Your favourite magical moments

Greetings earthlings and extra-terrestrials. This topic is about your favorite music, BUT...  this time we're not talking about complete albums now, not even songs, but... your favorite musical fragments. To put it in other words: what are your peak experiences, the moments that send you a shiver down the spine, the moments that give you a Csikszentmihalyian sense of flow, the moments that you only wish to do one thing: push the button of your hifi-remote deeper and deeper, so that your mind and the neighbours are fully blown apart... What makes you play the air guitar (in the PRIVATE surroundings of your home, thank you), what keyboards touch a key deep inside of you, or is it all about vibes that give you good vibrations (they're in my top 10; I mean the vibes, not the Beach Boys), what's your favorite 'primal scream'... I'll give you my top 10.

1. That moment at the end of Yes' Awaken, when Anderson sings for the 2nd time "Like the time I ran away", and the bass and harp and backing vocals reach an incredible climax together. Shivers, anytime...

2. That moment after the 1st musical eruption in ELP's Tarkus, and the music calms down, and Emerson plays some wonderful complex chords and Lake starts singing: "Has the dawn ever seen your eyes".

3. In King Crimson's Starless, when the band after the wonderful wild middle section returns to the opening theme, though in a much more powerful way

4. Cheating here: both Banks' piano solo at the beginning of Genesis' Firth Of  Fifth, and Hackett's electric guitar solo on the same track.

5. On King Crimson's album Larks' Tongues In Aspic: the end of The Talking Drum, followed by the opening of Larks' Tongues In Aspic pt. 2

6. The acoustic guitar ending on PFM's L'Isola Di Niente (on the eponymous album). Not virtuoso at all, but who cares...  

7. In Adrian Snell's Simon, Carry My Cross (album: The Passion), when Adrian sings: "and then you will be free" and the music suddenly seems to come alive

8. In  UK's Carrying No Cross, at the end of the complex section, and the band returns to the opening theme, with majestic keyboards and powerful drums.

9. Gentle Giant's River: the moments that are accompanied by the vibes; usually I actively hate that instrument, but on that track... pure magic

10. Tony Kaye's organ parts and Steve Howe's guitarduet (Steve and Howe?) on Yes' Starship Trooper, in the Wurm section

And then I didn't mention Mike Oldfield's Piltdown Man primal screams, Davy Gilmour's famous 4 notes + the eruption that follows on Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. 1,  Michael Giles' drums on 21d Century Schizoid  and... and...

That's my top 10. Like to know yours'...

Moogtron III wrote: 3. In King Crimson's Starless, when the band after the wonderful wild middle section returns to the opening theme, though in a much more powerful way

Oh my word. If I had to choose one moment in any song, it'd be that one .

Also the bit in Genesis' "The Musical Box" where Hackett plays a sort of scalar bit in triplets, I think it's a natural minor yet it sounds really uplifting (he plays it a few times). I can't really describe it but it's absolutely spine-tingling.

Three bits from Marillion:

the first few lines of vocals on "Childhood's End?", the bit where the huge epic guitar bit comes in on "Script for a Jester's Tear" (DUM, DUM, DUM, DUM DUMDUM DUM, DUM, DUM, DUM DUMDUM - yeah, that one... ), the bit on "Forgotten Sons" where the voice says "Enter... friend" and then the godly guitar part comes in. Oh and a fourth one: "But even jesters cry! But even jesters cry!" from "The Web"

And from Soft Machine: the little bass solo on "Moon in June", and pretty much any bit in the last track on side one of volume one, the organny one. I haven't listened to it all that much but it's beautiful. Absolutely incredible. There are more, but none to think of at the minute.

The end section of 'Awaken' is certainly spine tingling but my two favourites are:

1. The end vocal section on 'To Be Over' that comes in just after Howe's solo where Jon sings 'Childlike soul dreamer' right through to the end line 'You wander true pathways away'. He actually sang this section on his solo 'Tour of the 80's'. I swear eyes were welling up!

2. The ending of 'The Remebering:High The Memory' where it builds into a crescendo of sound with Jon singing, 'Rainbows, Soft Light, Alternate view, Sunlight, Tell  me, Alternate view, Alternate view, surely, surely'. This moment alone makes it my favourite song on 'Tales......'

Edited by Progger

Great thread Moogtron III!

My favorite top ten moments.

1) The opening to "Easy Money" from KC's "Larkes tongue in Aspic".

2) Steve Howe's guitar at the beginning of "Yours is no disgrace" on The Yes album.

3) The opening to "It" on The lamb lies down on Broadway.

4) The guitar break right after Jon Anderson sings DAH, Da-Da, on CTTE.

5) The end of Chris Squire's bass solo on "The fish" in Yessongs where the entire band joins him to finish the song singing "shine".

6) The line "Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers and you want to take her with you to the heartland of the winter", from Tales of brave Ulysses by Cream.

7) The mid section jam on Deep Purple's "Smoke on the water", not the studio recording but the live version from "Made in Japan"

8) The guitar duel between John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana on "Flame sky" from Welcome.

9) The driving guitar piece on Jeff Beck's Scatterbrain.

10) Lenny White's drumming on "Vulcan world's" from Return to forever's "Where have I known you before".

 

  

The vocal interplay between David Byron & Ken Kensley on Uriah Heep's Paradise/The Spell. Similarly on The Magicians Birthday!

Good thread.

When the 'Soon' section begins in Gates of Delirium.

Steve Howe's solo in 'Starship Trooper' on Yessongs.

Joey Backenstoe's guitar solo at the end of 'Rome': Blue Shift, Not the Future I Ordered.

'Comfortably Numb' on Delicate Sound..., esp. (of course) DG's solo.

"Like the time I ran away, turned around and you were standing close to me."

'The Devil's Got My Throat' on Spock Beard's Snow.

The Star Trek episode where the evil Spoke sports a beard. 

When Mostly Autumn kicks it in in 'Mother Nature'.

"Mother did it have to be so high?"

When Ged names the shadow with his own name.

"And Julie I'd do the stars with you any time."  Amy Ray, The Indigo Girls.

And too many more to count.  Thanks, Moogtron III, for asking.

goose wrote: the bit where the huge epic guitar bit comes in on "Script for a Jester's Tear" (DUM, DUM, DUM, DUM DUMDUM DUM, DUM, DUM, DUM DUMDUM - yeah, that one... )

+1

Devil Doll - Sacrilegium 25:30 - 32:10. It's the part that starts with beautiful but sad piano and ends with majestic choir-church organ. Another as good Devil Doll moment is from The Girl Who Was ... Death 7:05 - 10:10. You can think anything you want about Devil Doll and Mr.Doctor but his composing abilities are genious.

Locanda delle Fate - Forse le Lucciole non si Amano Piu. Basically the whole song because it represents a perfect prog song for me. It is also the song that has affected my music taste the most. This album was the first Italian prog album I heard. Before hearing this album I had heard some of the best from Genesis, Yes and KC but they didn't make any bigger impact. Those bands did not make me a prog fan. I wish I could go back in time and experience hearing this song for the first time again when I hadn't heard anything like this.

Änglagård - Jordrök. Again, basically the whole song. It's very hard to point the best moment because it's scorching from beginning to end. A perfect 10!

Le Orme - Sospesi nell'Incredibile 2:00 - 3:50 & 5:27 - 6:15. I especially like the latter smoking drum part. Needless to say it's my favourite Le Orme song.

Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra. It's a heavy but very beautiful song. Many fantastic parts but I especially like Il Re di Ieri 0:45 - 2:00 piano-mellotron part. Some of the most beatiful stuff ever recorded. Another great one is Al di la Bene e del Male 2:25 - 2:40 drum part. I love the drumming in this album it's so damn dynamic.

Mezquita - Recuerdos de mi Tierra 0:00 - 3:02. I really like the instrumental beginning of this album, especially 1:37 - 3:02.

Kromlech - Frente al Arroyo del Tiempo 2:05 - 2:40. This is basically what prog is all about for me.

The "Final" on "Ritual" from Tales from Topografic oceans. Simular to an orgasm for me every time for 30 years

geezer wrote: Devil Doll - Sacrilegium 25:30 - 32:10. It's the part that starts with beautiful but sad piano and ends with majestic choir-church organ. Another as good Devil Doll moment is from The Girl Who Was ... Death 7:05 - 10:10. You can think anything you want about Devil Doll and Mr.Doctor but his composing abilities are genious.

I wish I had some proper Devil Doll CDs, from the samples I've heard I'm expecting something bloody fantastic .