20-odd years ago, I left my beloved Wellington seaside community (hey there, Breaker Bay) to study in Australia.  To help say goodbye to so many people I loved so much I organised an informal night of music at the local hall, with lots of friends providing the music.  The final act was a 5-piece (or maybe 6) band brought along by my friend Robbie Duncan.  I remember standing at the hall door watching as they carried all this big time gear into the hall during the set up.  Amps, speakers, keyboards, mixing desk, mic stands, lots of drums and guitar cases, cables everywhere.  And thinking "What the hell have I done?  This was supposed to be acoustic!".
The early part of the night went better than my wildest dreams.  By the time the final act came on, about 100 people were laughing, singing, dancing and having a great time.  I was standing at the back of the hall, musical duties over and pleasantly ripped thinking "This will be interesting, could go either way" when they launched into a cover of this song as their opening number.
Well, sometimes, the universe just comes up with things so special we are transported by the moment.  The band was tight from the first notes, the female lead singer nailed the vocals, all that fancy gear and sound system sounded incredible, the hall's acoustics were just right and the room went off.  I remember turning to my friend Kerry, no lover of the commercial pop song, and we both had huge smiles because everything was so right.  It sounded and felt fantastic.
Now, it may be cheesy.  It may be clichéd.  It may be commercial pop.  But if anyone slags this song within my hearing I will take them aside and forcefully explain how I once saw a performance of it define a moment for 100 people.  And yes, maybe you had to be there and possibly stimulant-affected but for those who were, it was transcendent.
Everyone's special music has it's own story.  Let's listen to it knowing that we all have our own stories, or gracefully PSD if you can't.  But let's stop dissing people here because their stories are different from ours.  We have social media and politicians for that.
Full respect to Bill and Rebecca!

 helenofjoy wrote:
 
I need some new material...

 oldviolin wrote:
 
I've heard that line before.

 Steely_D wrote:
 
Is that a trick question?

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
 
Why you do this to me, Dimi?

jimtyrrell wrote: 
State or Federal ?  :)

There are just not enough xylophone solos in rock songs these days. 

 haresfur wrote:
  
 slowly drove me insane and I'm not all the way back yet.

 haresfur wrote:
  
 slowly drove me insane and I'm not all the way back yet.

ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

The neighbors across the street played this incessantly for years and years, and I could usually hear it faintly any time of night or day, like the record player was in the attic and they didn't know the sound was coming from their house. Then I discovered they had a wind chime tuned to these notes.

On_The_Beach: chirion wrote:Why can't you play other Stone's songs, only this over and over? 
 
You can't always get what you want.

When I was young and just discovering music, as a treat my mom would buy me a 45 at the dime store on occasion.  On one of these occasions, I'd asked her to buy me a copy of Rocky Mountain High by John Denver.  Instead, she comes home with this.  It was very different than the music I'd been previously exposed to, to say the least.  Have to say, the music gods were smiling on me that day ... I shudder to think what might have been if I'd continued down the path I was on.