The video is linked on youtube in post #123. Thanks for the informative wiki link.
This is a great thread, but please remember to only post a few lines of a song and then link to the rest so as to avoid [post=6769907]copyright issues[/post].
I’ve gone through and removed excess lyrics for a lot of the posts, so if you see that your post has been edited, that’s the reason why.
Oh, thanks. I have no idea how I missed that post. According to the link, though, it does say his Mom is still alive, it just made him think of her. I’m sure it touches a chord with lots of people, though.
I vote Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind.” He loves her to pieces, but he knows he’s fucked up-- not just once, but lifetime’s worth.
And Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” Not CCR’s, not Gladys’, but Marvin’s. If you listen closely, you can actually hear his heart breaking.
I actually wondered about that last scene. I couldn’t decide whether she was alive, or the scene was a good time he was remembering.
If she’s alive, then what’s with the graveyard scene? And check the looks on the faces of the band members.
One does hope, though, that she is indeed alive.
On the way home from breakfast I heard Tracy Chapman singing “Fast Car”. The lyrics are hopeful, but Tracy soesn’t sound really convinced. It always makes me feel sad for her. I think the melancholy will be more apparent if you’ve ever been really, really poor.
Peace,
mangeorge
The saddest love song that I’ve heard is “My Very Best” by Elbow, about the singer breaking up with a girl but being proud to have known her and wishes things could have worked out as he still, in a ways, loves her.
Give that girl my very best
Though it never made the grade
When it seems that it’s just not enough to love
Then love lie down
Here’s Bob Dylan,
Your long time curse hurts but what’s worse is this pain in here
almost vunerable, 'cause he “just don’t fit”. 
Time for us to quit.
Mangeorge
Yeah, I think the Wiki says the song was originally being written for an ex-girlfriend, but the writer just kept thinking about all the people in his life who he had loved. I guess the video is supposed to be more like a warning for others.
From the Wiki:
ETA: Fast Car is a really moving song too. It’s just so matter of fact about some very tough realities.
I nominate And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
No, its not about love unrequited or lost, but how can you listen to this and not just sit there in stunned silence?
You’re absolutely right. I just could not sit through the whole tune. I was stunned into submission. Or something.
:dubious:
This thread actually got me to come out of chronic lurker mode and post. I doubt I can add much considering all the great ones already mentioned, but for me almost any ballad by Paul Thorn qualifies. The one that most comes to mind for me is “Almost What You Need”
You smile at me but your green eyes
Never linger, you turn away
You talk to me and twirl your long hair
with your finger, I’m blown away
I don’t think there are many of us who haven’t been there in one way or another.
Never was a truer thing said, in my opinion, than:
From Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem In Memoriam:27, 1850:
Oops…nevermind.
Jim Croce’s “Operator.” I’m surprised we got four pages in and no one had brought it up; in my mind, this is The Great Sad Love Song. Especially that quiet little, “You can keep the dime” in the last verse.
I don’t know if you’ve seen Love Actually, but there’s a scene in it with Emma Thompson crying while this song is playing and it absolutely breaks my heart.
“Try not to Breathe” REM, and old man literally trying not to breathe, in order to be less or a burden to his family.
“Charley” SPLIT ENZ, the singer wakes up in the morning, wondering why he can’t wake his girlfriend, it becomes clear during the song that he realises he’s killed her.
“Raised my hand in anger, hurt you again,
dust to dust and fire to ashes
you can thank me for nothing now, Charley.”
Different kinds of love, definitely not if the ‘she dun broke my heart’ kind.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Love will tear us apart”. By Joy Division
Even the singer, Ian Curtis commited suicide before the song was even released
When routine bites hard,
And ambitions are low,
And resentment rides high,
But emotions won’t grow,
“At Seventeen,” by Janis Ian
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
Now that is some sad shit!!!