For some reason John Denver’s song Matthew always makes me cry. I think I just fidn something very poignant about how the song evokes in a very simple way the loss of childhood and ‘the way things used to be’ in the last verse (other than the repetition of the chorus).
The only two songs that have ever made me cry are Don’t You (Forget About Me) and Memories of Crono. The former because it reminds me of the end of the very tearjerker Futurama episode “Luck of the Fryrish”; and the latter because of a plot point in Chrono Trigger that would spoil a large portion of the game for anyone who hasn’t played it.
The song Forsaken by the band VNV Nation can get me a little teary on occasion. It’s an outburst of grief upon the loss of a loved one that truly sounds like he’s devastated. The lyrics alone don’t translate as well as when they are in context, unfortunately.
The entire song is based on him trying to release all of his grief at once. Starting out the song with the line “When I have nothing left to feel / When I have nothing left to say / I will let this slip away …” it continues until he literally says he has nothing left to give. The line that gets me is when he says
[quote]
Have I done something wrong?
Forgive my need to bleed right now
Please forgive my need to breathe
But I’ve so much to say
It wouldn’t matter anyway
You’re not here to hear
These words that I must say
And the song ends with a sample of a line from the movie “Jacob’s Ladder” that nicely ties the whole thing together:
[quote]
If you’re frightened of dying and you’re holding on, you see devils tearing your life away. If you’ve made your peace … then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.
Elvis Costello does it for me. Especially, Alison and The Favourite Hour are guaranteed to raise a tear, they are so plaintive. I’m having the latter played at my funeral - damn it, people are going to ***cry ***!.
Blues Traveler Christmas is one that gets me blubbering every Christmas. It’s the emoting in Josh Popper’s voice that does it to me.
Make that John Popper, and I’m going to bed.
Junior Murvin is exactly right. Paul Kelly is a big fan, from what I’ve read. FWIW, I live in the USA, and I’ve loved Kelly’s music since “Dumb Things,” back in '88(?)
Oh, and Imeant to say that “How to Make Gravy” is a wonderful song, as are most of the songs on that particular album (besides “Gutless Wonder,” which I think is unbelievably sub-par.)
“Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen really gets to me as does “She’s Leaving Home” by the Beatles.
I said “pogo stick” the other day and my wife got weepy.
Why?
Because someone in “On the Beach” wanted a pogo stick and the mere mention of that book (and apparently anything related to it) makes her weepy.
And, this is from a woman who doesn’t cry at ANYTHING. I think she cried early on when I met her in 1997 (old boyfriend shit), and never again until 2002 when she read “On the Beach”.
This is really stupid, but the other day I ran across “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” on the radio. I brought it to the kids’ attention and started to explain to them that this song is the reference people are making when they use yellow ribbons to symbolize bringing soldiers home safely, but I was unable to finish speaking because I kept choking up! I had to turn the damn thing off.
Can’t watch any of the Christmas standards with the kids because I’ll cry my head off.
You name it, if it’s “Why Am I Such A Misfit?” from Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer to Frosty The Snowman to anything from that show about Santa Claus on ABC, I won’t be able to talk for the lump in my throat. And it’s a cumulative process…I can’t get myself back together at all once it starts.
Exceptions: The South Park Christmas shows and the Christmas movies from Mystery Science Theater 3000, but those aren’t that music intensive. Thank God.
In “regular” music, a lot of Anne Murray’s stuff pre-1975 can get me going, if I’m caught in a bad moment.
Almost any version of “When I Fall In Love” will do it.
Joni Mitchell’s title track remake of “Both Sides Now” is a rough one for me to play on the air.
Oh, nearly forgot…“Skywriter” as performed by Art Garfunkel. From the piano intro to the end, I absolutely can’t handle it.
I’d imagine he learned to play and dance before he lost his senses.
This Sherrie Austin, “Streets of Heaven”.
I also tear up at “Remember When” by Alan Jackson, and “Touch the Wind” by Donovan. Both feel so poignant.
My country song would have to be 11 year old genius Billy Gilman’s One Voice from a few years ago. What happened to him - he was a male Judy Garland. I used to listen to him and found it hard to believe that an 11 year old could manage the delivery of the songs he was doing. He must be a young boy with an old soul.
Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah is always guaranteed to make me wistful.
Yet another example of SDMB synchronicity. I heard this version a couple of weeks ago while laying in bed. I only knew of Leonard Cohen’s original and had to look up the playlist from RAGE! to find out who it was.
Junior Murvin is a reggae artist. He did the original version of “Police and Thieves”
Two that never fail for me:
Dan Fogelberg’s “Run for the Roses” (lyrics) …and I can’t even figure out why, because it’s a happy song!
C. W. McCall’s “Roses for Mama” (lyrics) - pure schmaltz, but it does it to me every time.
Another one that gets me going if I sit down and listen to it is Assemblage 23’s “30KFT” (lyrics) (sorry about the odd location, but the lyrics are a bit hard to find). Not a 9/11 song, but it easily could have been.