Magic moments in music
All great art leaves you wanting more, and is thus ultimately unfulfilling. The perfect pop song is the most poignant example of this: Three minutes of unfulfilled potential. You want to hear the best bits over and over. But they’re the best bits only because they don’t occur often. The classic example of this (in fact, it’s the only example I can think of) is the jubilant guitar chord riff that opens New Order’s Regret from ‘Republic’, and which forms the song’s real hook. It wouldn’t be a perfect pop song if it consisted only of that hook over and over again… And yet, you want to hear it over and over again. So greatness is tinged with sadness. We deceive ourselves into believing it can be erased by putting the needle back on the start of the song, or pressing ‘replay’, or hitting the ‘back’ button and playing the song again. But repetition will dull our senses; like colours exposed to sunlight, the wonder will fade and the perfect pop song will seem ordinary for a while. Only, perhaps, when we hear the song years later will we be transported back in time, and it will again encapsulate our feelings; it will seem it was composed exclusively to fulfil this purpose, and for us alone.Let us know your picks for the perfect pop song — or magic moments you wish were repeated — and post your comment here.
posted by Chris Bell at 6:04 PM
10 Comments:
OK, I lied. Another good example would be The Beatles' It's Only Love where, in the second verse Lennon sings:
"Just the sight of you
Makes night-time brrrright"
and he rolls the 'r' like the cheeky Scouser that he was. He didn't repeat it on the following line, "very bright", because that would have been overkill. But how we wanted him to.
'Dancing Queen' by Abba.
Well, obviously.
This is an extraordinarly subjective area, of course, Chris - even more so than notions of what is "fair"...but I digress.
Two good local examples: The Exponents "why Does Love Do this To me?" - That optimistic "Wo ho ho!" in the chorus. Lyrically its a sad song, but the whole tone of the tune is the complete opposite. It's as though the singer just fell in love
Second local example: Bic Runga's "Get Some Sleep".
Stephen Stratford said...
'Dancing Queen' by Abba.
Well, obviously.
And pinched marvellously by Elvis Costello for "Oliver's Army".
Agreed that the notion of the 'perfect pop song' is largely subjective, Rob. But perhaps the criteria for what makes it perfect are not - and much as I hated most of the 'packaging' around Abba, I have to concur with Stephen about Dancing Queen - as a song.
But what I was really on about here were the elements that make great pop so tantalising. It might be a particular phrase in a guitar solo, or a one-off improvisation (a mistake, even) in the lead vocal.
"Fair", on the other hand, isn't in the least bit subjective.
Richard Hawley's 'The Ocean' from his 2005 album Coles Corner. At 2:51 minutes in, he goes into the second chorus of 'You lead me down to the ocean' and raises the volume and intensity in a way that is - there's no other word - thrilling. It's unflashy but great singing by any standard. Followed by a brief guitar solo - similarly unflashy but great - and then at 3:45 the final section at 'And here comes the wave' raises the temperature yet again.
Plus he's from Yorkshire, which is always good.
> Plus he's from Yorkshire, which is always good.
Darren Greenwood's gonna love that.
Waterloo Sunset. All of it - the lyrics, the vocal, the guitar parts. Now that's what I call perfection.
Fair call, anonymous. I'd have to agree with you there. It's a distillation of London and Englishness.
The guitar riff on the fade out of the Stone Rose's 'Bye Bye Badman' is one of those moments for me. Also the brief haunting instrumental 'Sunspots' by Bob Mould.
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