Just because it’s over
doesn’t mean it didn’t happen
doesn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful
even with the pain
Aimee Mann, a specialist in sad songs of defeated resignation:
Real Bad News
I got love and anger, they come as a pair
You can take your chances but buyer beware
And I won’t make you feel bad when I show you
this big ball of sad isn’t worth even filling with air
It’s Not
So here I’m sitting in my car at the same old stop light
I keep waiting for a change, but I don’t know what
So red turns into green turning into yellow
But I’m just frozen here on the same old spot
And all I have to do is just press the pedal
But I’m not
You Do
The sex you’re trading up for
what you hope is love
is just another thing that
he’ll be careless of
but though there are caveats galore
you’ve only got to love him more -
and you do
you really do
even when it’s all too clear
10,000 Maniacs: Eat for Two
O, Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue.
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed.
Now I know lightning strikes again.
It struck me once, then struck me dead.
My folly grows inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.
…
Walk for two? I’m stumbling.
Walk for two? I’m stumbling.
Breathe for two? I can’t breathe.
I can’t breathe.
(This part makes the song. Natalie Merchant sings the last two lines between anguished gasps.)
I’ll think of more later. Sad songs are my favorite kind.
Hey, just a reminder to be careful about posting too many of a song’s lyrics. Copyright law and all - check the sticky at the top of the forum about posting lyrics.
That said, from How Beautiful You Are by The Cure
“no-one ever knows or loves another”
From the Be Good Tanya’s Chinatown album:
…One time friends I had a ma
I even had a pa
He beat her with a belt once 'cause she cried.
He told her to take care of me,
We’re heading down to Tennessee,
It’s easier than just waiting around to die…
We’re not supposed to post full lyrics right? Just asking.
Baby Plays Aroundby Elvis Costello
Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis by Tom Waits
Cold Comfort by Michelle Shocked
Lonely Sinking Feeling by Cowboy Junkies
All Things Must Pass by George Harrison
Romeo & Juliet by Dire Straits
Wake Up Sleeping– The Saw Doctors
“Well I’ve never been this lonely.
There’s nowhere I can turn.
But there must be strength in lonlieness,
lessons to be learned.
Well you broke my heart in smithereens.
I swear it will not mend.
And I’d really love to wake up sleeping,
in your arms again.”
Thought I saw you yesterday
Thought I passed you on the street
Thought I saw your face, I was not imagining
Stole a glance my way, walked away from me
Heart it may be broken
Eyes aren’t blind to see
You and me had some history
A semblance of honesty
All that has changed now
We shared words only lovers speak
How can it be - we are **Less than Strangers **
(Tracy Chapman)
I don’t pretend to know what you want, but I offer love
Distant Sun (Crowded House)
I turned your dreams into lightning, ain’t that enough
I held the world back for you, ain’t that enough
I loved you past the point of dying
Ain’t that enough of me for you
I was so sure one and one gave you one
My noisy love is coming undone
Now you leave like father
Disappointed like mother
And I know in my heart
There is no other
Enough of Me (Melissa Etheridge)
Every day you send me more
What makes it worse is it’s a plan of yours
To ensure I won’t forget.
I want to tell you that I’ve burned them all,
but you never send me your address and I’ve,
I’ve kept them anyway.
O.M.D., “Messages”
(okay, so what makes the song REALLY depressing is the hook after the verse. It’s the second most depressing/poignant/hopeful hook ever invented. I have, by the way, invented one to surpass it, but because I suck at singing, it all evens out.)
I don’t believe in the sun
How could it shine down on everyone
And never shine on me?
–The Magnetic Fields, “I Don’t Believe in the Sun”
Two lines is all it takes.
And a selection from The Smiths:
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
And as I climb into an empty bed
Oh well. Enough said.
I know it’s over - still I cling
I don’t know where else I can go
…
I know it’s over
And it never really began
But in my heart it was so real
And you even spoke to me, and said :
“If you’re so funny
Then why are you on your own tonight?
And if you’re so clever
Then why are you on your own tonight?
If you’re so very entertaining
Then why are you on your own tonight?
If you’re so very good-looking
Why do you sleep alone tonight?
I know … because tonight is just like any other night
That’s why you’re on your own tonight
With your triumphs and your charms
While they’re in each other’s arms…”
All the lyrics to Alone Again (Naturally), sung by Gilbert O’Sullivan, including the last verse:
Looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul
Couldn’t understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally
To Step Aside, by the Pet Shop Boys:
I look from my window down to the square
At workers still queueing patiently there
For market forces to provide
What history’s so far denied
For a different kind of fate
Than to labour long and always wait
…
And if I decide to step aside
I will try to forget all the tears I’ll have cried
The Streets of London, by Ralph McTell:
In the all-night cafe at a quarter past eleven,
Same old man sitting there on his own
Looking at the world over the rim of him tea-cup,
Each tea lasts an hour, then he wanders home alone.
…
So how can you tell me you’re lonely,
And say for you that the sun don’t shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you though the streets of London,
I’ll show you something to make you change your mind.
Quiet, by Paul Simon:
I’m heading for a time of quiet
When my restlessness is past
And I can lie down on my blanket
And release my fists at last.
…
And when they say
That you’re not good enough
Well, the answer is, you’re not
But who are they, or what is it
That eats at what you’ve got?
Easy to be Broken, by Peter Himmelman:
What should I tell my daughter
When she learns how to talk?
Do I tell her the that world’s been built
On broken promises
Do I tell her that she needs to
Find a heart of stone
It’s so easy to be broken, it’s so hard to be alone
When the evening falls and the daylight is fading,
from within me calls - could it be I am sleeping?
For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely.
Close to home - I cannot say.
Close to home - feeling so far away.
As I walk there before me a shadow
from another world, where no other can follow.
Carry me to my own, to where I can cross over.
Close to home - I cannot say.
Close to home - feeling so far away.
Forever searching; never right,
I am lost in oceans of night.
Forever hoping I can find memories -
those memories I left behind.
Even though I leave will I go on believing
that this time is real - am I lost in this feeling?
Like a child passing through, never knowing the reason.
I am home - I know the way.
I am home - feeling oh, so far away.
Enya
Evening Falls
Very surreal with the organ in the background…
And there’s always Steve Martin’s famous banjo ballad:
“Oh, death and grief and sorrow and murder” <doodle oo doo, doodle oo doo>
“Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro:
One day while I was not at home
While she was there and all alone
The angels came
Now all I have is memories
Of Honey and I wake up nights
And call her name
Now my life’s an empty stage
Where Honey lived and Honey played
And love grew up
And a small cloud passes over head
And cries down on the flower bed
That Honey loved
And see the tree how big it’s grown
But friend, it hasn’t been too long
It wasn’t big
I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it
Was just a twig
This is from memory, so it may be off a bit:
"We came to a hole,
a deep dark well;
I said make a wish,
make sure and not tell.
Close yr eyes, dear, and count to seven.
Remember daddy loves you, good children go to heaven.
Remember daddy loves you, good children go to heaven.
I gave her a push
I gave her a shove
I pushed with all my might.
I pushed with all my love.
I threw my child into a bottomless pit…
screaming as she fell, i never heard her hit.
Screaming as she fell, but I never heard her hit."
from “Country Death Song” (or something similar) by The Violent Femmes
Goodbye, cruel world,
I’m leaving you today.
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
Goodbye all you people,
There’s nothing you can say,
To make me change my mind.
Goodbye.
Pink Floyd.
I Want You To Kill Me And Dig Me Under,
I Wanna Live No More
One Who Doesn’t Care Is One Who Shouldn’t Be
I’ve Tried To Hide Myself From What Is Wrong For Me
I Want To Taste Dirty, A Stinging Pistol
In My Mouth, On My Tongue
I Want You To Scrape Me From The Walls
And Go Crazy Like You’ve Made Me
- Alice in Chains “Dirt”
Hangin’ By a Thread
- Jann Arden
Oh look at me
At all I’ve done
I’ve lost so many things that I so dearly love
I lost my soul
I lost my pride
Oh I lost any hope of having a good life
So I cry, cry, cry
The salt inside my body ruins everyone I come close to
My hands are barely holding up my head
Oh I’m so tired of looking at my feet
And all the secrets that I keep
My heart is barely hangin’ by a thread
Hangin’ by a thread