Raw as in “raw nerves”. Exposed. Vulnerable.
Marty Brown is a little known country/hillbilly-type singer who can really wrench it. One of his album cuts, “She’s Gone” is a haunting death ballad beyond text description. I don’t think it’s on You Tube so you’ll have to trust me on this.
Got another one popping up on the shuffle this morning - Broke, Lovesick, and Drifting by Hank Williams III.
And that one doesn’t grab me, but Something Vague and especially No Lies, Just Love both do.
Sinéad O’Connor, “Troy”
Caruso by Pavarotti, Bocelli, or even Dalla. Even if your not a fan of the genre or you don’t speak the language, it can move you to tears, male and female alike.
No doubt about it. That is some raw shiiiit!
Thought of another: The Pogues - The Old Main Drag
Two from the world of classic country (no You-tube at work, no links): He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank Williams (the original).
A person would have to have a heart of stone not to respond to either of these songs.
Thought of another. Led Zeppelin Babe I`m Gonna Leave You
And Carmelita.
Wonderful thread with many great suggestions. Makes for a very intensive play list.
Notting Hillbillies’ “Feel Like Going Home” performed by Tom Jones and Mark Knopfler
Red House Painters Medicine Bottle
Want to luxuriate in depression or melancholy? Look no further.
Lots of Replacements songs would qualify; I’ll nominate Can’t Hardly Wait (the Tim version, featuring some great raw guitar work by Bob Stinson).
They probably don’t come much rawer than this
Chelsea by Counting Crows. I’ve said before that Adam Duritz is the most depressing son of a bitch on the face of the earth. The emotion in his voice when he sings “there’s something about an angel that kills me…I keep hoping something will” just lays me open.
Similarly, Goodnight, Elisabeth by the same band. The story I heard (I have no idea if it’s true or not, but, as someone said, “if it ain’t, it oughta be”) is that Adam Duritz was dating a girl named Elisabeth when they recorded their first CD, August and Everything After. He had to go on tour to support the CD, and she didn’t want him to, afraid of the temptations of the road (I heard she had a job or school that kept her from travelling with him). He kept insisting that he would be faithful, but she didn’t believe him. When the tour finished, he returned to find Elisabeth had moved on, and had gotten married. He’s mentioned her in several albums, and in several songs. The heartbreak in his voice in Goodnight, Elisabeth when he sings “I’m all alone…you ain’t coming home” almost brings me to tears. I’ve heard that he’s tried repeatedly to apologize for the situation happening in the first place, but that she refuses to believe that he didn’t give in to the temptations while he was on tour. In fact, there’s another song (called I Wish I Was a Girl) where he essentially says that if he were female, she’d believe him when he said nothing ever happened.
How true that story is, I have no idea.