# Most Depressing Love Song of all Time?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 13, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743 "2003-02-13T03:05:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cormac36](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cormac36)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/1 "2003-02-13T03:05:12Z")
Ok, with another thread asking what is the best love song of all time, I thought I’d ask the opposite, what is, in your opinion, the most depressing love song of all time? My personal nomination is “If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot. Yes, it is a beautiful song, but it with lines like this,
"And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand
The feeling’s that you lack
I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back"
it is just depressing as all hell.
Your thoughts?
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### Author:  [@Payne\_N.Diaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payne_N.Diaz)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/2 "2003-02-13T03:14:47Z")
Good choice. How about “My Heart Will Go On,” especially the Celine Dion cover. Here she finds the love of her life, and he dies on that crappy boat ride, and forever after she gets to think of what might have been.
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### Author:  [@sulamith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sulamith)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/3 "2003-02-13T04:42:54Z")
Oh God, the worst one for me is “I Can’t Make You Love Me if You Don’t” by Bonnie Raitt.
A close second is Stevie Nick’s “Silver Springs”.
They both are so beautiful and heartfelt, but shit they make me cry.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/4 "2003-02-13T05:59:01Z")
Several folksongs come to mind (“Barbara Allen”, “Lorena”) but I’m guessing you’re asking for more current ones.
Cat Stevens LADY D’ARBANVILLE
Dolly Parton’s I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
George Jones HE STOPPED LOVIN’ HER TODAY
Marty Robbins EL PASO
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/5 "2003-02-13T06:02:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Payne N. Diaz \*
> \*\*How about “My Heart Will Go On,” especially the Celine Dion cover. Here she finds the love of her life, and he dies on that crappy boat ride, and forever after she gets to think of what might have been. \*\*
Unless it’s the
[Shirley Q. Liquor](http://www.shirleyqliquor.com) version, in which case it becomes the funniest song ever recorded.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/6 "2003-02-13T06:11:43Z")
Magnetic Feilds writes pretty much nothing BUT depressing love songs
“Time provides the rope…
While love will tie the slipknot
And I will be the chair you kick away…”
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### Author:  [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/7 "2003-02-13T06:16:09Z")
“Good-bye to You” by Michelle Branch
“Good-bye to you
Good-bye to everything that I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to…”
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/8 "2003-02-13T06:16:12Z")
Howsabout “Last Kiss”? I don’t like the original too much but Pearl Jam’s cover of it sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it.
Oh, and Sampiro, you’re awesome for nominating “El Paso” by Marty Robbins. One of my most favorite songs ever.
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### Author:  [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/9 "2003-02-13T06:31:30Z")
I don’t know if you can call _U2_’s **One** depressing.
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### Author:  [@Mothchunks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mothchunks)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/10 "2003-02-13T07:01:00Z")
Alone Again, Naturally
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/11 "2003-02-13T07:15:30Z")
—Howsabout “Last Kiss”? I don’t like the original too much but Pearl Jam’s cover of it sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it.—
How about the seventy-ninth time you heard it? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/12 "2003-02-13T07:55:20Z")
_Love Will Tear Us Apart_ by Joy Division
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### Author:  [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/13 "2003-02-13T08:17:53Z")
“Banks of the Ohio” (Traditional)
\*I asked my love to take a walk
Just a little way with me
And as we walked
Then we would talk
All about our wedding day
Darling say that you’ll be mine
In our home we’ll happy be
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio
I took her by her pretty white hand
I led her down the banks of sand
I plunged her in
Where she would drown
I watched her as she floated down
Darling say that you’ll be mine
In our home we’ll happy be
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio
Returning home between twelve and one
Thinking, Lord, what a deed I’ve done
I’d killed the girl
I love, you see
Because she would not marry me
The very next day, at half past four
The sheriff walked right to my door
He says, “Young man
Don’t try to run
You’ll pay for this awful crime you’ve done”
Darling say that you’ll be mine
In our home we’ll happy be
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio\*
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### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/14 "2003-02-13T10:36:31Z")
From personal experience, I recommend _I Honestly Love You_. I played that after I found out someone I was interested in and who I thought was interested in me already had a girlfriend. To make matters worse, I had a raging case of the flu, too!
CJ
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/15 "2003-02-13T11:22:33Z")
Alone again, natrurally - Gilbert O’Sullivan.
> [@](#):
>
> Alone again, naturally
> Now 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
[http://www.smickandsmodoo.com/aaa/lyrics/aloneagain.htm](http://www.smickandsmodoo.com/aaa/lyrics/aloneagain.htm)
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/16 "2003-02-13T11:25:16Z")
“My God, that’s tough, she stood him up, no point in us remaining.
We may as well go home. As I did on my own. Alone again, naturally.”
Quoted from _memory_. May God help me. 😉
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/17 "2003-02-13T11:37:15Z")
“Honey” by some dude, the words of it I can’t remember either; something to do with planting a tree. It’s a true story, and he wrote it when his missus died. It was so sentimental, sincere, and depressing that it had me in floods of tears (of laughter, I’m afraid).
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### Author:  [@lout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lout)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/18 "2003-02-13T12:02:49Z")
Elvis Costello: “I Want You”
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### Author:  [@GuyMontag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuyMontag)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/19 "2003-02-13T12:14:45Z")
“Same Old Lang Syne” – Dan Fogelberg
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depressing-love-song-of-all-time/154743/20 "2003-02-13T13:27:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jjimm \*
> \*\*“Honey” by some dude, the words of it I can’t remember either; something to do with planting a tree. \*\*
That would be Bobby Goldsboro. I hated that song. I have vague memories of someone spoofing it on a variety show back in the 60’s or early 70s - the spoof had considerably more redeeming social value.
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