I was having a conversation with a friend last night about music. Naturally these things are bound to happen when your life — in some regards — revolves around it. Our conversation started with him asking whether I still played guitar. I responded in the affirmative. He then asked about songs I like to play, and I answered as honestly as I could.
“My own.” Which probably deserves a explanation. For brevity’s sake I’ll just say that I didn’t intend to sound vain. I don’t think the songs I’ve written in are good. I just enjoy playing them, changing things around, tweaking and developing them over time. I don’t really have a plan or a goal with them, but I wrote them at different points in my life so they mean something to me and it’s fun to keep up with them.
Anyway, I almost immediately said, “No, just kidding” (because who wants to explain all that to someone who doesn’t care) and started providing YouTube links to other people’s songs I like to play. Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die,” Elliott Smith’s “Last Call,” Leonard Cohen’s “The Stranger Song”, Harry Nilsson’s “I’ll Never Leave You” (okay, that’s on piano, but whatever, same idea). It went on for a while. The conversation then turned to a more general discussion of what kinds of music we like and why.
I, of course, lead with Leonard Cohen, who I think is a God among men when it comes to his talents as a songwriter, poet and author. I don’t think anyone else during his lifetime has had as incredible a grasp on the English language than him. Beyond that, a huge number of his songs contain specific moments (either musically or lyrically) that never fail to elicit emotions from me.
As it turns out, I think a lot of the music I enjoy hinges on those moments. Whether it’s rock, folk, or metal…whether it’s some a turn of phrase or a 45-minute drone piece that hangs on one note, there are specific moments that make certain songs (and the people who composed/wrote said songs) special.
For example:
- “Rake” by Townes Van Zandt [MP3] – If you took the ten best Townes songs and put them on one CD you would probably have the greatest singer/songwriter album ever. In fact I think I should create such a compilation this week for you, especially if you’re unfamiliar with his immense body of work. The thing that made Townes such a genius was his ungodly simple-yet-complex lyrics. Most of his lines are light on syllables, allowing one-and-two syllable words to extend over the music, simple, unpretentious and incredibly evocative: “I buried my face but it spoke once again / The night to the day we’re a bindin’ / And now the dark air is like fire on my skin / And even the moonlight is binding.” Incredible. The juxtaposition of the first two lines to those low-cello tones and the slowly swelling strings (on the studio version, are they on the live version? I don’t even remember)…that’s a moment.
- “Flatlands” by Chelsea Wolfe [YouTube] – I think I’ve written about this before. I used to use this as my cool down song after long-runs during marathon training, and then had it queued up three times in a row after crossing the finish line at the last Vegas marathon. The moment here is the building violins and the shift in the vocal melody after at the two-minute mark. The song is (I think?) played with the guitar tuned down a full step, and after a repetitive C-A-ish (it’s not quite A-minor, is it?) picking pattern that’s a bit on the dour side, the latter part of the song adds a crucial Em-G chord change that ends each successive line on a major chord. The transition from “sad” chord to “happy” chord set against those strings? That’s a moment.
- “Steep Hills Of Vicodin Tears” by A Winged Victory For The Sullen [YouTube] – There are numerous Stars Of The Lid compositions in their discography that I adore, but the undulating ebb and flow and the distant piano notes in this one get me every time. It’s rare that you’ll hear a song without a rhythm section have a PULSE to it. Beautiful. Or, you know, maybe I just have a thing for violins.
- “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre [YouTube] – My ex introduced me to Eric Whitacre — and “Sleep” — as she song it once with a school chorus or something. I don’t really remember. I just remember the dissonance and how utterly brilliant I thought it was the first time I heard this song. That hanging “soon” at the 55-second mark, seemingly moving in and out of phase? Glorious. The whole section that begins with “If there are noises” is out of this fucking world. Listen to the droning notes there, the completely lack of consonant chords, the interplay between soprano and…uh..alto? I’m really bad at picking this stuff out. Then the sopranos drop out completely and provide a subtle drone before building up to that gorgeous “Then I surrender up to sleep” where the sopranos hit seemingly inhuman high notes (I heard my ex hit them a few times singing along with it — kind of shocking). That “If these are noises” section is a definite moment.
- “Kick It” by Pinebender [YouTube] – C’mon. These guys were so fucking loud I felt like I was listening to an extended white-noise orgasm. Chris Hansen’s vocal delivery during this song is top-notch. The baritone guitar “bass line” with those oh-so-slight harmonics keeping time? The distorted refrain following “All that I see / what do I know” and “All that you see / I already know” lines? So good. You could argue the “Tell me what I want to know” part is a little Emo, but forget the words, focus on the sound of the voice as an instrument playing against the super low-end, and then enjoy to the angular “math rock” outro and you won’t think twice about it. That outro is a moment.
What about you, reader? What’s your favorite moment?
