Music That Speaks to That Which Shall Remain Unnamed
 

.
This thread is an excuse to share a song and lyric that I feel compelled to share. Even given the fact that a part of me knows I’m asking for people to share something intensely personal. I’ve been in a struggle with my psyche lately, and I'm perhaps even more vulnerable than I usually am.

This is an old song (30+ years), but new to me. I’ve come late to the music and words of Nick Cave (despite him being recommended to me many times). I am too quick to keep my window shut and it stops the flow of things that my spirit craves. But this morning my window was open and this came through: https://youtu.be/DpVr9ei7R6k?si=XDR3fcHOBtaqiuY7

Note to self: keep your window open more often : )

I would like to hear from others what songs/lyrics have been able to tap that place deep inside each of us and enlighten it.


.

Nick Cave is probably best known these days for the Peaky Blinders theme music (Red Right Hand) which is grim and doomy and brilliant. He has been around a long time. A post punk gothic sound that is always recognizable and menacing. But he has written plenty of heartful love songs as you have found in your link. My sister walked up the aisle to The Ship Song. One of his songs (People Ain't No Good) even appeared on Shrek.

A strong character who has been through a lot , including the death of two of his sons, which he has worked hard to come to to terms with and with the meaning of life and the place of any God in it. He has a recent book about his struggle Faith Hope and Carnage.

"Me and Bobby McGee" was well known to me from Janis Joplin's exposive version, but it was just the other day when I listened to Kris Kristofferson sing it (he wrote it), and only then did I realize how moving it is as the quiet country-western song it was written to be. Here it is.

And I don't know if this is the kind of thing you're looking for, but as long as we're posting YouTube songs, here's one of a very, very young Emmylou Harris doing "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," which to my surprise is a Dylan tune. She sings better and looks better doing it than just about anyone around today (I'm looking at you, Taylor Swift). Here it is.

This songwriter, Mark Beasley, and these two songs. I wish he were still sharing music. It seems a shame. I pop in on his sites every once in a while in case he might again one day.

Lullaby, which is a love song, but which I sing with my son in mind. "Well, I guess I'm not sleeping tonight." (at risk of TMI: I sang this song on repeat while giving birth to him.)

"I wish I could write you a poem that would capture it, so lucid and passionate, you'd see into the depths of my soul. There's something inside of your heart I've been trying to spark but I still never know how I can fit into words how I feel and be sure that it shows."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14u33NVEyi8


The Only One Who Knows Me,

"I've always assumed it was under control, but now the spin of the Earth has been taking its toll on me, so nauseous and dizzy, I send up a prayer: You're the only one who knows me, but I'm not sure you're even really there. Could you show yourself?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6tmGnQBjI

Never mind.

Amen to that. Like James, I don't know much of Nick Cave, but I like the song you posted. I can see how it might help.

Very cool song for your sister's wedding, Joe!

All the best, Jim.

David

.
I should be more careful in expressing the state of my psyche :o It may be bruised but it always gets back up. Thanks for the support, poets.

I'm looking for songs with lyrics that are entwined in such a way as to make the two one. Imo, it's a rarity. But I know, too, that each of us has different catalysts that connect us to "that which shall remain unnamed". So there's that to contend with...

What I'm looking for are that handful of songs/lyrics that represent perfection; the "Shakespeares" of songs; songs that clear the impossibly high bar of being indisputably pure expression of "that which will remain unnamed". Something along those lines : ) The Nick Cave song/lyric I posted speaks to it, imo

This one does, too: https://youtu.be/8pKUwTooZ3o?si=CxmEP0QZMOBES6JI

I'm not, of course, expecting that we all agree. I'm just looking for what you personally consider songs/lyrics that connect you to "that which shall remain unnamed".

.

"I'm looking for songs with lyrics that are entwined in such a way as to make the two one."

I can't think of a more perfect song than Stardust.

But all great songs, and even merely good songs, make the music and the lyrics seem inseparable.

Great discussion thread. I love Nick Cave, Joni Mitchell, & Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" (the latter was my dad's favorite song, which he played on diatonic accordion).

Here are some songs I find moving or comforting in different ways.

Tracy Chapman: "3000 Miles": is she thinking about her own past from 3000 miles (& many years) away? Or still back in Cleveland imagining herself 3000 miles away in order to survive everything around her?
https://youtu.be/-8h-h7dULhs?si=9mFKlqYlEsd4DhVw

Elliott Smith: "L.A.": I imagine elation in sunny L.A. after terrible despair; a kind of awed shock that he came so close to "throwing it all away" but didn't.
https://youtu.be/TLlu9XjJg3s?si=WZVkHjGr9MgoyYzf

Robyn Hitchcock: "Raymond and the Wires": the son remembers his late father (U.K. writer/painter Raymond Hitchcock) in all his vulnerability. Placing the trolley bus at center adds such touching counterpoint to the elegy.
https://youtu.be/VBaPy02P-hE?si=o3Jzlh4wv2gtZnYc

This Must Be The Place--Talking Heads

It's almost too obvious to post this here, but it needs to be done. I initially thought this was a love song. Now I hear it as a lost song looking for a home. The song is lost, and the singer is following. It's a startling effect and further evidence of their genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8JhOSps_0

I love that song as well, John. If I had to name a favorite TH song, though, I think I'd pick "Heaven."

.
Thank you to all who have contributed music to this thread. It’s like a garden to me.

John, I like the Talking Heads, too, for their proclivity for delving into the philosophical. Dylan has a smorgasbord of songs that send me. John Lennon’s solo work (“Mother” “Isolation”, “Instant Karma” to name a few) are favorites for their intensity.
Ned, all great choices. “Raymond and the Wires” is fantastic. (it has a bit of your sound in it, I think). Elliott Smith and Tracy Chapman, too, have that gift I’m looking for.

I’m looking to discover those songs that stand above the noise that is most music. Those songs that combine words with music to be transcendent. Music (as well as all other forms of art) acts as a conduit to entering the non-material existence that undulates beneath us, perhaps above us. Like the ocean or the sky. We are terrestrial beings aching for cosmic (aquatic?!) salvation. Music jettisons me toward the heavenly. I am there, in the clouds, light as air; or conversely, submerged, floating, sinking into the strangeness that is like an ocean.

Here’s Lennon’s “Isolation” performed by Spoon: https://youtu.be/b2w0JLAf5rY?si=XNmM_MSjnyBNvy8Q


.

.
I forgot to mention your offering, Rogerbob (and I didn't mention a few others that also touched me.)

Yes, Stardust is a true homage to the music of love. Watching Willie Nelson find the pulse of this song is a remarkable thing to witness.
.

Leonard Cohen's version of Cavafy's "The God Abandons Anthony" always does it for me. Here is a live version with Sharon Robinson singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-V9UvJZKIY

Jim, glad you liked the ones I shared. Yes, John Lennon's early solo work is amazing when he's at his best--"Mother" & "Isolation" especially. (Also "Remember.")

Spoon is a favorite of mine. Do you know "Fitted Shirt," which pays tribute to Britt Daniel's dad & bygone days? The subject matter is unusual for a song that's basically a rocker.
https://youtu.be/NU3qhr-NBk0?si=HyyYxHY49j_Lekdd

This third one, I've read, is about James Murphy's psychiatrist & friend. The song recounts receiving news of the death, the aftermath, & subsequent mourning.
"Someone Great," LCD Soundsystem.
https://youtu.be/sZDKP5pnhhM?si=SZIM3DYXc8qbo95q

In a totally different vein is my late father's favorite love song, "You're My Everything" (not R.E.M.'s excellent song!). I'd never heard the original intro till I ran across this version. https://youtu.be/V1IweGJJu_c?si=reM8TZ42UtQMPeMI

These days I mostly listen to heavy (and very heavy) music that doesn't really channel this thread's purpose, but there are definitely some songs that hit that deep part inside.

One is "Phosphorescence" by Peter Hammill. Something about how the strings work with the lyrics, the plaintive, naked tone of the lead, and the choral background singing (by the singer's daughter) come together to evoke the wistful feeling of what the moments after special moments feel like.

Another, by a more well-known band, is "Apart" by The Cure. Yes, they're best known for their goth-pop and proto-emo work, but this one captures the feeling of a relationship that was amazing, but just inexplicably starts to break down. I'd liked the song when I first heard it in the late '90s / early 2000s, and always found its emotional impact genuine and sincere... But it took on special meaning when things started going downhill with my ex-wife and I a decade ago.

The winner of this year's Tiny Desk Contest makes me feel like a proud, moon-swallowing, fearless mama dragon. Which some might not recognize as a flavor of comfort, but it definitely is.

Ruby Ibarra's entry, "Bukunawa," from Oakland, California.

Give this one by Bill Evans a try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDJWpkm7QYA

Evans has been my go to for the past ten years. Who needs more words on a poetry forum?

.
It's eye-opening to see what others consider to be "music that speaks to that which shall remain unnamed".

Nick, The song by Bill Evans you posted is indeed contemplative. As I listened, this song by Simon & Garfunkel popped into my head — with words entwined : )

Julie, you've broken through cultural barriers with the piece you posted. Yes, it aims straight at that place...

Shawn, you have complex aural tastes! I am intrigued by the strangeness of it, at least to my heathen ear : ). Thanks for opening up that door...

Joe, Cohen is a disciple of music that speaks to that which shall remain unnamed.

Long, long, long by George Harrison and covered here by Astrid & Stanley Samuelsen is a song that emanates the musical quality that puts me in a state of closeness to something that shall remain unnamed : )

.

Hi Jim

I doubt I'll hear a song more strange and lovely than Judee Sill's The Kiss.

https://youtu.be/kyPhvHEtRuw?si=9TZrAv4Qb8L4FjuA

I've been listening a lot to a German band called Bohren & Der Club of Gore who play a sort of cinematic doom jazz. It's so slow it's almost comical. The anticipation and release at the 2 and a bit minute mark is beyond wonderful. They have many albums of this stuff.

https://youtu.be/Wd_HVpX5yME?si=OA4nm7BVVue-H3am

Here's another...

https://youtu.be/6dVArDoPiv8?si=K1IJRPfmkxCeqAf0


Talking of slow, what Bohren do for Jazz, Lankum do for Irish folk. I seem to want minimal words and a slow pulse lately, though this one does get unnerving enough to make you want to rip the headphones off and check there isn't some bloke wearing antlers standing behind you.

https://youtu.be/4BxC8OLnkso?si=tg-37F_tohQqXw6F

And I'll forever love this bunch, too. The slow build in this one...

https://youtu.be/_McIfdbCT04?si=DIIXgOdstCcTaETH

And an old favourite. Sandy.

https://youtu.be/c8tuFnr_INk?si=jzRwvHAzlZfbRa-n

Yes, "Heaven" is wonderful. That whole album is great, as I remember.

So many great songs have showed up since I was here last!

Mark, Jane & I used Judee's "Kiss" as the soundtrack for our backyard wedding's processional. She was tragically sensational. (I discovered her through Warren Zevon's version of "Jesus Was a Cross-Maker.")

And we were just listening to Fairport's Leige & Lief the other night. "North Star" is one of Jane's & my favorites.

Shaun, thanks for sharing "Apart" -- I always enjoy the Cure's moody neo-psychedelia. Inevitably, "All Cats Are Grey" is my personal favorite, which I'm sure you know. Here: https://youtu.be/4v7WUz3GSgk?si=qjEPc66flRd4-GT0

A few more of my faves for Jim, et al.

The dBs' Chris Stamey & Peter Holsapple covering Family's "My Friend the Sun."
https://youtu.be/vGwelWjwWnI?si=MwMk5P3dUj2JX2GA

Lucy Dacus' funny & heartbreaking "VBS."
https://youtu.be/u8JqjG8A90g?si=PPcivkiYlJuniydb

Finally, Nick Drake's classic "Time Has Told Me."
https://youtu.be/G8SmkwS82u4?si=hUnNYOW6rjtnb428