My favorite moment would have to be when the Beatles and the Byrds sat down and did LSD together for the first time. Eight Miles High and Tomorrow Never Knows flowed from that session. That should be enough for anyone.
The soprano solo in the first movement of Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 doesn’t just give me chills, it causes what I will indelicately refer to as “music orgasm”. No, no mess, just lots and lots of shuddering.
The drum intro to One Little Victory by Rush.
Rush’s drummer, Neil Peart, lost his only daughter in a car crash in 1997. Then a few months later, he lost his wife to cancer. The band went on hiatus while Neil dealt with his grief, and nobody knew if they were ever going to do anything together again. Even the band didn’t know. If Neil had retired, so would have the band.
They finally returned to the studio in 2001, and in 2002 released Vapor Trails. The CD started right off with the pounding, enthusiastic sound of Neil beating his drums. Nothing else. Just drums. I got goosebumps when I heard it. Neil and Rush were back. Those drums were the most joyful sound I’d ever heard.
U2 - Holiday - at the very end “she’s running to stand…still”
Also love the very beginning of She Sells Sanctuary by the Cult.
Pictures of You by the Cure.
There is one remix, and I don’t know which one right off hand, but after the line “You were stone-white, so delicate, lost in the cold, you were always so lost in the dark.” the music drops out as he says “dark.” It’s beautiful. I swear there is another where everything drops out and the word dark echoes, but I can’t remember where that is from or if it’s a live version or what.
Crap. I also wanted to add this:
Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam (I noticed that the song has already been mentioned.), right after the chorus, Ed throws out what are probably the three most legible words in the song “Make me cry.” Right after that, Mike launches into his solo. This song (Hell, the band, in general.) is amazing live, BTW.
My favorite is from Ben Folds Five’s “Selfless Cold and Composed”. Pretty much the whole song is my favorite musical moment, but during the bridge (I supposed would be the correct name), where there are no vocals, I feel like I’m being wrapped in a giant blanket and my heart is being strummed. It’s so beautiful.
Your post is a little old, so I hope you’ll be back here to check, but, YES! I love them! And I love that song SO much.
The second verse of Helter Skelter as performed by The Bobs on their 1st CD (“The Bobs”).
The love duet in the second act of Saint-Saens’s “Samson et Dalila” just blows me away.
“Dalila! Dalila! Je t’aime!”
I’ve never heard “The Barber of Seville” but the Overture that they used for the Bugs Bunny cartoon just makes me burst with happiness.
Now, has anyone (besides me, of course) thought of burning a disk that’s just the best snippets of songs?
I’ve got to find the time to do this – heck, I’d even buy someone else’s … (yes, music fans – call now to order “Peyote Coyote’s Best Half Minutes” – 30 seconds each of 150 tunes, for only $18.95!)
Come to think of it, there are albums I hang onto just for “that bridge before the third verse (10cc)” or “that tasty guitar outro (Poco)” or “that one turn of phrase (Zappa)”.
Just a partial list:
1)*Monkey Wrench * by the Foo Fighters, the part where he starts screaming "One last thing before I quit…"and just when you think his voice is about to completely give out, he ends with “…and now I’m FREEEEEE” and he actually gets louder and higher in pitch.
2)Whiplash by Metallica; The whole part where he screams “Here we go!”, then the solo, then the whole thing stops just long enough for him to scream “Whiplash” once again;Hetfield literally sounds like a homicidal maniac at that point
Also, at the end of “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” where he sings"…hear them calling me" then lets out this EEEEVILLL little chuckle is a great moment.
3)The end of *You Can’t Always Get What You Want * by the **Rolling Stones ** where the choir kicks back in and just seems to keep getting higher and higher in pitch.
4)The very beginning of Art School by the Jam; Four huge power chords then Paul Weller’s blood-curdling"OneTwoFreeFoe"
5)The intro to the Ocean by Led Zeppelin that always gets cut out on the radio:“We’ve done four already but now we’re steady and then they went, 1,2,3,4”
6)The Grand Finale of 2112 by Rush; in addition to being a killer piece of music, there is an interesting “musical joke”–the words “attention all planets of the solar federation” are repeated three times(that’s 21 words total), followed by “We have assumed control”, also repeated three times(which adds up to 12).
21 and 12 = 2112 !
7)The opening riff to I’m So Cute by Frank Zappa is one of the greatest riffs ever, but the whole band sings it halfway through;
“A-ren-nen-nen-ah-ren-nen-nen
A-ren-nen-nen-uh-rennda
A-ren-nen-nen-ah-ren-nen-nen
A-rennda-rennda-rahhh”
Brilliant, especially considering they actually pirnt these lyrics on the sleeve.
8)The guitar throughout I Feel Like A Bullet(In The Gun Of Robert Ford) by Elton John is wonderfully melancholy but the lick at 4:01 is just so sad ,bitter ,whiny and majestic at the same time.
9)There’s a moment near the end of The Jack by AC/DC right before Bon Scott starts the call-and-response bit where he says either “hey” or “yeah” and it sounds like he just improvised the idea of the call-and-response on the spot.
Chris W
The bass opening to “Would?” is one of the best beginnings to a rock song, I’ve decided.
I totally agree with you on that one. There’s just something about the bass guitar that gets me.
Other faves of mine:
The slide guitar in Zeppelin’s “Bring It On Home”— divine!
In Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song,” the part right after the opening lyrics where the song really gets going. God, I love that song.
Percussion in Rush’s “The Trees,” "Subdivisions"and “Red Barchetta”— Neil Peart is not a mere drummer. He is a true percussionist.
In reality (my reality, at least…) there are far too many great moments in music to list. Those are just a few that I could think of off the top of my noggin. Cheers!
nuttygirl slide guitar in Bring it on Home? I don’t hear one. I am with you if you mean when they stop the pseudo delta blues intro thing and the LOUD RIFF comes in, brilliant. Page always manages to make the most of those moments.
And riserius1 I’m so Cute heehee, doesn’t that come just after the “gonna rammit, rammit, rammit, rammit up yer…” segment?
“Oo - I knew you’d be suprised” 
Hey, Clanger- Shit! I meant Travelling Riverside Blues on the BBC Sessions disc 1. As for the killer riff on Bring It On Home, that was my FIRST favorite Zeppelin moment… Followed years later by Riverside Blues. You prompted me to dig the cd out & play it… THANK YOU! I am SO jammin’ right now!
They said Clapton was God… NO FREAKIN’ WAY!
Ha ha ha, I had forgotten that! Thanks!
Well, who knew that one day I would have the perfect thread in the perfect forum to describe my favorite “moment” in music:
The cut “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” on The Beatles’ Abbey Road- turn it up at 1:15 and listen closely. At about 1:20 Paul sings “…writing fifty times I will not be so-oh-oh-oh” and there is the most perfect in music, right there, because right then he makes a little snort of laughter that lends a magnificent swell of warmth to his voice on the next couple of lines…Heaven! One of my favorite moments in singing, anyway.
I love the trumpet and trombone “dueling solos” at the end of “Beginnings”, but it mostly gives me goosebumps because I did NOT get to play it in high school.
I DID get to play the ending trombone solo to “25 or 6 to 4” which was a major feat for me, had I time to explain the circumstances.
Also, Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman…” when Eddie sings “I just want to scream/hello…” it’s amazing live. Can’t help but get emotional with 5,000 of your closest PJ friends.
One of many: The Eagles.
You can spend all your time making money
You can spend all your love making time
If it all fell to pieces tomorrow
Would you still be mine?
And when you’re looking for your freedom
(Nobody seems to care)
And you can’t find the door
(Can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back, you’re running back
You’re coming back for more
I can’t believe that I forgot the bridge in “Something” by, of course, the Beatles. The guitars climb up and then drop into Ringo tap-tapping on the drums, and then “You’re asking me will my love grow? I don’t know, I don’t know…” The vocals climb to the end of each line, and is that a viola in back there? Possibly the BEST, in my opinion, bridge in all of rock and roll.
I lack a well developed musical vocabulary, so I don’t know how well I’ll be able to express this, but:
1: Cyndi Lauper’s version of “I Drove All Night”: The second time she sings “This fever for you is just burning me up inside”, and stretches the last word out to three syllables.
2: “Be My Baby” by Ronnie Specter and the Ronnettes: The brief drum solo before the chorus, I think it happens just once in the song.
Whispered in the middle of A Very Cellular Song…
“amoebas are very small”