# Music to cry to **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436 "2005-01-24T17:50:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/21 "2005-01-25T05:00:10Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Of course, what grabs you will depend on your background/life/situation. > > The one that rips me up every time is the last chorus of Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel). That’s 'cause when we adopted our youngest, the day we met she was wearing only the little outfit we had sent ahead for her. She had NOTHING of her own. When P. G. sings “You can keep my things, they’ve come to take me home.” I just lose it. Every time. Like right now there are tears leaking from my eyes. Well hell, that just made ME cry. I’m one of those constantly-leaky types anyway, so it’s not unusual to see me go all weepy at the drop of a hat, but my younger brother loves to exploit this tendency in me. So he forced me to listen to Tim McGraw’s “Don’t Take The Girl” and it took me almost an hour to recover from that one. “The Minstrel Boy” makes me cry, no matter who performs it. I’m a fan of the folk band Minstrels of Mayhem, and on their most recent release they have a song called “Lost In The Blue” - it sounds like your everyday ordinary English sailing song, until you listen to the lyrics and you realize it’s about the space shuttle Columbia. An excerpt: - "On the twenty-eight voyage into the blue 'Twas the oldest ship in the fleet Columbia left with a breach in her hold On a mission she’d never complete. Some men and women they cower in fear Others move on though the road is unclear So let’s sing of the bravery of Columbia and crew And all of the souls who are lost in the blue."\* ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/22 "2005-01-25T08:03:27Z")
Yeah, I teared up a little too. the three songs that always make me cry are all related to actual events: _Red Army Blues_ by the Waterboys, _Me and a Gun_ by Tori Amos and (uncool, I guess)_Fragile_ by sting. Nothing like killing politically compromised soldiers to mournful sax, _a cappella_ date rape and acoustic S.American death squads to make me cry. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/23 "2005-01-25T08:45:07Z")
> [@Madd Maxx](#): > > Also “Cats in the Cradle” does it to me too, even though my dad and I have a close relationship. Harry Chapin is good at tearjerker songs. “Mr. Tanner” and “Better Place to Be” tend to do that to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/24 "2005-01-25T14:20:11Z")
Any old thing makes me cry. But the song I steer strictly clear of is Wasted Time on the Eagles’ Hotel California album. That song nearly makes me do myself harm. One song I actually enjoy torturing myself with is One Tin Soldier by Coven. I like singing along with it right up to the line “Peace on earth was all it said”, which is where my throat closes up and I can’t finish. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/25 "2005-01-25T18:17:33Z")
Jeez, I can’t believe I forgot “Travelin’ Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks. Makes me cry _every single time_ I hear it. What a sob-fest. Great song. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/26 "2005-01-25T18:23:32Z")
“And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is the only song I can think of that nails me every. single. time. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/27 "2005-01-25T19:35:01Z")
Have to agree with Tracy on that one. “Never knew there were worse things than dyin’…” Moxy Frouvos [sp?] does a song called, “The Drinking Song.” The line in it, “Told him he couldn’t just die…” Brings me back to a moment where one of my best friends was dying in the hospital, and we all knew there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. On the other side of things, there’s a song out by a country artist currently called “Skin” about a young woman with cancer. The song itself gets me somewhat weepy, but the last verse has me crying for a very different reason (don’t want to spoil the song for anyone who hasn’t heard it, but let’s just say I highly recommend it.) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/28 "2005-01-25T21:28:26Z")
Ok, thought of another one: my favorite contemporary jazz singer is a woman called [Suede](http://www.suedewave.com/), and she does a song called “ **Emily Remembers**.” It’s sung from the POV of an old man who is caring for his senile wife (Emily), and is about how she remembers all these things from the past but doesn’t remember most of her life with him, or that he’s her husband, so he remembers for her. (Like **NoCoolUserName** did when writing about “Solsbury Hill,” I’m tearing up just writing about it…) It’s a beautiful song: it’s one of the few that I _will_ cry to when I just hear it, and fugheddabout singing it. It always makes me think of my grandmother, who was senile (and being taken care of by my grandfather) before she died. Gets me every time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/29 "2005-01-26T00:18:54Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > Anything by Good Charlotte. I grew up in the same town as the guys from GC. In fact they attended a rival high school, and many of the “band-guys” from our school were in their circle of friends. Waldorf Worldwide biznatch! ---
**Author:** ![rorty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@rorty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rorty)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/30 "2005-01-26T00:25:33Z")
_The Ballad of Ira Hayes_ sung by Mr. Johnny Cash gets me every time. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/31 "2005-01-26T01:00:29Z")
Ode to Joy ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/32 "2005-01-26T01:25:36Z")
The best sad music produces what’s called a “sweet pain”. The Flower Duet from _Lakme_. It’s just improbably beautiful; almost gives me hope for humanity, which is very painful. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s arrangement of “Over the Rainbow”. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/33 "2005-01-26T02:32:20Z")
> [@DeVena](#): > > \*Rent, Les Miz \* - choose any song “[Contact](http://www.lyricsdownload.com/rent-contact-lyrics.html)” has you weeping like a baby? I guess if you’re on the receiving end of the rough stuff, you’ll get a few tears 😉 Okay, the segue into the slow “I’ll Cover You” is pretty crushing. What really makes me bawl is the end, curtain call during the show, the happiness without Angel, then she comes out. I lose it. The fiance had fun gently insulting me after we saw the show together and she saw me slowly weeping the entire second half. Outside of shows, I’ve cried over some of the normal fare. “Cats in the Cradle” does it particularly well (always makes me wish I had a far better relationship with my dad than I do). I have Billy Joel’s “Miami 2017” on a mix CD that has become pretty unbearable since Sept 2001. I actually got a little choked up the other day, quite out of the blue, hearing Dave Matthews Band “Crush” on the radio, a reminder of a past flame. And wow I’m blanking on many many more. Most of them very associative, not heart-wrenching in and of themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/34 "2005-01-26T04:48:25Z")
OK, I’ve been going through some depression for a bit. Here are the tunes I pull out so I can cry. Bruce Springsteen The Rising Into the Fire Lonesome Day You’re Missing Promised Land The Lion King B’way soundtrack The Stampede Rafiki Mourns Endless Night O Brother Where Art Thou? Soundtrack Big Rock Candy Mountain (it’s about dying and going to Hobo heaven) You are my Sunshine (it is a breakup song) Hard Time Killing Floor Blues O Death I don’t like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary Men of Harlech Symphony No. 3 Lento-Sostenuto tranquillo ma cantablie by Henryk Gorecki (used in the film Fearless) Into the West from The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the KIng And because of childhood memories, (good ones) Snoopy’s Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/35 "2005-01-26T05:44:16Z")
Piano Man - Billy Joel (only because of memories attached to it, nothing to do with the song itself) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/36 "2005-01-26T05:51:35Z")
Is no one moved to tears at the sound of their national anthem, whatever it is? Boy, I am. _Any_ national anthem, actually. I am real fun at baseball games, rodeos and the like. I think this comes from a childhood experience. I was on a boat, the S.S. America, coming home from a year on an AFB in Germany with my mom, and I was about six. This is not normally how an Air Force family travels but I think my mother wanted to keep close watch on the BMW bubble car she was bringing home, and to save some money by driving it across the country. (Or maybe she just wanted all the quizzical looks and the questions—what is it, a motorized roller skate? It opens from the _front_?) At any rate being the only kid on board, except for some babies, I had found an old German couple and was “helping them learn American” while they “helped me learn German” which consisted of my asking them, “Was ist das?” They’d answer me, and then they’d ask me, “What is that?” and I’d tell them the American name. They were very nice about it. I was of an age where I could do that kind of thing all day, and I probably did, doubtless boring them to distraction. But at last the day arrived (8 days is a long time, to a 6-year-old) when we disembarked, and the band was playing patriotic music, of course, as the Statute of Liberty came into view and during the whole time we were disembarking. My elderly German friends were close enough for me to see them and they were small, not really too much taller than I was, so I had them in view, in the crush of people, as we walked down the ramp. And the band was playing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” otherwise known as “God Save The Queen,” and I was so dumb I thought the last part of the first line was “O-V-I-C,” not “Of thee I sing.” Anyway, my mother had me firmly by the hand. About this time the band launched into the “Star Spangled Banner,” which was probably going to be its finale, and suddenly my old German friends tripped on the gangplank, which was kind of knobby and rough, and dipped and swayed a bit, although gently, as a result of the movement of the boat. As they were old and frail and I worried about them I dragged my mom forward to see if they were okay and help them up, only to find out they hadn’t tripped. They had reached the end of the gangplank and fallen to their knees, both of them, on purpose, so they could kiss the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/37 "2005-01-26T06:09:41Z")
> [@rorty](#): > > _The Ballad of Ira Hayes_ sung by Mr. Johnny Cash gets me every time. I was thinking of Johnny, too, but “Supper Time” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/38 "2005-01-26T06:48:28Z")
“_I Get Along_” - \*\*Pet Shop Boys \*\* (went through the messiest, nastiest breakup with my fiance when that song came out, and it suited my situation very well - it still hits a little too close to home for me) I can’t listen to “_30Kft_” by **Assemblage 23** , because it tears me apart just thinking about it. It’s about a man who’s on a plane that he just finds out is going down, so he calls his family on his cellphone and leaves them a long, loving message, and his message (and the whole song) ends abruptly in soft static. Also by **Assemblage 23** , the acoustic version of “_Ground_”. There are some songs that catch me unexpectedly, though they might be the happiest, most hopeful songs - I think that’s sometimes why they get me. I cry when I’m really happy occasionally, too 😃 Examples of those: “_Yakusoku wa Iranai_\*” - from Vision of Escaflowne. - - “I Don’t Need Promises” And “_Purachina_\*” - from Card Captor Sakura. \*- “Platinum” ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/39 "2005-01-26T13:00:53Z")
_Something’s Always Wrong_ by Toad the Wet Sprocket From _Rent_, the song _I’ll Cover You_ makes me tear up. _Creep_ by Radiohead used to make me cry, now it just makes me sad. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436/40 "2005-01-26T14:04:20Z")
**Glad to Be Unhappy** , sung by Billie Holliday on her album **Lady In Satin**. Her voice is shot all to hell, her life was shot all to hell, and she sounds so tired of it all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-to-cry-to/286436.md?page=3)