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January 6, 2009 • (952) 445-3333
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chills

Sound Off: Chilled to the bone

Submitted by BakerBlog on February 8, 2008 - 12:18pm.
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Do you ever get goose bumps when listening to music?

There are many informal benchmarks musicians look to when putting together a track to try to determine its quality. Does it make your 2-year-old dance? Does the chorus stick in your head long after you’ve hit the stop button? Does it bring a tear to your eye or a smile to your face, make you want to hit the gym or bang your head? Does it inspire you to tilt your bucket seat back, crank your subwoofers and roll slowly through the neighborhood? Though these litmus tests are unscientific, they tend to be fairly reliable at an almost universal level – at least across your intended audience.

But there’s one listener response to music that’s almost impossible to predict – and as precious as it is elusive: the chill factor. You can’t really plant the chill factor in music because it’s inherently a personal experience. Where lightning may strike some as Celine Dion holds a high note for a seemingly inhuman amount of time, the goose bumps will come to another when they hear Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood testing his distortion pedal before the chorus of “Creep.”

For me, there’s a moment in Nirvana’s “Sliver,” aka “Grandma Take Me Home,” that never fails to raise goose bumps and elicit a primal emotion: as Kurt Cobain finishes the line, “I woke up in my mothers aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarms.” He ravages his throat as he fights to hold on to the word “arms,” which is a perfect metaphor. It’s as though he packs every iota of pain he ever felt in his life into that word – and the juxtaposition of that innocent moment from his childhood, forever lost, against his man-sized hurt is almost unbearable. No matter how many times I hear that song, the chill comes.

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Do you experience the “chill factor” when listening to certain songs?


In Sinead O'Conner's song...

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jennyjean4's picture

In Sinead O'Conner's song "Black Boys on Mopeds" there's a verse that goes...
In her arms she holds three cold babies
And the first word that they learned was "please"
and on the word please her voice goes up about an octave and she sings that word so quietly and emotionally that I get chills every time.


Submitted by jennyjean4 on February 8, 2008 - 12:28pm.

"Lizzie and the Rainman" by...

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"Lizzie and the Rainman" by Tanya Tucker - don't ask me why.......it's a cool song with cool drums and it gives me chills when I hear it.

Also "Oh My God" by Jars of Clay - very haunting lyrics towards the end of the song that crescendo towards an awesome and chilling finish.


Submitted by chefemby on February 8, 2008 - 12:48pm.

"I Can Only Imagine" by...

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"I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe.

I first heard the song several years ago, and knew instantly that it was something special. Very, very few songs (for me) fall into the category of "divinely inspired" but this one of them.

I called my wife in from the other room and played it for her. Intently, she listened to each and every lyric. Brimming with enthusiam, I could barely wait for the song to end so we could talk about it.

When it did, she motioned for me to be quiet (something I have a hard time doing anyway) and asked that I play it again.

I was happy to oblige; however when it was done playing the second time, she looked at me and matter-of-factly stated, "I want this song played at my funeral"

I was miffed!! She'd taken a perfectly good song and RUINED it for me. From that point on, each and every time I heard the song (yes, bringing chills, indeed), I thought of those remarks.

Sadly, at the age of 37, my wife passed away last January. She got her wish and "I Can Only Imagine" was played at her funeral.

In the words of the songwriter, she now knows what it's like to "walk by His side, and look in His face"

LYRICS:

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

KRISTIN K. SORENSEN
June 4, 1969 - January 8, 2007


Submitted by billboardbandit on March 4, 2008 - 4:38pm.

This is a chill-bringing...

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This is a chill-bringing funeral song and it was played as we scattered the ashes of my husband's best friend of 30 years from the end of a pier in San Diego two years ago.

Gary was 42 when he died and he was lead singer in a praise and worship band in Indiana.

Thus, even worse for me is "God of Wonders" by Third Day -- which Gary "sang" at the end of his own funeral service. Just thinking of the words right now brings tears to my eyes.


Submitted by Ruth Anne Maddox on March 4, 2008 - 5:29pm.

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