My choice is the version of “Mansion On The Hill” on Bruce Springsteen’s “Live In NY City” album. It opens with some absolutely lovely slide guitar work by Nils Lofgren. And then Bruce starts singing and he is filled with emotion as he tells the tale of the lyrics. There are some absolutely stunning harmony vocals and then the band drops off for a verse and the twenty thousand people in Madison Square Gardens are silent as he sings a capella. The song ends on a falsetto yodel that complements the arrangement perfectly.
So what is your nomination?
I think I’d have to say either “Speedway” or “Chelsea” by Counting Crows. “Speedway” sums up my feelings on life at the moment, and “Chelsea” is just all around beautiful…piano and horns working in perfect union.
Sample lyrics:
Speedway-
“In all this time
The bottom line’s you don’t know how much I feel
You say you see
Well, I don’t agree
You don’t know…don’t know how I feel”
Chelsea:
“It’s good for everybody
To hurt somebody once in a while
But the things I do to people I love
Shouldn’t be allowed…
Is anything different these days?
The light in her eyes goes out
I’ve never had light in my eyes anyway…
I dream I’m in New York City some nights
Angels flow down from all the buildings
Something about an angel just kills me
I keep hoping something will”
Prior to this weekend, Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. So beautiful it makes me cry every time I hear it.
After this weekend, Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden (although I’ve heard an unbelievable a capella version that isn’t them). Because this is now what I consider to be “our song” for my SO and me. It just says exactly what I feel.
Come on, people, get serious. This is about beautiful songs. Let’s deal with somthing with a haunting melody and heartfelt lyrics that has some significance in life. As middle age slips away my vote is for “The Parting Glass” sung by some whisky vioced old Mick with a tear in his eye and a lump in his throat.
Oh, all the money that e're I spent,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm that e're I done'
Alas it was to none but me,
And all I've done for lack of wit
To memory now I can't recall.
So fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be with you all.
Oh, all the comrads that e're I had
Are sorry now I'm going away,
And all the sweethearts that e're I had
Would wish me one more day to stay.
But since it falls unto my lot
That I must rise and you should not,
I'll gently rise and softly call
Goodnight and joy be with you all.
If I didn’t think that the righteous would creat a spectacle to the dishonor of the whole congregation, I’d have that sung at my funeral, preferably as the moldering corpse in drug out to the dead wagon.
“Tonight We Fly” by the Divine Comedy. Tonight we fly
over the mountains, the beach and the sea
over the friends that we’ve known
and those that we now know
and those whom we’ve yet to meet
and when we die
will we be that disappointed or sad
if heaven doesn’t exist
what will we have missed?
This life is the best we’ve ever had