Play us an old song for the first time
 

The other day I was driving to dinner with my gf and The Boxer by S&G came on a mix-CD I had. After a few minutes my gf remarked at what a beautiful song it was and asked who it was. I immediately stopped the CD and confirmed in disbelief that she had never, ever, heard the song The Boxer before in her life... even though she is a Paul Simon fan and has heard most of everything he has recorded solo.

I explained to her how lucky she was, and how jealous I was of her because she was about to hear one of the most perfect songs ever written for the first time, even though it was written over 30 years ago. I started the song over and we listened to it together. She was moved by the fluent, graceful melding of music and lyrics and the effortlessness of the recorded performance.

We agreed that in our opinions, there are few things in this world more pleasurable than listening to an old and brilliant piece of music for the first time. With over 10,000 songs from all genres on our collective iPods, it is a rare occurance though.

For myself the only example I can remember of simply missing a popular musical gem occured in 1993 when I heard a local cover band in San Diego perform Into the Mystic . I was with my college roommate and I remember remarking "holy [censored], this song is amazing... how are these guys not huge recording stars by now?!" He, of course, looked at me like I was retarded and began laughing as he asked me if I seriously had never heard of Van Morrison. Now, I HAD heard of Van Morrison and had probably heard half of the songs on Moondance... I just hadn't happened to hear that one song before.

So, members of the Lounge, bring us pleasure. Post an old, brilliant song that you think may have been missed by some of us. Clearly songs like The Boxer or Into the Mystic are not likely to have gone unnoticed by most of us, but I'm sure you have a few tunes in mind... amazing, old tunes that weren't quite hits that you think may have escaped our ears.

Also please tell the story of the hit song you never heard and your memory of hearing it later in life for the first time.

Irieguy

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

Could we elaborate on the rules of the game here? I mean, I could totally rock this thread with jazz and blues made before 1950, and few people would have heard the songs even if they have heard of the likes of Duke Ellington and Muddy Waters, but I don't think that's what you're getting at here.

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

Great thread!

One famous song I can remember being amazed upon hearing it for the first time is Debussy's Claire de Lune. It's very well known, of course, and has probably been used and heard in various movies to the point of cliche, but it's still utterly gorgeous.

And a song/album I'd like to recommend is Hats, from 80s Britsters The Blue Nile. Beautiful, quiet songs that are best heard in one sitting as part of a theme. It's in that dream-pop, chill kinda way that also has a classical jazz sense to it. And singer/songwriter Paul Buchanan has an incredibly expressive voice.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Here's a music video of one of their songs: The Downtown Lights

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

[ QUOTE ]
Could we elaborate on the rules of the game here? I mean, I could totally rock this thread with jazz and blues made before 1950, and few people would have heard the songs even if they have heard of the likes of Duke Ellington and Muddy Waters, but I don't think that's what you're getting at here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just pretend like it is a contest and you have to pick the one song in the world that you think is perfect but that few of us have ever heard.

Irieguy

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

Great thread Irieguy. I agree with you that The Boxer is a perfect song. I just listened to Dom's Downtown Lights and I liked it a lot.

I wish I could post a link to my perfect song nomination. My sister turned me onto Eric Clapton. I love his Thorn Tree In the Garden. If you've never heard it you should try to. I just really love it. (lol, now you guys will tell me you all know about this song [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

One lesser known song that I really like is Sunday Morning Coming Down. There are a lot of songs written by Kris Kristofferson that get very little love.

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherezade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35, has a number of pieces I really like. It's very dramatic and some supposedly think of it as a type of light or popular classical, but it did come to mind as very accessible and fun. As to the very best old thing nobody's heard of, I'm sure that's not it, but it was a nice discovery.

I mentioned in some thread the other day Joe Raposo's famous It's Not Easy Being Green. Everyone has heard that, but I don't think many of us have heard Ray Charles sing it. It's really great when he does it.

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

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One lesser known song that I really like is Sunday Morning Coming Down. There are a lot of songs written by Kris Kristofferson that get very little love.

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Kristofferson's so awesome...my Dad used to play his albums all the time when I was a kid...

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

By the Way, The Boxer and Into the Mystic are probably my favorite songs by those artists!

Re: Play us an old song for the first time
 

I did four songs karaoke last week, and two of them have been mentioned in this thread. No kidding. WATFO?