Clapton’s Tears in Heaven always moves me. And I always find Black Hawk by Emmylou Harris very evocative.
SS
+1
Beautiful.
Next comes the swansong of Johnny Cash. His treatment of the song is extraordinary, changing the emphasis from drugs to old age:
Moving.
I’m kind of stunned. This is the first time in over forty years that I’ve run across somebody else who remembers/likes Pretty Ballerina.
Although it’s a pretty faithful cover, Crooked Finger’s version of “The River” gets me in a way that Springsteen’s original (but still great) never has.
In a different direction, but still Bruce inspired, is the Gaslight Anthem.
Coincidentally enough, I was listening to this song (with the entire album) for the first time in several months on the way to work this morning. Every time I listen to it I swear I’m going to make sure that my daughters don’t follow that path.
This won’t load for me… What is the song?
Ditto to the others who’ve posted links without song titles…
Thanks!
Loudon Wainright’s White Winos gets me every time. And my mom is fine and doesn’t really drink very much.
I Got Sh*t by Pearl Jam
Pain Lies on the Riverside by Live
Freshman by The Verve Pipe
No Language in our Lungs by XTC
“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…
Sorry, as I was one of the guilty ones. My 2nd link:
was this song:
The Billboard number one when my mom died: “Because You Loved Me”.
“Let it Be,” The Beatles
“Black,” Pearl Jam
Several songs from Beth Nielsen Chapman’s album Sand and Water, written after she lost her husband to cancer. The most powerful of these, “No One Knows But You”, is not on YouTube.
But here’s the title track which is a close second.
Van Morrison - ‘T.B. Sheets’
Eva Cassidy - ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’
Drive-by Truckers - ‘Danko/Manuel’. As a musician who’s lost band mates, it’s a tough listen.
These Days by Jackson Brown
I’m partial to the Nico version
“These days I seem to think about all the things that I forgot to do and all the times I had the chance to”
primes the well, and
“don’t confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them”
finishes it off
Kate Rusby’s superlative version of the folk ballad “The Night Visiting Song” is my current cutter.
If I may nominate another, longer standing one, I’d pick “Frank And Jesse James” by Warren Zevon.
Beat me to it.
Paul Simon’s An American Tune.
But I’m alright, I’m alright
I’m just weary to my bones
… and then later …
I don’t know a soul that’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
and:
mmm
Speaking of Warren Zevon…
“Desperados Under The Eaves”
“Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner”
“Don’t Let Us Get Sick”