h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Songs that make me feel “Stuff”, Musical Medication. - A87817134
Author: Sir Archibald Nutcracker III - U241785

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Hi, there. Food for thought!

Maybe this can start the discussion you're interested in.

I'm afraid I'm no help. I've heard exactly one of those songs - Super Trooper - and I'm afraid all it makes me feel is the desire to turn off the radio. I'm so ignorant, I didn't know it was possible to have an emotional reaction to Michael Jackson. I thought you were just supposed to say, 'Hey! That guy can really dance!'

I had a longer answer, about what kind of music makes me feel Stuff but I didn't want to hijack this thread with a lot of music links, because that might not be what you wanted. I'll stick 'em in another essay, when I get the chance.

Anyway, thanks for the Monday jump-start to the thought process. I'll be interested in following the discussion here.

Songs that make you feel 'stuff'? Depends on what you mean by 'stuff'.

For myself, when I go into a shop that's playing screechy pop music, all I feel is a desire to . The same is almost true of those sickly sweet Christmassy songs.

One song that makes me think is Turn, Turn (For Everything There is a Season) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jxxagVEO4
But that's probably because the words come from Leviticus (I think).

And Leonard Cohen's Anthem:' Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in."

'Turn, Turn' is Ecclesiastes, MVP. More existential than Leviticus.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3&version=KJV

I like that song, too.

I know what you mean about the urge to run. I feel that whenever anyone starts intoning the 'Little Drummer Boy'. I cannot loathe it in all its incarnations.

Speaking of Biblical references, how about Cohen's 'Hallelujah'?

I had to read the Ecclesiastes 'For everything there is a season' speech at my good friend Ian's funeral (Peregrin on h2g2). It was very, very difficult – especially saying, 'a time to die' when every fibre of your being knows that it wasn't his time to die.
I can't hear the song by the Byrrds now without shaking and welling up.

<BB<

I can understand that, BB.

I had sort of an odd thought about this thread.

It was about the connection between synaesthesia and our idea of connecting music to events.

It made me remember a play I was in a long time ago, called 'Good'. You may have seen the film with Viggo Mortensen. The film is well-made, but doesn't really have the same effect as the play.

In the play, the main character, Dr Halder, explains to the audience that he always hears music in his head. Then he proceeds to tell the story of the rise of Nazism. Halder's a university professor, and he goes along with them. One by one, his friends and family fall victim to the horrors of the time.

Finally, Halder ends up working in a concentration camp. There's a powerful climax when he realises that the orchestra is not in his head.

I've found what looks like a good performance of the play on Youtube. It's by a British playwright named Cecil Philip Taylor. If you care to bookmark it, Part 1 is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNjV2mbU8G0

There's a lot of music in that one.