Small Musical Moments

A Few Seconds Can Stop You In Your Tracks

Original photo by Matthias Groeneveld.

A lifetime spent listening to music has left me attached to oddly specific moments.

I’m not necessarily thinking about the big hooks, transcendent choruses, stunning vocals, soaring guitar solos, or killer drum tracks here. All of that plays a role in my infatuation, but I’m going a level deeper to focus on the specific—seemingly insignificant—flashes of brilliance that jump out at me for whatever reason.

These connections occasionally happen on the first listen, although the kinds of strong emotional attachments I’m attempting to describe are often born of deeper consideration. In my experience, it’s more about alchemy than wizardry—happy accidents, emotional resonance, individual parts making the sum greater.

I have a hard time finding the right words to adequately define these strange bonds, so I’ve compiled a list of songs with brief explanations below. There are many others I could have included (the drum turnaround in The Cars’ “Just What I Needed,” Joni Mitchell’s vocal delivery and laugh on the final line of “Big Yellow Taxi,” the guitars on The Records “Starry Eyes”…), but I might save those for a second installment.

Give the tracks below a spin and see if you hear what I hear, or if other musical moments come to mind.

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“I Only Have Eyes For You” by The Flamingos

A lot of people in the ‘80s were obsessed with the ‘50s (the way our current culture loves to riff on the ‘90s; 30 year cycles, etc.). That’s how I came to work as a soda jerk at a ‘50s-themed diner during high school. I got really tired of every song in that jukebox, except for The Flamingos’ haunting “I Only Have Eyes For You.” Those watery “sha bop sha bop” backing vocals still give me chills.

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“Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks

That moment when the galloping intro gives way to the guitar melody about :08 seconds into the song is pure magic. (I have gone deeper on this track in the past.)

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“Sweet Jane” by The Velvet Underground

My First Serious High School Band™ played this song which is probably reason enough for it to make the list, but I believe the distilled essence of rock and roll can be glimpsed when that godhead guitar riff first starts at the :15 second mark.

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“September Gurls” by Big Star

I know, I know. I’ve written about this track so often that it seems silly to include it on this list, but I still feel it in my guts when the drums first come in at the :08 second mark (after the equally magical Mando guitar intro).

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“Dancing Barefoot” by Patti Smith

This whole song elicits inexplicably enormous feelings for me, but the vocals at the end of the first chorus around the :56 second mark—“Makes me come on like some heroine…”—and the return to the repetitive “Gloria”-esque guitar line is pure bliss.

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“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac

This song is a classic, but the moment I love most isn’t even on the recorded version. In the early 2000s, after returning home from being on tour, I surprised my future wife with tickets to see Stevie Nicks at The House of Blues in Hollywood. Nicks punctuated the line “And I’m getting older too…” by adding a sarcastic “Ha!” To this day, I can’t hear this song without inserting that aside—either in my mind or out loud.

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“Heroes” by David Bowie

This whole track conjures a specific melancholy for me, but I’m a sucker for all the yearning and frustration David Bowie expresses at 3:17 when he strains to deliver:

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen

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“Shattered” by The Rolling Stones

As a drummer, my ears are attuned to textural flares and interesting turnarounds that I’m guessing most fans would understandably miss. One of my favorites is the quick series of simple fills Charlie Watts delivers starting around 2:30 on this all-time favorite Stones song. (I wrote about this in more depth here.)

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“Customer” by The Replacements

If you want to get my attention, just play the first :05 seconds of this song. Start with the snarky “Tape’s rolling…” prompt from the producer followed by Paul Westerberg’s “Okay…” response and the rapid fire opening lyrics:

IminlovewiththegirlwhoworksatthestorewhereImnothingbutacustomer...

I’m all in, every single time.

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“Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds

The super talented drummer from my older brothers’ metal band gave me a few lessons after I started playing in high school. One of the first things I asked him to teach me was the drum fill at 3:44 from this John Hughes-approved new wave classic. Any GenXer worth their salt already knows what I’m talking about. (It’s right up there with the drum fill in Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” as far as I’m concerned.)

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“Close To The Stars” by Soul Asylum

Often overshadowed by their Minneapolis peers, The Replacements and Hüsker Dü, I still believe Soul Asylum released some of the best albums of that era. That includes 1987’s While You Were Out, featuring one of my favorite songs ever. There’s a blink-and-you-missed-it moment at 2:29 when Dave Pirner’s voice cracks on the word “shaking” that did something profound to my teenage brain. And, well, here I am still thinking and writing about it almost 40 years later.

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“Starfish and Coffee” by Prince

The alarm clock that opens this track is literally Pavlovian for me. Wherever I am and whatever I’m doing, if I hear it I will pause to listen for the start of this genius song. (Lucy and I recently discussed this one in more depth for X/Z Song Trader.)

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“Waiting Room” by Fugazi

The 4-or-so seconds from :21-:25 might be the most effective use of silence since John Cage’s “4’33.” The anticipation this pause creates is almost unbearable, and the release that follows is transcendent. Like taking a deep breath before letting it all out.

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“Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer

The semi-ironic self-affirmation of those “yeahs” remains devastating 30+ years later:

Dear Daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence
You’ve cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good or so I hear
This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings
Like father, step-father, the son is drowning in the flood
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah

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“Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls

This one was originally pointed out to me by Rob Cavallo, producer for The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 album Dizzy Up The Girl. Listen to the track “Iris” (with intention this time!), paying special attention to the simple tambourine rhythm in the verses while trying to tap along. Sometimes the devil really is in the details.

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“Misunderstood“ by Wilco

I’ve seen Wilco many times over the years, but the most memorable show was on a perfect fall night at LA’s Ford Amphitheater in 2002. Toward the end of the set, Jeff Tweedy mentioned that the venue was giving them grief about the stage volume right before launching into this defining track from 1996’s Being There. The entire evening crescendoed when they reached the “I’d like to thank you all for nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing…” refrain which somehow stretched to infinity with a ferocity that still has my ears ringing and my heart pounding. That performance forever changed the way I hear the recorded version.

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“I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift

Having kids changed my relationship with music in some pretty profound ways (see the X/Z Song Trader series). Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red was probably when our whole family fell for her thanks to Lucy’s growing obsession. There’s a moment in the song “I Knew You Were Trouble” where Swift repeats the line “Now I see…” that sounded a lot like “Mousy.” It’s a silly little kid moment we all still sing at the top of our lungs when this one comes on.

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“I Eat” by Mo Troper

I’m a big fan of Mo Troper’s off-kilter, lo-fi take on modern power pop, but these visceral lines resonate deeply with me for reasons I still don’t fully comprehend (perhaps because I was once a heavy smoker who never really enjoyed smoking?):

I smoke until I shake
A square bent out of shape
My inflated ego fell from the gallows
And now I’m a float with no parade
Out of hot air hanging for my life
Watching as the world marches on by

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“When You Know You Know” by The Beths

There are several songs by The Beths I could include here, but this one from 2022’s Expert in a Dying Field is a favorite. I’m always blown away by the backing vocals throughout this track (which they pull off with aplomb live). For this one, it’s more a series of moments starting when the band comes crashing in around 3:11 and the backing/lead vocals blend together for the extended outro leading to Liz Stokes’ cathartic repetition of the words “you know…” starting around 3:26.

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What are your all-time favorite song moments?

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The Sepia-Tinted Haze Of "Waterloo Sunset"

September Gurls & December Boy’s

X/Z Song Trader: "Starfish And Coffee"

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