# Name the song that cuts. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106 "2012-03-08T03:17:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/61 "2012-03-09T15:58:45Z")
Also speaking of Warren Zevon - damn near all of **The Wind** - but in particular, “Please Stay” and “Keep Me In Your Heart”. Knowing that you were recording your last album and still writing such moving songs - I can’t imagine. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” indeed. More personally, “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits - about 20 years ago, I was Juliet… \*“Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start And I bet - and you exploded into my heart And I forget, I forget… the movie song When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong… Juliet?” \* [The video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfjSnMN88U) is goofy in only the way that an early 80’s video can be, but the song transcends it. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/62 "2012-03-09T17:48:45Z")
> [@StuffLikeThatThere](#): > > Paul Simon’s _An American Tune_. reminded of another Paul Simon song [Slip Slidin’ Away](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-LY4Jb2M) “A good day ain’t got no rain. A bad day’s when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been.” and “I know a father who had a son. He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he’d done. He came a long way just to explain. He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping then he turned around and he headed home again.” Kills me. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/63 "2012-03-09T20:43:55Z")
If I were an actor and needed to cry on cue my go-to song would probably be [_Joey_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ&ob=av2e) by **Concrete Blonde**. The way her voice breaks on the chorus every time kills me. Even worse, the classical piece _Valse Triste_ because of its use in [_Allegro Non Troppo_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Oc_J1Lu-o)\*\*\*\*\*. I literally had to hit the mute button while pasting the link! \*Warning: Do \*\*NOT \*\*click if you love kitties… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/64 "2012-03-09T23:33:05Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I > > Even worse, the classical piece _Valse Triste_ because of its use in [_Allegro Non Troppo_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Oc_J1Lu-o)\*\*\*\*\*. I literally had to hit the mute button while pasting the link! > > \*Warning: Do \*\*NOT \*\*click if you love kitties… ☹ Oh, yeah. That piece from \*Allegro Non Troppo \*leaves me a mess every time I watch it. I don’t watch it very often. Sometimes I check back in to see if it has the same effect. It always does. My two: “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 “30K FT” by Assemblage 23. “_Hello, if you’re there pick up the phone I’m calling from 30,000 feet above you The captain’s just informed us that our plane is going down So I’m calling for one last time to say I love you._” It’s not about 9/11, but it might as well be. ---
**Author:** ![Cara\_mel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Cara\_mel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cara_mel)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/65 "2012-03-09T23:59:12Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I go through phases. Right now it’s Blue October’s [Hate Me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxgSvJINlU&ob=av2n). My kids know that if I’m listening to my mps player and I have tears in my eyes, it’s that frickin’ song… it especially cuts me when he sings, “And then she whispers ‘how could you do this to me?’” Waaah! Agreed. As a mother with a 23 yr old son, this really cuts. This is a song by Katie Miller-Heidke. If you’ve had a child that’s been bullied at school, you’ll relate: Caught in the Crowd ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/66 "2012-03-10T02:09:50Z")
A Perfect Circle’s “3 Libras”: So i threw you the obvious to see what occurs behind the eyes of a fallen angel, eyes of a tragedy. oh well. apparently nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/67 "2012-03-11T02:20:52Z")
“Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. It was super popular right around the time that my grandpa died, so it got tied to that. Then it came on the radio at my college bookstore right after my first boyfriend and I broke up. I still like the song, but it always gets me in a melancholy frame of mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/68 "2012-03-11T03:31:27Z")
> [@Crackrat](#): > > [Grace is Gone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmC3kpM3C_k), by Dave Matthews Ditto. [Blue October - Congratulations](http://youtu.be/an_bGL_obWw). Too close to home. Way too fucking close. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/69 "2012-03-11T03:59:12Z")
Every time one of these threads come up, I have to chime in with [Sam Stone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcZMocgYrk) by John Prine. If “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes” doesn’t cut, I don’t know what could. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/70 "2012-03-11T22:50:23Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I used to like Cat’s in the Cradle, by Harry Chapin. Maybe now it’s that I’m old enough to have guilt about my mistakes in parenting, but I hope I never hear that song again. There’s nothing cheesy or bittersweet about it, it’s just brutal. I came here to post Cat’s in the Cradle too. It never fails to make me cry. [For No One](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo2UbO1JMQo) by Paul McCartney is a heart breaker about a dead relationship. Something about the way ---
**Author:** ![Stendhal\_Syndrome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@Stendhal\_Syndrome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stendhal_Syndrome)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/71 "2012-03-26T00:37:10Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I go through phases. Right now it’s Blue October’s [Hate Me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxgSvJINlU&ob=av2n). My kids know that if I’m listening to my mps player and I have tears in my eyes, it’s that frickin’ song… it especially cuts me when he sings, “And then she whispers ‘how could you do this to me?’” Waaah! My husband Jesse/Gurjulup passed away this past Wednesday as most of you on here know. He listened to this song over and over again a few weeks before his death and cried as he thought about the relationship with his mother and this song depicted it pretty accurately. I will be playing it at his memorial service. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/72 "2012-03-26T01:48:47Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > For me it’s the acoustic version of [Neil Young’s " My My Hey Hey " from " Live Rust ", performed at the Cow Palace](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYak0rPUDIU). Tiny nitpick: My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) **is** the acoustic version. Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) is the electric one. Although I don’t know if he played one the other way in the past, as the lyrics are slightly different, so “acoustic version” could work for some. > [@11811](#): > > A Perfect Circle’s “3 Libras”: > > So i threw you the obvious > to see what occurs behind > the eyes of a fallen angel, eyes of a tragedy. > oh well. apparently nothing. Yes. It’s not so much the lyrics for me, or it’s not the biggest part of the impact. But strings can make things sadder in my opinion, it works so well. > [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > “The '59 Sound” by **The Gaslight Anthem** , because it reminds me of my best friend who was taken by a fast and aggressive cancer in 2008: > > “Did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls? > Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over? > Did you hear your favorite song one last time?” > > Even reading the lyrics gives me chills… Yes! I agree with you (and **President Johnny Gentle** as well…). “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” does it to me too, from the same album. On a similar vein to your experiences (sorry that happened…) is Sufjan Steven’s “Casimir Pulaski Day,” even if the lyrics are a little odd at times. My iTunes was just on random, and 5 minutes ago “American Wake” by Black 47 came up. It’s about knowing that even if you can go back home with a plane ride, things will never be the same. Oww… ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/73 "2012-03-26T01:53:12Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > “[Fields of Gold](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGwDYBWEDSc)” as sung by Eva Cassidy. Just… everything about it breaks my heart. Good choice. Very haunting and the definitive version of the song for me now (much as I loved the Sting original), and that was BEFORE I learned what happened to Eva Cassidy in RL when I looked her up. “She’s great, she should do more than record cover songs!” ☹ Similarly, the Cole Porter classic [So In Love](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuLJaOSV5yQ) as covered by k.d. lang for _Red, Hot + Blue_ (an AIDS benefit thing from the early 1990s) really got to me because in hearing it for the first time while watching the video, it turned a familiar song of desperate love to one of desperate loss. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/74 "2012-03-26T02:05:26Z")
Agree also on Chapin’s _Cat’s In The Cradle_ or Mike + The Mechanics’ _The Living Years_ regarding regrets over family bonds left untended until too late; also, especially as a parent now (of a young son), I can’t hear John Lennon’s song \*[Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt3IOdDE5iA) \*without immediately thinking of how he recorded that song for his 4-year-old son only a few weeks before his murder. \*I can hardly wait to see you come of age … Before you cross the street, take my hand, Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans \* And then the last, whispered words: “Goodnight, Sean, see you in the morning” Just. Kill. Me. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/75 "2012-03-26T02:50:13Z")
For many years, Orleans’s “Still the One” did that to me. It was a reminder of my first marriage – we called it “our song,” and when it broke up, I couldn’t listen to it for decades. I’ve finally gotten over it, since I realized that it applied to my wife now. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/76 "2012-03-26T03:13:34Z")
+1 to the upthread commendation of Hurt. Either performed by Cash or NIN. On the subject of NIN, rage and self-recrimination resonate: from Wish: just watching it burn in my steady systematic decline of the trust i will betray give it to me i throw it away after everything i’ve done i hate myself for what I’ve become and from March of the Pigs: don’t like the look of it don’t like the taste of it don’t like the smell of it I want to watch it come down ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/77 "2012-03-26T04:09:45Z")
The first title I thought of is _The First Cut is the Deepest_. Both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow have very good versions of it. But I think the one that gets me most is another Rod Stewart song – _Reason to Believe_ _Knowin’ that you lied Straight-faced while I cried Still I look to find a reason to believe_ ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/78 "2012-03-26T13:01:13Z")
Forgot a good one – [Footsteps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHfDGBalOUE) by Pearl Jam. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/79 "2012-03-26T14:58:48Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The first title I thought of is _The First Cut is the Deepest_. Both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow have very good versions of it. > > But I think the one that gets me most is another Rod Stewart song – _Reason to Believe_ > > _Knowin’ that you lied > Straight-faced while I cried > Still I look to find a reason to believe_ Tim Hardin, actually. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106/80 "2012-03-26T15:26:21Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > “Angie” by the Rolling Stones. I go to great lengths to avoid it, but if I happen upon it unexpectedly I can’t stop listening until it’s over. I hadn’t heard “Angie” for many years but chanced on it via radio a few years ago and was re-captivated. Most of my favorites are from the late 1960’s and early 70’s, especially Dylan, Young and a few others including Leonard Cohen. But my favorite Cohen song may be a much more recent song: “Thousand Kisses Deep.” I replay the movie _The Good Thief_ just to listen to this song. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-song-that-cuts/615106.md?page=5)