MetaChat - Good music, deconstructed

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12 June 2006

Good music, deconstructed →[More:]

Forget your favorite songs. What's your favorite piece of a song? Some little hidden part of it, music or lyric, that you may not hear on first listen, but that grabs you in an emotional way after the song becomes an old friend....

Four of mine:

The bass line: Mayor of Simpleton, XTC. It's so fluid and flighty at the same time.

The piano solo: Love Me or Leave Me, Nina Simone. This solo totally thrills me every damn time. And one of the things I love most is that there's a single sour note one bar before then end of the solo.

The mandolin part: Cry Love, John Hiatt. I especially love the part at the end when the strumming goes double time.

And the lyrics to Downtown Train, Tom Waits.

Outside another yellow moon
Has punched a hole in the nighttime

And...

The downtown trains are full with all of those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

Well you wave your hand and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that will ever capture your heart
They're just thorns without the rose

post by: mudpuppie at: 16:15 | 13 comments

That riff near the end of Maria Muldaur's 'Midnight At The Oasis'. Sublime.

posted by essexjan 12 June | 16:22

Jane's Addiction: Ocean Size, right when Perry Farrell goes 2!...3!...4! and the whole song goes apeshit. Same with Three Days after the percussion break and he sings "EROTIC JESUS!"

Janes' Addiction is nothing but little moments adding up to one titanic musical orgasm.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 12 June | 16:24

THEN GOD IS SEVEN! THEN GOD IS SEVEN!

posted by jokeefe 12 June | 16:24

Here's 'Midnight At The Oasis'. The part I love best (the whole song is wonderful) comes in at 3.13.

posted by essexjan 12 June | 16:47

jokeefe, that's one of my favorites.

posted by matildaben 12 June | 16:57

I love the bit in the bridge of Jawbreaker's Accident Prone where the crescendo builds, the snare drum beat speeds up. The guitar streaks in overhead like an F-4 Phantom on a napalm run, and the bass follows on, kicking like bomb impacts.. It comes in at about 4:50. Play it loud.

Come to think of it, I love every single second of Jawbreaker's final two albums.

posted by Triode 12 June | 16:59

Don't you know nothin'? You ain't never going to tell on someone.

posted by overanxious ducksqueezer 12 June | 19:38

Yesss, jokeefe.

Almost every single song I like has that moment. It's usually a drum kick or a bass line.

posted by muddgirl 12 June | 21:13

The guitar solo in Neil Young's Dangerbird

posted by danf 12 June | 21:38

The first 45 seconds of Monkey Man by the Rolling Stones.

posted by Divine_Wino 12 June | 23:34

That swirling chant of nonsense lyrics at the very end of Morphine's "The Night" -- You're the paint can falling off the wall at the door that slams at the end of the hall where the kid rings sounds of basketball. The battle of the earth of the angels. The shifting snow drifts so realistic, so realistic - call you carpet of stars. See there is something in the yard. It's awful dark. With the painted strings, the cross, the good luck charm, the prayer, the extra layer.

posted by grabbingsand 13 June | 07:11

That one note guitar solo in Cinnamon Girl-- no matter how many times I hear it, my heart still turns over.

posted by jokeefe 13 June | 12:51

The way the drums and the guitar drone so ever slightly crescendo in Cloisterphobia by Thee More Shallows - until it is totally kicking your ass. Should be played loud for best effect.

posted by matildaben 13 June | 20:08

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