Glosoli, by Sigur Ros
For as long as I've known this song, it has represented nothing but the purest, most innocent sense of hope in my life. It kept me going through numerous personal crises, it kept me going through my time in Japan when the tsunami hit, and I'm sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that, had it existed then and had I understood, it would have gotten me through the horror of what happened on that day ten years ago.
It represents the release of all worries and the hope - the belief - that life will get better.
Tom Williams
Billy Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)"
Written 25 years before 9/11, the apocalyptic story behind the song rang somewhat true...the imagery is very prescient, and the song became a proletarian battle cry after the attacks.
Jon Antis
PROFESSOR BAD TRIP, Fausto Romitelli, performed by Ictus
Horrible as it may seem, this is the music, the ghostly sound, & measure of time I can imagine in the head of someone who had, miraculously, just survived the collapse of the Twin Towers.
It was a bad trip.
Vic
PROFESSOR BAD TRIP, Fausto Romitelli
Horrible as it may seem, this is the music, the ghostly sound, & measure of time I can imagine in head of someone who had, miraculously, just survived the collapse of the Twin Towers.
It was a bad trip.
Vic
"This is the Day" by The The from the Album "Soul Mining"
Written in the early 1980's, "This is the Day" helped me as I struggled to come to an emotional understanding of 9/11. It represents my fellow forty-something, fans of early alternate rock. It's prominent lyric "... Watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky, This is the day your life will surely change." drew me back to this song. The melody is poignant and haunting and the words seem meant to describe both the bereaved and all of us casting about for way to mourn such a unthinkable loss. This was the song that allowed me to cry. And it still does.
Eric Seldner
Lovely Day by Bill Withers
This was played during one of the post 9/11 events and will be forever in my mine connected to that day. They can throw their worst at us and we can overcome it and create a Lovely Day.
Brad MacPherson
"Freedom" by Paul McCartney
"Freedom" is a visceral response to the 9-11 attacks that is less angry than defiant. There is hope and optimism in Paul's ballad. And as it comes from an immigrant artist with great ties to NYC, this song has even more power. It was written on September 12th, and was part of the Concert for NYC some weeks later.
Frank Schorn
"How to Disappear Completely" Radiohead
The chorus, "I'm not here, this isn't happening" seemed like one refrain that made sense that day but I didn't hear any music that week I don't think, it was just news in our apartment, like in lots of apartments I'm sure. By maybe Friday or Saturday there was a little music at our place; it felt like every lyric you knew meant something completely different now.
@DanKennedy_NYC
"Dreaming" the last movement of George Andoniadis' "Lincoln A Poetic Opera"
Dreaming is a beautiful musical offering of solace,faith,peace,love and hope.
Cathryn S.
Wilco - Ashes of American Flags
No comment, thanks. But it means a lot.
MHC
Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) by Billy Joel
Goodnight, my angel
Time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say
I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away
Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay
And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark and deep
Inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me
Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullabye
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me
Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabyes go on and on...
They never die
That's how you
And I
Will be
Paul
What a Wonderful World
After 9/11, my city agency acted as a relief center for those performing rescue efforts at Ground Zero. Our Commissioner realized our need to grieve and move forward and held a memorial service. At the end of the service she played What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. It was to tell us to appreciate this world even though we must face difficult times. It has stayed with me.
Diane Lipset
Lucy Kaplansky, Land of the Living
I'm not a New Yorker, but was living in upstate New York at the time of 9/11. This song has such strong images (the pictures of the missing posted everywhere, especially) that it brings me back to that time. It so powerfully conveys a sense of empathy and the determination to go on loving New York City and its people.
Shirin
Albuquerque Lullaby by Dan Bern
This song was released in 2001 and when I heard it soon after 9/11 it touched me in a way that few songs had. The chorus is:
Don't let your heart
Get broken by this world
Don't let your heart
Get broken
At the bottom of the ocean
You might find a pearl
Don't let your heart
Get broken by this world.
Beautiful words.
Jan Huling
Benjamin Britten's War Requiem
Because it is a requiem, fittingly, for the blind violence and depersonalized hatred of war. On the morning of 9/12, I mentioned to someone that I was hungry to hear "Finlandia" the Methodist hymn, and a very noted minister replied, quite angrily, that a hymn about the love of one's own country and respect for others love of theirs was hardly a fitting choice in the context of the attack on our country. He was hungry for blood retribution and said so. Yet to me Finlandia embodies exactly what was violated on 9/11, and the specific grief and redemption of Britten's War Requiem is the only work I know of that moves from massive terrible grief to solace to hope on that scale.
Mary R. Chione
Lux Aeterna by David Adam Smnith
This beautiful piece was written from the heart of someone who lives in Brooklyn and who experienced the 9/11 first hand. I have done it with several of my choirs and everyone loves it. It's beauty is in it's simplicity. I highly recommend it for your show.
Sarah Brink
The Springsteen Album "The Rising"
For the past 10 years, starting 2 minutes before the anniversary of the 1st plane hitting Tower 1, I play this album from beginning to end. Its beginning pieces bring out my sense of pain and loss. The middle pieces at the humanity behind the incredible acts of courage that took place. The finale brings the hope that rebuilding will replace but weill never suppress the memory.
Kevin Berger
"Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis
See title.
Alison Matika
Henryk Górecki, "Symphony No. 3"
This work was a favorite of my late husband, Steven Vincent, a journalist killed in Iraq in 2005, a place he was in as a direct result of the 9-11 attacks. I still remember him listening to it, eyes closed, moved to an occasional tear as he responded to the deep and abiding sorrow and grief so implicit in every note, in the haunting voice of the singer. Also also known as the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs", the first movement is taken from a 15th century lament, the second uses the actual words of a teenage girl, Helena Błazusiak, which she wrote on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell, the third incorporates a Silesian folk song describing the pain of a mother searching for a son killed in war. The piece is haunting, elegiac and soaringly beautiful, a fitting tribute to the lost of 9-11.
Lisa Ramaci
Gates of Hell - Seanchai & the Unity Squad
This song captures the essence of loss and a new era in NYC for those who live here.
http://abmp3.com/download/3537387-gates-of-hell.html
Tom Marlow
