when this song came on the speaker. I had to stay and listen to it. Usually when it starts to play I’m out of there. The darn song is still being played. I guess it must be a classic. I would rather hear Fever sung by Peggy Lee.

   Comment by aenodia — July 17, 2008 #

3. Unbelievable — Nat King Cole. One of my mother’s favorites; she listened to it several times the week or so before she died, and was the music playing when she died. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to listen to it again; evening thinking about it brings tears to my eyes, and it’s over eight years now.

   Christmas in the Trenches — John McCutcheon. I’ve managed to listen to it once in the 20-some years that I’ve been a fan of his music without tears running down my cheeks. There’s no “special” connection to it for me, it’s just that powerful on its own.

   I’ll agree about Barber’s Adagio, though it doesn’t eviscerate me like like the other two–but I’ve heard it as the background music for a computer game the boys play and play and play… and even so the melancholy of it seeps into me.

   Comment by Patrick McLaughlin — July 17, 2008 #

4. From my vantage point, I think you did just fine on Saturday PB!

   What a great subject! I could spend hours going through my iTunes library finding songs to fret over, but here’s a short list of songs I find it hard to hear (or did at one time).

   “For All We Know” - Billie Holiday
   -beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time

   “Baby Mine” - Bonnie Raitt
   -anybody remember the movie “Dumbo”? [ I love this song and sang it in church about five years ago when giving a sermon on Mother’s Day called “Disney’s Missing Mothers.” I have a version of Barbara Cook singing it that totally gets to me, and Bette Midler does it proud, too. - PB]

   “Tears In Heaven” - Eric Clapton
   -a song about his son who died in a fall

   “A Child Is Born” - Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
   -tough to listen to when I was struggling with whether I wanted kids of my own or not

   “I Loves You Porgy ” - most any version, but especially Nina Simone
   -just listen to the lyrics

   Don’t Give Up On Us Baby - David Soul
   I heard this one morning when I was little, and my relatives visiting from Colorado were going home that day. In this case, it wasn’t the lyrics, but something about combination of the music and missing my cousins that reduced me into a sobbing mess.

   Songs that remind me of ex-girlfriends (a special subgroup of torment):

   From a Distance - Bette Midler
   Paranoid Android - Radiohead
   Ridin’ In My Car - NRBQ
   Don’t Go Away - Oasis
   A Different Corner -
   Miss Sarajevo - George Michael
   At Last - Eva Cassidy

   This is by no means a complete list. I may think of others later!

   Thanks again for a great topic PB!

   Comment by Jim B. — July 17, 2008 #

5. I was just thinking about the time I had a funeral of a very dear friend. I was fine all through the service. The closing hymn was “Lift High the Cross” and I made eye contact with her husband (both she and her husband were two of my favorite people ever!) in the first row and he was sobbing his heart out.

   I got choked up. It was a good thing we were early in the hymn, I barely got myself together for the benediction.

   Now every time I hear “Lift High the Cross” I feel that moment.

   “For All the Saints” does it to me sometimes. The unfair thing is, I love both these hymns!

   One year Easter and Passover were very close together. A Jewish friend invited me to a seder and it was a wonderful evening. I could even follow along some of the Hebrew (15 years since seminary!).

   A few days later, I was at the gym, listening to Springsteen’s album, “We Shall Overcome” on my iPod and “O Mary Don’t you weep” came on the shuffle.

   “O Mary don’t you weep don’t you mourn,
   O Mary don’t you weep don’t you mourn,
   Pharaoh’s army got drowned,
   O Mary don’t you weep!”

   And the enormity of Passover hit me like a ton of bricks and I started crying.

   And I always have trouble hearing pop songs I associate from the one truly awful, awful relationship in my past.

   “Our Love is Here to Stay”
   “I Love you Just the Way you Are”
   “You’re in my Heart, You’re in My Soul”

   Comment by revtoots — July 17, 2008 #

6. Oh, also Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” (of course)

   It was the music used in the movies “Platoon”/Oliver Stone and “The Elephant Man”/David Lynch

   From NPR:
   “Samuel Barber wrote this classical piece for string quartet, and it was first performed in 1938. Now a standard short piece for orchestra, “Adagio for Strings” endures in part due to its appearance in two well-known film soundtracks — Platoon and The Elephant Man.”

   [Oh, I thought it was played in “The Deerhunter!” Thanks for clearing that up. “Platoon” was so harrowing I almost walked out. - PB]

   Comment by Jim B. — July 17, 2008 #

7. Lo How a Rose E’re Blooming - My grandmother’s favorite Christmas song, and she died a week before Christmas. As I walked to the chapel for her memorial service, I knew, just knew, that that song was going to be playing, and sure enough it was.

   O Little Town of Bethlehem - About ten years later my other grandmother died about a week before Christmas. My family asked me to sing this carol at her funeral. I honestly don’t know how I got through it.

   Like a Ship On the Water - we sing this often at my church, and though I’m in the choir I’m almost never able to get through it without tears.

   Open the Eyes of My Heart - another one that only through sheer repetition have I finally managed to not bawl my way through every time we sing it at church.

   Gravity, by Japanese composer Yoko Kanno. The first time I heard a fragment of this, I sobbed. I sobbed the next 50 times I heard it. Similarly her song Heaven’s Not Enough completely undoes me.

   I also remember being maybe three years old, and trying to explain to my mother how some piece of classical music, probably something in a minor key, made me need to cry.

   Conversely, in my darkest moods, Mozart can lift me from the pit, just a little.

   Comment by Nezuko — July 17, 2008 #

8. . . . unless you hear a song with the intent of getting torn up. A Good Friday service without “Ah, Holy Jesus” is decidedly incomplete.

   On the other hand, all you need to do to get past the effect of Barber’s Adagio is work in a NPR station with a call-in classical music program.

   Comment by Scott Wells — July 17, 2008 #

9. Speaking of Judy Garland, this week, over at Yahoo’s The Judy Garland Experience, they are featuring never released performances from Judy’s 1969 stint at The Talk Of The Town, as well as a recording from her 1966 engagement at The Diplomat Hotel, a phone call between Judy Garland and Wayne Martin, and a few other rarities, including a salute to Judy’s early 50’s radio appearances.
   The non Judy items posted include a never before heard club set form Martha Raye, and much more!
   The Judy Garland Experience is one of the more popular Garland groups. Every week it features new and never before heard recordings by Judy and her contemporaries. There are always lively discussions going on, and the group has one of the most eclectic memberships anywhere. Included in the member rolls are Garland family members and friends, people who worked with Judy, authors, film makers, other celebrities, and fans of all levels. The only one missing is you!
   Please stop by our little Judyville and check it out, you may never want to leave.
   Here is the link:
   http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/

   Comment by Buzz — July 17, 2008 #

10. I can only list them w/o commentary, otherwise I will get teary just thinking about them:

    LaLa Love You - The Pixies
    Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler version
    Amazing Grace

    Comment by Tracey — July 17, 2008 #

11. Taking the Barber one step further, there’s a choral version which he published in the early ’60s. Exactly the same in every way, except scored for a capella voices instead of strings, and with the text of the Agnus Dei. My choir sang it as a benediction for Easter 2005, while my newborn daughter was still in intensive care. “Dona nobis pacem” indeed…

    Comment by Jason — July 17, 2008 #

12. There are two hymns that give me such a large lump in my throat that I have to stop singing. One is “This Is a Day of New Beginnings,” in the 4th verse:

    Christ is alive, and goes before us
    to show and share what love can do.
    This is a day of new beginnings;
    ur God is making all things new.

    And the other is “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” which is strange since it’s a pretty jolly hymn, all in all! But there’s a verse that ends:

    You can meet them in school,
    on the street, in the store,
    in church, by the sea, in the house next door; they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
    and I mean to be one too.

    That really gets to me for some reason.

    Outside of church, I can’t listen to “I always thought that I’d see you again.”

    Thanks for asking!

    Comment by Barbara K — July 17, 2008 #

13. I know I’m an idiot, but that part of the Snoopy Christmas carol when the Red Baron goes “Merry Christmas, My Friend” always gets me.

    It’s probably different from what we’re talking about as it is a happy sort of getting me, though. I’m sniffling, yet happy, yet aware that I’m a big dork for getting weepy over a song about the fantasies of a comic strip character.

    Also, Dolly Parton singing “Hard Candy Christmas” from “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” soundtrack.

    CC

    Comment by Chalicechick — July 17, 2008 #

14. Barbara K,

    Of all the hymns I heard as a kid that I miss as a UU, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” might be the one I miss the most.

    UUs just don’t sing it. But it really is lovely, and singing it really does make one want to behave oneself.

    CC

    Comment by Chalicechick — July 17, 2008 #

15. “Christmas Dinner,” by Paul Stookey of PP&M
    “Because I Knew You” from Wicked

    Poems (on a related note) are High Flight and Sea Fever, because of my Brother Pilot and Sister Sailor; Crossing the Bar for obvious reasons, and The Summer Day for the sake of its last line.

    Excuse me, I must go and find a hankie now.

    Comment by Theodora — July 17, 2008 #

16. “What Wondrous Love” — a hymn I love — makes me sob every time, whether in church or recorded.

    Comment by Patricia — July 17, 2008 #

17. Because they were songs in my wedding dances, I can’t listen to them:

    “When I See You Smile” by Bad English - This was my bridal dance song. All I have to hear is the first few notes of this and my eyes well up. We picked this song at the last minute because we couldnt come up with a bridal dance song–we had no song of our own. But while playing my Totally 80s CD one day, I looked at my husband and said, “This song is perfect!” And he agreed. Now it is a very significant song.

    “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls - This was undeniably the entire bridal party dance song. It came on the radio two days before my brother’s wedding (which is unusual because this song is really from 1998 and doesnt get as much play anymore), and because I was dealing with my own emotions about weddings (whcih happens every time I have to go to one), I just started CRYING. I was in my car driving to work and I couldnt stop shouting pathetically, “I miss you, I miss you, I miss you.”

    Ugh.

    “Come What May” from Moulin Rouge because this song is sang at the end when Nicole Kidman’s character dies and that movie makes me cry because, though it’s in the realm of surrealism, it reflects the sort of fiercely romantic rashness of emotion that I understand. With me, love is seldom logical… and in this story, it’s crazy young love, not unlike the passion I felt for my husband.

    Comment by Mars Girl — July 17, 2008 #

18. Another reason the Adagio for Strings is so poignant is that the networks chose it as the theme for the Kennedy assassination coverage, and use it for many other sad moments. I know I heard it after 9/11 a lot on TV, too. But I have gotten over it since my choir recorded it two years ago, and I sang the first soprano part, which is so hard that I couldn’t help but only concentrate on the physical act of producing sound.

    An artist I neglected in my list is Meg Barnhouse — a UU minister and singer-songwriter who has written some wonderfully simple, and powerful songs. I went to her presentation at General Assembly and felt so bad because I was sitting right in the middle, close to the front, and she kept looking at me as the tears just poured down my face. Little did she know she was saying exactly the things I needed to hear in that moment. “All Will be Well” is just the beginning.

    Comment by Jess — July 17, 2008 #

19. I’m a soft touch. My wife tells me that I can’t sit through a Hallmark commercial without weeping. The list of songs that can set me off must run into the hundreds. But off the top of my head here are some that also bring a sharp stab to the heart.

    “Happy Trails”—Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. It turns out it is a great funeral song, at least for my twin brother who was Roy on many a sunny mornings in Cheyenne long, long ago.

    “Go to Sleep You Weary Hobo”—From an all star tribute album to Woody Guthrie long since lost. My pick for my funeral. Make ‘em wail, I say.

    “Gone Away”—By Utah Philips “Did you see that fool, can’t hear the whistle/Blind old man caught out on a trestle/ Can’t go up and can’t get back/Train kept coming, brushed him off the track.” What more can I say. Thanks, Bruce.

    Nothing like American pop standards for the lamenting shattered love. Here are two that get me verklempt:

    The 1914 chestnut “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” in several versions, notably Perry Como. The story of my life.

    I fell in love with Alice Faye singing into I a microphone for GIs far away in “You’ll Never Know (How Much I Love You)” Song later attached to The-One-Great-Tragic-Love-Affair of my misspent youth.

    “Try to Remember” from the musical “The Fantastics” sung by Jerry Orbach—yes, that Jerry Orbach. Same girl. Same heartbreak.

    A standard not associated with a broken heart—“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Margret O’Brien and I are both in tears.

    Then there are songs of War.

    “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” as sung by Marlene Dietrich who sounded like she knew exactly what she was singing about.

    Almost any version of “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye”—“Johnny Comes Marching Home” with all the verses left intact.

    “Ashokan Farewell,” the haunting fiddle tune used by Ken Burns as the theme song to his epic TV documentary “The Civil War.”

    I need to stop now, or I will never stop. So many songs. So many tears!

    Comment by Patrick Murfin — July 17, 2008 #

20. To begin with, I cry at music very easily. When I was a seminarian in Chicago I had symphony tickets for two seasons. I was always sure to put two handkerchiefs in my pockets for every performance.

    Here are a few pieces that make are guaranteed to bring the waterworks:

    –Every Puccini opera. (I’ve been known to tear up just at the overture to “Madame Butterfly.”)
    –Barber’s “Adagio” (the NY Philharmonic played the piece the night that FDR died.)
    –Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony.
    –Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei.”
    –Nina Simone’s “One More Sunday in Savannah” (When I’m feeling homesick this one always does it.) Her song, “The Turning Point,” is about how children are taught racism and it also brings tears.
    –Mister Mister’s “Kyrie Elaison.”
    –After 9/11, I couldn’t sing “America the Beautiful” without sobbing at the line, “Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!”
    –Durufle’s Requiem (for exquisite Impressionist beauty alone.)
    –“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” played on solo cello.
    – John Rutter’s “As the Bridegroom to His Chosen” (but only when I’m really in a schmaltzy mood.)
    –“Be Thou My Vision” (original version.)
    –Sibelius’ Symphonies 2 & 5 (if I’m in a mood and need to overcome something painful.)

    And the list goes on. . .

    Comment by Larry Smith — July 17, 2008 #

21. “Ain’t Life a Brook” by Canadian singer-songwriter Ferron. It was the soundtrack to many a break-up in my life. The first time I heard it was at a concert of hers in Montreal in the 1980s (as it happens, in the sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal) and I bawled my eyes out. Lucie Blue Tremblay’s French version (”Nos Belles Annees”) is just as piercing. [Dang, just looked that one up. WHoa, no wonder you bawled. - PB]

    Comment by peter — July 17, 2008 #

22. I cannot listen to “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt. It just brings back how awful it feels to not be loved by someone I loved very deeply. Ugh, teary just at the thought.

    Comment by Kristen — July 17, 2008 #

23. Paula Cole’s song Happy Home from the album Harbinger made me cry the first several times I heard it on the radio.

    My own Amazing Grace story. My great auntie Margie asked me to sing it at her funeral. This was decided when I was about 8. She died during my first term at seminary, when I was 38, and they held the funeral till I could make it home. I sing it when I’m alone in the chapel at 2nd Unitarian in Chicago– it fills the space and reminds me of her and her great love for me.

    Comment by marcia — July 17, 2008 #

24. I have 2 Luther Vandross songs that do it for me:

    -Superstar (the song that made me want to take piano lessons)
    -Dance With My Father (because it was his last)

    And, believe it or not, the Hill Street Blues theme song makes me misty.

    Comment by Kim Hampton — July 17, 2008 #

25. Hmm…without going too much into detail (or I would start bawling.)

    “You are Mine” by David Haas. It’s so gosh-darn beautiful. I want this song played at each and every major moment in my life.

    “In Christ Alone” One of my favorite hymns–so powerful and moving.

    “Mother Mary Margaret Iris” by Barb Ryman.

    “Someone to Fall Back On” by Jason Robert Brown. THE best song of all time. I cry, without fail, each time this comes on Shuffle. Kinda embarrassing if friends are over.

    Oh,any time a key change happens in “Amazing Grace,” I go down crying too.

    Comment by thefutureRev.Cody — July 17, 2008 #

26. “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks. I heard it on the radio the night before I had to put my dog to sleep. Whenever I hear it I have to switch stations.

    Comment by Lisa — July 17, 2008 #

27. There is ONE song I can’t survive.

    Because of this ONE song, I will never be able to see what is probably one of the greatest musicals of our time: CATS.

    Take a guess. It should be obvious what the one song would be……

    MEMORY.

    I can sing like an angel, but I will never be able to sing “Memory,” or even listen to it on radio or CD. I refuse to purchase any “Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Greatest Hits” type of CDs because invariably, “Memory” is on it.

    MadPriest posted “Memory” for my little Bean when she passed last weekend, and it just slew me. I mean it was a Claymore (big Scottish sword) right through the gut. I thought I’d never stop the howling, screaming tears.

    Comment by Tracie the Red — July 17, 2008 #

28. At my Episcopal grade school, we sang that “Saints of God” song frequently in morning chapel, and also used it in English class as an example of bad grammar. The verse in question was,

    …And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
    And one was slain by a fierce, wild beast,
    And there’s not any reason — no, not the least! –
    Why I shouldn’t be one, too!

    Hey PB, you used to teach English; can you identify the error?

    Comment by fausto — July 17, 2008 #

29. Scott Wells mentioned “Ah, Holy Jesus.” The Good Friday hymn that always gets to me is “My Song Is Love Unknown.”

    “They rise and needs will have
    My dear Lord made away;
    A murderer they save,
    The Prince of Life they slay,
    Yet steadfast He to Suffering goes,
    That He His foes from thence might free.”

    and from the last verse:
    “This is my friend, In whose sweet praise
    I all my days Could gladly spend.”

    The tune, “Love Unknown” is also just heartbreakingly beautiful.

    Comment by revtoots — July 17, 2008 #

30. A few more I thought of today:

    “Until” - Cassandra Wilson
    “The Last Worthless Evening” - Don Henley
    “A Case of You” - Diana Krall
    (more of my relationships gone south)

    Secret Story/entire album - Pat Metheny
    (about a breakup Metheny had - some of the songs are unbearable!)

    “Fragile” - Sting
    He sang this in concert a few days after 9/11, giving the song a whole new context:

    “If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
    Drying in the colour of the evening sun
    Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away
    But something in our minds will always stay

    Perhaps this final act was meant
    To clinch a lifetime’s argument
    That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
    For all those born beneath an angry star
    Lest we forget how fragile we are”
    [This reminds me of how wrecked I got for years after 9/11 hearing U-2’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”- PB]

    Comment by Jim B. — July 17, 2008 #

31. From the film Fearless starring Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rosselini, and Rosie Perez (one of my favorite movies!) - the dramatic piece that plays during the climax is Gorecki’s Symphony #3 - part I - the Symphony is also known as Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It is 26 minutes long, and performed by Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta. He is Polish, and I love Polish classical music.

    I also love Michael Nyman’s music, particularly his score from the film, The Claim - another favorite of mine and good to see if you want to see three strong female characters in one film! - and namely the pieces, The Fiery House and The Snowy Day.

    Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s Right Out of Your Hand - that song just gets me every time, especially the last 90 seconds when the piano solo begins.

    Light from Hans Zimmer’s The Thin Red Line score.

    Loreena McKennitt’s Cymbeline from her album, The Visit.” The lyrics are Shakespeare’s.

    Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun
    Nor the furious winter’s rages;
    Thou thy wordly task hast done,
    Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages.
    Golden lads and girls all must,
    As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

    The sceptre, learning, physic, must
    All follow this and come to dust.

    Fear no more the frown o’ th’ great;
    Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke.
    Care no more to clothe and to eat;
    To thee the reed is as the oak.
    The sceptre, learning, physic, must
    All follow this and come to dust.

    All lovers young, all lovers must
    Consign to thee and come to dust.

    Fear no more the lightning flash,
    Nor th’ all-dreaded thunder-stone;
    Fear not slander, censure rash;
    Thou hast finished joy and moan.
    All lovers young, all lovers must
    Consign to thee and come to dust.

    Comment by h sofia — July 17, 2008 #

32. Many of the songs on your list would be on mine as well. Here are some others that have at some point touched me in some way, often unexpectedly:
    1. Marie, by Randy Newman
    2. Those Were The Days, My Friend, sung by Mary Hopkins
    3. O’Sailor by Fiona Apple
    4. Never Letting Go, by Phoebe Snow
    5. Is That All There Is? sung by Peggy Lee
    6. For Today I Am A Boy, by Anthony and the Johnsons
    7. Molly, by Biff Rose
    8. Famous Blue Raincoat, by Leonard Cohen
    9. Pavane for a Dead Princess, by Ravel
    10. Pirate Jenny, in Kurt Weil’s Threepenny Opera
    11. The Consul, by Gian Carlo Menotti, especially the grandmother’s lullaby
    12. Almost anything by either Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso

    Comment by Lou — July 17, 2008 #

33. At the moment, I can’t think of many that would make me change stations because I can’t bear it - that is my standard - but there are a number of songs I have a hard time hearing now that I know the lyrics. “Alive” by Pearl Jam is one of those. Before I looked up the words, the song got me through some all-nighter work in theater lighting design. Then I found the lyrics -

    Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
    What you thought was your daddy was nothin’ but a…
    While you were sittin’ home alone at age thirteen
    Your real daddy was dyin’,
    sorry you didn’t see him, but I’m glad we talked…

    is something wrong she said
    of course there is
    you’re still alive she said
    do i deserve to be
    is that the question
    and if so,…if so…
    who answers?

    The song just doesn’t let me feel like I’ve gotten through a hard time the way it once did. I was glad to hear that the audience response to the song changed it to a more positive meaning for Eddie Vedder.

    Comment by jinnis — July 18, 2008 #

34. I saw Richie Havens perform a year ago, and his version of “Here Comes the Sun” was so beautiful, I wept.

    Others include:

    Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger

    Superman by Five For Fighting — You may recall he sang it at the Concert for NYC after 9/11.

    Someone mentioned “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” This song gets me so choked up that I couldn’t even get through singing it along with Ernie and Bert on a Sesame Street Christmas movie!

    Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth by David Bowie and Bing Crosby [This one totally gets me, too - PB]

    When I Was A Boy by Dar Williams

    Ben by The Jackson Five

    Another Train by Pete Morton

    Blue Green Hills of Earth by Kim Oler (from the hymnal)

    Several others from the hymnal, and movies, and commercials…I’m a crier.

    Comment by Janeybird — July 18, 2008 #

35. Just thought of another one…”Rainbow Connection.” When I was in 5th grade, we played it at the memorial service for a boy in the 4th grade who died of AIDS. I choke up whenever I hear the opening banjo chords.

    Comment by Lisa — July 18, 2008 #

36. The Air that I breathe by the Hollies - I only have to hear the first chord and i’m in tears [Which for some reasons reminds me that I almost always get teary when I hear “He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother.” - PB]

    Angie by the Rolling Stones

    Life on Mars by David Bowie

    Hymn by Barclay James Harvest - I dont’ agree with the theology but the music is out of this world

    Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding - reminds me of a boyfriend who was going nowhere

    Amazing Grace but only with bagpipes

    Jerusalam - it was our old school hymn - always gets me.

    Unchained melody by the Righteous Brothers - instant tears

    Comment by Pigwidgeon — July 18, 2008 #

37. Well, Amazing Grace is one of those with many, many associations, but it really clobbered me at the memorial service for a cousin. I asked the congregation to sing with me, and then I lost it and couldn’t even remember the verses after the first.

    But there are others. Listen to Patti Cathcart do “Takes my Breath Away” or Madeleine Peyroux on “You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go”. [Peyroux really gets me on “Smile,” for some reason! - PB]

    Comment by Jud — July 18, 2008 #

38. Someone said David Haas?

    Mine is “Do not let your hearts be troubled” by David Haas.

    It was played at the funeral of a friend who was one of the elite music ministers in an out-of-this-world music ministry.

    The director asked me to sing her part. Out of over 80 copies, guess which one was handed to me? Yep - hers. Twice.

    She wanted to make sure I got it right…PB, I can relate to the “keep it together, you have theatre training” comment. That’s exactly what I did, until I sat down…

    Comment by eddoc — July 18, 2008 #

39. “Deeper Than Crying,” by Alison Krauss and Union Station

    “Beloved Wife,” by Natalie Merchant

    “Hear Me,” from the soundtrack of Waking Ned Devine

    “Keg On My Coffin,” by The Push Stars

    Comment by Joyce — July 19, 2008 #

40. Shall We Gather at the River?
    Amazing Grace
    Where you there when they crucified my Lord?- heard for the first time at an Interfaith Good Friday service at a ELCA Lutheran Church this year.
    There is more love somewhere
    Precious Lord, take my hand- any translation, by any artist, regardless if I’m singing it, or the congregation or anyone else it brings me to tears.
    Chichester Psalms (Bernstein)
    Bernstein Mass
    For all the Saints
    The King of Love my Shepherd Is
    Didn’t my Lord Deliver Daniel?
    Guide my Feet
    In the Garden
    He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
    His Eye is on the Sparrow
    Be Thou my Vision
    Hine e Hine (Maori Lulaby)
    O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)
    Every Night When the Sun Comes In (spiritual)
    A Boy and a Girl (arr. Whitacre)
    Wind Beneath my Wings
    From a Distance (God is Watching Us)
    I Want Jesus to Walk with Me
    I’ll Fly Away
    Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
    Forward through the Ages
    Pure Imagination (Willy Wonka)
    Down by the Riverside
    River in Judea (espec. by the Maranatha Choir)
    Go Down Moses
    I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar)
    Geethsemane (Jesus Christ Superstar)
    Hero (Mariah Carey)
    They Can’t Take that Away from Me
    I Just Died In your Arms Tonight
    Panis Angelicus (Father Most Merciful)
    23rd Psalm
    On Eagle’s Wings
    Pilgrim Song (arr. Ryan Murphy)
    Killing me Softly (with his song)
    How Will I Know? (Whitney Houston)
    O Come You Longing, Thirsty Souls

    Comment by Shawn Koester — July 19, 2008 #

41. Well, defenitely those:

    - The German Requiem by Brahms, in particular the Soprano-Solo part (although I sing it occasionaly myself it makes me sob)

    - The final choir of St. Matthew´s passion by Bach

    - Many parts from F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy´s “Elijah”.

    Comment by chavale — July 19, 2008 #

42. And of course the last piece from B. Britten´s “War Requiem”!

    Not only the music but the words!!!!

    Comment by chavale — July 19, 2008 #

43. Love this post… it’s making me whimper just to read these lists of songs….
    My short list:

    Finlandia (I can’t get through the line about other skies being blue)

    Billy Joel’s And So It Goes (even instrumental versions get to me).

    The Eagles Peaceful Easy Feeling (college love who killed himself a few years back. Go in peace, my friend.)

    Steve Goodman’s The Dutchman (partly because Steve is gone but mostly because it tells such a love story)

    Comment by Liz Hill — July 19, 2008 #

44. For every child blessing “All Through the Night” makes me sob. Really…”Mother I can feel you near me…”?

    I’m just gone.

    Comment by Kari Kopnick — July 19, 2008 #

45. Ah “The Dutchman”! How could I have left it off my list. My keyboard is in danger of shorting out as I type. The song is by another great singer/song writer, Michael Smith, who also penned another candidate for my own private weep-s-thon, “Spoon River,” based on the Edgar Lee Masters’ classic. But it is the exquisite performance of my old friend Chicago Shorty that gets me every time. My wife Kathy also sings a mean version.
    Great music from the much missed folk revival years from the late 50’s through the 70’s is an unlimited source. I could run another list as long as your arm by artists famous and obscure. I’ll force myself to limit it to just three, however.
    “Some Day Soon,” that “damned old rodeo” song by the incomparable Judy Collins about a young girl planning her escape with a low down, no good rodeo cowboy, fraught with great love, high expectations and inevitable doom.
    “Vincent” better known as “Starry, Starry Night” by Don McLean became a deserving mainstream hit. Who cannot be devastated by that last verse: “Now I think I know what you tried to say to me/How you suffered for your sanity/How you tried to set them free/They would not listen they’re not listening still/
    Perhaps they never will.” Yikes!
    “The Old Man” by Phil Coulter. More obscure on this side of the pond, Coulter is a great singer songwriter from Ulster very popular in the British Isles. This song is a tribute to his father. I listen to it on a CD made by our congregation’s music director, Tom Steffens as part of the Irish music duo The Nippersink Rogues. But find a version and listen to it. If you dare.

    [I remember hearing Jane Oliver singing “Starry, Starry Night” as a teen and crying. Armistead Maupin referenced it in his wickedly funny “Tales of the City” series — he has the gay character Michael mention Oliver’s version of the song to newly-arrived innocent Mary Ann as ‘great washing up music,” that is, washing up post-sex and wallowing in the pathos of it all. I laughed and laughed when I read that.- PB]

    Comment by Patrick Murfin — July 20, 2008 #

46. What a great post!

    RE Ferron and Aint Life a Brook - I’ve seen her in concert LOTS of times. I think on a live album of hers, (or was it in concert? cant remember) she tells this story about how some women stop her and say, “Are you Ferron? Oh, we wanted to come to your concert tonight, but we just cant handle it.”
    Ferron: “Me, I have to be there.”
    She is so great. And, you might not know it from her lyrics, but HILARIOUS in person.

    A couple that always make me cry:
    Bonnie Raitt - Too Soon To Tell (another breakup soundtrack)

    And for some reason
    Dar Williams - Christians and Pagans and The Babysitters Here songs both always make bawl. They are not sad exactly, but so True or something, you know?

    Lots of church-y ones that have already been mentioned, but NOT Sing a Song of the Saints - THAT one makes me giggle, but in a good way. It’s so sweet, that “you can meet them at tea” part…

    But I pretty much always tear up for God’s Eye is On the Sparrow and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

    Comment by juniper — July 21, 2008 #

47. Blest be the Tie that Binds

    Comment by G — July 21, 2008 #

48. Be Still My Soul–we sang it at my dad’s funeral (and it was my baaaaad choice)
    Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful.

    There are others but I’m trying to be productive here!

    Comment by lela — July 21, 2008 #

49. “All Through the Night” tore me UP in churchlast Mother’s Day.

    “Scarlett Ribbons” by, well, anybody.

    And I think there is a special circle of hell for me, both because I detest “The Shawshank Redemption” and because I want to back over every bagpiper I ever hear who destroys “Amazing Grace” on that infernal instrument with my car! (Is there a rule that bagpipers HAVE to play that song? Why? WHY!?!)

    Comment by Cindy — July 21, 2008 #

50. I used to be ashamed I ever listened to his music in high school (wasn’t “cool”, was too sentimental, etc.), but I always liked Dan Fogelberg’s music, and somehow, “Another Auld Lang Syne” with its tale of life’s lost loves and emptiness always moved me pretty deeply, and it still does…in fact, I find it even more mournful in tone for me as I get older. Another singer/songwriter who left us too early.

    Comment by tom — July 22, 2008 #

51. Amazing Grace (on my funeral list WITH bagpipes)

    Silent Night - every year at the “midnight” Christmas Eve service, in the dark, w/candles, unaccompanied, sung in four parts. I love my geeky music snob Lutheran church.

    Borning Cry - always tear up for this one

    Jesus Loves Me - sang at the funeral of a beloved pastor….450 people, a cappella, not a dry eye in the church. I am tearing up thinking about it.

    and The Star-Spangled Banner, always makes me cry.

    Comment by sozzled — July 22, 2008 #

52. Ah– bagpipes. How could I have left them off my list?
    The weekend after 9/11 I had to run a writers conference in Colorado, so I was not allowed to “wallow” despite the fact I grew up in NYC and knew people who went through (and did not come through) that terrible day. Throughout that weekend the TV was on in the lobby of the hotel, and every time I passed the TV I heard the wail of bagpipes. Over and over and over. To a New Yorker, bagipes mean one of two things: either it’s St Paddy’s day or a fireman is dead. Bagpipes have never been the same for me.

    Liz

    Comment by Liz Hill — July 25, 2008 #

53. Jesus Loves the Little Children
    Jesus Loves me
    Will the Circle be Unbroken?
    God be with You Til We Meet Again
    Go Now in Peace
    We Shall Overcome
    Somebody Prayed for Me
    He Touched Me
    There’s a River Flowin’ in my Soul
    We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder/We are Dancing Sarah’s Circle
    Wade in the Water
    I love to Tell the Story
    Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

    these were songs I accidentally left off the original list

    Comment by Shawn Koester — July 27, 2008 #

54. If you get a chance to listen to “A Visitor From Heaven” by Twila Paris, you will have your heart broken for all those who have lost a baby. It was played at my granddaughter’s funeral, and it embodies the deepest pain and love that any human can feel.

    Comment by Maggie — August 28, 2008 #

55. Christmas songs … no doubt about it; especially when sung by children. I remember when I was about twelve years old I went Christmas carolling with a bunch of friends. One of the stops was the Fogg’s house. We were invited in so we could sing to Mrs. Fogg who was upstairs in a wheelchair. We stood on the hall steps and sang Silent Night to her. She started to cry and to this day when I try to sing that song I feel like I have a potato in my throat. [Ohhhh, was it Helen Fogg? No, because she was never “Mrs.” Fogg… PB]

    Comment by Amy — September 28, 2008 #

56. Helen was the one who invited us in - her mum was upstairs in the wheelchair. This would have been around 1968 or 1969. It just killed me.

    Comment by Amy — September 28, 2008 #

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