# Saddest song you know **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461 "2014-03-11T17:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/202 "2014-06-26T14:34:41Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > That’s a little surprising; I’ve always seen that song as about, oh, 80% comedy. And, of course, **FOW** are often humerously twisted, but the picture it paints of a sad-sack guy, drudging away at his father’s business, but thinking maybe if she came back he’d have something to offer her that she’d even notice is, I think, really sad if you identify with the speaker’s POV. Sitting next to her (utterly unnoticed) in Period 3 was the highlight of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/203 "2014-06-27T00:33:21Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Fire and Rain, James Taylor > **Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot** > El Paso, Marty Robbins (emphasis added!) THIS! I’ve had a vague dream of reciting it at a local open mike venue while trying not to cry at such lyrics as “Boys, it’s been good to know you-” and the one about the wives, sons and daughters. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/204 "2014-06-27T00:50:41Z")
Knoxville Girl. ---
**Author:** ![claramorena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@claramorena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/claramorena)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/205 "2014-06-27T01:48:06Z")
[Osito de felpa](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbqjHud6a4w) It’s in Spanish but it’s about a mother missing her song and she is speaking to her dead son’s teddy bear My dear papa ---
**Author:** ![BaldDudePeekskill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@BaldDudePeekskill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaldDudePeekskill)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/206 "2014-06-27T02:52:29Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wGedI9Mx2ck/hqdefault.jpg "Carmen Consoli e Mario Venuti. Mi votu e mi rivotu.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGedI9Mx2ck) Nothing’s as bad as a depressed Sicilian And then this one… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-9JOmU2jFUo/hqdefault.jpg "Mary Hopkin - Those were the days") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9JOmU2jFUo) A little schlocky by Skeeter Davis [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgcy-V6YIuI) debbi Gibson. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aogQnLP0AUU/hqdefault.jpg "Debbie Gibson - On My Own [Live 1993]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aogQnLP0AUU) Della Reese [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8DYhhSDNRc) ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/207 "2014-06-27T03:09:55Z")
Linda Ronstadt’s “Long, long time”. Is anything more painful than young unrequited love? ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/208 "2014-06-27T03:36:35Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Not \*you _“out of jail,” but Cecil. (Okay, jail unlikely, but a site shutdown would not be unprecedented). And, yes, links to just about anything are fine. (They link to_ other \*sites, hence the name). > > Not sure why you feel a need to get rather whiny about simple and easy-to-follow rules. Some lyrics sites have been sued successfully for violating copyright, and it is clear that some lyrics sites are licensed and pay royalties for being allowed to publish the lyrics. Why would I question whether a site still operating would fail to be properly licensed? Just truly curious whether anyone has actually been sued for quoting a passage from a book, or a lyric from a song on a message board. Does this board have a history of being sued for message content? Whingy. Geez. Willing to question rules, yes. Whingy? Nope. Perfectly willing to abide by reasonable rules…that’s me. Wanting to know why someone made the rule? That’s me, too. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/209 "2014-06-27T04:12:04Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Linda Ronstadt’s “Long, long time”. Is anything more painful than young unrequited love? Chlamydia? ---
**Author:** ![OurLordPeace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@OurLordPeace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OurLordPeace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/210 "2014-06-27T04:57:48Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Linda Ronstadt’s “Long, long time”. Is anything more painful than young unrequited love? Yes. How about living in a state of terror because you and your family and friends are at risk of being tortured and/or killed, without even the veneer of a good reason, and the big power to El Norte is enabling your tormentors? Inspired by my argument in the Pit, in the thread which _began_ as a confused attack on CNN’s commenting policy but has since mutated, I select Bruce Cockburn’s “If I Had A Rocket Launcher” as the saddest song I know. Honorable mention goes to “Down Where the Death Squad Lives.” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/211 "2014-06-27T06:45:36Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > Perfectly willing to abide by reasonable rules…that’s me. Wanting to know why someone made the rule? That’s me, too. Perhaps the best way to question it is to start a thread in ATMB. I’m sure you’ll get a better discussion about it there than in a CS thread about sad songs. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/212 "2014-06-27T14:14:21Z")
Pearl Jam’s “Come Back” destroys me for a good half hour every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/213 "2014-06-27T16:00:51Z")
> [@JpnDude](#): > > [Girl I’m Gonna Miss You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUENJ5FjBk&feature=kp) - **Milli Vanilli** > > It was played at the funeral of my first high school love, who committed suicide at the age of 19. Since her funeral, I haven’t heard that song in its entirety. That reminds me – a friend was killed in college and other friends with a radio show would play Alexander O’Neal’s “If You Were Here Tonight” every week after. It’s melancholy on its own but with that layer added to it, yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461/214 "2014-06-28T00:32:26Z")
[Hello in There](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfwGkplB_sY) by John Prine, gets me every time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddest-song-you-know/683461.md?page=10)