What is the most beautiful song ever?

Steve Martin/Bernadette Peters' take on "Tonight You Belong to Me" is really beautiful. Probably not "the most beautiful song ever" but as beautiful as most of the songs listed in this thread...

Somewhere in the 219 messages I skipped there may be a vote for "Little Wing" as recorded by Hendrix. Lovely, lovely song and the only extant version of it without a 49-minute wankeriffic guitar solo, I'll bet.

My Beefheart pick is "My Head is My Only House Unless it Rains." "I'll let a train be my feet if it's too far to walk to you...My arms are just two things in the way until I can wrap them around you"--good stuff.

Oh that is an awesome lyric ella :D

Spiritualized - "I Think I'm In Love"
Massive Attack - "Teardrop"
Radiohead - "Planet Telex"
My Bloody Valentine - "Soon"
Kraftwerk - "Autobahn"

Since already a number of mentions for good ones from Low (though I'd put in my 2 cents for "I Started A Joke" and "Venus"), "Protection," Nick Drake, etc. here are some others:

JJ Cale - "Magnolia"
Van Morrison - "Astral Weeks"
Gene Clark - "With Tomorrow"
The Dixie Cups - "People Say"
Lloyd Price - "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy"
Townes Van Zandt - "If I Needed You"
Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane"
Bonnie Raitt - "Angel From Montgomery"
The Allman Brothers - "Blue Sky"
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - "Christina"
Dionne Warwick - "Walk On By"
Thea Gilmore - "The Old Laughing Lady"
Gilberto / Getz - "Corcovado"

Good call on Hendrix's "Little Wing."

oh curtis

what

Nico - "Afraid"

Easy: Prince, "Condition of the Heart." I have only recently realized that this is possibly my favorite song of all time.

'this is why i'm hot'

"Gold Soundz"... I say that because I heard it on the radio today.

Also "Oh Comely" or "Two Headed Boy pt. 2" by NMH.

"What does your soul look like? Pt. 1 (Blue sky revisit) / transmission 3" - DJ Shadow. I think that's the whole title, anyways it's the last track on Endtroducing.

I'm sure a few tracks off Fennesz's Endless Summer would rank up there for me, perhaps the title track and "Happy audio"

"Sligo River blues" - John Fahey

Somebody a few years back mentioned Tom Waits' "Tom Traubert's Blues", that's a good pick. Those Eno picks were OTM, too, especially "Big Ship", I'd throw "Becalmed" on there, as well.

John Coltrane, "Seraphic Light" off the Stellar Regions album. So majestic... I just think of some kind of otherworldly kind of royalty when I here this amazing song.

William Basinski, Dlp 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 - they're all variations on the same piece. So expansive, gorgeous, really moving. I didn't see what the big deal was them at first but now I think they're so beautiful.

Track 4, on Wolfgang Voigt/Gas' Pop.

Some Tim Hecker stuff on Radio Amor is doing it for me, too, but I haven't digested it as well as the other stuff on I mentioned.

I think it's interesting that, with few exceptions, what we consider to be beautiful songs are often tinged with a lot of sadness, melancholy, etc., they're almost tragic how beautiful they are. If I played most of the songs I think are beautiful for people who are more casually into music or who usually just want to hear something "upbeat", they would probably find them really depressing.

badfish

lol badfish. the dc metro area's best sublime tribute band!

good lookin out on "sligo river blues"

"i saw your photograph," merrell fankhauser

A tie between Ishrab Sharab ahl as- Safa & Bil Hawa Qalbi Ta'alaq

And in english:

http://www.divshare.com/download/1322250-c5f & shenandoah

wot, no Joni? A Case of You!

I interviewed the drummer from Badfish. It went something like this: "So, why are Sublime important?" "Uh, they're not...But that's why they're good!"

that opinion is cool!

wait are badfish actually from around here or are they just playing the state theatre every six minutes?

also, can we just turn this into a badfish discussion thread?

whoa nevermind they're from PROVIDENCE, badfish is n01z3

I've been pretty sure that it's "My Wandering Days Are Over" for a while now.

They play Columbia multiple times each year.

"I Believe She Will" by Eddie & Ernie (thx John Peel)
"Truth Is Marching In"/"Our Prayer" by Albert Ayler

Both are contenders for continually putting a lump in my throat.

..a few thoughts;

Bennie Green - You're Mine, You
Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra - Adagio for Strings
Tom Waits - Innocent When You Dream (78 Version)
VU - Ride Into the Sun
Grateful Dead - It Must Have Been the Roses (ala Reckoning)
Marion Williams - Just to Behold His Face
Brother Joe May (actually his daughter, Annette)- Vacation in Heaven

Girls Aloud - No Good Advice
Daft Punk - One More Time
The Avalanches - Two Hearts in 3/4 Time

the first 8 bars of christopher cross "sailing" on a loop

for real, though, lots of otms up there.

i'll add
"just my imagination," temptations
"ain't no woman like the one i've got," four tops

actually, tons of temptations and four tops qualify. i'll add a few.

"pink frost," the chills
"computer love," kraftwerk
"child of the ghetto," horace andy
"new broom," horace andy
"my only friend," opal
"alberto balsalm," aphex twin
"wet tip hen ax," aphex twin

"once upon a time," sonny sharrock

Tom Waits - Innocent When You Dream (78 Version)

I agree, but I think the Barroom version is sooooo much better!!! He seems to sing the chorus differently in the 78 one, pronouncing the "when you dream" part in some kind of flat way that doesn't hit me as hard as it does in the barroom one.

The first time I heard the song (the barroom version) was in the film Smoke, during Harvey Keitel's monologue story at the end of them... it almost had me in tears.

Also:
"alberto balsalm," aphex twin
"wet tip hen ax," aphex twin

completely OTM, see also "Fingerbib" on the RDJ album

"I Kill Everything I Fuck" by GG Allin

...I think the Barroom version is sooooo much better...

Agreed. I didn't remember which version i was thinking of - but yes, the barroom version really gets the ol' pints rollin'!!!

haha yep

Hello [on a cellphone], greetings, it's me, an outlaw,
I ask you, my love, to accept happiness.
Hello, hello, it's me, Picasso,
I sent you a beep [cellphone signal], and I'm brave [or strong],
But you should know that I'm not asking for anything from you.

You want to leave but you don't want don't want to take me, don't want don't want to take me, don't want don't want don't want to take me.
Your face and the love from the linden trees,
And I remember your eyes.

I call you [over the phone], to tell you what I feel right now,
Hello, my love, it's me, your happiness.
Hello, hello, it's me again, Picasso,
I sent you a beep [cellphone signal] and I'm brave [or strong],
But you should know that I'm not asking for anything from you.

I like "Cupid de Locke" by smashing pumpkins. At the moment, that's my choice. A few years ago I would have said "Agateis Byrjun" or however you spell it.

I apologize for criticizing someone's choice of Pink Floyd upthread. I was in a bitchy state of mind that day.

everybody's coming down

"once upon a time," sonny sharrock

-- andrew m., Friday, July 20, 2007 7:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

dude on point for seriously

kersal massive

i can't believe there's only one mention of "over the rainbow".

eno "always returning"

a bay bay

Lately I'm in love with "When the Body Speaks" by Depeche Mode and "Shine" by Ulrich Schnauss.