Songs w/ Pregnant Words

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I'm looking for examples of songs where a single word & the way it is sung seems to carry so much meaning -- or maybe just the way one word is sung (or rapped) triggers a strong emotion, even if you're not sure what it means. Two words is OK too, but no lines or phrases.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 7 November 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I live in Virgina now a couple of counties over from Albemarle -- everything I see that word in print I think of the Silver Jews song "Albemarle Station" and those two words next to each other, in addition to sounding so beautiful and musical just as words, evoke all sorts of images for me -- I can see a half-empty place with people coming and going and lives in transition.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 7 November 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

in scott walker's version of "if you go away". when he sings "turning, turning", the second one.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 7 November 2002 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Name of this Band is Talking Heads" version of "Air" .. "Some people, they don't know SHIT about the ..."

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 7 November 2002 14:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Zowee -- Mark, in that electro text I sent you, I originally had this lengthy bit under the Console song about "loaded" words; the presentation of the "I love you" on that track struck me as a perfect example. I was comparing it to my favorite loaded-word ever, from Saint Etienne's "He's on the Phone": YES. It bursts so suddenly into this massively ecstatic chorus, but the "yes" can read as either joyous or resigned. All you get out of it is this big and very right-feeling sense of enormous emotion, but you could really project any emotion you wanted into it.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 7 November 2002 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

"When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" by Moby is really a cheesy song, but sometimes it just creeps me out the way Mimi Goese sings "I don't wanna" during the chorus.

― Curtis Stephens, Thursday, 7 November 2002 21:39 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, on Outkast's "Miss Jackson" when he says, "Forever. Forever ever? Forever ever?" I always get choked up on the last "ever." Stuff like that... hope turning to dismay, always gets me.

― wl (wl), Thursday, 7 November 2002 22:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd like to nominate something which I know has been criticised in the past for being knowing, arch and consequently bereft of any real feeling or authenticity - which I dispute. The final track of Divine Comedy's "Casanova", "The Dogs and the Horses", is I accept a bit of a Scott Walker rip-off. But the line where he sings "and everything that lives must die" is particularly affecting for the way his voice seems to quiver on the word "die", and in the context of the song's meaning, (a second cousin of "September Song"), always gets me.

― Darren, Saturday, 9 November 2002 14:53 (twenty-three years ago)

The bizarre Canuckified "never" in Leonard Cohen's "Anthem." ("Bought, and sold, and bought again, the dove is nev-aghch free."

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Saturday, 9 November 2002 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

the "yeah" after the words "something in the way", Nirvana

― dave q, Saturday, 9 November 2002 15:50 (twenty-three years ago)

has anyone heard kevin rowlands "burnin"'s ,during the live version of "until i believe in my soul" ,from the bridge video?

haunting!!!!!!

― del a robbo, Saturday, 9 November 2002 22:49 (twenty-three years ago)

several of these are on AC/DC's "Rock And Roll Singer". I nthe phrase "and all the other SHIT that you learn about it school, cuz I...ain't...no....fool" "Shit," "I," and "fool" all qualify. Since all I have is "High Voltage" I can't tell you if he's consistent, but Bon Scott sure knew how to work that pregnant word action on the first album.

― Anthony Miccio, Saturday, 9 November 2002 23:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"Automatic" by Scannerfunk (tafka Scanner), also on last year's Sulphur sampler. Sort of like "Warm Leatherette", updated for a time when bot-voices have progressed to carry a more human cheerful lilt, but still mindlessly repeat when you leave your car door open or browse the porn sites.

― Curt (cgould), Sunday, 10 November 2002 17:46 (twenty-three years ago)

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