Yeah, I should have included it's before a hockey game when the national anthem is sung. Everybody else is jacked up and I'm singing and staring at the flag and trying to keep my voice from breaking. I'm fine in the shower!
I can honestly say I can never recall listening to a stereo system and openly bawling so I feel quite relieved that my testosterone level is where it should be but then again I have shed a tear or two listening to live performances, two I can think of offhand, a husband and wife team performing the solo violin/viola parts of the 2nd movement of Mozart's concertina for Violin/Viola K 364 and a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with a 150 piece choir and orchestra, that one I had to fight back the tears from streaming it was so overwhelming a performance and I was not alone.
Please TP tell me I don't qualify for girlieman, I gotta know! :)
Coltrane's Alabama, and Simon and Garfunkel singing The Boxer will always bring out the tears- very few other songs have or will, but these two will almost every time I hear them.
Great thread that had lots of potential for people to comment on equipement or music that brought out strong emotions within them! Unfortunately it didn't go that way, although some commical responses are here!
For me, last week in Vegas at a Celine Dion concert! Balled like a baby! Other than that it has been rare since selling my Joule Electra LA300ME. I steamed up regularly while listening to music through this preamp!
Every time I hear Mary Chapin Carpenter sing "John Doe no. 24 (as I just did on Pandora radio), I tear up. Then I read some of the other responses and I began to laugh out loud. It's all so crazy.
I know that to be true. I played football (soccer over here) for 30 years and I know that when I was on the field with some unexpressed emotion held in my body, my skills were compromised, nothing flowed right. I also recall that when I got on the field after clearing what was previously stuffed down, sometimes by crying a bit (gasp!), my game was fluid, faster, less effort and I scored many more goals.
Men who have the courage to let themselves cry usually experience life at a higher level because they haven't armored themselves against their own feelings, as well as others'. Similarly, being truly affected by music requires dropping one's guard and trusting that actually feeling something won't hurt you. Shutting down your emotions, whether in a relationship or listening to music, is the real cowardice.
And if that wasn't enough, women seem to seek masculine men who allow themselves to feel. What more would a man need to know?
I read a study of college football players that says that (paraphrase) 'players that cry do better on and off the field'. The one caveat was that tearing up was good- open sobbing not so good. I think the theory being that accessing your emotions is a positive thing. It's good to be passionate about life. Thought this was interesting.
I guess that it is better for you to cry while your wife is sleeping than to cry because she left home after going to bed too many times without her audiophile-husband !!!
I just wiped the tears from my eyes a few minutes ago. If this thread didn't exist, I would have started it.
My wife is sleeping soundly and I'm in the living room in the middle of the night spinning vinyl on my Townshend Rock 7, wearing AKG K702 headphones driven by The Raptor Tube amp. Interesting for me to note that this community is where I thought to go right after this experience.
Tonight, I'd been listening to the new pressing of one of my most loved albums, Tea for the Tillerman -- specifically, the song "Into White" stood out above all the other great ones. Aside from being a beautiful song played soulfully and magnificently, the combination of this superb pressing (finally, I'm actually impressed with a reissue) and the "aliveness" with which my system resolved it engulfed me in an experience where the meaning the song had for the artist became palpable. I was helpless, immersed in emotions that reached me more deeply than I could anticipate.
Does occasionally squeezing out a few tears while being completely involved in the enjoyment of music make me a "girlie-man," as one cretin would have it? I'm not going to dignify that with the volley of barbs it deserves -- suffice to say, I'm sorry for those of you who have not experienced this and feel the need to exercise your fragile masculinity by belittling those who have.
Whether it's Cat Stevens on headphones or Metallica at full tilt in your car, I believe that feeling the emotional meaning of the artist is the highest potential of our shared obsession. If that doesn't justify spending as much time and money on our hobby, or crying when we finally get it, what would?
I was playing in a stage band once and got poked in the eye with a sax reed. I did not really cry,but my eye swelled up and i could not stop it from flooding with eye water and some of my band mates thought i was really crying and looking at me like i was a big sissy and i started yelling at them that i was not really crying and how would they like the next reed in the eye? Is this what you mean?? :) (oh this was like 1972 or something) hehehhe.
josh groban makes me cry because when i hear "you raise me up" i feel like someone is tapping a dull flathead screwdriver with a hammer into my ribs...in slow motion. that'll make you cry.
The other evening listening to The Guess Who "Live at the Paramount" (which by the way, newest remastered CD from "Master Tapes" is awesome sound and music). Just poured a large, cool bottle of Allagash Curieux ($12) into a beautiful Triple something-or-other crystal goblet a friend gave me as a gift from his tour of Belgium. As I reached for the remote I tipped the glass, knocking it off the side table, and it crashed to the floor. Spent the next 20 minutes picking shards off of and mopping/cleaning the wood floor. First time I ever cried to Burton Cummings.
For me last night listening to some folk music The Brothers Four , Ian and Silva and many more I heard this style of music as a kid with my parents. I don't know i play folk music all the time and love it but last night thinking about mom and dad [ they passed many years ago ] it just hit me very hard I played records very late in to the night I had tears just flowing down my cheeks for hours music is my link to those memories of a wonderful childhood. Writing this has those feeling over coming me again . I can't write anymore thanks for the thread
Why would anyone make fun of somebody for crying? I don't understand. I guess if someone you loved dearly passed on and you cried, people would accept this as being OK. But if you were brought to tears while listening to music, your friends might think you were a sissy? Sounds shallow.
Thanks Sebrof. Exactly what I was thinking, yet more articulate and nicer too.
Just because I don't cry to music or movies, or some other type of entertainment that makes others cry doesn't mean I'm some emotionless/soul-less douche bag that's not in tune with his emotions.
Music brings about a whole host of emotions for me - gets adrenaline flowing right before a workout and keeps me going when I'm contemplating calling it quits. It puts a huge smile on my face when I'm alone and randomly hear a song my 9 month old daughter has recently started to bop around to. I feel loss when I hear a song that reminds me of a loved one who's passed on.
So not crying tears of joy nor sorrow isn't a real connection to the music? I guess I'm not enlightened enough. Well, at least my friends won't make fun of me for crying, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
Ever get a rush that starts as just a tingle, then increases, and envelopes your whole body until you can barely stand it? My first flight did that. Once I moved, the rush subsided. Since then, music has done it a few times. I've learned to sit still and enjoy. Never cried while listening, but I'll bet the op was referring to music bringing tears. If it doesn't happen to you it's one of those things you'll just never know. Are you missing anything? Who knows?
There's a difference between "feeling nothing" and crying. You cryers think you have a monopoly on an emotional connection to the music? We're talking about crying. Crying. Do you cry when you drive a beautiful automobile? When you see a beautiful woman? We're talking about crying.
This thread is amazing. Not only does music make me cry, but it also can also put a lump in my throat and control my heart rate and respirations. Not infrequently, I will sob uncontrollably. It's just that beautiful.
Heck, listening to Shostakovich #11 makes it difficult to even breath. It feels like someone is sitting on my chest - absolutely devastating.
I feel sorry for those who have never been brought to tears. I feel those that are brought to tears experience the music on a much higher level, are more involved with what the artist is trying to convey. Feeling more than just hearing. Those that get involved enough to tear up are hearing in color. Those that don't are hearing in black and white. Girlie-man? Sounds like a mannish-boy.
I'm DEFINETLY NOT a "girlie man" but to make a statement like that is shallow IMO. Crying is NOT a weakness, I've cried at funerals, painful situations w/ personal life matters, movies, and many other things... and YES....some "MUSIC" can bring you to tears. I think perhaps it is "U" that need a shrink or "Something"....
Surprised by the posters who, apparently, don't find music to be emotionally moving. Makes me wonder why they bother with this hobby/pursuit in the 1st place.
Instead of a thread about whether or not a turntable makes one an audiophile, perhaps it should be; "if yr system doesn't make you cry, yr not an audiophile!?" ;)
09-04-11: Isochronism I recall a past post from another member. Something like: (he) was listening to his system with a friend when the couch began to shake. He turned toward his friend only to find him silently crying. Of course, he took this as high compliment of his system's resolve!!:)
I recall a past post from another member. Something like: (he) was listening to his system with a friend when the couch began to shake. He turned toward his friend only to find him silently crying. Of course, he took this as high compliment of his system's resolve!!:) Yes, certain music has always had power to move me, tho not to that type level and not in a sad way. It can help explain how we are all connected. I am inside their head and understand what/why those particular notes etc. Music is the truest art form.
I apologize for somewhat inappropriate comment, but the OP really pissed me off in another thread. Also, I didn't quite do what I said I did but that was close. Now, music can evoke very strong emotions and can have an incredible cathartic power. That's good. And the better the sound the more the power. The language of music is universal and to various degree understood by everyone.
Whenever I listen to the beginning of Nathan Milstein playing the Chaconne from Bach's Violin Partita #2. For me, this piece captures a life's experience, and it is the beginning, Birth, that brings tears to my eyes.
As for live performances, about two years ago, I heard Angela Hewitt play Book 1 of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, and her playing also brought tears to my eyes.
I cannot explain why Bach, that most logical of composers, affects me so.
Crying no, but once I shit myself when I forgot that my amp's volume was at 12 and I started playing Machine Head. It was so loud and so sudden. Oh boy..
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