Plan B Forum

I've noticed that there are a few songs that give me actual goosebumps when I hear them especially when I haven't heard them in a while. I thought I'd share them with you



and in a completely different vein:



Don't know why but goosebumps every time.


Any songs do the same for anyone of you?

Alexandra Leaving (L Cohen)
Angel Fire (F Ortega)

I know what you mean about Arlo but oh that second one of yours was very strange - definitely a different vein - the jugular at a guess!

Makes you believe:



The one and only:



Sentimental and obvious, I don't care:



Also in the goosebumps category, rock division:

Lou Reed: Sweet Jane, Waiting For My Man, White Light/White Heat, Rock and Roll.

The Byrds: Eight Miles High, So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star

Jimi Hendrix: Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire

Humble Pie: Stone Cold Fever, Walk On Gilded Splinters

Patti Smith: Gloria, Free Money

Gun Club: She's Like Heroin To Me

Dead Boys: Sonic Reducer

Richard Hell: Blank Generation, Love Comes In Spurts

Dozens more, I'm sure. When it comes to music, I'm easy.

Loved it when Bill Murray karaokied More Than This in Lost in Translation.

A few more for the list:

Placebo: Every you every me


Steve Earle: When I Fall


Linda Ronstadt: Feels Like Home (Newman song)

My favorite piece of music on the planet, played by the best cellist ever, in one of the most amazing music halls ever and led by a right character. I was lucky enough to catch this same combo on Slava's farewell tour:



There is more, but this is the first thing that popped into my mind.

Guinevere wrote:My favorite piece of music on the planet, played by the best cellist ever, in one of the most amazing music halls ever and led by a right character.

Where/when is that performance? Is Seiji Ozawa still conducting at BSO? He must be a million years old by now. I had the privilege and delight of having him conduct the student orchestra I was in at Tanglewood 40 years ago.

And much as I loves me some Slava, I'm not always sure he's the best; for example, I like Yo Yo Ma's approach to the Bach Suites better. Here, compare the two of them doing the Prelude from Suite No. 1:





See? Rostropovich is perfect, sure, but Ma's version is more lyrical, even leisurely; I like the way he works the tempo.

Hey Guin, also check out Jordi Savall on the 7-string gamba:



Here he is again (with his all-grown-up daughter on harp); Gob, you might like this, too, although it may be a bit modern for your tastes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... -i1ESIRKdA

Sorry, I don't know how to link the images, but this, In Paradisum, is the concluding movement in Faure's Requiem. I couldn't find the version I was looking for, but this is pretty good. I think the music is exquisite and, for me at least, captures the essence of the eternal. I once was part of a choir that performed the entire Requiem at a funeral, and it was very moving.

Sue U wrote:
Here he is again (with his all-grown-up daughter on harp); Gob, you might like this, too, although it may be a bit modern for your tastes:

Yep, I like, she's fit.

Not really a song, but does cause goosebumpage...

Joe Guy wrote:Not really a song, but does cause goosebumpage...

Jee-zeus, JG, that was freaking amazing: speed, flash and showmanship. I checked the date, and Buddy Rich was just a month short of his 65th birthday at that show. Not exactly the "twilight of his career," but he must have certainly been more than a bit past his peak in strength and stamina, and yet still pulled off that solo. Guy was a monster.

Sue --- first of all, you're comparing apples and oranges. The Dvorak and the Bach are two completely different animals. The Dvorak, for me, requires more passion and intensity, and even rawness. That's what Slava brings to the piece - its almost primal. I don't think Ma has that in him, in the same way. I've got multiple recordings of him, Slava, and Jacqueline DuPre, playing the Dvorak that I've listened to over and over. They are all masterful, but very different. And Slava just takes me away to a different place. That I saw him perform it, in Boston, conducted by Ozawa (some time in 2001 or 2002), just makes it that much better.

Believe me, I love Yo-Yo Ma too - he's the one who helped draw me into the cello in the first place. He's an incredible artist, and he does play the Bach with more lyricism, and perhaps plays it "better." But I'm a Slava girl at heart

Supposedly the youtube is from: "January 23, 1995, Suntory Hall. this concert　reconciled Ozawa with NHK symphony orchestra, who had long been broken." So I was wrong, it wasn't in Symphony Hall (aka Seiji Ozawa Hall).

Ozawa resigned from the BSO in 2002 and went to the Vienna State Opera until 2010. He's been ill lately, unfortunately -- but did a great job conducting in a pre-WS, Boston/St Louis symphony showdown. I'll try to find it for you. The BSO took on James Levine, aka the broken conductor, who resigned a couple of years back after hardly raising the baton here. The current music director (announced this summer) is Andris Nelsons. Have not been to any of his performances yet, but he was here at Tanglewood this summer, and started in the fall.

The gamba performance was good, but watching him hold that bow FREAKS ME OUT!

Levine's in pretty good form and is back at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC as music director. I saw him conduct the Met orchestra for Cosi Fan Tutti in September, and despite being in a wheelchair he looked and conducted as a much younger man. With all the "innovations" Peter Gelb has been trying to shove down out throats, I was glad to have him back as musical director, and happy to see he was still up to the task of conducting.

Wasn't he with the BSO for a number of years? As I recall, he got praise from the critics for expanding the orchestra's repertoire, although that might have been a while ago.

Levine held both jobs: BSO and the Met -- it was clearly too much for him *and* he clearly had a preference for the Met job. He began the BSO job in 2004/05, and although he did improve the repertoire, he took a fall in 2006 that started a quick physical decline (rotator cuff, back problems, kidney problems, etc), and he was hardly ever around after that. Announcement after announcement that he wouldn't be conducting a particular season ended with him resigning in 2011 (something he should have done years earlier).

It's too bad, I was excited to see what he could do, but he really didn't/won't have any lasting impact on the symphony because his tenure was so sporadic.

It is too bad, he seems to have a lot to offer.

And I recall reading about his injury as well, now that you mention it. I' glad he's in good enough shape to work again.

The Star Spangled Banner
America the Beautiful
God Bless America
I am sometimes moved to tears on those.