This may seem like an odd choice, but I would like to nominate I Want To Come Over by Melissa Etheridge.
I’ve never been the other woman or anything, but I have fallen for people who give you just enough to keep your emotions raw and at the surface and no more. They, for one reason or another, are not able or willing to love you but they can’t just walk away and let you heal, so you have this churning need to be with them, touch them, be in their presence for however many moments the universe is willing to allow. To feel your heart wrench in your chest, to lay on the floor sobbing, because you know they will never be yours and still know that the next time you have a chance you will be there for just one more embrace, one more glance, one more scent of their hair before they leave again even though it is slowly killing you inside.
Having been in that situation, every time I hear this song my chest tightens and I tear up a little.
I don’t know about ever, but Linda Ronstadt’s Long, Long Time is awfully sad. The lyrics are pretty sad, but the way she wails out the song makes the hairs on my neck stand up.
Vincent by Don McLean, played at the funeral of a different Vincent, after his suicide.
Andy by the Front Lawn, one of the first AIDS songs, the singer descirbes a party where “the rest of the family won’t even mention your name” .
The hook is:
Andy, don’t keep your distance from me.
Repeated through out the song. Near the end, the singer (who has been walking along a beach talking to Andy throughout) says:
“I turned 28 last night, if you were still alive, you’d be just short of 33.
Andy, don’t keep your distance from me.”
Yes it is, and it goes for boys too. Only somewhat different.
Funny thing is, the “ugly duckling” girls don’t really want the reject boys either, and vice-versa.
So ya get rich.
My two are “Always on my Mind” by Willie Nelson, and oddly enough “Who Wants to Live Forever” by Queen.
The first half of the song gets me because I always think about that part of “Highlander” where McLeod is still young, but his wife (the love of his life) has grown old and is dying. The song is playing during the scene, so it stuck in my mind with the particularly poignant part of the movie.
Everyones Got To learn sometime by the Korgis ,not so much cos of the words but it just sounds so sad and His Latest Flame by Elvis(and I’m not even an Elvis fan.)
Another vote for Knopfler’s “Romeo and Juliet” – the restraint in his voice makes the emotion so much more powerful and more heartbreaking.
Leonard Cohen’s Ten New Songs – the cumulative effect of this disc had me crying while I was driving, and I had to switch to something else.
When I was young, about 60,000 years ago, I always put on Niel Young’s After the Goldrush when I needed a cry. The line “Now that you’ve made yourself love me, do you think I can change it in a day” always got me.
And finally, George Harrison’s “All things must pass”. It consoles even as it allows upwelling of sadness and grief.
Thank you, everyone who mentioned Tom Waits. I’m expanding my library.
“Hotel California” by, of course, The Eagles.
The beautiful guitar work will make me pull over. Well played guitar is by far my favorite music. The solos in this piece do it for me.
And I do like the lyrics. I don’t care “what they mean”. I can hear a different story every time, depending on my mood.
The entertainer’s job is to effect the audience’s mood, and these guys do just that.
Everyone’s heard them, but here’s one version.
