preparing a musical soundtrack to our wedding reception<\/a> YHB sought the best possible version, gathering ten or more versions before settling on Frank Sinatra’s Paris recording with the Septet. Of course, all that listening in that context heightened the association of the song with my Best Reader and our wedding, not to mention our marriage. In the event, although I’m sure the song was played, I have no recollection of it, or indeed of much of the events of that day. Still, every time I hear the song or even come across the lyrics, I am moved to the point of goofiness. Which is nice and all, but in considering the Top Five, I wound up deciding that what was moving me was not the lyric, but the marriage that we deliberately chose to associate with it. So I left it off. Maybe that’s wrong, but that’s my decision. At least today.\nI also, after much struggle, ruled out liturgical songs. My heart is much moved when we sing v’zot ha-torah<\/I> (that is the torah) or col hanshamah t’hallel’yah, hall’lu yah<\/I> (let all creatures that have breath sing praise to the Lord), but I think that’s all beyond the scope of the question. On the other hand, what I’ve done is to leave out precisely those lyrics that move me the most: those that I have invested the most in, and those that have had the most invested in them by my community. Perhaps this is pointing out the silliness of trying to separate the lyric from those that listen to it, when our criterion is emotional anyway. Still, I tried. The following are lyrics that I find incredibly moving, trying as best I can to judge that it is the lyric that moves me, and not my own investment in it (or the melody or whatnot).\n- Every Time We Say Goodbye<\/I>, Cole Porter: “There’s no love song finer\/but how strange\/the change\/from major to minor\/every time we say goodbye”
This is simply one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs YHB has ever heard. The combination of resignation and hope. The pretense at near-indifference, as ‘a little’ is tacked on to the end of the real feeling. I’m inclined to the Ella Fitzgerald version, myself, but really, it’s a terrific song no matter who sings it.<\/li>\n- I Want You<\/I>, Elvis Costello: “It’s knowing that he knows you now after only guessing\/It’s the thought of him undressing you, or you undressing”
I know Mr. McManus is Mr. Revenge-and-Guilt, but he really outdoes himself on this descent into jealousy and obsession. The scary thing, the thing that really moves me, is the way he makes it almost attractive, almost as if what he’s describing is true love, and if you aren’t making mad threats, you aren’t really in love. It’s not played for that effect, though; that’s just the background to the sympathetic and scary portrait.<\/li>\n- I’ll Be Seeing You<\/I>, Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain: “In that small café, the park across the way\/The children's carousel, the chestnut tree, the wishing well”\n
I can’t really defend this one. It’s mawkish and sentimental, and all that stuff. Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.<\/li>\n- Ver Es Hot<\/I>, Abraham Reisen and Chava Alberstein: Ver es hot a templ, Ver es hot a klayzl\/Ver s'bazukht a shenkl, Ver a freylekh hayzl\/Epes muz men hobn, Eynem muz men gloybn\/Tsi a tayvl untn, Tsi a got dort oybn<\/I>. In English, more or less: “One man goes to shul, one to a library, one to a bar, one to a brothel. You’ve got to pick one, you’ve got to believe something. There’s a devil under there, there’s the Lord up there”\n
Yes, Your Humble Blogger is aware of how unutterably pretentious it is to include a lyric in another language. Particularly as I don’t speak it myself. Still, I know enough German and enough Hebrew to catch a sense of the original, I think. And it’s wonderful, isn’t it? The second verse says, more or less, ‘otherwise, you will walk the earth like Cain, and people will cross the street to get out of your way, and the whole world will be a cemetery.’ But it’s so much better in Yiddish.<\/li>\n- Finishing the Hat<\/I>, Stephen Sondheim: “And when the woman that you wanted goes\/You say to yourself, \"Well, I give what I give.\"\/But the woman who won't wait for you knows\/That however you live\/There's a part of you always standing by\/Mapping out the sky\/Finishing a hat\/Starting on a hat\/Finishing a hat\/Look, I made a hat\/Where there never was a hat”\n
I surprised myself by including this one, after all. I mean, I love the song, and I used to love it even more, back when I considered myself ambitious and George-like. Now, Lord knows, I can leave the hat unfinished. Still, even when the memory of that drive to that hollow victory is dim in my own self, Mr. Sondheim makes it powerful again.<\/li><\/ul>\nThe temptation, of course, was to include “Oop-Pop-A-Da” or even “De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da”. The other issue was that the question specifies lyrics that move my heart, rather than my brain or whatnot, so I left out many of my favorites, and wound up picking sadder songs, rather than joyful ones (despite being aware that joy moves my heart as well). My just-left-off list includes Mark Knopfler’s “Romeo and Juliet”, about half-a-dozen songs by Mr. Costello, Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit”, Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”, Paul Simon’s “Born at the Right Time”, Tom Waits’ “Soldier’s Things”, Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, and dozens and dozens more, I’m sure. If I did the list on a different day, I’d have come up with a different list.\n
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart Before I begin: This one was difficult even to decide what the criteria are. The big problem is that (as with all Top Fives in whatever fields) so much of my attachment to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-music-music"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17402,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/17402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}