Emotionally significant songs
 

I am interested to hear stories about why a certain song carries a lot of emotion for you personally. I will share mine in hopes that this makes more sense.

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The most emotion I have ever seen put into a song was at a concert when I was a teenager. The band, Seven Day Jesus, performed a song entitled "Forgive You" and the premise of the song was about how the singer came to terms and ultimately brought himself to forgive the man who raped his best friend.

I have never seen so much human emotion from a person. While his voice never wavered throughout the entire song, during the chorus where he screams "You raped my soul!", tears were streaming down his face and it was quite obvious that he was reliving the entire experience.

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So anyone else got a song that whenever they hear it just hits them hard?

To Bid You Farewell by Opeth just tears at me. It's a hugely emotional song to begin with, not to mention the sob-inducing lyrics and vocal harmonies. Then you add in your own personal attachments, and things are bound to get a little blurry eyed.

Hearing Creed's With Arms Wide Open always makes me think of my children that might have been and saddens me. It is supposed to be a joyous song, but it is not so for me.

The World I Know by Collective Soul always takes me back to a moment in my life when I got a glimpse at what life was truly about and makes me smile. The same goes for The Real Thing by Faith No More. These are the kind of songs that once you truly "get" them, you can never go back to the way you heard them before.

Sullivan Street by Counting Crows got me through the worst heartbreak of my life up to this point... It still makes me cry.

When I got The Mars Volta - Delousing of the Comatorium, I was lucky enough to borrow the book as well, so I listened to them while reading their book.
Now their whole album makes me think a little harder and gets to me quite a bit
It's just amazing what these guys seem to go through.

Snow Patrol (final straw) . . . "Run" :thumbsup: http://snowpatrol.amrecords.com/index.asp?refer=iscope

"light up, light up, as if you had a choice . . . even if you cannot hear my voice, i'll be be right beside you dear . . . To think i might not see those eyes, makes it so hard not to cry and as we say our long goodbyes . . ."

I have recently lost a good friend of mine . . . this song has a resilence to it and a hopefully quality . . . and that nothing can ever seperate people . . . The video is equally as beautiful in an intense way . . .

sigh........................

okay, that's mine.

Sweetpea

Lots of them... Music is one of my biggest hobbies/obsessions... I absolutely love music and typically playing guitar or listening to music is used as a release from whatever crap's going on in my life. Here are a few examples of songs that are more significant in the emotions department though -

Pearl Jam has Black, about a tough breakup where he feels everything has turned to black... "And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass of what was everything... all the pictures had all been washed in black, tattooed everything..." and "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star... in somebody else's sky but why... why... why can't it be... can't it be mine?"

There's also Pearl Jam's "Man of the Hour" from the Big Fish soundtrack... "Because the man of the hour has taken his final bow... and as the curtain comes down, I feel that this is just... goodbye for now..." My girlfriend's dad died last May, and I heard this song not too long afterward and I cried like a damn baby. "My Immortal" by Evanescence was another song that I couldn't listen to after that happened, because it was just so sad.

Linkin Park's "Numb" hits me sometimes, because I can't tell you how many times I've felt that way.

Staind's "Epiphany" is pretty emotionally powerful... as are a good 50% of their songs. Aaron Lewis is a pretty damn good singer and songwriter, and it comes through in his lyrics and the emotion he pours into his music, especially on stage. "Spleen" is a song that is basically heavy as fuck... totally bitter, angry, and pissed off with a really good buildup, soft part near the end then a huge ending... It's the song I listen to when I'm uber uber UBER pissed off and need to calm down. People that know me know that if I pop in that CD or mp3 or whatever and go straight to it, I need to be left alone... but it helps a ton.

I usually wouldn't say this one, but we had a friend that committed suicide (shot himself) not too long ago... and the next night I heard "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter and had to leave the room... I like it, good song and all, but terrible timing.

nick drake - Fly

he just has such a pretty voice.

I don't think I've ever been brought to tears from a song but there are songs I relate to.

Lifehouse - Simon

"The fearful always preyed upon your confidence
Did they see the consequence
When they pushed you around
The arrogant build kingdoms
Made of the different ones
Breaking them 'til they've become
Just another crown"

Also Quasimodo by them is song that I love to sing. Really gets me goin. I was picked on a lot when I was younger. All the way up until my Sophmore year of highschool actually. So I can relate to Lifehouses songs a lot.

Jurassic 5 - Thin Line

"Zaakir:
Man too bad that we became friends first
and im not a expert on how relationships should work
but from the minute it was known
it changed the whole tone, the way we spoke on the phone
it was coo but i felt it wasn't enough and i was stuck
when yo moms would pick it up
over you all my budies would swoon
but i felt we were in tune
you led me up in your room
but to me girl ur still of limits
no matter all the times i would hint it
infatuation was authentic
but yo i ust pretended
so i wouldnt lose the friendship
maybe i should spill all my guts
write a letter then tear it up
Do a song just to say whats up "i want just a touch""

I once had a huge crush on a best friend of mine who was with an asshole. This song spoke to me. Then I wrote my own song about the experiance.

Pearl Jam - Betterman (See above reason)

Counting Crows - Goodnight L.A.

"I can't sleep very well. I mean you must have noticed this in songs before, but I'm up all night a lot. And this is about this one particular time when I'd been up for about two days. And it was coming on dawn one morning and I was thinking about shit."

- Adam Duritz

Yeah I've been there too.

Jim Croce - I Got A Name...yeah this song speaks to me.

Other than those that directly speak to me some songs are emotionally significant to me simply because they are just so beautiful or emotional themselves that even though I've never been there I can feel them anyway.

Silverchair - Anna's Song, Black Tangled Heart, My Favorite Thing (this one is NOT what you think it's about)

Babyface - The Day (That You Gave Me A Son), that song is just so beautiful it's quite possibly the prettiest song I've ever heard. I imagine the day I become a father myself it will take on an entirely new meaning to me.

Well actually I'd go on forever if I started talking about those so I'll stop.

Asta!!

Heh...eh....(shuffles feet)....

<font size=1>Queen - Somebody To Love also speaks to me</font>

Asta!!

You've Got So Far To Go - Alkaline Trio.

I like this one because I think it is very rare that a punk or rock type band (nowadays at least) has a love song that is genuine sounding. All the new pop-punk, pop-rock bands have lyrically stupid songs and have them in abundance.

This song is just great. This line especially gets me:

"I heard everybody's voice cut out when you spoke
And I watched all the lights go dim
when your eyes opened"

Oh man....:)

Many years ago, I was going through a very rough time of my life. A very rough time. There were times during this period where I wasn't sure if I'd live to see the next day.

It was around this time that "Automatic for the People" by REM came out. I was never a big fan of them, but my roommate was. When I heard the song "Everybody Hurts" it struck very close to home. I stole his tape (yeah, it was a cassette) and listened to it religiously. I credit a lot of my dealing with the issues from those days to that song. I helped get me through that point of my life. Now, whenever I hear that song, it brings back the memories, but with all the years removed, the memories are hopeful.

There are several artists such as Elton John, Annie Lennox, and Matchbox 20 that I call 'mashed potatoes', listening to them makes me happy.
I enjoy all types of music, from Metal to Classical, yet those artists and others give me warm fuzzies.
Behind Blue Eyes is a lovely song to me.
No real deep emotional pull to tears for me with any music, except Opera for its intensity.

Incubus - 'Stellar' was a song that used to represent my hopes.
A Perfect Circle - '3 Libras' was a song that represented my destroyed dreams.
Ozzy Osbourne - 'Diary of a Madman' was a song that used to represent my desparation.
Incubus - 'Wish You Were Here' was a song that used to represent my reflections.
Eminem - 'Like Toy Soldiers' is a song that represents my inner strength.

the cure - cut here

past few months i've been getting over a girl who i loved and was one of my best friends. started to grow apart, though, and i listened to this song a lot. it captures a lot of the feelings/emotions when a (any) relationship hits a brick wall and ties are severed.

ironically rob smith wrote this song about the sueicide of a friend. most people think of it as a song about a broken romantic relationship and it really is disguised well enough as such.

I think Black is one of the best songs ever made, but I just have to share this misheard lyric which was shared to me a while ago "...I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star, and somebody else's guy..."

Sorry. The Unplugged where they did Black is incredible.

Concrete Blonde has a song "The Sky is a Poisonous Garden." The lyrics are kinda open to interpretation, but I saw it as a guy stuck in a bad relationship, and finally totally disregarding the woman who has trapped him by killing her, either literally or figuratively. This song helped me get out of an unhealthy relationship. Here's some of the lyrics:

Supreme Dork Moment.
Lately the song that gets me really quiet and pensive when I hear it (and I've got three versions of it on my IPod so it comes up) is

Landslide (I've grown quite fond of Smashing Pumpkin's version, but Stevie Nick's live version is beautiful)

"Weak and Powerless" and "The Noose" by A Perfect Circle.

Thirteenth Step cam out less than a week after one of my ex girlfriends left me, and those songs just killed me. Weank and Powerless was more general, but The Noose was almost specific. Her name is Angelina/Angel/Angie, and the line "Your halo is slipping down..." felt too close to home to me.

Theme from the Bottom - Phish

When ever im feeling down this is the song that i seem to go to.

Oooh, ooh I got another!

Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World

I heard it is about the founders of the Weezer fan club who died....not sure how accurate that is...

It is just a very powerful song for anyone who has lost a loved one.

Hell is For Heroes - Nightvision:

What I get from it, whether it's the intention or not, is a song about being in a dark period of your life. There's no light at the end of the tunnel visible, so you have to use your imagination to find that bright red sunset of a future. "Wide awake, I see in the dark."

Stew - The Statue Song (Indoors Again):

No metaphor here, it's a song about a statue's point of view. It's a sad, mellow song with initially just Stew's voice and an acoustic guitar, with a violin and backing female vocals later gently joining in. The moral of the story: when your life's looking bleak, remember that you still have comforts to help you through. You have the sanctuary of the indoors. I've taken that for granted sometimes.

pearl jam - black has a lot of meaning for me (break up stuff) but it's already been mentioned and i imagine it has similar importance for a lot of people.

Indifference also by Pearl Jam also has a lot of meaning for me also regarding a breakup. Boy do i love that song.

Jimi Hendrix - Castles made of Sand.

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie Matel

Ben Folds Five - Evaporated

Kostya and HoundstoothHero, Why are these significant?

The Band - I Shall Be Released (penned by Bob Dylan)

Hearing Richard Manuel's falsetto vocals throughout this song gets me misty-eyed sometimes. Kind of makes me think of what his last hours must've been like before he hung himself in his Florida motel room (while touring with the reunited Band) and how much the pain of life must've been affecting him at that point.

A Perfect Circle - 3 Libras

listen and contemplate. reminds me of a relationship i had once.

Third Eye Blind - Jumper
Having dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts years ago, this song makes me think about my past and what I've had to work through to let go of those things that put me in the awful place I was. It's an anthem of sorts that makes me think about how far I've come, but it also makes me a little somber when I listen to it.

Glory of Love - Peter Cetera
I used to be a romantic before I became a cynic. Listening to this song instills in me the feeling of chivalry and all that embodies.

Indifference is another great one that I forgot, thanks for including that one and reminding me!

I got to see them do Indifference in Washington DC, during the 2003 tour, and it was beautiful... the 20,000+ crowd singing along was just awesome, especially during the part with, "I will swallow poison... until I grow immune... I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room..."

Another version you should listen to is either of the ones where Ben Harper sings it with him... wow. Amazing.