I am enough of a David Bowie fan but not a rabid deep fan.
I am enough of a David Byrne fan but not a rabid deep fan.
For some reason this performance just wrecks me. Perhaps it is the layered generations of civilians singing with love, pain, joy, honesty and soul. Perhaps it is what David does with David’s composition.
Here’s David Byrne and a chorus of fans singing David Bowie’s “Heroes” at Joe’s Pub in NYC.
What’s your easy cry?
Oh god, too many to mention. But off the top of my head I’d go with Bridge Over Troubled Water. Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven is also a strong one.
Dylan’s Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts and in particular, the line near the end: Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair. I’m not quite sure why, but it has since I first got that great album. It’s a long song, and I love the narrative story-telling and all the drama, but the way he sings that one line gets me.
The similar thread I started 21 years ago:
Braddah Iz’s version of What a Wonderful World does that to me. I put together my brother’s memorial service, and the service opened and closed with that. I still can’t hear it without my eyes welling up.
“The Last Time I Saw Her Face” by Gordon Lightfoot, especially this last part…
*The last time I saw her face
Her eyes were bathed in starlight
And she walked alone
The last time she kissed my cheek
Her lips were like the wilted leaves
Upon the autumn covered hills
Resting on the frozen ground
The seeds of love lie cold and still
Beneath a battered marking stone
It lies forgotten*
I can think of two, offhand. “Being Alive” from Company (situational: I saw the show just about the time I had an engagement fall apart), and Springsteen’s “The Rising” once I realized what it was about.
Two for me. First, the live version of Van Morrison’s “Listen To The Lion” on “It’s Too Late To Stop Now”. The studio version already was very intense, but this version is 9 minutes of drama. And at the finish of the song, a woman in the audience cries out “All right!” like after a catharsis. This cry gets me every time.
The other is Kurt Cobain’s rendition of the folk classic “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (In The Pines) on MTV Unplugged. Here, you see a tortured man, giving all he has to give and making the strongest statement of his whole career. In a shabby cardigan, sitting on a chair playing acoustic guitar. A few months later, he was no more.
