What does a truly great song do for you?

I like music that moves me, either emotionally or physically.
It can be any genre. I listen to different radio stations to hear different styles of music, and favour stations playing new music.
There isn’t much overlap between originals that move me and the things I play myself.
 
I had a somewhat similar Rush experience. I took my fiancé (now wife of 14+ years) to see Rush during the Vapor Trails tour at the Gorge in WA state. We were like the 12th row on Geddy’s side. Epic in every way possible. You could see how much fun Alex, Geddy and Neil were having (first tour after Neil’s personal tragedies). I loved it when they played The Pass. Highly emotional concert for me.

IIRC, that was their first Gorge show (they were loving it) and the largest crowd they had ever played for. Then their Brazil shows blew that attendance count into the weeds...
 
IIRC, that was their first Gorge show (they were loving it) and the largest crowd they had ever played for. Then their Brazil shows blew that attendance count into the weeds...
Hmm, didn’t know that was their largest crowd prior to the Brazil leg of the VT tour (I love the Rush in Rio DVD and live album). The Gorge is terrific for concerts - beautiful setting, great natural acoustics, big grass lawn if you don’t want seats. Not a cookie cutter venue! One of these days I need to get to Red Rocks in CO for a comparison.
 
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Wow great post op! one of the better ones of late. I imagine you could put a collage of songs together that would probably describe one better than possibly words could. It would sort of be an avatar to our souls. If I was a professor (and I am not) I would assign a project to show who you are using songs/video to a class. Cool post.
 
Good subject matter, it gives members a chance to express themselves a tad further than the one liners we tend to blurt out on forums, (myself included:p).

For me, it also raises another question: (Are we talking songs or recordings?) I was intrigued how some of the replies focused on composition and lyrics, while some other replies seem to focus on recordings of songs by certain artists and the performances.

Because of my jazz leanings, and all the covers of standards that are involved, I tend to look at songs as transposable things that can be performed in many different ways, by many different artists. ("Covering" tunes goes on in all forms of music but is most prolific in jazz) On the other hand I did grow up through rock, soul, pop, etc. so I also look at it from the recording and performance perspective.

For a pure song aspect I look to the jazz standards, soul, and some classic rock. The tunes that challenge me and force me to grow musically are where it's at for me, Antonio Carlos Jobim does this to me with every song I butcher:eek::D.

As for recordings and performances(of a song), then I go for the players that express the songs potential the most in these recordings we enjoy so much. A simple example is Rush's Tom Sawyer, *as overplayed as it is*, (and I never truly connected with Getty Lee's voice:oops:), the drum performance and arrangement is so stellar that it still kicks so much azz to this day that I'm still in awe of Neil Peart and the "song"/recording.
 
Taking away all the technical aspects when a song taps into my emotions, makes me think or remember a great /sad moment.
 
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