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Post here when you hear an old song as if for the first time


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In the past couple of years this has happened to me a couple of times:

 

"Teach Your Children" by CSNY:

Nailed me emotionally like it never had before, as I was finally really hearing it from a parent's point of view. I got it in a whole new way.

 

"Lola" by The Kinks:

Blindsided me as, after all these years, hearing it so many dozens upon hundreds of times, the incredible songcraft -- the subtlety of Ray's wordplay and the incredible melody broke through the mental callouses formed by so many years of overplay. It was like a whole new song.

 

 

Today, it was:

"La Grange" by ZZ Top:

Of course, the humor inherent in Billy Gibbon's vocal delivery. But then... the guitar!!! He even makes the guitar chuckle! Today this song became the song that contains one of my favorite guitar solos of all time. That solo could have gone on for another 3 or 4 minutes and I would have still been loving it. Rapt.

 

 

So...

Has this phenomenon happened to you anytime recently? What song? How did you hear it? What did you hear in it that opened it (back) up for you.

 

Post here when it happens.

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Dusty Springfield - Wishin' and Hopin'

 

Heard it Saturday in the car. I had never really paid close attention to this song. The use of harmony vocals in this tune is brilliant. Rather than bringing in the harmony vocals during the chorus, they are most prominent during the end of the phrase that leads into the chorus, and then they go away (or are much less prominent). Much more creative and effective than if they had done the safe/obvious thing.

 

What I once thought of as a nice, fun song, I now consider a pop masterpiece.

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If I Needed Someone - The Beatles

 

I had been listening to an ipod playlist in my car - all the songs I have from the 60s - and as much as I love that decade, whenever The Beatles come on, they just outshine everything and everyone. I turned it up as loud as I could take it, and this particular song just sounded wonderful: the 12 string guitar, the harmonies, the bass...

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War on War --- This one hit me with a relatively odd realization. I was watching the performance on YOUTUBE of the appearance on the Jools Holland show. I really began to pick up on the dancable groove in this song when I saw a female audience member doing a little hip sway dance. This really hit me. For the first time, I really thought about how differently things can appeal to other people. Pretty basic stuff, but the image of that Brit Girl dancing to Wilco made a seemingly simple idea hit home.

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Love the thread idea.

 

A few recent ones for me:

 

Elliott Smith - "Tomorrow Tomorrow"

Had heard this song several times before, but just recently I finally HEARD it in all it's beauty.

 

Elliott Smith- "Pretty Ugly (Before)"

Hadn't given much attention to the Basement on the Hill album and suddenly fell in love with this song, especially the harmonies. "ugggglyyy beforrrrre..........doooooooooooooooo"

 

Radiohead- "Pyramid Song"

Have owned Amnesiac for several years, but it took my daughter learning piano for me to start getting more into piano-based music. When I went back to this album after a long break from Radiohead, this song really hit me. Also love the live version of "Like Spinning Plates" from the I Might Be Wrong live album for the same reason.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaZDiBN73NQ

 

:45 - :48 changed the way I will hear this song forever

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Good eye!

Man, what a band.

 

A great incarnation of the band. But Jeff looks so fucking miserable here.

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Still my favorite incarnation of Wilco.

 

I still wonder what the story was as to why Leroy left. The espoused story just doesn't quite feel like it is the full story.

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Did Leroy leave before or after Jeff checked in to rehab? I wasn't around here at the time - was that a factor at all?

 

No, LeRoy left before that. It wasn't a factor. I know Jeff was really sad that LeRoy decided to leave the band, but it was the right decision for Leroy I guess.

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Watching that made my heart beat faster. I fucking love Wilco.

 

Old songs heard with new ears:

 

Blackbird - Beatles. Heard this driving in the car one day and was bowled over by it's simplistic beauty.

 

Wendell Gee - REM. Was un-decorating the Christmas tree and was moved nearly to tears by the line, "There wasn't even time to say goodbye to Wendell Gee, so whistle as the wind blows, whistle as the wind blows with me."

 

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - George Thorogood. I know! I heard this on the radio, driving to the Jacksonville airport, and I was listening to GT tell the story about the landlady, and laughed out loud at the part about she's not getting the back rent or the front rent, however it goes. My reaction to the song really surprised me. I really never liked any George Thorogood song until that day. And I definitely still hate Bad to the Bone!

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No, LeRoy left before that. It wasn't a factor. I know Jeff was really sad that LeRoy decided to leave the band, but it was the right decision for Leroy I guess.

 

It must have been a decision very specific to 2004, Wilco, or where Wilco was at in 2004 because Leroy toured with Iron and Wine in 2007-2008. I'm not looking for or expecting dirt, but after seeing the interaction of the core four in IAATBYH after Jay was canned gave me high hopes for that incarnation of th band.

I may be dense, but I just don't get it.

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It must have been a decision very specific to 2004, Wilco, or where Wilco was at in 2004 because Leroy toured with Iron and Wine in 2007-2008. I'm not looking for or expecting dirt, but after seeing the interaction of the core four in IAATBYH after Jay was canned gave me high hopes for that incarnation of th band.

I may be dense, but I just don't get it.

 

 

Three years can make big difference in what people are willing to do. Also, the process of touring, and the hundreds of other things that go along with it, can be very different from band to band. Maybe Iron and Wine's style of touring offered something more to Leroy's liking than Wilco's style of touring. Or maybe Leroy needed some money so he put aside his distaste for touring and took the job.

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Great thread. This happens to me often. Two songs come to mind.

I heard Tom Petty's Straight Into Darkness late at night in a Walgreens recently, and it hit me hard. Sounded terrific to hear in that (non) context. Then the next song was the Band's King Harvest, and I thought they might have a DJ spinning records at the pharmacy counter.

Another is ZZ Top's Cheap Sunglasses. It came on the radio during the solo toward the middle-end of the song. Hearing it isolated like that gave me a true appreciation for it. Seemingly simple, yet so much happening.

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Another is ZZ Top's Cheap Sunglasses. It came on the radio during the solo toward the middle-end of the song. Hearing it isolated like that gave me a true appreciation for it. Seemingly simple, yet so much happening.

 

Same thing happened to me with a Led Zeppelin song. I walked into a music instrument store and for once Stairway to Heaven was playing over the house stereo, rather than from some burnout in the store trying out guitars and playing a bad version. I came in mid-solo and didn't know what song it was, even though I've heard the song hundreds of times. Lots of great group interplay going on during that solo that I might never have noticed had I not walked in at a random point in the song.

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