What is the most absolutely depressing song you’ve ever heard? You know-The one that could bring you into a total blue funk in the middle of the greatest day you’ve ever had in your life. The one where you have to hide all the sharp objects in your house before you can even think about it.
“Love Hurts” by Nazereth
Wow, Slythe… I don’t know any songs that kick me in the privates THAT hard. But “Let it Be” has a tendency to make me leak around the eyes for some reason. It always has and I’m not too clear on why…
P.S. Have a nice day, Slythe! 
The Sounds of Silence.
I Am A Rock
Auld Lang Sine
the Cowboy Junkies’ version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” (originally written by hank williams, but something about margot timmins’ voice just makes me weep.)
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Hear the lonesome whippoorwill
His song’s too blue to fly
The midnight train is a-winding low
I’m so lonesome I could cry
I’ve never seen a night so long
When time keeps crawling by
The moon is gone behind the clouds
To hide his face and cry
Have you ever seen a robin weep
When leaves have turned to brown?
Like me he’s lost his will to live
I’m so lonesome I could cry
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple haze
and as I wonder where you are
I’m so lonesome I could cry
The Needle and the Damage Done, by Neil Young. Sad song…
‘Would you know my name’(I think that’s the title) by Eric Clapton
That song came out around the time my grandfather died. Deee-pressing.
Lnix, that would be “Tears in Heaven” I believe. That one always gets me, too because I learned that he worte it for his little 4 year old son who died falling from a 12th story window.
I keep thinking about Mr. Clapton seeing the boy fall, hearing him scream. ::shiver:: As a parent, it just mortifies me.
Exactly what I was gonna say, except I would pick Same Auld Lang Sine instead of Auld Lang Sine (the “met my old lover in a grocery store” one) and I would add “Taxi” and “The Living Years”
Man, I thought this thread was going to be about David Bowie albums that really suck. . . .
However, my vote for depressing songs go to “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, “Mess” by Ben Folds Five, and “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkle.
“What do I have to do” by Stabbing Westward
“How will I laugh tomorrow when I can’t even smile today” by Suicidal Tendencies
“Perfect Day” by Lou Reed
on this one it’s not the words at all that get me down, but the tone of the song. I think the reason it affects me is that they play it in Trainspotting when Renton overdoses, and it just recalls the mood of that scene for me.
His 3 year old son fell from a 53rd story window onto the roof of a nearby building when the nanny left the room for a moment. Very sad.
“Wreck on the Highway” by Springsteen is chilling, but not depressing so much. Buffy Saint Marie has some angry despairing stuff that gets you.
“Elegy” by the excellent Finnish band Amorphis. It’s taken from a poem in the Kanteletar, which is a compendium of poems detailing everyday life in Finland hundreds of years ago. “Elegy” is about a man whose wife dies and he’s reciting all the sweet little things he’ll miss about her. It’s a beautiful song, but just the thought of it always tears me out of my frame.
Mine is Bridge over Troubled Waters. A good friend of mine died when we were in high school, and this was one of her favorite songs, so it was sung at the funeral by another friend of ours. Makes me cry, hearing it.
“A Short Time” by Weddings Parties Anything, an Australian band. The story goes that the band was playing at a bar in Canada. An Australian girl who was living nearby came to see them. She introduced herself, did a little reminiscing with them, laughed a bunch, drank some beers, took some pictures, then left to go back to where she was staying. She was killed in a car accident on the way home. A friend of hers sent them a picture that the girl took of the band while with them that was obviously on the film in her camera and how excited she had been to go see this band from home while she was so far away from her family & friends.
The song questions what exactly is a short time: an hour, a few minutes, the time spent getting to know someone, a lifetime “with a daughter held so dear”, etc. I don’t know if the story is true or not, but it just makes me cry every time I hear it. In fact, just thinking about it as I’m writing this is making me tear up. I’m so pathetic!