Korean Job Discussion Forums

[venus]

What are the three songs you find most emotionally powerful - and why?

Here's mine in no order of ranking.

1. There is a Light that Never Goes Out, by The Smiths. A wonderful song, especially the end where he repeats - "there is a light and it never goes out" brings hope and spiritual introspection, tells one of the part, the energy inside that nothing can extuinguish... lovely.


2. Into My Arms, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The tighness of the space, the restrained, warm piano... the golden, mahogany, mature brevity of his voice... The purity of the lyrics... and the almost religious, saintly power of the chorus. For anyone who's just gone through a break up and lost one they loved, be warned, for this is the song that will tap into the hurt, needing heart inside and have you on the sofa in the foetal position, a sobbing, quivering wreck.. very cathartic of course... this is the song that when you can listen to it comfortably again and perhaps even smile at the memory of the past, you know you've forgiven all, are happy to have loved and grown and are moving on...

"And I don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you I wonder if that's true
But if I did I would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you
To make bright and clear your path
And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love
And guide you into my arms

Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms"


3. Two of us Can't be Wrong, by Leonard Cohen. In my opinion, possibly the best song from his best album and that's saying a lot as every song on the album is fantastic. The emotional depth and honesty, the haunting imagery, the gentle, vulnerable openess and childlike sadness in his voice, oh the voice Leonard, the voice... Perfectly conveys the poetry of longing, yearning...

"I heard of a saint who had loved you,
so I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
is to tarnish the golden rule.
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
he drowned himself in the pool.
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
his spirit continues to drool."

Not songs to be approached lightly. Songs to break the heart yet also help it discover new depths. Almost included Pearl Jam's 'Black' but left it out as it lost points for melodrama and lack of restraint.

[venus]

bumping

[dutchy pink]

I'm Going Down Slow, a live version by Howling Wolf shortly before he died. His mother more or less disowned him because he sang the devil's music and wouldn't talk to him. ........ " forgive me mamma cause i'm goin down slow"........ absolute raw emotion from a guy who is no stranger to it.


Names by Cat Power.
she makes the line "then be began to smoke crack and he had to sell his ass" sound beautiful and noble.

Dress Rehearsal Rag by Leonard Cohen

Four o'clock in the afternoon
and I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
all of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
there's nothing much to save
and a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
your trembling fingers to behave,
why don't you try unwrapping
a stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
and the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
it's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
that is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?

Once there was a path
and a girl with chestnut hair,
and you passed the summers
picking all of the berries that grew there;
there were times she was a woman,
oh, there were times she was just a child,
and you held her in the shadows
where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
and you sang about the view,
and everywhere that you wandered
love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
all along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?

You can still find a job,
go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
there are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
they can give you back your hope,
you can find your love with diagrams
on a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
except the one that seems
to be written on your wrist
along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
that's a razor in his mit;
and he puts on his dark glasses
and he shows you where to hit;
and then the cameras pan,
the stand in stunt man,
dress rehearsal rag,
it's just the dress rehearsal rag,
you know this dress rehearsal rag,
it's just a dress rehearsal rag.

[Boodleheimer]

Barcarolle (Tales from Hoffmann)

or are we not allowed opera?

edit: and Ten Year Night by Lucy Kaplansky.

still working on the third.

[swetepete]

J.S. Bach, Aria di Capo.

Fred Chopin, Nocturne in B Flat Major, Opus 9.

the Dayglo Abortions, "Argh! Fock! Kill!" It always brings me back to the halcyon olden days of yore when I was young and everything was, uh, filled with yores and halcyons. Good lyrics too: "bla bla bla bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Argh! Fock! Kill! Argh! Fock! Kill!" (repeats.)

[piscin]

"Teardrop'.... Massive Attack

"La Ritournelle"..... Sebastian Teller

and (cringe) "Fairytale of New York"... The Pogues

[Big_Bird]

Moving - Supergrass
The Loco-Motion - Little Eva
Ride Like the Wind - Christopher Cross

Haha...sorry...just couldn't resist!

[jjurabong]

Three Classics that can make me cry:

1. Dog and Butterfly - Heart

2. Storms - Fleetwood Mac

3. Blue - Joni Mitchell
:

[trigger123]

hmmmm... interesting idea for a thread on valentines day!
in no particular order, (and probably missing a few out too...)

1. U2 - One. But to be honest i prefer the recent mary j blige version. she brings out the passion and pain from the song, moving it from a lament to somewhere else entirely...

"One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it"

2. Walk On By - Issac Hayes. There are so many versions of this song, but the orchestration on his 1982 effort is so beautiful. the intro might seem overblown but its such tender record. the sound of someone still aching, but still so very much in love.

"I just can't get over losing you
And so if I seem broken and blue
Walk on by, walk on by

Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Walk on by
and walk on by
and walk by"

3. Stone Roses - Tightrope. What it feels like when you're in love. Properly all over the shop, head over heels, everything...

"You should have been an angel, it wouldve suited you
My gold-leafed triptych angel, she knows just what to do
In the half light of morning, in a world between the sheets
I swear I saw her angel wing, my vision was complete

And I know I'll never want another lover, my sweet
Can there be more in this world than the
Joy of just watching you sleep?
I dont know just what to feel
Won't someone tell me my loves real?"

ouch... could have chosen a host of others, but that'll do.
Here's to love! Kombae!

[Newbie]

Danny Boy by whomever happens to be singing it
Dark End of the Street any of the 10 or so versions
Seasons in the Sun Terry Jacks

Yes, my taste in music is painfully commercial.

[Rteacher]

"Born to Run" - Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band - moves by its capturing the spirit of rock 'n' roll (awright, you want more sentimental emotion, I suppoze...)

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" - Peter, Paul, and Mary (I like this YouTube version where the folk trio is joined by the song's writer, John Denver...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvtDb0ZPwQ

"She's Leaving Home" - Beatles (captured the spirit of misunderstood runaways during the era of heightened "generation gap"...)
Here's a YouTube karaoke version - but it's hard to top Paul McCartney's original lead vocal...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg9VREtFA4s
I did find this stupid video with a sub-par audio recording of the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wzsa9rUoAg

[rockstarsmooth]

breathe me - sia - this song is just so full of pain, desperation, and wanting. it's a relatively new song, but it so concisely defines how i've felt for a large part of my life.

genius - the murmurs - a dorky 90's grrl-power kinda song, but much like breathe me, it says who i am so much better than i ever could. not as desperately sad and on the edge of total breakdown as breathe me though.

perfect fingers - tami greer - a great love song. this was our first dance song at my wedding. how do i love my wife? this song almost perfectly says it.

rss




right now i'm listening to: of montreal - suffer for fashion

[swetepete]

[tzechuk]

Les Berceaux - Faure

Vocalise - Rachmaninov

I will wait for you - Michel Legrand (translated into English by Norman Gimbel)

.....

IF it takes forever
I will wait for you
For a thousand summers
I will wait for you

Till you're back beside me
till I'm holding you
till I hear you sigh here in my arms

Anywhere you wander
anywhere you go
everyday remember how I love you so
in your heart believe what in my heart I know
that forever more I'll wait for you

The clock will tick away the hours one by one
and then the time will come when all the waiting's done
the time when you return and find me here and run
straight to my waiting arms

If it takes forever
I will wait for you
for a thousand summers I will wait for you
till you're here beside me, till I'm holding you
and forever more sharing your love

And forever more I'll wait for you

Wonderful video of this song sung by Liza Minnelli:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tedB7xZB2M

She sings it beautifully.