Melissa was actually written in 1967, but because of the lyrics and circumstances, a lot of fans feel like you do about the song: Gregg Allman was apparently not fond of Melissa after he wrote it, and I think they only recorded it for Eat a Peach because Duane really liked it. The song’s public debut may have been at his funeral. Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More, the leadoff track from the same album, actually IS about the aftermath of Duane’s passing.
Here is another voice to say that Stan Rogers’s songs leave a lump in my throat. Rogers was a huge, balding bear of a man and a Canadian to the core. As others have noted he died in an airplane fire in 1983, I think at the Cincinnati airport. I was barely aware of him before he was gone. His brother Garnet carries on his tradition, but to my thinking without Stan’s edge and sense of futility and conviction (if that’s contradictory I can’t help it).
My sweet little babies learned his Barrett’s Privateers on the long monthly trips down to the capital for their father to play soldier. One of the pleasant memories of those days is their little voices in the back of the van piping:
*God damn them all
We were told we’d sail the seas for American gold.
We’d fire no guns, shed no tears,
Now I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s privateers.
His last song was The House of Orange, a strongly voice denunciation of the attempts to bring the Northern Ireland Troubles to North America by soliciting financial support from the decedents of Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants.
This was the first song I thought of while reading the thread title
“I Got A Name” and “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song” were the posthumous songs released after his death. I find that more eerie than “Tine in a Bottle.” :eek:
While it doesn’t fit the guidelines of the thread, I think it fits the spirit -
Regardless of who actually wrote it, Doll Parts off of Hole’s Live Through This took on one hell of a lot of poignancy after Cobain opted out. Actually, a good portion of the album has his shadowy ghost hanging over it.
Take Me BackTo Chicago, released as a single after the death of Chicago’s lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Terry Kath.
I’d think the King Daddy of the OP is bluesman Robert Johnson. His songs are incredibly powerful, in a life and time cut short at 27,died in 1938, in a culture that was death-dealing to his creativity. So, I think it counts here.
Yet, he really changed the musical world; his music was so powerful that decades later it grabbed the attention of eager ears in the 60’s, including the British bands; Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin; really, this long dead Delta Blues musician hollered way past what he’d ever thought into Time, and his laments were taken up by a totaly different culture, appreciated, and helped to create the laments of another generation, which greatly affected the world at large. It is always amazing to me that this happened; that one young man in the 1930’s could howl so powerfully that it’s helped to change us all. Great thanks to those that recorded him, to be sure.
Specific songs that never fail to raise it through time: “Hellhound On My Trail”, “Love In Vain”, and, “If I had Possession Over Judgement Day”.
Sad Songs Released After the Musicians Death, That Shake You Up?
Just about everything by Nick Drake
I came to this thread expecting to see Keith Whitley mentioned. After reading the wikipedia article about him, I’m starting to think that the story that I heard from a drunk KW fan is not quite legit.
But I’ll share it anyway:
According to this guy (who also said that he’d shoot Lorrie Morgan if she were to walk up the driveway right then), Keith recorded “Tell Lorrie I Love Her” in his basement studio only hours before he drank himself to death; and that the reason for his drinking was Lorrie’s infidelity.
If that story were true, then it would make “Tell Lorrie I Love Her” the #1 contender for whatever prize this thread gets. (If not, then my only defense is that I hadn’t discovered the SD way back then.)
Two of Buddy Holly’s songs were released posthumously. The first, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”, is a very ironic title, but since the song is another of his snide, I’m-better-off-without-you-anyway breakup songs, it’s not sad to me. What is sad is “True Love Ways”, which he wrote for his wife (who was pregnant when he died). The recording I have includes some studio chatter at the beginning, with one of the techies calling him Charlie, which was his real name.
Just you know why
Why you and I
Will by and by
Know true love ways…
Hank Williams’s last single was released shortly before his death, but it became a hit posthumously. It was called “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.”
See post #10. 
I thought of him the moment I saw this thread, because I’d just been telling someone how sad the song I mentioned was to me, and why.