MacColl's, Joy of Living gets me that way too Robb, but nowadays I'm not sure that that's not because it's arrived at number one on the funeral 'hit charts' and I only hear it when a friend has died. MacColl's funeral was reduced to melting butter as his voice came over the speakers singing it.
Two other of his songs affected me in this way, The Ballad of Sharpville reduces me to frustrated anger, and for some reason I still can't get through 'Ballad of the Carpenter' without choking up.
One of the most emotional pieces of singing I ever heard was recorded when Bert Lloyd was working with a collecting team in (I think) Albania. Word came through that there had been a tragedy in the next village and one of the team said he had to go as it was a neighbour who had died.
The team drove to a peasant's house to find a wake in progress, the victim being a young boy who had drowned. They had sent for the village singer, a young woman, who was the victim's sister, to formally sing a lament over the boy who had been laid out on the kitchen table, as was the local custom. It was the most emotianally charged piece of singing I've ever heard
Surprisingly, the family agreed to let the team record the proceedings, and it was included in a two programme series entitled 'The Lament' about funeral songs.
Still brings a lump to the throat.
Jim Carroll