what are the most beautiful songs you know?

[mark414]

i am talking about jeff buckley 'hallelujah' beautiful...sam cooke 'a change gonna come' beautiful...billie holiday 'strange fruit' (hauntingly) beautiful

what are the most beautiful songs you know?

[hickman]

1. I've got to agree with Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah".

The only other song that comes to mind right now is Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces". I'd have to think about this awhile. Oh, and The Manhattans "Kiss and Say Goodbye".

[Rambis]

56. Helplessly hoping and Find the cost of freedom CSNY

nuff said

[driver8]

70. I like Rufus Wainwright's version better.

It absolutely gives me chills.

Leonard Cohen wrote that song...not Jeff Buckley.

[mark414]

71. john cale did a great version too

and i know that cohen wrote it...i like buckley's version best though

[driver8]

72. I have not heard John Cale's version -- I will definitely check it out. I

think "Hallelujah" is a great song no matter who is singing it!! (Well, with a few exceptions...)

[datasuspect]

2. "if something is wrong with my baby"

by sam and dave.

[graywarrior]

3. Famous Blue Raincoat ~ Leonard Cohen

But that's today. Tomorrow, it will be something else.

[skygazer]

4. I've always thought "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" is beautiful

Something about it, in every version I've heard.

[alfredo]

5. "Round Midnight"

Miles Davis' version will send chills down your spine.

http://www.amazon.com/Round-About-Midnight-Miles-Davis/...

Look down the page for a sound snippet. The clip is not that good, but you might get an idea. Sung or played on piano or muted trumpet is fine with me, just take your time and let the feeling happen.

[SnohoDem]

13. Flamenco Sketches

from "Kind of Blue" can make me cry. Well, actually it's Bill Evans' piano solo that makes me cry. So few notes, so much beauty.

[alfredo]

25. "Kind of Blue" is probably the best all round jazz album.

"Native Dancer" by Wayne Shorter is another must have CD.

Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" has one of the sweetest guitar hooks.

"Guess Who I Saw Today" by Nancy Wilson will break your heart

"Paris" by Jonatha Brooke is another song that will stay with you a long time.

"Lowdown" by Tracey Nelson is a classic

"Be My Husband" Nina Simone "Blue Indigo" will rip your head off. It's from her "Little Girl Blue" album her first. The best version of "Be My Husband" is on her Pastel Blues album. It has the more fire than later versions. Her piano work was so crisp.

"Umhome" Mariam Makeba Another song "Yeta su Tissanny" (phonetic spelling) from her first album is so sexy.

"Worksong" Nat Adderly and also the vocal by Oscar Brown Jr.

"Mas Que Nada" Sergio Mendez

"Yesterday" Lennon & McCartney

Just about anything by Paul Simon. His writing is so good.

"Stardust" Hoagie Charmichael

[SnohoDem]

26. We obviously have similar taste

I've looked for a better jazz album than 'Kind of Blue' for thirty years now. Never found it. Jonatha Brooke - so happy to see another fan - "So Much Mine" breaks my heart. "Yesterday" - I'm old enough to have heard when it was new, and so was I. Paul Simon, Sergio Mendez, Nina Simone, Niel Young, et al. Miriam Makeba! Do you remember her first American hit about '65 or '66? I can't spell the words, even phonetically, but I still remember the sound.

[alfredo]

59. I met Mariam in the Dakar airport in Oct 1969.

She calmed my fears over returning to the US. I was so disenchanted with the war and other things I learned while in Africa that I didn't want to return. She said I was needed back home to stand up against the government.

I remember Harry Belafonte introducing her first US TV performance. I fell in love immediately.

Brooke is one of those hidden treasures. Her writing is so good. The arrangements superb. She was a professional dancer before her musical career. She was discovered by a famous director. I can't remember his name.


John Vanderslice is also a man who writes real feeling music. His musicianship and arrangements are top drawer. I'd put him on a suicide watch.


I also remember the Beatles first release, "From Me To You." It hit 22 on the Billboard charts. I knew they would be huge. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was their first hit.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. "The Highwayman" -Loreena McKennitt

The wind was a torrent of darkness
among the ghastly trees
the moon was a ghostly galleon
tossed upon the cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight
over the purple moor
when the highwayman came riding,
riding, riding,
the highwayman came riding
up to the old inn door.

He'd a french cocked hat at his forehead
a bunch of lace at his chin
a coat of claret velvet
and breeches of brown doe-skin
They fitted with nary a wrinkle
his boots were up to the thigh
and he rode with a jeweled twinkle
his pistol butts a-twinkle
his rapier hilt a-twinkle
under the jeweled sky.

And over cobbles he clattered
and clashed in the dark inn-yard
and he tapped with his whip on the shutters
but all was locked and barred
He whistled a tune to the window
and who should be waiting there
but the landlord's black-eyed daughter
Bess, the landlord's daughter
plaiting a dark red love knot
into her long black hair.

"One kiss my bonny sweetheart,
I'm after a prize tonight
But I should be back with the yellow gold
before the morning light
Yet if they press me sharply
and harry me through the day
Then look for me by the moonlight,
watch for me by the moonlight
I'll come to thee by the moonlight
though hell should bar the way."

He rose up right in the stirrups
he scarce could reach her hand
But she loosened her hair in the casement
his face burned like a brand
As a black cascade of purfume
came tumbling over his breast
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight
oh, sweet waves in the moonlight
He tugged at his rein in the moonlight
and galloped away to the west.

He did not come at the dawning
he did not come at noon
and out of the tawny sunset
before the rise of the moon
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon
looping the purple moor
a redcoat troop came marching
marching, marching,
King George's men came marching
up to the old inn door.

They said no word to the landlord
they drank his ale instead
but they gagged his daughter and bound her
to the foot of her narrow bed
Two of them knelt at the casement
with muskets at their side
There was death at every window
Hell at one dark window
for Bess could see through the casement
the road that he would ride.

They had tied her up to attention
with many a sniggering jest
They had bound a musket beside her
with the barrel beneath her breast
"Now keep good watch" and they kissed her
she heard the dead man say
"Look for me by the moonlight
watch for me by the moonlight
I'll come to thee by the moonlight
though hell should bar the way."

She twisted her hands behind her
but all the knots held good!
but she writhed her hands 'til her fingers
were wet with sweat or blood
They stretched and strained in the darkness
and the hours crawled by like years
till now on the stroke of midnight
Cold on the stroke of midnight
the tip of her finger touched it
the trigger at least was hers.

Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot had they heard it?
The horse's hooves rang clear
Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot in the distance
were they deaf they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight
over the brow of the hill
The highwayman came riding,
riding, riding,
The redcoats looked to their priming
she stood up straight and still.

Tot-a-lot in the frosty silence
Tot-a-lot in the echoing night
nearer he came and nearer
her face was like a light
Her eyes grew wide for a moment
she drew a last deep breath
Then her finger moved in the moonlight
her musket shattered the moonlight
shattered her breast in the moonlight
and warned him with her death.

He turned, he spurred to the west
he did not know she stood
bowed with her head o'er musket
drenched with her own red blood
Not till the dawn he heard it
his face grew grey to hear
how Bess the landlord's daughter
the landlord's black-eyed daughter
Had watched for her love in the moonlight,
and died in the darkness there.

And back he spurred like a madman
shrieking a curse to the sky!
With the white road smoking behind him
and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon
wine-red was his velvet coat
When they shot him down in the highway
down like a dog on the highway
And he lay in his blood in the highway
with a bunch of lace at his throat.

Still on a winter's night they say
when the wind is in the trees
When the moon is a ghostly galleon
tossed upon the cloudy seas
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight
over the purple moor
a highwayman comes riding,
riding, riding,
a highwayman comes riding
up to the old inn door.

[SnohoDem]

11. I think the words are from a very old poem

I remember this from Junior High:

"the moon was a ghostly galleon
tossed upon the cloudy seas"

and that before they invented air.

That said, I really like Loreena McKennitt.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. They are, but it's still beautiful the way she sings them. nt

[badgerpup]

35. "The Highwayman" original poem was by Alfred Noyes...

but Loreena Mckennit does make those old legends come to life...

[vixengrl]

37. I'm gonna call up a song she does so well--

"Bonny Portmore".

Oh yeah it's beloved to like, Highlander fans (of which I am seriously one), but damn, beautiful the way she does it. Old legends come to life indeed.


O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before

All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, Where shall we shelter, where shall we sleep?
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore.


I'm half Hibernian, and it gets me, it does.

[sarge43]

54. The poem was written by Alfred Noyes in 1906 n/t

[Hand]

7. "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers.

It's an acapella piece. Heartbreakingly lonely song, especially with Stan's mighty baritone.


1: Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

2: Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

3: And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

4: How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

[hippywife]

8. There are many but two come to mind

at the moment. No three!

Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison
Asking Us To Dance by Kathy Mattea
A Few Good Things Remain also by Kathy Mattea

[Elidor]

9. The Rustle of Spring, by Christian Sinding

A 3-minute piano piece which I will never tire of.

[NNadir]

10. The most beautiful piece of music I know is John Abercrombie's

"Timeless."

[Lady President]

14. A couple more

When I read the title, the first song I thought of was Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah"-- beautiful, eerie....

To me the most beautiful song is Aaron Copeland's arrangement of "Simple Gifts".

In the running would also be Patsy Cline's "Walking after Midnight."
_______________________________
Edit to add just a couple more:

"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison

And, put me out of my misery if I ever am so jaded that "Amazing Grace" played on the bagpipes doesn't bring me to tears.

[Catshrink]

15. What a Wonderful World -- Louis Armstrong's version

It really touches me.



edited to get a better photo.

[hippywife]

17. Ooops! Dupe!

[hippywife]

18. Bruddah Iz did a fabulous version, too!

together with Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mr-alr7P_qk

[TahitiNut]

33. Amen! (See below.)

[lizziegrace]

19. My all-time favorite song! n/t

[bridgit]

16. To Ramona - B. Dylan...

[WritingIsMyReligion]

20. "Something" by the Beatles.

[lizziegrace]

21. Imagine - John Lennon n/t

[EFerrari]

22. Silver Springs, Fleetwood Mac

My Blue Heaven -- Smashing Pumpkins

Street Choir -- Van Morrison

[Generic Brad]

23. "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg

[sakabatou]

24. "Blue" by Yoko Kanno

[vixengrl]

27. Hmm, "What a Wonderful World" --Louis Armstrong's version.

"America the Beautiful"--Ray Charles' version. I think it isn't the songs themselves, necessarily, but how the artist takes and imprints himself on the song, sometimes. Oh, and there's something about Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" that's sublime, and the Stones' "Paint it Black" that hearing them like dozens of times on pub juke-boxes hasn't killed for me--not hauntingly beautiful, but like, perfect, you know?

[vixengrl]

28. Oh wait, yeah--"Just the Two of Us"

Bill Withers and Grover Washington jr (damn, "Ain't No Sunshine When she's Gone" is like, a damn good song too, speaking of which)played in the limo that took me and my sweetie to the chapel in Vegas where we got hitched, so now *that* song is super beautiful to me because it was just *right* that it came on the radio when it did. And--"Sunshine of my Life"--Stevie Wonder--sometimes I sing that when I'm feeling lovey-dovey. (And serenading someone is not *either* too icky. I don't think.)

Wow, my life has a *soundtrack*!

[amitten]

29. "Fate" by This Life Electric. n/t

[mark414]

30. i have to add erik satie's 'gymnopedie no. 1'

along with beethoven's moonlight sonata and 'julia' by the beatles

[HEyHEY]

31. Pachabel's cannon - any string version

[Drum]

38. for those slightly-rowdier moods,

try this variation too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=215_Mei8IZg

[TahitiNut]

32. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World

Iz's rendition tears my heart out ... just AWESOME.

[TahitiNut]

34. David Roth: 'Be Kind to Yourself ' (for very special reasons)

[hickman]

36. Also Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans"

The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Also Hank Williams


Hear the lonesome whiperwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry

Ive never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die
That means hes lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry

Funny thing is, I've never been a country music fan. The first time I heard Dolly Parton sing "I will always Love You" (it was just a quiet, mournful version) back in about 1978 was when I looked into country music. Thats when I found Patsy Cline, and Hank Williams. Bruce is the musical son of Hank Williams imho.

[idgiehkt]

39. I think "32 Flavors" by Ani DiFranco is really soothing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsP2TheK0iQ

[idgiehkt]

40. another one

"Missed" by PJ Harvey

just love the CD version and this live version rocks too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhEseH7tJ88&mode=related...

[Kutjara]

41. "Another Day" by Roy Harper.

Watch this cover by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush and just bask in the lushness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKknfE4wGmM

[wickerwoman]

42. Sheryl Crow "Strong Enough"

Nickel Creek "Sweet Afton"

[Kutjara]

43. "Cloudbusting" - Kate Bush

[Random_Australian]

44. Barber - Adagio springs to mind. However, the winner is:

(If listened to just right, away from the famous bits and the shouting bits, there is one section of the piece between 14:57 and 18:00, but you might want to listen from 12:20 to 19:58 for full effect)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor ('Choral') Op. 125: Presto - Allegro assai/Recitative - Allegro assai

And an honourable mention goes to 'Shine on you crazy diamond' by Pink Floyd (Parts 1-7) when you know the backstory about how one of the band members slowly lost his mind to drugs, and just was so much of a burden to them, and then he was gone and they looked back and saw that to them he may have been a burden at the end, but he was still a life-long friend and now he was just so burned out he was not there any more. So they wrote that song.

[Guava Jelly]

45. Golden Slumbers..the beatles

Annabelle's Song everclear

[MissHoneychurch]

46. The Rose by Bette Middler

Beautiful and poerful. Gives me chills everytime I hear it.

Some say Love it is a river,
that drowns the tender reed.

...

just remember in the winter,
far beneath the bitter snow,
lies a seed that with the sun's Love,
in the spring becomes the rose.

Just beautiful.

[NMMNG]

47. Georges Bizet, L'Arlésienne

Particularly the Menuet of Suite 2

Imagine- John Lennon

Us and Them - Pink Floyd

[emmajane67]

48. Sia - Breathe me. n/t

[cleveramerican]

49. Willie Nelson's version of " American Tune"

the Paul Simon classic

did you hear what Willie said recently in court on pot charges?
" its a good thing I didn't have a bag of spinach or I'd be dead now"ROFL

[jus_the_facts]

50. The Rain Song and Over The Hills and Far Away ~ Led Zeppelin....

....I'll throw in 'Thank You' as well...especially when someone plays them for you on their guitar and sings them just for you.

~The Rain Song~

This is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know
You are the sunlight in my growing - so little warmth I've felt before.
It isn't hard to feel me glowing - I watched the fire that grew so low.

It is the summer of my smiles - flee from me Keepers of the Gloom.
Speak to me only with your eyes. It is to you I give this tune.
Ain't so hard to recognize - These things are clear to all from
time to time.

Talk Talk - I've felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go. I cursed the gloom that set upon us...
But I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion - I see the torch we all must hold.
This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall.

Jus a li'l rain.....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~Over The Hills and Far Away~

Hey lady--you got the love I need
Maybe more than enough.
Oh darling... walk a while with me

Ooh, youve got so much...

Many times I loved
Many times been bitten
Many times Ive gazed
Along the open road.

Many times Ive lied
Many times Ive listened
Many times Ive wondered
How much there is to know.

Many dreams come true
And some have silver linings
I live for my dream
And a pocketful of gold.

Mellow is the man
Who knows what hes been missing
Many many men
Cant see the open road.

Many is a word
That only leaves you guessing
Guessing bout a thing
You really ought to know, ooh!
You really ought to know
I really ought to know!
Oooh, you know I should, you know I should, you know I should...


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~Thank You~

*if the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea,
There will still be you and me.

Kind woman, I give you my all,
Kind woman, nothing more.

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain,
Tears of loves lost in the days gone by.
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong,
Together we shall go until we die.

My, my, my, an inspiration is what you are to me,
Inspiration, look see.

And so today, my world it smiles,
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done,
For you to me are the only one.

Happiness, no more be sad,
Happiness....Im glad.

[sarge43]

51. JS Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze"

aka Birthday Cantata #208

[RetroLounge]

52. Amazing Grace makes me tear up...

RL

[sarge43]

53. Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" n/t

[otherlander]

73. I second that.

[sarge43]

75. Yup

Although it's contemporary, it's been sung in many places, in many times.

[NC_Nurse]

55. Victorialand -

the whole album by the Cocteau Twins

[XNASA]

57. "Julie With....." - Brian Eno

"Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" - Bob Dylan
"Street Spirit" - RH

[Avalux]

58. Moon River - Henry Mancini

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

Reminds me of my departed grandmother (she used to sing it to me as a child) - every time I hear it I cry.

[AngryAmish]

60. Walk This Way by Run-DMC

[Bossy Monkey]

61. Today I go with For Emily Whenever I May Find Her, S&G n/t

[Phillycat]

62. Blue Skies by Ella Fitzgerald. nt

[sarge43]

76. As a companion and contrast to that beauty

Lena Horne Stormy Weather

[Z_I_Peevey]

63. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Just astoundingly beautiful lyrics. And B.J. Thomas's version gives me goosebumps.

[ComerPerro]

64. Coldplay's "Amsterdam", Phish's "Wading in the Velvet Sea"

two good songs

[annonymous]

65. Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Still by the Commodores

Yesterday by the Beatles and Imagine by John Lennon.

[Missy Vixen]

66. Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You",

Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon In The Sky", "My Funny Valentine", Elvis Costello's version.

Julie

[ceile]

67. A few.....

"Time to Say Good-bye" Bocelli (English or Italian-love them both).
"Black Metallic" Catherine Wheel
"Danny Boy"-makes me cry every time regardless of who does it
"Black" Pearl Jam
"lullaby" Dixie Chicks

[progressoid]

68. "Let the Eagle Soar" sung by John Ashcroft - not the Avril Lavigne version

[begin_within]

69. "Claire de Lune" by Debussy, and "Prelude #2" by Gershwin.

[achtung_circus]

74. "At Last"

by Etta James
or "Someone to Watch Over Me", I especially like the Sarah Vaughan version, although most of them, well, not rock, but move me.

Or

or
or
.
.
.