# Depressing Ballads **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975 "2002-11-02T05:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stccrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Stccrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stccrd)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/1 "2002-11-02T05:58:42Z")
Just looking for good songs along the type such as Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes”…stuff that a depressed or sad person might be able to find a connection to… ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f0a364/32.png) [@Bad\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Hat)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/2 "2002-11-02T06:44:09Z")
love you should have come over and hallelujah by Jeff Buckley ---
**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/3 "2002-11-02T06:51:37Z")
Leonard Cohen - Take this Waltz Nick Cave - Darker with the Day Collective Soul - The World I Know Concrete Blonde - When I was a Fool Tom Waits - I Hope that I Don’t Fall in Love with You (and pretty much all of his stuff) Mark Lanegan - the album Whiskey for the Holy Ghost Those are all artists I like to listen to when I’m wallowing. ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/4 "2002-11-02T07:01:45Z")
Veruca Salt - Loneliness Is Worse Trust me, if you’re not crying by the second verse, you’re not sad. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/5 "2002-11-02T07:27:59Z")
Cindy Lauper’s **Sally’s Pigeons** and **Time After Time** Billy Joel’s **Where’s the Orchestra** and **Souveneir** ( **Somewhere Along the Line** is a good one too, but’s it’s not quite a ballad, is it?) Alice Cooper’s **I Never Cry** and **How You Gonna’ See Me Now?** The Eagles’ **Victim of Love** Meatloaf’s **Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad** Yeesh. I think I’m depressed, now, too. But those tunes do get you through a bad funk, sometimes. Which is really irony at work, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/6 "2002-11-02T07:34:57Z")
For nostalgia about your childhood, listen to \*\*Secret Gardens of the Heart{/b]. I think Judy Collins did it about thirty years ago. It takes my breath away. ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Second\_Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Guest)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/7 "2002-11-02T18:54:04Z")
Betty Buckley singing **When There’s No One** from _Carrie_ (the musical based on the movie based on the Stephen King novel). ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/8 "2002-11-02T21:42:00Z")
I will offer up a few that do not depress me personally, but where the tale in the ballad is tear-your-heart-out depressing. Bruce Springsteen -The River Nick Cave/Kylie - The Wild Rose Stretching somewhat, but the poem on which the video to Fleetwood Macs Everywhere is based is also a really depressing “Ballad”. Me? I can’t keep a dry eye when I hear Bright Eyes, but that’s not really a ballad. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/9 "2002-11-02T22:13:03Z")
“Ride On” by Christy Moore. ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/10 "2002-11-03T01:53:59Z")
Anything by Bright Eyes. What kind of depression are you looking for? He covers all the bases. ---
**Author:** ![McJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@McJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McJohn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/11 "2002-11-03T13:50:28Z")
Lou Reed’s album “Berlin” is pretty much universally acknowledged to be the most depressing music ever committed to vinyl. When I want to have me a good, long cry, that’s the one I turn to. The extraordinary folksinger Meg Christian introduced an admittedly whiny ballad she wrote by saying, “I played this song for a friend and I asked her what she thought of it. She thought for a second, then replied, ‘There’s one thing you can say about self-pity. It’s always sincere.’” ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/12 "2002-11-03T23:51:24Z")
I’m not sure who recorded it first, but The Pogues’ “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is probably one of the saddest ballads EVER written. My mother and I both get misty when we listen to it.☹ ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-ballads/134975/13 "2002-11-04T03:37:24Z")
Not too long ago we did a thread on [The Saddest Songs in the World](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=133759&highlight=chapman). Not all of them are ballads, I suppose, but still ought to have some good mentions in there.