Songs That Hold You Captivated

Recently I discovered there are certain songs that hold me completely spellbound whenever I listen to them. Songs I cannot listen to passively, or casually. Songs that envelope me and transport me beyond the ordinary. Songs were I seem to hear every note from every instrument and every nuance played. Are there songs that have such an effect on you?

Here is a short list of songs that hold me captive from start to finish.
Dear Prudence, Just Like A Woman (Dylan), Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (CSN), Ball & Chain (Janis Joplin), Your Song (Elton John), Looking At The Rain (Gordon Lightfoot), Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky), Nessun dorma! (Pavarotti), My Favorite Things (John Coltrane).

Barber's Adagio for strings, Paradise by Bruce Springsteen, Highwayman by The Highwaymen, Angry American by Toby Keith.

"Days" by the Kinks.

Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues.
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide - ZZ Top

Chances by Kirby Heyborne

Desolation Row - Bob Dylan

Desolation Row here as well
"Dancing With the Wind" Days of the New
"Don't Follow" Alice in Chains
"Gone" Jerry Cantrell
"So Real," "You and I," "All Flowers in Time Bend Toward the Sun," "What Will You Say," and "Dream Brother" Jeff Buckley
"Sister Awake," "The River," "Save Me," "The Majestic Song," "Inanna," and "Walk With Me" The Tea Party

One song I absolutely adore and urge everybody to listen to is 'Fight Test' by the Flaming Lips. It's a brilliantly tranquil song with beautiful lyrics...

I thought I was smart, I thought I was right
I thought it better not to fight
I thought there was a virtue in always being cool
So it came time to fight, I thought I’ll just step aside
And that the time would prove you wrong
And that you would be the fool

I don’t know where the sunbeams end and that the starlights begin
It’s all a mystery

Oh, to fight is to defend
If it’s not now then tell me when would be the time
That you would stand up and be a man
For to lose I could accept
But to surrender I just wept
And regretted this moment, oh that I, I was the fool

I don’t know where the sunbeams end and that the starlights begin
It’s all a mystery
And I don’t know how a man decides what’s right for his own life
It’s all a mystery

‘Cause I’m a man, not a boy
And there are things you can’t avoid
You have to face them when you’re not prepared to face them
If I could, I would, but you’re with him
I’d do no good
I should have fought him but instead I let him, I let him take you

I don’t know where the sunbeams end and that the starlights begin
It’s all a mystery
And I don’t know how a man decides what’s right for his own life
It’s all a mystery

Whenever I listen to it I get goosepimply, especially during the instrumental. :-)

Right now "California" by Joni Mitchell and

"Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan

~Layla

Rain - The Beatles
Sad eyed lady of the lowlands - Bob Dylan
Stairway to heaven - Led Zeppelin
Still loving you - Tom Robinson
Machine gun - Jimi Hendrix
Your song - Elton John
Isn'it a pity - George Harrison

bridge over troubled water simon & garfunkel

hush deep purple

hey joe jimi hendrix

good vibrations beach boys

papa was a rolling stone temps? or tops?

there's many many more......these are but a few!

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"

presently Katherine Jenkins song "Time To Say Goodbye" absolutely sends chills when I listen...

Non-Beatles related only

"Idiot Wind", "Mississippi" and "Love Sick" by Bob Dylan; "Fearless" by Pink Floyd; "America" by Simon & Garfunkel; "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys; "First Of May" by the Bee Gees; "Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac and "Going To California" by Led Zeppelin among many others.

[quote=Harbidge]One song I absolutely adore and urge everybody to listen to is 'Fight Test' by the Flaming Lips. It's a brilliantly tranquil song with beautiful lyrics...

Oh I couldn't agree more on this one.
And also for me there's Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie and Caring is Creepy by the Shins.

These are all my non-Beatles choices, of course :

Ohio - CSN&Y
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane (it gives me chills)
Blowing in the Wind - Bob Dylan (for some reason I usually get teary at this one)
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Fortunate Son - CCR
Who Are You - the Who
Satisfaction - Stones

By the Beatles: This boy, and in my life

Non beatles:

Come what may from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

Don't Fade away by Peter Frampton

and thats all I can think of at the mo.... but there are more....

Show Must Go On by Queen is one of them.

Recently I discovered there are certain songs that hold me completely spellbound whenever I listen to them. Songs I cannot listen to passively, or casually. Songs that envelope me and transport me beyond the ordinary. Songs were I seem to hear every note from every instrument and every nuance played.

I feel like that with all my favorite songs. I can't use music I love as background ambience while I drive, do homework or talk with my friends.

One song that I find totally transporting and captivating is 'Into The West' from the soundtrack to the movie 'Return of the King'

Lay down
your sweet and weary head.
Night is falling,
You have come to journey’s end

Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling,
from across the distant shore.

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see,
All of your fears will pass away

Safe in my arms,
you’re only sleeping

What can you see
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
a pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home ...

And all will turn to silver glass.
A light on the water
All souls pass ...

Hope fades
Into the world of night
Through shadows falling
Out of memory and time

Don’t say,
We have come now to the end ...
White shores are calling ...
you and I will meet again.

And you’ll be here in my arms,
Just sleeping ...

What can you see,
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
a pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home ...

And all will turn to silver glass.
A light on the water
Grey ships pass
Into the west.

Other ones that come to mind are 'Goodnight My Angel' by Billy Joel and 'Tears In Heaven' and 'Change The World' by Eric Clapton ... there are more, but I can't think of them right now.

Plus a lot of Beatles and solo songs of course - In My Life, Here Comes The Sun, All Things Must Pass, Beware of Darkness and Something are the ones that come to mind now.