When music gives you goosebumps.

There was a thread on reddit today that asked what songs give you goosebumps. I meant to leave a single suggestion and ended up getting a bit carried away, and writing a stream-of-consciousness list of what I think are some truly great moments in music history. My list below. Add yours under it.

2009-07-01T00:45:32-04:00

<ul> <li>Just about every single song on Arcade Fire’s first album.</li> <li>Most of Springsteen’s The Wild, The Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle, but especially the call-and-return climax of KItty’s Back, getting stuckin the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey in Rosalita (the whole verse), and but I know that she won’t take that train in NYC Serenade</li> <li>The first five notes of Everything in It’s Right Place by Radiohead.</li> <li>“Yeah for a miiiinute… I lost myself” on Radiohead’s Karma Police</li> <li>The first chorus/crescendo of Bon Iver’s “Creature Fear” when the floor tom kicks in. The whole song, really, from the first note… but especially that part. And hell, most of Skinny Love while we’re on Bon Iver.</li> <li>“Would you like to hear my voice, sprinkled with emotion” from Nirvana Unplugged doing Meat Puppet’s Oh Me.</li> <li>Both crescendo’s in The Beatles’ Day in the Life</li> <li>Orbital’s Adnan’s. While it’s raining.</li> <li>Bjork’s Cocoon. While it’s snowing.</li> <li>Underworld’s “Jumbo” while dancing in a large crowd of people on drugs in the sunlight.</li> <li>Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eye’s.” While I’m holding a boom box over my head.</li> <li>The entirety of Beethoven’s 9th – 5th movement (chorale)</li> <li>All the more intense movements of Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons (Summer, Movement 1 and 3, Winter Movement 1 and 3) — especially as performed by Nigel Kennedy and his chamber orchestra recorded in 89</li> <li>The opening notes of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue</li> <li>CHristmas Time is Here performed by Vince Guaraldi on the CHarlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.</li> <li>Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Just… the whole goddam thing. Repeatedly.</li> <li>“Just like witches and black masses” by Sabbath in War Pigs</li> <li>From the few few chords to the last few yelps of Tom Waits’ “Come on Up to the House.” Also, the entirety of his song Picture in a Frame, but I danced to that with my wife at our wedding, so that might just be me.</li> <li>When the beat kicks in on Death Cab’s “Different names for the same thing.” Chills all up and down.</li> <li>The entirety of Godspeed You Black Emperor!’s Lift your Skinny Fists</li> <li>Lightning Bolt’s “Dead Cowboy”… somewhere in the middle, it hits me and I think I have a seizure, my eyes roll way back into my head, and see the face of god exploding over and over like fireworks</li> <li>Animals Collective’s Fireworks.</li> <li>Somewhere in the middle of Steve Reich’s “Pulses” I have a reaction quite similar to Lighting Bolt’s dead cowboy, only God is made of recursive lamba functions.</li> <li>Bob Marley’s “Jamming.” Makes me feel like a kid again.</li> <li>Nine Inch Nails’ Eraser. Though maybe not like it used to since I lost all that teen angst.</li> <li>The moment Jeff Magnum yawlps “I am listening to hee-yaaaar where youuuuuaaaaarrre” in Neutral Milk Hotel’s Two-Headed Boy</li> <li>“And I tell you like before! You should say his name the way that he said yours! But you don’t wanna say his name anymore!” in Black by Okkervil River. I actually got goosebumps typing it.</li> <li>Randy Newman’s “Old Man.” And then I think about my Dad and cry.</li> <li>Red House Painters’ “Have You Forgotten.”</li> <li>“Too late to turn back now! We’re running out of sound!” from the Smashing Pumpkins’ Galapagos</li> <li>The Talking Heads’ “Once In A Lifetime” for being the pinnacle of modern music.</li> </ul> 70554 false When music gives you goosebumps.

2009-07-02T11:43:57-04:00