Henry Rollins’s “I know You” monologue with Nine Inch Nail’s “A Warm Place” in the background.
“Answering Machine” – The Replacements
“Fire and Rain” – James Taylor
“This Perfect World” – Freedy Johnston
As a sometimes professional musician, I am honored that you made your first post at these boards to my music thread.
Welcome to the Straight Dope!
- I’m sure that nobody knows this song, but I’m gonna have to go with “Who Wants To Live Forever” by Queen. The thing that makes this song so amazing is that it was recorded right before Freddie Mercury died, and it sounds as though he might be trying to convince himself that it might not be so bad. Or so Behind the Music tells me.
- "On the Turning Away " by Pink Floyd. The live version, though. The instrumental break is longer and better than the studio version.
- “Rainy Days and Mondays” by The Carpenters. Yeah, I know, I’m a sentimental shmuck.
- “Promises” by Eric Clapton. It’s a pretty sad song if you really listen to it.
- Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You” is a fantastic song that I’m convinced nobody’s ever heard of.
xanadu it’s strange that you think that no one has ever heard of those songs, I thought both were fairly well known, perhaps thats just me though.
Maybe I’m just asking the wrong people, but those two songs didn’t exactly get much airplay, so that’s probably why they’re not so well known.
A lot of Randy Newman’s stuff, especially most of the concept album of Faust. Sail Away and, perhaps most chilling of all, In Germany Before the War, which has not one violent word in it but is about a real-life child-killer.
The Tony-winning Best Musical of 1997, Titanic–Maury Yeston, NOT that damn movie. Particularly “No Moon”, “To the Lifeboats”, and “Mr. Andrew’s Vision”.
Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt.
Brahms’ German Requeim.
Oh yeah, while both are pretty spine-tingling, the instrumental parts of sequel Fly Away are even better than those of Wings of Desire.
Sondheim’s Follies, esp. the opening sequence and “One More Kiss”, started by an ancient showgirl in a wheelchair who is joined in a duet by her younger “ghost” self.
“I’m looking at the river but I’m thinking of the sea…”
Kim by Eminem, is as graphic account of domestic violence as one can create.
Pop/rock: all of these at http://www.geocities.com/hennieschaper.
Classic: Bach (most of his compositions), Mahler (especially Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde), Brahms (mainly his chamber music), Schubert (Unvollendete and many songs), so many many others…
Gustav Holst’s Planets symphony, every single last goddamn piece. From the opening percussive riff of “Mars” to the brilliantly fluttering launch of “Jupiter,” from the opening blast of “Uranus” to the haunting fadeout of “Neptune,” the whole thing transports me almost physically to a different place.
“Jesus Christ Pose” by Soundgarden
“Seasons in the Abyss” by Slayer
“Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me)” by Portishead
Another vote for “Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor” by J.S. Bach
“Possum Kingdom” by The Toadies
“We Die Young” by Alice in Chains
“Bleed the Freak” by Alice in Chains
“Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in my Hand” by Primitive Radio Gods
“6 Underground” by Sneaker Pimps
“Blue Angel” by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Must… not… make… stupid… pun…
[sup]
[BART]
MAKE… IT… UP… TO… SATAN… LATER…
[/BART]
[/SUP]
Thanks for reminding me of this one, Cervaise. I find the Mars theme the most striking (NPI).
Rachmaninoff.
He shakes me—he quakes me—he makes me feel goose-pimply all over!
I don’t know who I am—or where I am—or what I’m doing!
Don’t stop—don’t stop—don’t ever stop!
. . . Oh, I’m sorry, what were we talking about again?
Okay, that’ll be enough out of YOU, Miss Kowalczyk.
Rachmaninoff’s tone poem THE ISLE OF THE DEAD is actually one I was going to cite.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Seventh Symphony, or “Symphonia Antartica,” which originated as the film score of SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC.
“La Nevada,” the first cut on the classic Gil Evans Orchestra LP OUT OF THE COOL.
Cheryl Barnes’s electrifying version of “Easy To Be Hard” from the movie adaptation of Hair
“Mild und Leise” (the Liebestod) from Tristan und Isolde
The instrumental break in “Time” from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with Dave Gilmour’s guitar soaring above the keyboards
Jennifer Holliday singing “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls
The opening trio between Gandhi, Krishna, and Arjuna in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha
“Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana
The keyboard instrumental break in “Forever Autumn” from Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds
“Viens, Mallika” from Leo Delibes’s Lakme
Bagpipes.
Many, many songs by Pink Floyd, including those already listed by others.
Man of Constant Sorrow, by the Soggy Bottom Boys.
The Star Wars Theme at the beginning of the movie when I saw The Phantom Menace in the theater did it for me. But just that one time. I’m not THAT big of a geek…
Bonny Portmore by Loreena McKennit
The Foggy Dew - the version the Chieftains recorded with Sinead O’Connor
That mostly covers it.
I wrote that line and stared at it for a minute or two, wondering if I should comment on it myself (something like, “Save your snickers, please”). Then I decided to leave it in as a test, to see which Dopers wouldn’t be able to resist. Congratulations; you can pick up your scratch-and-sniff buttcrack sticker at my desk after class. 
Oh, and if we’re mentioning Pink Floyd, gotta give props to “Great Gig in the Sky.”
And one more that’s worth mentioning: the orchestral movement toward the end of Mannheim Steamroller’s “Fresh Aire V,” the outer-space one. Steamroller is mostly a bunch of rhythmic new-agey hoo-hoo, but I think Chip Davis outdid himself on this particular piece.
Zenster, your tastes are admirable…I wholeheartedly agree and second your choices. I’d like to add that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony gives me chills the entire way through, and on a related note, the theme from “A Clockwork Orange” does it for me, too.
Oh, and the aria from "La Wally” by Vladimir Cosma, as performed by soprano Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez is simply stunning.
My comrade in Replacements and Husker Du culthood, Woodstockbirdybird, will go with “Here Comes A Regular” by the former and “Diane” by the latter.