ELO's Rockaria! (the best ELO song, IMHO) has the line 'I think she'd die for Beethoven', to which the piano player responds by playing the famous intro of the Beethoven's 5th symphony.
Any other examples?
Good topic. I love ELO and that song.
I'll throw an obscure one into the mix. In Art Garfunkel's A Heart in New York song when he sings the line "I write my song to that city heart beat" the bass player speeds up his tempo to sound like a heart beat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9qNjCgC49E
great thread. too many to mention...will get my head on this one.
i love the Killers "Runaways" for it's deliberate "mood setting" intros
Nice intro - perfectly descriptive of the "first meet" and the "rush" of first love- music even sounds summer breezy....followed by an almost racing heartbeat of "first love"
Blonde hair blowing in the summer wind - a blue-eyed girl playing in the sand
i'd been on her trail for a little while - but that was the night that she broke down and held my hand
three crashing chords (almost like the moment a killer strikes in a horror movie) to introduce the biting reality
we got engaged on a friday night - swore on the head of our unborn son
that i would take care of the three of us - but i got the tendency to slip when the night gets wild
then the last verse...you almost hear him: a stumbling regret-filled drunk - crashing into shit.
at night i come home after they go to sleep - like a stumbling drunk i haunt these halls
there's a picture of use on our wedding day - i recognize the girl but i can't settle in these walls,
many lines deliberately have two meanings, and music fits each section perfectly. pure lyrical/musical genius.
ok, i'll give you a couple more. and i really love the intelligence in these two:
Both written by McCartney - and he's always had a fondness for a tempo change.
Band On The Run [5:13]
0:00 - 1:20 : really fits the mood of someone dwelling on their situation
1:21 - 2:06 : tempo increase - signifies the brain working on a plan to change things
2:05 - 2:15 - tempo slowed - plan activated
2:15 - 5:13 - much faster - escape successful...now "on the run"
one other McCartney change of tempo i love:
We Can Work It Out
the "fighting my friend" "ask you once again" - those two little "Waltz" stings are genius.
and another thing about them: Tucked into those two lines is something remarkably akin to Lennon's"Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite" - which Lennon wrote a year later.