Music That Makes You Move

Some songs can move you. Pick your brain up and wring it out until a huge lump appears in your throat. I've had that happen listening to "She's Leaving Home," Joni Mitchell's "River" and Macy Gray's "I Try," among many others. It's a pleasant catharsis, cleansing in its way, but mostly reserved for when one is listening by oneself.

And then there are songs that make you move. Songs with funky rhythm, songs that even if you wanted to you couldn't stay still while you're listening to them. Oh, plenty of song have a groove, plenty of songs have a beat that you could dance to if you wanted to, but I'm talking about the songs that find some primal resonance and force you to move in spite of yourself.

I'm not sure what the mechanics of it are; I have a theory that the rhythm is set up to go one place, and then frustrates our expectations by leaving a hole where the beat ought to be, and that forces us to twitch involuntarily where that beat should strike. I haven't done the scientific analysis to prove whether there's any merit to this theory. I only know that there are certain songs that make you move, that make you tap your foot or drum your fingers, even in situations where you're supposed to be still. The musicians have conspired to infect your musculature with rhythm, and you're powerless to stop them.

I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife to come out of a store one day in 1990 and this came on the radio. When she got back to the car I was dancing in the driver's seat. The song had been over for 10 minutes, but I turned off the radio and kept playing it in my head. It was the first time I'd ever heard this version: