Songs that Inspire or Move you

Sometimes it's as much the singer as the song.

Warren Zevon's take on "Knocking' on Heaven's Door" as he was dying from brain cancer is pretty moving.

Even tho her voice is largely gone, hearing Stevie Nicks sing Landslide is always a moving experience for me.

Roseann Cash has the ability to make a good song great and does so regularly. I'll go with "500 Miles" and/or "Bury Me Under The Willow Tree".

There's a Bottlerockets song called "Waiting on a Train" that might be the saddest rock n roll song I've ever heard.

I find "The Christians and The Pagans" by Dar Williams a moving plea for tolerance.

Nice idea for a thread. Lots more to save for a follow up post.

A couple from Todd Rundgren:

Pretending to Care
Love is The Answer

Interestingly, both songs would benefit tremendously IMO from a singer with more range than Todd. Love has been covered by England Dan and John Ford Cooley, but that's probably a step in the wrong direction. There are a few wonderful covers of Pretending (notably by Fred Froom and by Jennifer Warnes), but those are pretty obscure.

Richard Thompson is another songwriter who, like Rundgren, is an excellent singer but lacks the pipes to fully do justice to his own songs. Walking on a Wire is one example.

Interestingly, both guys are hugely skilled and expressive guitarists, so maybe the vocal limitations find outlet in their fingers.

Slaw,

Todd is among the handful of great Rock and pop songwriters IMO. He's a tremendous guitar player and a skilled singer (within his limitations). Few, if any, can match his songwriting breadth: pop, rock, blues, prog, blue eyed soul, electronics, Calypso, even one or two country songs - you name it, he's done it, and done it well.

Two words of warning on the concerts:

1). He likes to be kind of a dick to his audience. Generally, everyone wants to hear his hits and, depending on his mood, he may include all or none of them in a given set list. If it's a concert with few hits on the list, he may taunt the disappointed fans.

2). If your particular show is late in the tour (check out the schedule on the net), there's a good chance his voice will be shot. He's one guy where the difference between an early in the tour set and late in the tour set is immense.

All that being said, a good TR show (whether straight electric blues or full blown prog Rock, or anything in between) is among the best you'll ever see IMO.

I'm not a giant opera fan, but my older brother is. In his never ending attempts to convert me, he's rolled out a few stunning arias. One that's always a moving listen:

Ebben! Ne Andro Lantana from Catalani's opera, Le Wally.

Loomis and bdp,

Love the call on "This Perfect World". I'm a huge Freedy fan. One of the best nights of live music I've ever seen was an early evening Freedy show at Irving Plaza followed by a late night Paul Westerberg show at Roseland. Only in NYC!

Another choice for this thread: Peter Green's "Man of the World". An incredibly sad (and authentic feeling) lyric/vocal performance and even sadder guitar playing.