# Music that gives you chill bumps **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405 "2007-05-24T20:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/41 "2007-05-25T17:22:43Z")
Most recently? Kelly Clarkson (with Jeff Beck) singing Patty Griffin’s [**Up to the Mountain**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-4kdvXtjdY) (YouTube). It was worth the 2 hour ‘Idol Gives Back’ cheese-fest just to see that performance. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/42 "2007-05-25T17:26:13Z")
I’m surprised by the number of people who are deeply affected by _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_. What exactly does it for you? The fact that it tells a story – a good one at that – instead of blathering on with the usual I-love-you-but-you-don’t-love-me lyrics? Is it the music? It can’t be the music – pretty repetitive. Do any of you come from sea-faring families or from towns with a port? Personally, Lightfoot’s _Black Day in July_, _If You Could Read My Mind_ or even _Canadian Railroad Trilogy_ do it for me more than TWOTEF. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/43 "2007-05-25T17:30:10Z")
The very first little guitar part that begins the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star.” I actually participated in a group levitation of the Hampton Coliseum in 1989 when the played that during their second set. Too much for my brain. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/44 "2007-05-25T17:37:10Z")
_The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_ has an almost other worldly feel to it. It cuts across any differences we all might have and speaks directly to our loss. WHATEVER that loss my be. The loss of hope, the loss of innocence, the loss of loved ones … imho, ymmv ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/45 "2007-05-25T17:49:55Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] Most recently? Kelly Clarkson (with Jeff Beck) singing Patty Griffin’s [**Up to the Mountain**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-4kdvXtjdY) (YouTube). **It was worth the 2 hour ‘Idol Gives Back’ cheese-fest just to see that performance**. [/QUOTE] Worth it, and lost on most of their audience. The morning-after discussion here at my office (I didn’t participate) focused exclusively on whether or not Clarkson has gained weight. :rolleyes:x 1000 ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/46 "2007-05-25T18:51:59Z")
[QUOTE=Lunar Saltlick] I’m surprised by the number of people who are deeply affected by _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_. What exactly does it for you? The fact that it tells a story – a good one at that – instead of blathering on with the usual I-love-you-but-you-don’t-love-me lyrics? Is it the music? It can’t be the music – pretty repetitive. Do any of you come from sea-faring families or from towns with a port? [/QUOTE] I’m not sure, really. There’s no single thing I can attribute it to, certainly. I think the fact that the music _is_ repetitive is part of it. There’s a sort of bleak inevitability to it that plays into the tale of tragedy. The lyrics build on that, loaded with cold imagery and a sense of a timeless, uncaring killer. The song brings individuals to the fore just long enough for us to recognize them as people before they’re lost. Finally, it dwells on the mourners in the aftermath. Taken as a whole, it’s chilling. It makes you feel small and lost, somehow. I can’t tell you why that draws me to it, but I sometimes get a trace of the same feeling when looking at the stars, or when alone in a deep forest. Maybe it’s just a sense I have that there’s a little piece of Truth hidden there, somewhere. There’s a prayer I read once, “The sea is great, and my boat is small. Have mercy.” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/47 "2007-05-25T19:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” gives me a strange, eerie thrill. The first time I heard it, it was as if I were taking a mind-altering drug. [/QUOTE] Although I’ve now heard it hundreds of times in my life, I never seem to tire of listening to side two of _Abbey Road_, and there is a specific moment that still gives me a chill when I hear it: when the descending chord progression at the end of “Polythene Pam” segues into the opening line of “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.” What a cool transition in a great medley. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/48 "2007-05-25T19:09:38Z")
When the organ kicks in during the 4th movment of Saint Saens’ 3rd Symphony. From that point until the end. Words cannot describe it. ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/49 "2007-05-25T19:34:10Z")
[QUOTE=Honey] Knights in White Satin - Moody Blues [/QUOTE] and the entire soundtrack for **Braveheart** , but especially during the parts where (1) Princess Isabelle tells Longshanks, after he has lost the ability to speak, that “a child who is not of your line grows in my belly” and (2) when Little Girl Murron gives Little Boy William a freshly-picked thistle at his father’s funeral. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/50 "2007-05-25T19:44:55Z")
Repeating ACDC’s _For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)_ CSN’s _Southern Cross_ Adding _Holy Lamb_ by Yes _Shoot High, Aim Low_ by Yes _Leave It_ by Yes Lots more, but I’m listening to Yes right now, so… ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/51 "2007-05-25T20:00:00Z")
Neil Young’s _Needle and the Damage Done Sugar Mountain_ ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/52 "2007-05-26T00:01:22Z")
Since I got reminded of this in the what-is-a-remix-thread, the first 5 tracks on Armin van Buuren’s “Boundaries of Imagination”. ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405/53 "2007-05-26T01:39:36Z")
“Spokey Dokey” by Ryuichiro Senoo from the Cowboy Bebop anime series Junior Wells’ harp solo in “Messin’ With the Kid” (but only one version - all others suck). The same goes for James Cotton doing “Rocket 88”. Tom Waits singing “Shiver Me Timbers” (and a million other songs) Anything by Ben Prestage. The only guy I know who can go from Chet Atkins to R.L. Burnside in one song and make you want to cry for happiness listening to it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-gives-you-chill-bumps/405405.md?page=2)