I’ve had a lot of these over the years. I call them ‘tingle moments’ because they send a little tingle through me every time I hear the song.
I agree about the drum bit in Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight.”
In Peter Gabriel’s “Signal to Noise,” starting at 5:36, I absolutely love the crescendo with the pounding drums.
The opening synth riff in Rush’s “Subdivisions.”
More Rush choices:
In “Nobody’s Hero,” the line “…is the pride of purpose/in the unrewarding job.”
In “Manhattan Project,” the line “…the pilot of Enola Gay/flying out of the shockwave on that August day…”
In “Far Cry,” “One day I fly through a crack in the sky, and the next it’s fallin’ in on me.”
In Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung,” the part that begins, “do you still remember December’s foggy freeze…” (especially “and the flowers bloom like madness in the spring.”)
In “The Farthest Star” by VNV Nation, “…embrace the void even closer still…”
Alan Parsons Project, “What Goes Up,”: “that the wonders you’ve made in your life will be seen by the millions who follow to visit the site of your dream.”
Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams are Made of This” - the synth riff at the beginning.
I’m sure I’ll think of a dozen more of these after I post this. I love these little moments.
More sections than moments…starting at 2:00…starting at 8:47 (culminating in what may be the longest drum fill ever:p)…Alex at 1:10.
The layered vocals in the chorus to Dillinger Escape Plan’s “Unretrofied”.
Possibly the most tingly moment, like, evar: the armpit fart at 2:42 in Killdozer’s “The Puppy”. Beautiful.
Lovely trade-off vox in the Butthole Surfer’s “The O-Men” at 0:29.
More B.S.: “Pass me some of that dumbass over there - hey bubba, I tell ya.” at 1:43. (“Lady Sniff”) and the perfectly useless (and quite possibly the only) drum machine solo ever at 15:06 (“Booze, Tobacco, Dope, Pussy, Cars”)
In most of Abba’s songs there is some small thing that particularly grabs me. In Chiquitita, a song about helping someone after a difficult time (grief or a breakup or something), there is a beautiful bit during the line in the chorus “…you and I cry” that gets me every time. Love it!
I stand woefully corrected - that’s just a guitar peel, not like the aforementioned Steve Howe harmonics at 8:12.
Oh - and which kicks off “Red Barchetta”.
Two “Benny and the Jets” thingies: the whistle at 4:07 and his awesomely atonal piano break at 4:35.
Everybody’s all-time favourite moment - Minnie, at 0:59.
The chirping birdies are nice, too.
I have been obsessed with Brandi Carlile’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” lately, and while I like everything about it, there is this tiny delay or lift or something in a descending series of notes in the piano intro, which is later picked up and repeated a few times in the strings. (Example at about 4:38 of the closing instrumentals after 4:20 on.) https://youtu.be/W-8eusALPRk
The Machine is a Dutch stoner band par excellence. One of my favorite songs of theirs is called 5 & 4 and it also has one of my very favorite parts of any song, ever. Everything stops for a split second and the drummer punctuates the silence with a quick, crisp cymbal-bell hit. It’s delicious and funny and just fucking NAILS it for me every time I hear it. Best of all, it’s repeated 3 times during the song:
Great thread, and some great instances so far. I will try to list some favorites without repeating any.
Warren Zevon’s “UUNHH!” in the coda of “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” after the second refrain.
Steve Winwood’s organ playing under the final chorus of “Voodoo Child” (12:12). There’s also a moment (around 5:12 in) when Jimi pulls what was probably the widest whammy-bar bend anyone had done up to that point.
The moment in XTC’s “Dear Madam Barnum” when the 12-string guitar enters on the second verse.
Very subtle thing, but in the stereo mix of the Beatles’ “Every Little Thing,” during the intro, in the left channel, you can hear John softly tapping the body of his acoustic, counting himself in for his entrance.
Just before the sax coda on “That Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore” by Los Lobos, Cesar Rosas mutters a quick “Shucks!”
Keith Moon’s off-mic (but still audible) roar before he comes barreling back in on “Substitute.”
The wacky, four-note piano intro to “The Word” (Beatles again)
There’s a particular chord progression in the bridge of Elvis Costello’s “New Amsterdam” when it goes Em > A > E. Going from a minor to a major so deftly just knocks me out.
In the version of “Million Miles Away” from Irish Tour '74, Rory Gallagher hits a harmonic, then bends the string behind the nut to make it wobble. Such a cool little thing.
There are more, but I gotta get back to work.
I was told that in recording studio jargon, these are called “mice.” Syd Barrett’s solo output is littered with them, and the “Wish You Were Here” intro is a deliberate evocation of Syd’s style.
Hopefully the final entry from the Tedious Self-Correction Dept.:
Actually Howe is just playing two very, very high notes.
more Beatles:
Lovely Rita: the shuffling sound (shaker?) at 0:41. Or maybe aroused hyperventilation - either way, gives the song a little bit of racey, goofy momentum.
Before “Taxman” starts, George(?) stealthily goes “one, two three, four, one, two” and immediately Paul (?) yells “go!” and the song kicks right in. Nice little cough in there, too.
In “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”, this salsa (bossa nova?) passage comes to a down-and-dirty 1-2-3 stop, followed by a simply scorching (almost cathartically emphatic, dare I say) “OOO!” from Paul and John, at 1:37. ok - to split hairs - I think Paul goes “ooo!” just a goat-hair before John yells “Oh!”
Heh despite the fact that it was probably John who yelled “Oh!” first, I also missed a couple better moments in Name/Number: John(?) quietly goin’ “yeah” at 3:02, seguing into the pokey piano run, seguing into some terry-cloth-table-lounge of the greasiest, awesomest kind, and lastly, that constipated, Frank Booth-sounding “OOOOOOO-yeh!..OOOOOOOOO-yeh!” (or whatever the hell those grunts are) starting around 3:42.
Guest, in Taxman Paul shouts “four,” not “go.” Paul actually says the entire real count-in “one two three four,” but the first three words are hard to hear under the last part of the slow, fake count-in.
When the Commodores first kick in at the beginning of “You Are.”
The way the miracles are singing behind Smoky in “Tears of a Clown.” They’re doing their own song behind him while he does his own lyrics up front.
The little “Woo Woo!” of the Pips during “Midnight Train To Georgia.”