Reminds me of that great tear-jerker by Tom Lehrer.
I can get choked up singing along to the bridge of Jewel’s song “Life Uncommon,” when she sings “And lend our voices only / To sounds of freedom / No longer lend our strength / To that which we wish / To be free from.”
Made all the more powerful from reading Jewel’s memoir and knowing a little bit more about her own story. IIRC, she had a manager who refused to give her a paycheck for hours she had already worked until she gave him sexual favors. Rather than submit to him, she lost her job, and wound up homeless with health problems (kidney-related) for which she couldn’t afford medication or medical attention.
It just instills this powerful, moving sentiment in me about how it’s always possible to maintain your strength and integrity, but she knows very intimately how scary and challenging it can be sometimes.
Beth Nielsen Chapman gets to me. Her album Sand and Water came out shortly after her husband died; she was pretty torn up about it and it really came out in her songs, these two in particular:
Discourse being annoying about embedding video, click me, “No One Knows But You”
Or me (song 2), “Sand and Water” (title track)
I suppose knowing the background story affects how they hit me.
I don’t know that they’re “mawkish” but two songs always make me tear up because they relate to the suden loss of a child or parent.
John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy/Darling Boy”, written for and directly to his then four-year-old son Sean, recorded and released just three weeks before his murder. The lines where he cheerfully sings about how he "can’t hardly wait to see you come of age, but in the meantime…
Before you cross the street, hold my hand
Life is what happens to you
When you’re busy making other plans"
Oh man, John. Death as well, it would seem.
And then it ends with him whispering softly, “Good night, Sean, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Can you imagine Sean listening to this growing up?
And the other one is Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven”, for his toddler son who died falling from a high window in a hotel room in a tragic accident.
The grief cracking his voice when he asks, “would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?” is too much for any parent.
I am a seething cauldron of melancholia. This song opens the floodgates, reminds me of what Xmas used to be, what it’s morphed into and the always present possibility this could be my last Christmas. Thankfully, I don’t listen to it year round.
Couple of them. First, Me and Bobby McGee:
One day up near Salinas, Lord, I let him slip away
He’s lookin’ for that home, and I hope he finds it
But, I’d trade all of my tomorrows, for one single yesterday
To be holdin’ Bobby’s body next to mine
Then this one, that just hit too close to home after my marriage ended. One that started with such promise and excitement, ended so terribly.
… I thought about you for a long time
Can’t seem to get you off my mind
I can’t understand why we’re living life this way… I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I found your picture today
I swear I’ll change my ways
I just called to say I want you to come back home
I just called to say I love you
Come back home
It takes nothing to get me going, especially these days. Heck, I cry when the Flying Purple People saves Christmas in Santa Claus Meets The Purple People Eater.
Silver, Blue and Gold by Bad Company. About an hour before my mother passed she asked me to play that song, she really liked it. I put it on a CD I keep in my truck. I play it for her every time I visit her grave.
I’m not familiar with that one, but I think I’ve misted up at “Snoopy’s Christmas” (vs. the Red Baron).
Does it have to be mawkish or sentimental? I have two that turn on the waterworks:
‘Lose You’, Peter Yorn…I heard it from about the saddest tv episode I ever saw, on ‘House’. ‘Simple Explanation’. I wept buckets, and still do.
‘Heroes’ - David Bowie. It’s so passionate, sweeping, and majestic. I even wept at the ending of ‘American Horror Story’ - the Freaks season, when Jessica Lange sang it during a farewell montage.
Cyndi Lauper - True Colors
Randy Newman - I Think It’s Going to Rain Today
Paul Simon - American Tune
… are three that immediately come to mind.
George Jones - He Stopped Loving Her Today
If it comes on the radio, I have to change the station or pull over. I honestly have no excuse. I’m not in a situation like that, I know it’s a damn manipulative song. But dammit, that’s a sad story.
Top prize goes to Sweet Old World by Lucinda Williams.
Second spot to September by Ryan Adams.
“Time after Time”
Man you guys, there’s some good songs mentioned here. Mine is Fade In/Fade out from the band Nothing More. It’s about a dad saying goodbye to his son and it just makes me realize I’m not ready to lose mine. He just turned 80 and I know that day will come whether I want to or not.
Depends on my mood if the tears flow.
Heard Green Green Grass of Home recently my Pops favorite and had been thinking about my parents when it came on. Damn I almost sobbed but it felt good.
A few that always get me:
Talking Heads - “This Must Be The Place”
Lucinda Williams - “Copenhagen”
Warren Zevon - “Keep Me In Your Heart”
(especially knowing it’s the last song he recorded before he died)
“I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”, especially sung by a woman (no offense, Elvis!) and especially the Haley Reinhart version.